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THE earliest historical fact
connected with the district of Perthshire under consideration is the
erection of a line of forts by Agricola, the Roman general, in A.D. 81,
across the isthmus between the Firths of Forth and Clyde. Sixty years
afterwards, in a.d. 140, in the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, his
general, Lollius Urbicus, rebuilt Agricola’s chain of forts, and
consolidated them into a wall or rampart known as the Vallum Antonini, or
Wall of Antoninus. Abutting on the Forth between Abercorn and Carriden, it
stretched gradually upwards along the crest of the high ground which extends
like a ridge above the town of Borrowstounness on the one side, and that of
Linlithgow on the other. It next, descending a little, followed in a
westerly direction the eminence overlooking the Forth behind Kinneil,
commanding along the whole line that I have indicated a complete view of the
country on the opposite shore, from the sea to the Ochils. Passing then by
Polmont, Falkirk, and Castlecary, it disappeared out of view from the Forth,
and reaching the watershed between the estuaries, it crossed the valley of
the Kelvin, and stretching onwards to the north of Glasgow by Duntocher,
reached its termination near Bowling on the Clyde. A fort, supposed to have
belonged to it, is still to be seen at Inneravon, opposite Culross; and up
to the beginning of the present century at least, there were many fragments
of the wall of Antoninus remaining above Borrowstounness and Kin-neil. The
Boman troops who manned the forts and guarded the country on the farther
side of the wall from the attacks of the northern Caledonians, must have
frequently had before their eyes the region on the other side of the Forth
now comprised in the parishes of Culross and Tulliallan, and which in all
probability then presented an expanse of dense forest.
There can be little doubt
that Agricola and his soldiers must have frequently crossed the Firth from
the southern shore to explore the unknown country on the opposite side,
though it seems pretty certain that they never formed any settlement or left
any memorials of themselves in this locality. A fanciful imagination might
speculate on the possibility of the engagement with Galgacus and his
Caledonians having been really at the foot of the Ochil Hills, considering
the uncertainty that prevails as to the actual situation of the Mons
Grampius of Tacitus. It is most advisable, certainly, to restrain one’s self
within definite and ascertainable limits, though some latitude perhaps will
not be refused to conjecture.
That Agricola did cross the
Forth, there can be no doubt whatever; and it is quite possible even, that
when he marched his troops to the Tay, which we know he also reached, that
he embarked them in galleys in the neighbourhood of Borrowstounness, landed
them at Culross, and then proceeding in a north-easterly direction, possibly
by Camock and Saline, to Cleish and Kinross, he marched onwards to Perth and
the Tay over the Wicks of Baiglie.
A more interesting, and in
many respects also more satisfactory, investigation is commenced when we
come to inquire into the first diffusion of Christianity over Scotland, and
the part which Culross and its district plays in connection with this event.
The whole subject of the earliest dawn of Christianity in Britain is
involved in much obscurity, and it is not till the commencement of the fifth
century that we can attain to any chronological precision in reference to
its establishment in our country. There can be no doubt of its partial
propagation by missionaries at a much earlier date—perhaps even within the
first century of our era—and we have the clear and indubitable testimony of
the early Christian fathers, including Tertullian and Origen, that at least
by the commencement of the third century the truths of the Gospel had been
conveyed to and accepted by many of the inhabitants of the British Isles.
But it ib not till the ultimate overthrow of paganism, and the final
reception by the Roman empire of the new faith, that we hear of any general
or abiding conversion to its tenets in Britain, and more especially in
Scotland, then known for the most part by the name of Caledonia. In
considering the history of this period, it is necessary to bear carefully in
mind the true meaning of the terms Scotland and the Scots, as otherwise we
may be involved in very serious errors and misapprehensions. The Scots were
not in reality the ancient inhabitants of North Britain, but an importation
or invading colony from Ireland, who settled in Argyleshire in the beginning
of the sixth century, and gradually extending their sway over the adjoining
districts, ultimately both made themselves masters of the entire country and
gave it their name. When Scotia or Scotland is spoken of by ancient writers,
it is to be understood as denoting Ireland, or a large portion of that
country inhabited by the Scots, who belonged to the Gaelic, and, as is
generally believed, the elder branch of the Celtic race. They are supposed
to have migrated from the east to the western parts of Europe, and to have
supplanted an aboriginal population of Basques or some cognate race
belonging to the Turanian branch of the human family. This last point is
still involved in much obscurity; but there can be little doubt that, coeval
with the earliest dawn of British history, both Ireland or Scotia, and North
Britain or Caledonia, were inhabited by Gaelic-speaking communities,—though
with regard to the country now denominated Scotland there was also a large
intermixture of the Cymric element, existing in the form of various
Welsh-speaking tribes, who may have been found in different parts of the
country, but more especially in the tract known by the name of Cumbria and
Strathclyde, extending from the Clyde to the Solway, and comprising the
whole of the west Lowlands of Scotland, together with the county of
Cumberland in England.
The name Caledonia, of Celtic
origin, denoting the country of woods and mountains, seems to have been the
ancient name given by the natives to Scotland, and was retained by the Roman
conquerors of Britain, though they were little acquainted to any extent with
the country, and gained almost no footing whatever to the north of the
Forth. They gave the inhabitants the name of Picti, or Picts, from their
painted bodies—a derivation which, after all the learned disquisitions on
the subject, is probably both the real and most natural explanation of the
term, which, moreover, is now come to be generally regarded as convertible
or synonymous with the ancient Caledonians. These, as we have already
stated, seemed to have comprised both branches of the Celtic family, the
Erse or Gaelic, and the Cymric or Welsh, the latter and their tongue being
frequently spoken of as the ancient Britons and the ancient British
language. It has indeed been maintained, on behalf of the Welsh or Cymri,
that to them must be assigned the honour of the more ancient branch of the
Celtic race in preference to the Gaels —that is to say, that they broke off
at an earlier period than the latter from the primitive Aryan stem, and were
already settled in Western Europe before the arrival of the Gaelic-speaking
Celts. The preponderance of evidence, however, seems to incline the other
way; and at all events, the discussion of the question lies beyond the scope
of my present inquiries.
Generally speaking, then, the
majority of the ancient Caledonians, about the beginning of the fifth
century of our era, were a race closely allied in language and race to the
modem Highlanders; though in the following century, about A.D. 503, the
immigration of the Scots, a Celtic tribe of the same stem from Ireland,
caused some very important changes and complications, which were afterwards
still further intensified by the colonisation of Scotland south of the Forth
by the Saxons and Danes from the north of England. The Picts, a term which
may be taken as a common appellation for the ancient Caledonians, whether
belonging to the Gaelic or Cymric branches of Celts, comprised generally at
this period the whole inhabitants of North Britain; whilst the Scots, who
had not yet quitted their seats in Ireland, remained still the proper
designation of the inhabitants of that country. After their arrival in
Scotland, we find two rival kingdoms within North Britain — the Picts and
Scots—contending, through a series of ages, for supremacy,—a contest which
ultimately terminated in favour of the Scots, by whom the Picts were
absorbed. The very name of the latter at last disappears from history.
To pursue this disquisition
further would lead me away from the subject and epoch which I have at
present in hand. Suffice it, then, to say, that in the beginning of the
fifth century the Picts, or Caledonians, were subdivided into two sections,
styled respectively the Northern and Southern Picts; and that Culross and
Tulliallan, as lying on the north side of the Forth, fall to be reckoned as
belonging to the former of these subdivisions. The conversion of the
Northern Picts to Christianity is generally attributed to St Columba, who
arrived from Ireland in A.D. 565, and established a religious settlement at
Iona; whilst that of the Southern Picts is ascribed to St Ninian, who came
to Scotland in the end of the fourth century, and established himself at
Whitherne in Galloway, where he is said to have built, in 397, the first
stone church in North Britain, entitled “ Candida Casa,” or the White House.
He died about a.d. 430.
Though the great apostle of
the Northern Picts had not yet made his appearance, there were not wanting,
as we shall see, zealous and faithful missionaries to act as his pioneers.
In the very year following the death of St Ninian, or as some represent, six
years previously, in a.d. 424, Pope Celestine sent Palladius on a mission of
conversion to the Scots, by which term, in accordance with what has been
already stated, we should understand the inhabitants of Ireland. But the
writers of a later age, in referring to this period and the Scots,
frequently apply the phrase, as in its modem sense, to the natives of North
Britain. At all events, whether Palladius visited Ireland or not, there
seems no doubt of his having actually made' a peregrination through
Scotland, and in the course of it reaching Culross, where he found, in
charge of a small religious community, a holy man, the celebrated St Ser£
This date of a.d. 424-431, or
possibly one of some year more or less subsequent, is the first in which we
find any historical reference to Culross. We are told that Palladius, in the
course of his joumeyings, came to this place, and there found St Serf
engaged in his evangelistic work. He gave him his blessing, ordained him as
his suffragan bishop over the land of Scotland, or Caledonia, of which
Eugenius II. was then king. One principal object of the' mission of
Palladius to Britain seems to have been to extirpate the heresy of Pelagius
in regard to the corruption of human nature, which the latter had, a short
period previously, been actively engaged in diffusing over the West. Some
have even identified Palladius with his contemporary St Patrick, the apostle
of Ireland; but this is very doubtful. Another dubious statement regarding
him is that made by Boece, who says that Palladius, after he had consecrated
St Serf bishop, sent him on a mission to the Orkneys to instruct the natives
of that remote locality in the faith. We have no further information
regarding Palladius beyond that he died at Fordun, in the Mearns, about A.D.
450.
St Servanus, Serf, Serb, and
vulgarly Sare—for by all these names he is known—is said to have been a
native of Scotland, but of what district is not stated. Much confusion and
uncertainty attend his history, and so much is intermingled with it of pure
fable and manifest anachronism, that it becomes very difficult to exhume the
real man from the mass of absurdity and contradiction in which he has been
involved. To clear a pathway through this entanglement, it may be as well to
state first that there is little doubt of there having been two St Serfs,
the elder of whom founded a religious community at Culross in the fifth
century, was visited there and ordained bishop by Palladius, took charge of
and brought up St Mungo, and finally died there at an advanced age—about, as
is alleged, the year 540. It is probable enough, however, that either this
last event must be referred to a somewhat earlier date, or he must have
attained a very advanced age indeed, considering the time at which he had
been ordained by Palladius. The circumstances, at all events, of his
residence and death at Culross, and his having brought up St Mungo there
within the sixth century, seem to be established beyond all doubt.
It is on the authority of the
Aberdeen Breviary, which contains the offices for various saints’ days,
including those of St Mungo and St Serf, that we rest the fact of there
having been two saints living at different periods who each bore the name of
Serf or Servanus, and whose respective histories, real and legendary, have
been frequently in great measure interchanged. The few authentic particulars
regarding the elder, or par excellence Scottish St Serf, have just been
mentioned. As regards the younger, and in all respects quite as famous,
saint of the name, he seems to have come originally from the East; and he is
said by the Aberdeen Breviary to have been “an Israelite by nation,” whilst
Wynton, in his ‘ Cronykil,’ styles him “ the kynges sone of Ka-naan.” After
visiting, first Alexandria, and then Rome, of which he is stated to have
occupied the Papal See for seven years, he took solemn leave of the Eternal
City, and passing through France and England, arrived, with a select band of
companions, at the island of Inchkeith, in the Firth of Forth. Here he was
received by the celebrated St Adamnan, the biographer of St Columba, and
Abbot of Iona, who flourished about a.d. 680, and died in the beginning of
the eighth century. Mixing up his history, then, with that of the elder St
Serf, the narrative goes on to say that he visited successively Dysart,
Kinneil, and Culross, and establishing himself at the last-named place,
built a church there, and brought up St Mungo. Subsequently to this he is
stated to have founded a religious house on an island in Loch Leven, which
still bears his name, and was made over to him in gift by Brude, king of the
Picts. Many miracles of an extraordinary character are ascribed to him; and
various interviews and discussions between him and the Enemy of mankind— in
which, of course, the saint comes off victorious— are likewise recorded.
Finally, he is said to have returned to and died at Culross.
I have thus briefly
summarised the histories of the elder and younger St Serf, and shall in due
course present them at greater length. But as regards what may be relied on
as real and authentic in these, our positive information regarding the
earlier or Scottish saint resolves itself, as already mentioned, into little
more than the facts of his having lived and died at Culross, and trained up
St Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow; whilst in connection with the later
one—the oriental missionary—the only circumstance that can be maintained
with any degree of certainty is that of his having established the
well-known religious community or priory of St Serf, on the island of that
name in Loch Leven. It is quite possible indeed that, like his namesake, he
may have had a connection with Culross, which is not twenty miles distant
from Loch Leven.
The relations of the elder St
Serf with St Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow, are, as regards details,
very much of a legendary character, but yet deserve notice, both from their
reference to Culross, and the curious and interesting story which they
present. It is, moreover, mainly in consequence of these relations that the
history of his life at Culross takes any tangible form: for otherwise we are
informed of nothing beyond the circumstances of his having come thither, as
the first Christian missionary, to a wild and savage district; of his
founding some kind of religious house—doubtless on the site of the
subsequent abbey and church; and of his receiving episcopal ordination there
from Palladius, on the occasion of the latter’s mission to Scotland. He
gathered gradually round him a band of disciples and adherents, by whose
ministrations the light of Christianity was gradually diffused over the
adjoining country. This is absolutely all we can assert regarding St Serf,
before the arrival of St Mungo—or rather, we should say, of St Mungo’s
mother, St Thenew.
Our principal information
regarding St Mungo, or Kentigern, as he is also termed, is derived from his
Life, written in Latin by Jocelyn, a monk of Furness, in Lancashire, who
lived in the end of the twelfth century. With much that is fabulous and
absurd, it doubtless contains, in its leading incidents, the true history of
the saint. Much that is thus recorded is also embodied in the Aberdeen
Breviary, which, in the office for St Mungo’s Day (13th January), and
likewise in that for St Thenew’s Day (18th July), gives, in the lessons for
each of these services, a summary of the principal events in the lives of St
Mungo and his mother.
St Mungo, we are told, was
the son of a British prince, who is variously named Eugenius, Eufuren, or
Ewen, and was sovereign of the kingdom of Cumbria, or Strathclyde. His
mother was Thenew, daughter of Loth, king of Lothian, who, having formed an
illicit connection with Eugenius, found herself exposed to disgrace and the
furious indignation of her father. A strange story was invented on her
behalf by subsequent monkish chroniclers, and is gravely recorded, that,
having been converted to Christianity, but not yet baptised, she conceived
the idea of emulating the Blessed Virgin, and, like her, became pregnant
without any loss of chastity. Another account represents her as having
suffered violence at the hands of Eugenius. Notwithstanding her rank and
protestations of innocence, her father ordered her to be put to death, by
being placed in a waggon and hurled down a precipitous descent, from the top
of Dunpelder Law, in East Lothian. But the sainted princess was found at the
bottom of the hill quite uninjured; and the cruel wrath of her pagan father
being not yet appeased, she was placed in an old rotten boat, and driven out
to sea from the port of Aberlady. Solitary and destitute, without the aid of
either oars or rudder, but followed from the shore by the lamentations of
many persons of both sexes, she was first carried by the wind and waves to
the Isle of May, and from thence in a westerly direction up the Firth of
Forth. A wondrous shoal of fishes, great and small, accompanied her on her
voyage, which terminated at laat in her frail bark coming to shore at
Culross, at a spot which became afterwards hallowed as the landing-place of
St Thenew, and birthplace of St Mungo. Weary and exhausted, she stepped on
shore, and found a nearly extinguished fire, which had been lighted by some
shepherds, and which she managed to rekindle. She found now the pangs of
labour coming on, the night being already far advanced, and with the first
dawn of morning she gave birth to a son. Meantime the venerable St Serf,
being engaged, in his religious retreat on the summit of the hill above,
with his morning devotions, heard suddenly the chanting VOL. I. D of angelic
voices, and rushing forth with his disciples, found St Thenew on the
sea-shore, with her newly born son lying beside her near the blazing fire.
We are told that shepherds were at the same time watching their flocks in
the neighbourhood; and there is evidently here a clumsy and revolting
imitation of the narrative of the events connected with the birth of our
Saviour. On seeing the mother and child, the chronicler proceeds to inform
us that “ St Serf exclaimed, in the vernacular tongue, *Mo-chohe! Mochohe!"
which in Latin is rendered, ‘ My dear, my dear! ’ adding, *Blessed art thou
who comest in the name of the Lord.’" The word in question is evidently
another form of the Gaelic Mo ghaol, or “My love,” sometimes explained also
as “ Dear friend,” which was subsequently still further transformed into
Mungo—the name by which Thenew’s son became ultimately best known. On the
occasion, however, of his baptism by St Serf, who administered the rite both
to the infant and his mother, he bestowed on the former that of Kenti-gem,
or head chief (from Gaelic ceann, head, and tigheam, chief or lord), and on
the latter that of Thenew.
The infant boy who was thus
heralded into the world under such extraordinary auspices, was carefully and
affectionately brought up by his mother Thenew, who afterwards became a
sharer of his renown. His education was, however, conducted by St Serf, who
maintained a sort of training-college for clergymen and missionaries, and
Kentigem or Mungo became his favourite pupil. The favour of Heaven, and the
high objects for which the young man was destined, were foreshadowed by the
numerous miracles which he was enabled to perform. The first of these
recorded is that in connection with a favourite robin-redbreast of his
master St Serf. The pupils of the latter had been amusing themselves tossing
it about from one to another, and in this process it had been killed.
Kentigem restored the bird to life by laying its head to his bosom, making
the sign of the cross- over it, and offering up a prayer. On another
occasion his fellow-pupils, who had no good feeling towards him from the
favour in which he stood with St Serf, mischievously extinguished one night
all the fires in the monastery and neighbourhood. It was the duty of each of
them in turn to attend to the lighting of the church lamps for morning
service; and it being now Kentigem’s turn, he found to .his dismay, on
rising at cockcrow to perform this office, that no light could be procured.
But the want was soon supplied. The youth pulled a branch of hazel, prayed,
and the twig burst forth into a brilliant flame, illuminating the whole
country round, and afterwards becoming miraculously extinguished as soon as
it had served its purpose in supplying light for the church lamps. As a
perpetuation of the miracle, it is alleged that the tree from which the
branch had been taken increased into a grove, and if at any time a twig were
pulled from it and breathed on, it burst into a flame through the merits of
the saint. “And this,” says Jocelyn, St Mungo’s biographer, “the natives of
the country assert to be the peculiarity of the grove in question to the
present day.” Then in time of harvest, when the cook of the monastery had
suddenly died, and St Serf had called on his disciple either to get dinner
ready for the reapers or resuscitate the cook, Kentigem prayed, and an angel
having appeared to assure him that his petition was granted, the dead man
was restored to life.
But the same angel who had
thus appeared to St Mungo now informed him that he must leave Culross and
his beloved master, and that a great work of conversion was destined for him
in the west country. He accordingly started on his journey without any
warning or leave-taking; and having travelled up the bank of the Forth for a
considerable way, arrived at last near the spot where it is now joined by
the Teith—a stream which in those days, instead of falling into the river,
flowed by a separate course into the estuary. The junction of the two
streams was now miraculously effected for all future time. St Serf was not
long in discovering the absence of Mungo, and setting out in pursuit of him.
He overtook the fugitive just as he had managed to effect a passage over the
Forth, by its waters, like those of the Red Sea, being collected in a heap
on the right hand and the left, so as to leave a dry passage between. The
waters returned to their place as soon as Mungo had crossed over, and then
St Serf called piteously to him from the other side, reproaching him for
quitting Culross in so unceremonious a fashion, and begging him at least to
intercede for the performance of an additional miracle—that the waters of
the Forth might again be divided to enable him (St Serf), old as he was, to
join his former pupil as a humble disciple. But Mungo or Kentigem desired
the old man to return to the place from which he came, invoking at the same
time blessings on his head, and declaring that as regarded himself he must
travel on to fulfil the great work which God had destined him for from his
mother’s womb. They then parted, St Serf returning to Culross, where he soon
afterwards died, and Mungo proceeding on his journey.
The next stage in his
expedition which Mungo is recorded to have reached was a place named Kemach
(perhaps Camock is meant, a locality between Stirling and Glasgow), and here
he found an aged saint named Fergus, who was at the point of death, and
expired in his arms. He procured somehow two bulls, yoked them to a waggon,
and then placing the dead body thereon, allowed the animals to follow what
course they pleased. They took the direction of the locality where Glasgow
now stands, and there, in a cemetery formerly consecrated by St Ninian, the
apostle of the Southern Picts, Kentigem deposited the body of the old man
Fergus. Settling himself down in the same quarter, beside the Molenriinar
bum, he founded a church and established a religious community, which thus
was the origin of the great see of Glasgow. He himself was ere long elected
bishop of Cumbria or Strathclyde, and it is said that the enclosure which he
formed and the trees which he planted were to be seen as late as the
beginning of the sixteenth century, or at least were still then known by his
name.
The period generally assigned
to St Mungo’s birth is a.d. 514, and we may therefore place his settlement
in Glasgow somewhere about the middle of the sixth century. A great lapse
from Cliristianity into paganism seems to have been made a short time before
by the inhabitants of the country, who had. thus Mien away from the
instruction imparted to them by St Ninian. St Mungo set himself vigorously
to the task of re-establishing the faith throughout the western Lowlands of
Scotland, and his labours were attended with great success. But he had a
great struggle for a long while to maintain, being thwarted pertinaciously
by the pagan king of Strathclyde, whose opposition was so formidable that
for a time St Mungo deemed it advisable to retire from the country
altogether, and take refuge in Wales. Here he laboured with great success,
built a splendid monastery at Elgu, now Elwy, and made several journeys to
Borne, receiving on the last of these occasions the parting blessing of Pope
Gregory. Warned at last by an angel, and a pressing message having been sent
him by King Rederech to return to Glasgow, he resolved to comply with the
invitation, and finally quitted Wales, leaving St Asaph as his successor.
His reappearance in the north was hailed with great enthusiasm and joy, and
henceforward he prosecuted his pious labours without the least interference,
rendering the Christian faith triumphant, and gaining extended renown both
for the sanctity of his life and the miracles which he wrought. Special
notice is taken of a visit paid him by St Columba, the celebrated bishop of
Iona, and apostle of the Northern Picts. On this occasion we are informed
that as St Mungo advanced to meet his illustrious guest a halo shone round
his head, and enabled him at once to be recognised among the surrounding
crowd by St Columba. After a long life of piety and usefulness, St Mungo
ended his days at Glasgow in 601; and according to another account, in 612.
About all the dates of this period great uncertainty prevails, and an
approximation to the truth is the utmost that can be attained.
St Mungo was interred within
his own church or sacred enclosure at Glasgow, where the present majestic
cathedral was erected in the twelfth century by Bishop Jocelyn, and in the
crypt of which the tomb of the patron saint of the western metropolis is
still to be seen. Many miracles were said to have been wrought at it after
his death; and of those performed by the saint in his lifetime several have
acquired great notoriety from the memorials of them being preserved on the
arms of the city of Glasgow. The well-known device consists of a tree, with
a bell suspended from one of the boughs, and a bird perched on another of
the branches. There is also the representation of a fish with a ring in its
mouth. The popular rhyme thus refers to the whole:—
“This is the tree that never
grew;
This is the bird that never flew;
This is the bell that never rang;
This is the fish that never swam.”
The tree is explained to be
the hazel-bush which was miraculously kindled to supply St Mungo with light
for the church lamps of Culross monastery. The bird is the robin-redbreast
which the saint restored to life again, to flutter round and caress its
master, St Serf, the patron saint of Culross. The bell suspended on the tree
was specially brought by St Mungo from Rome, and used by him for summoning
his faithful adherents to their devotions. The fish, or “drunken salmon” as
it is sometimes termed in a variation of the popular ditty, has connected
with it a specially piquant legend of its own. The queen of Cadzow, a
district in the Middle Ward of Lanarkshire, though a wedded wife, had been
so ill advised as to cast eyes of affection on a certain knight, and to give
him a ring which her own husband had presented her with as a sacred token of
affection. The scandal came to be bruited abroad; and the king hearing of
it, invited his wife’s paramour to hunt with him, and then, taking advantage
of an opportunity when the knight was asleep, withdrew the ring from his
finger and cast it into the Clyde. Returning home, he demanded the ring from
the queen, threatening her with death in the event of her not producing it.
She sent at once to the knight to crave its return, and not receiving it,
was reduced to the utmost despair. In her distress she had recourse to St
Kentigem, professing the greatest contrition, and promising that she would
never misconduct herself again if he would help her to recover the ring. The
good-natured saint took compassion on the fair penitent; and sending one of
his disciples to the river, ordered him to cast his rod and line, and bring
alive to his master the first fish that he caught. He did so; and lo! on
opening the fish’s mouth, here was the identical ring which the queen had
given away and the king cast into the Clyde! St Kentigem returned it to the
lady, who thus escaped the fate with which she had been threatened.
Another of St Mungo’s Glasgow
miracles is recorded in connection with his return from Wales, when King
Rederech, or Redrath, went forth with a vast crowd of people to welcome him.
The saint being desirous of addressing the people, felt an inconvenience
from the nature of the ground in making himself seen and heard. But this
obstacle was soon removed by the earth on which he stood rising up into a
little hillock, and he and his audience were thus both accommodated. Again,
he inflicted a signal rebuke and punishment on a certain King Morken, whose
avaricious disposition had led him to hoard up during a dearth an immense
store of com. St Mungo caused a great flood to carry the grain from the
royal bams down the Clyde and up the Molendinar bum to the saint’s feet,
where it landed wholly dry and intact. And a rather frivolous exercise of
his miraculous powers is recorded in his having produced a fresh dish of
mulberries in winter, to bestow upon a foolish fellow who had demanded this
present of the king.
St Mungo was noted for his
asceticism and self-denial. It is said that after coming to years of
discretion he never either ate flesh or drank wine— that he wore a hair
shirt, and slept on the ground with a stone for his pillow. We are also
told, what must in those days have perhaps appeared the greatest penance of
all, that he would seat himself on a stone in cold water and sing psalms,
before meeting his brethren at matins in the church. And yet,
notwithstanding all this severity of life, he is asserted to have reached
the patriarchal age of one hundred and eighty-five. Setting aside, however,
all dubious or spurious virtues, and likewise all the absurd incidents which
have been associated with him, there remains little reason to doubt that St
Kentigem or Mungo was a man both of sterling worth and ability. A strong
testimony to the excellence of his character is mentioned by Bishop Forbes
as current to a late period in Aberdeenshire,—“It’s like St Mungo’s work,
which was never done”—that is to say, that he found no rest but in doing
good.
Besides the grand cathedral
of Glasgow, of which city he is par excellence the patron saint, there are
numerous churches dedicated to St Mungo, as well as places which bear his
name. A parish in Dumfriesshire is so called, and so is an island in the
Argyleshire Loch Leven, near Ballachulish, noteworthy as the ancient
burial-place of the Macdonalds of Glencoe. The spot on the sea-shore of
Culross where St Thenew, his mother, landed and gave him birth, had a chapel
in honour of St Mungo erected on it, probably at a very early period.1
A subsequent one, the ruins of which still remain, was erected on the same
site by Archbishop Blackadder in 1503. I shall have occasion to refer to it
at a future stage.
The name of Kentigem, though
it is the designation generally applied to this saint by hagiologists and
foreigners, is rarely used by St Mungo’s countrymen. A female saint named
Kentigema, the recluse of the island of Inch Cailleach in Loch Lomond, and
the mother of St Fillan, seems to have borne no relationship to him, and
must not be identified with his mother, St Thenew, who is said to have
survived the period of her son’s reaching manhood, and to have afterwards
joined him in Glasgow, where she died. A chapel was erected in honour of St
Thenew or Thanewke, not far from the modem Broomielaw at Glasgow; and by a
curious but very natural corruption, the church which in late times was
raised near the site of this building received the designation of St Enoch—a
saint who, however worthy he is of being commemorated, has no place assigned
him in any calendar. There was also a sacred well in the neighbourhood of
Glasgow which was dedicated to St Thenew.
The Aberdeen Breviary, in
recording the fact of there being another St Serf besides the suffragan of
Palladius and master of St Mungo, states that this younger St Serf was “an
Israelite” by nation, and lived in the time of St Adamnan in the island of
“Petmook,” and that many extraordinary miracles were wrought by him, as
recorded at length in his Life. What Life is here referred to cannot be
stated with certainty, but the only biography now known to be in existence
of St Serf is by an unknown hand, and full of anachronisms and absurdities.
A considerable number of details, however, are preserved in the account of
St Serf given in Wynton’s ‘Chronicle’; and as Wynton was prior in the early
part of the fifteenth century of the religious community on St Serfs Island
in Loch Leven, we would be apt to conclude that as holder of such an office
he would be well acquainted with all the traditional history of the founder
of this establishment. But whatever weight we give to this consideration, it
is impossible that we can regard the individual whose adventures he records
as identical with the St Serf who received Palladius, and gave shelter to St
Thenew and her infant child. Nothing seems to be more clearly established
than that the mission of Palladius took place in the fifth century, and that
the birth of St Mungo is to be referred to the early part of the sixth. Now
Wynton represents his St Serf as travelling from the land of Canaan through
Alexandria and Constantinople to Rome, and there being elected Pope on the
death of John III. in a.d. 573.
Then after a while, going
northward to Britain, he lands at Inchkeith in the Firth of Forth, and there
is received by St Adamnan, the Abbot of Iona, who lived in the end of the
seventh century. The latter recommends him to settle in the district; and in
compliance with this advice St Serf first crosses over to DyBart, then sails
up the Firth to Kinneil near Borrowstounness, and lastly crosses over to
Culross, where he resolved to settle, and, as Wynton informs us—
“Begowth to red a ground,
Quhare that he thoucht a kyrk to found.”
But Brude, then king of the
Picts, had no relish for so saintly a colonist, and in the bitterness of his
enmity despatched a company of men to slay St Serf and his followers. The
purpose was frustrated by a sudden fit of sore sickness which overtook the
king, and for the cure of which he was indebted to the saint. The monarch
was converted, and in testimony of grateful devotion made over the whole
country around Culross to the Christian missionary, who thenceforward
resided here in peace and honour. Referring to Wynton again, we are told :—
“And thare he browcht up Saynt
Mongowe,
That syne wes Byschape of Glasgowe.
Syne fra Culros he paat ewyn
To the Inche of Lowch Lewyn.
The King Brud of devotyowne
Made til Saynct Serf donatyowne
Of that Inche, and he duelt thare
Til sewyne yhere oure-passed were.”
Then follows the record of
more miracles wrought by him; but as these seem rather to belong to the
younger St Serf, whose history is here intermingled with that of his
predecessor, I shall defer notice of them for the present. Wynton’s work is
a poem or metrical chronicle, commencing with the creation of the world, and
can have no claim to be regarded as authentic history; but in endeavouring
to deduce from it something that may be accepted as real and trustworthy, it
is at least allowable to form some conclusion by contrasting his statements
with what admittedly belongs to the category of historical events. Thus,
from a chronological point of view, it is quite impossible that the same St
Serf could have been the guardian of St Mungo and the contemporary of St
Adamnan. I accordingly conceive that I am justified in receiving, as stated
in the Aberdeen Breviary, the existence of two St Serfs as an historical
fact, and in connecting with the elder saint, as the leading circumstance of
his life, the education of St Mungo, and with the younger one the
establishment of the religious community at Loch Leven.
The “island of Petmook”
referred to in the Aberdeen Breviary is unquestionably the island in Loch
Leven now known as St Serf’s Island—Petmook or Portmoak being the name of
the adjoining parish on the east side of the loch. The miracles which this
St Serf of Portmoak is reported to have performed are thus related by Wynton,
though ascribed to the elder saint:—
“ In Twlybothy ane il SpyTyte
A Crystyn man that tyme taryit.
Of that spyryte he wes than
Delyveryd throuch that haly man.
In Twlycultry, til a wyfe
Twa sunnys he rasyd fra dede to lyf.
This haly man had a ram,
That he had fed up of a lame,
And oysyd hym to folow ay,
Quhare-ewyre he passyd in his way.
A thefe this schepe in Athren stall,
And ete hym up in pesis all.
Quhen Saynct Serf hys ram had myet,
Quha that it stall, wes few that wyst:
On presumptyowne nevyrtheles,
He that it stall arestyd wes:
And til Saynt Serfe syne wes he broucht.
That schepe, he sayd, that he stall noucht,
And tharetil for to swere an athe,
He sayd, that he wald noucht be lathe.
Bot sone he worthyd8 rede for schame:
The schepe thare bletyd in his wame.
Swa was he tayntyd schamfully,
And at Saynt Serf askyd mercy.
In Dovyn of devotyoune,
And prayene he slwe a fell dragowne.
Quhare he wes slayne, that plas wes ay
The dragownys den calit to this day.”
After these somewhat
extraordinary exercises of miraculous powers grave and whimsical, we are
told—
“Quhil Saynt Serfe in-til a
stede
Lay eftyre maytynis in hys bede,
The devil come, in full intent
For til fund hym wytht argument.”
The devil propounds various
theological questions to St Serf, with the view of puzzling and worsting him
in argument. But his satanic majesty is utterly discomfited:—
“Than saw the devyl that he
cowde nocht,
Wyth all the wylis that he soucht,
Ourecum Saynct Serf, he sayd than,
He kend hym for a wys man,
For-thi he thare gave hym qwyte,
For he wan at hym na profyte.
Saynct Serf sayd, thou wrech ga
Fra this stede, and noy na ma
In to this stede, I byd the.*
Suddenly theyne passyd he.
Fra that stede he held hym away,
And nevyr wes sene thare til this day.”
And here is the end of the
Prior of Loch Leven’s story of St Serf:—
“Eftyre all this Saynct Serfe
past
West on til Culros als fast.
And he hys state quhen that he knewe,
That til hys endyng nere he drewe,
The wrechyd warld he for-suke.
Hys Sacramentis thare all he tuke,
With schryfte and full contrityoune;
He yhald wyth gud devotyowne,
His cors til halouyd sepulture,
And hys saule til the Creature.”
In his ‘Kalendar of Scottish
Saints,’ Bishop Forbes says that the remains of St Serf were at Culross in
1530. He also states that the saint died at Dunning (the place where he is
reported to have killed the dragon), and his body was conveyed to Culross.
It is quite possible, indeed, that the body of the younger St Serf may have
been carried thither and deposited beside that of his namesake, whose
reputation had been greatly enhanced by his connection with St Mungo, the
celebrated bishop of Strathclyde, who then had not been long dead. The
circumstance, too, of the elder and the younger St Serf being both interred
at Culross, may account for their histories having been blended together.
St Serf is regarded as the
patron saint of Culross, and its Abbey Church is dedicated to him and the
Virgin. His festival day is the 1st of July, which up to the Reformation and
even beyond it was observed with great ceremony, the inhabitants walking in
procession and carrying branches of trees. Frequent references are also made
to it as a legal term in ancient documents connected with the locality.
In the notes appended by
Macpherson to Wynton’s ‘Chronicle,’ he remarks in reference to the saint now
under consideration: “The era here assigned to Serf rather disagrees with
the legendary story, which makes his disciple St Mungo (or Kentigem)
contemporary with Columba, who died in 597. But the later saintologists had
a rage for burying all their great saints together. St Serf was perhaps a
clergyman of Strath-Cluyd or Dalrieta taken in war by the Picts, and
consequently a slave or serf, whose superior knowledge and sanctity raised
him to consequence and veneration among a rude people.” It is possible
enough that this hypothesis may have a foundation in fact.
Wynton’s chronology regarding
St Mungo tallies more closely with the period generally ascribed to him,
than with that attributed to his master St Serf. The patron saint of Glasgow
is represented as contemporary with St Augustin, who in a.d. 597 was sent by
Pope Gregory to Britain to convert the men of Kent:—
“Saynct Acostyne gert thame of
Ingland
The Eeule of Pask welle understand,
That befor thai had in Were,
Quhill he thare-of made knawlage clere.
And in his tyme Saynct Mungowe
Wes Byschap lyrand of Glasgowe.”
In concluding this chapter
and the history of the first epoch connected with Culross, it may be as well
to take notice of the condition of the Church at this period, and the body
of ecclesiastics to which St Serf and St Mungo belonged. There can be no
doubt of the fact that in those days the corruptions of the Church had by no
means developed themselves to such an extent as they afterwards attained.
Her system of doctrine and service was still comparatively pure—though the
theory which has been maintained by many, of her still exhibiting in the
remote regions of Western Europe an example of primitive apostolic
simplicity, must be rejected as a fond imagination. It has been supposed
that St Serf and St Mungo, St Columba and St Adamnan, professed a simple
faith, nearly according with the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, as
originally propounded by their Founder and His disciples, and far removed
from the cumbered and corrupt system gradually built up by the Church of
Rome. They are asserted to have preserved for centuries in these Northern
retreats the original purity of the faith, and to have even assimilated
their ecclesiastical polity to something resembling the Presbyterian model.
After bearing faithful testimony to the truth for a long period of years, it
is alleged that they were gradually overpowered by the growing influence of
Rome, and by the end of the twelfth century their system had entirely
disappeared. The name and rule of the Culdees, to which these primitive
ecclesiastics belonged, is often spoken of as denoting a sort of golden age
in the history of the early Scottish Church.
It may be pleasant to
contemplate such a picture as is here presented, but it is one for which
there appears to be no historical foundation. Bede and other ancient
writers, in referring to the early British Church, make no statement of its
having departed from the Christian faith as expounded at Rome, and speak
only of its clergy wearing a different tonsure, and celebrating Easter at a
different period from that observed by the faithful. From the way in which
Bede reiterates this statement in regard to different communities, it seems
dear that he had no other allegation to make against them on the score of
heresy. He indeed seems to regard these two differences in the mode of
shaving the head and the time of celebrating Easter as rather weighty
matters; but the fact of his confining his remarks to these alone, would
seem to indicate that no other discrepancy existed.
By those who would claim for
the early Scottish Church a Presbyterian or at least Protestant character,
the term Culdees has been generally understood as denoting a peculiar Order
or sect of ecclesiastics. But for this conclusion no ground can be produced.
The word simply means servants or friends of God, and was used as the common
vernacular epithet in those days for the clergy wherever Celtic was spoken.
It is derived from the Celtic G6le-D6 (servants of God), and is the same
with the Gaelic gille, a servant, and D6, the genitive of Dia, God. There is
also a Gaelic word, Ceile, denoting spouse, husband, or servant, which would
form a similar compound with D6. The Celtic term C6le-D6 has been Latinised
into Keledei or Colidei, which being explained as CultoresDei (worshippers
of God), the word with its modem English form Culdees has been erroneously
ascribed to a Latin origin. It seems to have been imported from Ireland into
Scotland, and to have been employed in many different ways. But there is no
evidence whatever to show that it denoted a particular order of clergy
holding tenets alien to those of the Romish Church.
The earliest reference to the
Scottish Culdees occurs in Jocelyn's ‘Life of St Kentigem/ and is quoted by
Dr Reeves from a MS. preserved in Primate Marsh's library in Dublin, which
differs slightly from that edited by Pinkerton. Speaking of St Serf, Jocelyn
says:—
“Vir Dei itaque perplures ut
diximus discipulos adun-averat. Quos divinse legis sacris literis erudiens,
verbo et exemplo ad vitae sanctitatem instituit. De quibus co-oper-arios in
messam dominicam destinare proposuerat. Hi omnes emulabantur Dei emulatione
vitam et doctrinam ejus, jejuniis et vigiliis saevis assueti, psalmis et
orationibus, et divinae legis meditationem intenti, labore manuali certis
tem-poribus et horis occupafci. More namque primitivae ecclesiae sub
apostolis et eorum successoribus, nihil proprium possi-dentes, satis sobrie
juste et pie et continentissime viventes, in singulis tamen casulis ex quo
setate et sapientia maturaverant, sicut et ipse sanctus Kentigernus,
commorabantur. Unde et singulares clerici a vulgo Calledei nuncupabantur.”
“The man of God [St Serf] had
accordingly assembled together, as we have said, several disciples, whom he
instructed in the sacred letters of the divine law, and moulded by precept
and example to holiness of life. They all, with a holy emulation, imitated
his life and doctrine, being inured to severe fastings and watchings, with
psalms and prayers; and whilst intent on the meditation of the divine law,
were at certain times and hours occupied in manual labour. For, possessing
nothing of their own, after the manner of the primitive Church in the times
of the apostles and their successors, they passed a life of the highest
sobriety, righteousness, piety, and continence; and from the period that
they arrived at full age and discretion, they each occupied a little
separate dwelling, as did also St Kentigem himself. Hence these solitary
ecclesiastics received from the common people the designation of Cattedeu"
Jocelyn speaks here in a
somewhat confused fashion, as if the Calledei or Culdees were so called from
their solitary mode of life; and possibly this statement of his may have
given rise to the derivation of the term, urged by some, as from cill, a
cell or church. But the origin already indicated seems to be far the
preferable one, as denoting the appellation which the common people would
naturally bestow on these men as servants of the Lord; and Jocelyn living at
such a distance of time from its first introduction, might be as puzzled to
account for it as antiquarians of a much more recent date.
At this early period of the
Church’s history, celibacy, though highly recommended, was not actually
imperative on the clergy, and for a long time subsequent to this the priests
both in England and Scotland seem to have been allowed to marry. In both
countries the tenet was gradually established —not without great opposition
in South Britain at all events, as we learn from the chronicles of the Saxon
age. Jocelyn, in bearing testimony in the above passage to the righteousness
and purity of life among the Culdee clergy, leaves us to infer that celibacy
was strictly practised. But it is questionable whether this was the case at
a later period of their history.
The early Christian
missionaries evinced a great partiality for settling in remote and exposed
situations, and more especially on islands. Thus St Columba established
himself on the remote island of Iona, and in the course of his
peregrinations seems to have tarried for a while in and given his name to
the island of Inchcolm, in the Firth of Forth. At a subsequent period his
biographer, St Adamnan, is reported to have resided on Inchkeith, and there
received the younger St Serf on his arrival in Scotland from Rome; whilst we
find the Bass tenanted by St Baldred, the apostle of the Lothians; and St
Ebba or Abb gives her name to the bleak headland at the north-east extremity
of Berwickshire, where the ruins of her cell are still to be seen. It would
almost seem as if some idea of asceticism or self-discipline had induced
those persons to settle on such dreary situations, which certainly afforded
them no security, as was demonstrated in many instances, from the attacks of
pagan hordes both by land and sea. As regards St Serf, though his successors
the monks converted his settlement at Culross into a pleasant spot, it was
in all probability in the first instance but a dreary and lonely abode.
Culross and the island in
Loch Leven have often been credited as having been the places where the
tenets ascribed to the Culdees were respectively developed and matured. This
notion is equally erroneous with the more generally diffused one of the
Culdees having formed a special order of their own, distinct from the
ordinary Romish clergy of the day. The elder and younger St Serf were
doubtless both men of an exalted character, who accomplished each a good
work. Their histories are blended together, and it is difficult to
distinguish them. With one or both the district of Culross and the region
between the Ochil Hills and the Firth of Forth are closely connected. [The
churches of Culross, Alva, Clackmannan, and Dunning are dedicated to St
Serf, and there is a singular old bridge in Glen Devon which bears his
name—to say nothing of St Serfs Isle in Loch Leven, with the ruins on it of
the old priory.] |
