Abbeys -- Scotland; Cathedrals -- Scotland; Church architecture -- Scotland
SCOTTISH MONASTICISM
The old Celtic monastic system, with Iona as its centre, was superseded
by the monastic system of the Roman Church in the eleventh century, and
the old Culdee monks were either driven from their ancient settlements
or compelled to become Augustinian canons or Benedictine monks. The life
of Queen Margaret marks the period of transition in Scotland from the
old system to that of the Church of Rome both in building and in every
other department, and what Queen Margaret began, her sons, Edgar,
Alexander and David completed. St. Margaret had a monk of Durham for her
chaplain; Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, was her chosen counsellor.
She introduced Benedictines from Canterbury into her foundation at
Dunfermline. Edgar and Alexander took for their adviser St.
Anselm--Lanfranc's successor, preferred English priests, and peopled the
monasteries with English monks. David was even more earnest in the
pursuit of this policy, and the kings who followed him found little to
"Anglicise." Saxon refugees were followed into Scotland by Norman
knights; these were received by David and presented with lands, and the
extent of their possessions is apparent in the names of the proprietors
settled in every part of the country. The policy is apparent: their
settlement helped to keep the country in order, and defend it from the
attacks of the unsubdued tribes in the north and west. It also helped to
facilitate the spread of the Roman Catholic system throughout the
country. "The new colonists," says Dr. Cosmo Innes, "were of the 'upper
classes' of Anglican families long settled in Northumbria, and Normans
of the highest blood and name. They were men of the sword, above all
service and mechanical employment. They were fit for the society of
court, and many became the chosen companions of our princes. The old
native people gave way before them, or took service under the
strong-handed strangers, who held lands by the written gift of the
sovereign."[307] ... "The new settlers were of the progressive party,
friends of civilisation and the Church. They had found churches on their
manors, or if not already there, had founded them. To each of these
manorial churches the lord of the manor now made a grant of the tithes
of his estate; his right to do so does not seem to have been questioned,
and forthwith the manor--tithed to its church--became what we now call a
parish."[308] Examples of these parish churches have already been
considered, and the two-fold movement of a cathedral system with
parochial benefices was continued for a time. It was the most effective
way of superseding the old Celtic church, and the policy was throughout
inspired by the aim of substituting the parochial system with a diocesan
episcopacy for the old tribal churches with monastic jurisdiction and
functional episcopacy. But this was accompanied by a third movement,
which to a very great extent paralysed it, and became a source of
weakness to religion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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