Christianity in Medieval Scotland

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History of Christianity
in the British Isles
General
Early
Medieval
Early Modern
Eighteenth century to present

Christianity in medieval Scotland includes all aspects of Christianity in the modern borders of

calculating Easter, although most of these issues had been resolved by the mid-seventh century. After the reconversion of Scandinavian Scotland
in the tenth century, Christianity under papal authority was the dominant religion of the kingdom.

In the Norman period, from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, the Scottish church underwent a series of reforms and transformations. With royal and lay patronage, a clearer parochial structure based around local churches was developed. Large numbers of new monastic foundations, which followed continental forms of reformed monasticism, began to predominate. The Scottish church also established its independence from England, developing a clear diocesan structure and becoming a "special daughter of the see of Rome", but continued to lack Scottish leadership in the form of archbishops.

In the late Middle Ages the problems of schism in the Catholic Church allowed the Scottish Crown to gain greater influence over senior appointments and two archbishoprics had been established by the end of the fifteenth century. Historians have discerned a decline in traditional monastic life in the late Middle Ages, but the mendicant orders of friars grew, particularly in the expanding burghs, emphasised preaching and ministering to the population. New saints and cults of devotion also proliferated. Despite problems over the number and quality of clergy after the Black Death in the fourteenth century, and evidence of heresy in the fifteenth century, the church in Scotland remained stable before the Reformation in the sixteenth century.

Early Middle Ages

See also:
Scotland in the Early Middle Ages

Early Christianisation

Main article: Christianisation of Scotland
An illuminated page from the Book of Kells, which may have been produced at Iona around 800

Before the Middle Ages, most of the population of what is now Scotland practised a form of

pagan, most scholars presume that Christianity would have survived after the departure of the Romans among the Brythonic enclaves, but retreated as the pagan Anglo-Saxons advanced.[6]

The Christianisation of Scotland was carried out by Irish-Scots missionaries and to a lesser extent those from Rome and England.

Life of St. Columba elevated him to become the apostle of North Britain in general.[14]

The Class II Kirkyard stone c. 800 AD from Aberlemno

The means and speed by which the Picts converted to Christianity is uncertain.[15] The process may have begun early.[16] Evidence for this includes the fact that St. Patrick, active in the fifth century, referred in a letter to "apostate Picts", indicating that they had previously been Christian, but had abandoned the faith. In addition the poem Y Gododdin, set in the early sixth century and probably written in what is now Scotland, does not remark on the Picts as pagans.[17] Conversion of the Pictish élite seems likely to have run over a considerable period, beginning in the fifth century and not complete until the seventh[18] and conversion of the general population may have stretched into the eighth century.[11]

Among the key indicators of Christianisation are cemeteries containing long cists which are generally east-west in orientation.

Pictish stones began to show Christian symbolism from the early eighth century.[24]

Early church buildings may originally have been wooden, like that excavated at

Highlands they were often even simpler, many built of rubble masonry and sometimes indistinguishable from the outside from houses or farm buildings.[28]

Celtic Christianity

Main article: Celtic Christianity

The Celtic Church is a term that has been used by scholars to describe a specific form of Christianity with its origins in the conversion of Ireland, traditionally associated with St. Patrick. This form of Christianity later spread to northern Britain through Iona. It is also used as a general description for the Christian establishment of northern Britain prior to the twelfth century, when new religious institutions and ideologies of primarily French origin began to take root in Scotland. The Celtic form of Christianity has been contrasted with that derived from missions from Rome, which reached southern England in 587 under the leadership of

St. Augustine of Canterbury. Subsequent missions from Canterbury then helped convert the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, reaching Northumbria in the early eighth century, where Iona had already begun to have a presence. As a result, Christianity in Northumbria became a mix of Celtic and Roman influences.[29]

While Roman and Celtic Christianity were very similar in

method of calculating Easter, and the form of head shaving for priests known as tonsure. Other differences were in the rites of ordination and baptism, and in the form of service of the liturgy.[12] In addition scholars have identified significant characteristics of the organisation of Irish and Scottish Christianity as relaxed ideas of clerical celibacy, intense secularisation of ecclesiastical institutions, and the lack of a diocesan structure. This made abbots (or coarbs), rather than bishops, the most important element the church hierarchy.[31]

The "Roman" tonsure: in the Irish tradition the hair above the forehead was shaved

In the seventh century the Northumbrian church was increasingly influenced by the Roman form of Christianity. The careers of

Bishop of Rome, by the early eighth century, and subsequent similar dedications in Pictish territory.[33]

By the mid-eighth century, Iona and Ireland had accepted Roman practices.

Kenneth mac Alpin, traditionally dated to 843.[36] In 849, according to the Annals of Ulster the abbot of Iona once again took Columba's relics to Ireland, but the earliest version of the Chronicles of the Kings of Scots says that in the same year they were removed by Kenneth mac Alpin, to a church he had built, probably at Dunkeld, perhaps indicating that the relics were divided. The abbot of the new monastery at Dunkeld emerged as the Bishop of the new combined Kingdom of Alba, which would subsequently come to be known as the Kingdom of Scotland.[14]

Early monasticism

Abernethy round tower, c. 1100, demonstrates the influence of Irish architecture on Scottish monasteries[37]

While there were a series of reforms of

hermits, others lived beside or within existing monasteries.[40] In most cases, even after the introduction of new forms of reformed monasticism from the eleventh century, these Céli Dé were not replaced and the tradition continued in parallel with the new foundations until the thirteenth century.[41]

Scottish monasticism played a major part in the

Benedictine establishments in what is now Germany. Scottish monks, such as St Cathróe of Metz, became local saints in the region.[42]

High Middle Ages

See also: Scotland in the High Middle Ages

Conversion of Scandinavian Scotland

See also: Scandinavian Scotland
Olav Tryggvasson
, who is credited with the Christianisation of the Northern Isles

While the official conversion of Scandinavian Scotland took place at the end of the tenth century, there is evidence that Christianity had already made inroads into the Viking controlled

Archbishop of Nidaros (today's Trondheim).[45] Elsewhere in Scandinavian Scotland the record is less clear. There was a Bishop of Iona until the late tenth century, followed by a gap of more than a century, possibly filled by the Bishops of Orkney, before the appointment of the first Bishop of Mann in 1079.[46] One of the major effects of the conversion of the Vikings was to bring an end to plundering raids on Christian sites, which may have allowed them to recover some of their status as cultural and intellectual centres. It also probably curbed the excesses of Viking violence and led to a more settled society in northern Scotland.[47]

Reformed monasticism

Main article:
Abbeys and priories in Scotland
Dundrennan Abbey, one of the many foundations of the twelfth century

The introduction of continental forms of monasticism to Scotland is associated with Saxon princess

Cistercian houses.[38] This period also saw the introduction of more sophisticated forms of church architecture that had become common on the Continent and in England, known collectively as Romanesque. These used rectangular ashlar blocks that allowed massive reinforced walls and round arches that could bear the weight of rounded barrel vault roofs and could incorporate refined architectural moulding and detailing.[48][49]

The Augustinians, dedicated to the

Knights Hospitallers being given Torphichen, West Lothian.[38]

Cult of Saints

Main article: List of saints of Scotland
The Monymusk Reliquary, or Brecbennoch, said to house the bones of Columba

Like every other Christian country, one of the main features of Medieval Scotland was the

St. Anne, the Three Kings and the Apostles, would become more significant in Scotland.[56]

Organisation

See also: Dioceses of Scotland in the High and Later Middle Ages
Bishoprics in Medieval Scotland

Before the twelfth century, in contrast to England, there were few parish churches in Scotland. Churches had collegiate bodies of clergy who served over a wide area, often tied together by devotion to a particular missionary saint.[11] From this period local lay landholders, perhaps following the example of David I, began to adopt the continental practice of building churches on their property for the local population and endowing them with land and a priest. The foundation of these churches began in the south, spreading to the north-east and then the west, being almost universal by the first survey of the Scottish Church for papal taxation in 1274.[57] The administration of these parishes was often given over to local monastic institutions in a process known as appropriation. By the time of the Reformation in the mid-sixteenth century 80 per cent of Scottish parishes were appropriated.[57]

Before the

Celestine III (Cum universi, 1192) by which all Scottish bishoprics except Galloway became formally independent of York and Canterbury. However, unlike Ireland which had been granted four Archbishoprics in the same century, Scotland received no Archbishop and the whole Ecclesia Scoticana, with individual Scottish bishoprics (except Whithorn/Galloway), became the "special daughter of the see of Rome".[58] It was run by special councils made up of all the Scottish bishops, with the bishop of St Andrews emerging as the most important figure.[58]

Late Middle Ages

See also:
Scotland in the Late Middle Ages

Church and politics

Bishop of St Andrews
, tutor, royal adviser, educator and leading opponent of heresy

Late Medieval religion had its political aspects.

Martin V, proposed by the Council of Constance (1414–28).[60] In the subsequent debates over Conciliarism and the authority of the pope, between those who backed the church council as the ultimate authority in the Church, and those that backed the papacy, divisions in loyalty mirrored political divisions in the country and Church. King James I and his chancellor John Cameron, Archbishop of Glasgow, became conciliarists and William Croyser, Archdeacon of Teviotdale, the leading opponent of Cameron, became a papalist. After his accession, James II backed the Pope, while the Douglases, who had dominated politics in the years after James I's death, backed the conciliar movement.[60]

As elsewhere in Europe, the collapse of papal authority in the Papal Schism allowed the Scottish Crown to gain effective control of major ecclesiastical appointments within the kingdom. This de facto authority over appointments was formally recognised by the Papacy in 1487. This led to the placement of clients and relatives of the king in key positions, including James IV's illegitimate son

venality and nepotism.[61] James IV used his pilgrimages to Tain and Whithorn to help bring the respective regions of Ross and Galloway, which lay on the edges of the kingdom, under royal authority.[58] Relationships between the Scottish Crown and the Papacy were generally good, with James IV receiving tokens of papal favour.[58] In 1472 St Andrews became the first archbishopric in the Scottish church, to be followed by Glasgow in 1492.[58]

Popular religion

Main article: History of popular religion in Scotland

Traditional Protestant historiography tended to stress the corruption and unpopularity of the late Medieval Scottish church, but more recent research has indicated the ways in which it met the spiritual needs of different social groups.

Observant Friars were organised as a Scottish province from 1467 and the older Franciscans and the Dominicans were recognised as separate provinces in the 1480s.[61]

The fifteenth-century Trinity Altarpiece by Flemish artist Hugo van der Goes.

In most Scottish

Mary of the Snows.[58][65]

In the early fourteenth century the Papacy managed to minimise the problem of clerical

Sarum Use for services.[58]

Notes

  1. ISBN 0-14-025422-6
    , p. 184.
  2. ISBN 0952502917
    , p. 41.
  3. ISBN 0-903903-24-5
    , p. 63.
  4. ISBN 086054138X
    , p. 93.
  5. ISBN 1-85285-195-3
    , p. 48.
  6. ISBN 0809138948
    , p. 21.
  7. ISBN 0520218590
    , pp. 231–3.
  8. ISBN 0520218590
    , pp. 79–80.
  9. ^ Thomas Owen Clancy, "The real St Ninian", The Innes Review, 52 (2001).
  10. ^
    ISBN 0-7509-2977-4
    , p. 46.
  11. ^
    ISBN 0333567617
    , pp. 50–1.
  12. ^
    ISBN 0889201668
    , pp. 77–89.
  13. ISBN 0333567617
    , p. 51.
  14. ^
    ISBN 0333567617
    , pp. 52–3.
  15. ISBN 0333567617
    , p. 53.
  16. ISBN 0748601007
    , pp. 82–3.
  17. ISBN 0-19-211696-7
    , pp. 78–9.
  18. ^
    ISBN 0748602917
    , pp. 171–2.
  19. ISBN 0951257331
    , pp. 57 and 67–71.
  20. ISBN 1874012105
    , pp. 27–8.
  21. ISBN 0713488743
    , p. 77.
  22. ^ G. W. S. Barrow, "The childhood of Scottish Christianity: a note on some place-name evidence", in Scottish Studies, 27 (1983), pp. 1–15.
  23. ISBN 0748612327
    , p. 89.
  24. ^
    ISBN 0333567617
    , p. 55.
  25. ISBN 0748621792
    , p. 1.
  26. ISBN 1-904320-02-3
    , pp. 22–3.
  27. ISBN 0-85263-748-9
    , p. 8.
  28. ISBN 0-415-02992-9
    , p. 117.
  29. ISBN 0333567617
    , pp. 51–2.
  30. ISBN 0-7509-2977-4
    , pp. 52–3.
  31. ISBN 1403972990
    .
  32. ISBN 0333567617
    , pp. 53–4.
  33. ^
    ISBN 0333567617
    , p. 54.
  34. ISBN 0-8160-7728-2
    , pp. 44–5.
  35. ISBN 0-415-27880-5
    , p. 9.
  36. ISBN 0333567617
    , p. 15.
  37. ^ "Abernethy round tower" Historic Scotland, retrieved 17 March 2012.
  38. ^
    ISBN 0-7509-2977-4
    , pp. 117–128.
  39. ISBN 005003183X
    , pp. 104–05.
  40. ISBN 0333567617
    , p. 58.
  41. ISBN 0-7509-2977-4
    , p. 121.
  42. ^ David N. Dumville, "St Cathróe of Metz and the Hagiography of Exoticism," in John Carey, et al., eds, Irish Hagiography: Saints and Scholars (Dublin, 2001), pp. 172–6.
  43. ^
    ISBN 0-7509-2977-4
    , pp. 67–8.
  44. ^ D. E. R. Watt, (ed.), Fasti Ecclesia Scoticanae Medii Aevii ad annum 1638, Scottish Records Society (1969), p. 247.
  45. ^ "The Diocese of Orkney" Firth's Celtic Scotland, retrieved 9 September 2009.
  46. ISBN 0-7185-128-20
    , pp. 82 and 220.
  47. ISBN 0-7509-2977-4
    , pp. 69.
  48. ISBN 1111831688
    , p. 270.
  49. ISBN 0-85263-748-9
    , p. 10.
  50. ISBN 074860104X
    , p. 81.
  51. ISBN 074860104X
    , p. 64.
  52. ISBN 0859917657
    , p. 137.
  53. ISBN 9004155805
    .
  54. ^
    ISBN 0748620222
    , p. 11.
  55. ISBN 1446475638
    , p. 76.
  56. ISBN 1843835622
    , pp. 178–94.
  57. ^
    ISBN 0-7509-2977-4
    , pp. 109–117.
  58. ^
    ISBN 1843840960
    , pp. 26–9.
  59. ^ G. W. S. Barrow, Robert Bruce (Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 1965), p. 293.
  60. ^
    ISBN 0-7509-2977-4
    , pp. 197–9.
  61. ^
    ISBN 0748602763
    , pp. 76–87.
  62. ISBN 0521444616
    , pp. 349–50.
  63. ISBN 052158602X
    , p. 246.
  64. ISBN 052158602X
    , p. 254.
  65. ^
    ISBN 033363358X
    , p. 147.
  66. ISBN 052158602X
    , pp. 244–5.
  67. ISBN 052158602X
    , p. 257.

References

  • Barrow, G.W.S., The Kingdom of the Scots (Edinburgh, 2003).
  • Barrow, G.W.S., Kingship and Unity: Scotland, 1000–1306 (Edinburgh. 1981).
  • Broun, Dauvit and Clancy, Thomas Owen (eds.),Spes Scottorum: Hope of the Scots (Edinburgh, 1999).
  • Clancy, Thomas Owen, "The real St Ninian", in The Innes Review, 52 (2001).
  • Dumville, David N., "St Cathróe of Metz and the Hagiography of Exoticism," in Irish Hagiography: Saints and Scholars, ed. John Carey et al. (Dublin, 2001), pp. 172–6.
  • Foster, Sally, Picts, Gaels and Scots: Early Historic Scotland (London, 1996).
  • Stringer, Keith J., “Reform Monasticism and Celtic Scotland,” in Edward J. Cowan and R. Andrew McDonald (eds), Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Middle Ages (East Lothian, 2000), pp. 127–65

Further reading

  • Crawford, Barbara (ed.), Conversion And Christianity In The North Sea World (St Andrews, 1998)
  • Crawford, Barbara (ed.), Scotland In Dark Age Britain (St Andrews, 1996)


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