74 FOUKTH PERIOD. A. D. 590 TO 1049.
principle of Protestantism, such as the absolute supremacy of the Bible in opposition to tradition, or justification by faith without works, or the universal priesthood of all believers. l
Considering, then, that the peculiarities of the Keltic church arose simply from its isolation of the main current of Christian history, the ultimate triumph of Eome, with all its incidental evils, was upon the whole a progress in the onward direction. Moreover, the Culdees degenerated into a state of indolence and stagnation during the darkness of the ninth and tenth centuries, and the Danish invasion, with its devastating and disorganizing influences. We still find them in the eleventh century, and fre quently at war with the Eoman clergy about landed property, tithes and other matters of self-interest, but not on matters of doctrine, or Christian life. The old Culdee convents of St. Andrews, Dunkeld, Dunblane and Brechin were turned into the bishop's chapter with the right of electing the bishop. Married Culdees were gradually supplanted by Canons-Regu lar. They lingered longest in Brechin, but disappeared in the thirteenth century. The decline of the Culdees was the opportunity of Rome. The Saxon priests and monks, connected with the more civilized countries, were very active and aggres sive, building cathedrals, monasteries, hospitals, and getting possession of the land.
1 The Duke of Argyll, who is a Scotch Presbyterian, remarks (I. c. p. 41) : " It is vain to look, in the peculiarities of the Scoto-Irish Church, for the model either of primitive practice, or of any particular system. As regards the theol ogy of Columba's time, although it was not what we now understand as Koman, neither assuredly was it what we understand as Protestant. Montalembert boasts, and I think with truth, that in Columba's Life we have proof of the practice of the auricular confession, of the invocation of saints, of confidence in their protection, of belief in transubstantiation [?], of the practices of fasting and of penance, of prayers for the dead, of the sign of the cross in familiar — and it must be added — in most superstitious use. On the other hand there is no symptom of the worship or ' cultus ' of the Virgin, and not even an allusion to such an idea as the universal bishopric of Rome, or to any special authority as seated there."
\ 20. EXTINCTION OF THE KELTIC CHURCH. 75
§ 20. Extinction of the Keltic Church, and Triumph of Home under King David I.
The turning-point in the history of the Scotch church is the reign of the devout Saxon queen St. Margaret, one of the best queens of Scotland (1070-1093). She exerted unbounded influence over her illiterate husband, Malcolm III., and her sons. She was very benevolent, self-denying, well versed in the Scriptures, zealous in reforming abuses, and given to excessive fasting, which under mined her constitution and hastened her death. " In St. Mar garet we have an embodiment of the spirit of her age. What ostentatious humility, what almsgiving, what prayers! What piety, had it only been freed from the taint of superstition ! The Culdees were listless and lazy, while she was unwearied in doing good. The Culdees met her in disputation, but, being ignorant, they were foiled. Death could not contend with life. The Indian disappears before the advance of the white man. The Keltic Culdee disappeared before the footsteps of the Saxon priest,"1
The change was effected by the same policy as that of the Norman kings towards Ireland. The church was placed upon a territorial in the place of a tribal basis, and a parochial system and a diocesan episcopacy was substituted for the old tribal churches with their monastic jurisdiction and functional episco pacy. Moreover the great religious orders of the Roman Church were introduced and founded great monasteries as centres of counter-influence. And lastly, the Culdees were converted from secular into regular canons and thus absorbed into the Roman system. When Turgot was appointed bishop of St. Andrews, A. D. 1107, "the whole rights of the Keledei over the whole kingdom of Scotland passed to the bishopric of St. Andrews."
From the time of Queen Margaret a stream of Saxons and Normans poured into Scotland, not as conquerors but as settlers, and acquired rapidly, sometimes by royal grant, sometimes by
1 Cunningham, Church Hist, of Scotland, p. 100.