In 1872 the late Bishop of Brechin published his ‘Kalendars of Scottish Saints, with personal notices of those of Alba, Laudonia, and Strathclyde: an attempt to fix the districts of their several missions and the churches where they were chiefly had in remembrance.’ It is a very useful compilation, and may be referred to for the churches dedicated to the various founders of the early churches mentioned in this work. It is only necessary to add that in 1874 Dr. Reeves’s valuable edition of Adamnan’s Life of St. Columba was, with his consent, published in the series of Scottish Historians, with a translation of the Life by the late Bishop of Brechin; and that in the same year there appeared in the same series an edition by him of the Lives of St. Ninian and St. Kentigern, with translations, introduction, and notes. Such is a short view of what has already been done for the history of the early Celtic Church of Scotland by historians of this class. The author of the present work is fully conscious of the imperfect manner in which he has executed the task he set before himself; but, without claiming to possess the same qualities in an equal degree, he has at least endeavoured to perform it in the same spirit, and takes this opportunity of acknowledging the extent to which he has freely availed himself of their labours. He has especially to acknowledge the valuable aid given him by W. Maunsell Hennessey, Esq., of the Public Record Office, Dublin, in enabling him to enrich his work with a translation of the Old Irish Life of St. Columba, by that eminent Irish scholar, which will be found in the appendix; and he has also to thank John Taylor Brown, Esq., and Felix Skene, Esq., for a careful revision of the proof-sheets of this work. EDINBURGH, 27 INVERLEITH ROW, _14th April 1877_. TABLE OF CONTENTS. ------- BOOK II. _CHURCH AND CULTURE._ CHAPTER I. THE CHURCHES IN THE WEST. PAGE Early notices of the British Church 1 Church of Saint Ninian 2 Mission of Saint Columbanus to Gaul 6 Controversy regarding Easter 7 Three orders of Saints in the early Irish Church; Secular, Monastic, and Eremitical 12 The Church of Saint Patrick 14 Collegiate Churches of Seven Bishops 24 Church of the Southern Picts 26 Early Dalriadic Church 33 Church south of the Firths of Forth and Clyde 35 Apostasy of early Churches 39