64 Still, however, the Culdees retained their influ ence and respect, and often elected the bishops of their bounds. At length, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Romish monks poured into the king dom, supplanted the Culdees, and by degrees got pos session of all their monasteries. The followers of St. Columba, did not think it unlawful to marry and to take the charge of families as well as of parishes. The new monks, on the other hand, lived in celibacy, af fected greater purity, and had more ceremony and show; so that the popular tide soon turned in their favour. The Culdees existed no longer in colleges, but for a long time after they continued to teach true Christianity apart." (Life of St. Coluntba, p. 162, 163.) It is to the twelfth century that we must attribute the erection of those buildings in Iona which yet re main. The original structures appear to have been merely wattled huts, as was a general usage in Ireland and England at this early date; and it is very certain that the present buildings cannot reach higher than the time we have here assigned, because it is on re cord that the '' Irish doctors" of this establishment united to pull down a stone church which had been erected by the Roman Catholic clergy in the twelfth century. The nunnery, which was erected for canon esses of St. Augustin, could not he of a higher date, though apparently among the oldest buildings there; as female establishments formed no part of the prac tices of the Culdees.
Great obscurity hangs over the establishment of bishops and bishoprics in Scotland. Though St. Co lumba was only an abbot, his jurisdiction extended over all the Irish churches, and he was, in fact, the primate of Ireland as well as of Scotland. In our own country, his command included Dunkeld, St. An drews, Abernethy, and indeed all the other monaste ries; and thus he held the sway even over bishops, as is remarked by our ecclesiastical historian Bede. The fact is, in this case, the terms bishop and abbot were frequently confounded at the beginning; and as abbeys were long prior to dioceses, the mystery appears easily solved. Abbots were frequently baronial sove reigns; and, in other cases, the terms were synony mous, or the abbots possessed the rank of the one, and the jurisdiction and office of the other. Nor was it uncommon, in the early ages of the church, to con secrate bishops who had no jurisdiction; while some bishops resigned their charges to found abbeys. As St. Columba is, by some of the early writers, called archbishop and pontifex, the superiority of his rank admits of no question, as these appellations were never bestowed on the inferior clergy.
The bishopric of St. Andrews is said to have been the first diocesan erection in Scotland, and to have been established by Grig. This date is remote, and it is certain that there were no regular dioceses in Scot land till long after. It is from the date of the arrival and establishment of the Romish clergy, that we must fix the regular state of the Scottish church. After the visit of the first papal legate Palladino, the sway of Rome commenced; and, in no long time, their vic tory was complete, though, as we just remarked, the Culdees were not totally abolished till the fourteenth century. In 1127, Gregory, abbot of the Culdees of
Dunkeld, was made a bishop; and this is among the earliest of the regular creations that can be well as certained. The authority of the pope now became gradually recognised, though the Scottish nobles and clergy long and often rebelled against foreign inter ference, and claimed the right of judging for them selves. The Romish power was scarcely complete, when it was for ever abolished by the Reformation.
Of Iona itself, as the 1110SL important establishment, we may here finally observe, that, in the time of Ed ward the First, and from the consequent annexation of the Isle of Man to England, the bishops of Iona be came bishops of the isles, while those of Man retained the title of the Sudereys and Man; and that, in 1617, the diocese became confounded by James the Sixth with that of Argyll, its bishops becoming then resi dent in Lismore.
It was a part of the policy of the Popish clergy to gain influence by the establishment of monasteries, which should displace and suppress those of the Cul dees. Monachism, before it was thus introduced into Scotland, had been known for several centuries in va rious nations of Europe. Anthony of Egypt is sup posed to have been the author of this. system. In 305, he thought it meritorious to forego the charities and sympathies of life, and to retire into the depths of the desert for the practice of austerity. Ilis example was successively followed at Rome and in Pontus, and St. Martin of Tours, who flourished towards the end of the fourth century, was the first that founded a monas tery in western Europe. Popish monasteries were not introduced into Scotland till early in the twelfth century; but before the year 1163, owing to the great encouragement given them by David I. they had be come more common than in any country of Europe of equal extent and population. Owing to•the blind de votion and munificence of nobles and princes, they continued to increase during the three subsequent centuries; and though Spottiswood states them as amounting only to 170, others with more truth have estimated them at nearly double that number. (Life of Knox, i. 348. Dalzell's Fragments, pp. 11, 12.) The number of monks in each establishment varied exceed ingly. In 1542, there were 200 in Melrose alone; while in 1559 there were only eight in the Greyfriars at Perth. (Dalzell ut Supra. Knox, Ilistorie, 128.) It was the policy of the Popish clergy, whose influ ence and aggrandizement increased as ignorance and error prevailed, to extinguish as far as possible, the illumination of the holy Scriptures, and to substitute the most absurd and impious doctrines, that their im postures might command the most implicit belief; and, to rivet the fetters of superstition, threatenings were denounced against those who presumed to diso bey their mandates. Superstition and imposture had gained a great ascendency over the rude and ignorant Scots, and thus the clergy attained to an exorbitant degree of opulence and power, which necessarily cor rupted their order, and debased the whole system of their religion.