¹ For example, Nora Chadwick, K., “The Vikings and the Western World,” in The Impact of the Scandinavian Invasions on the Celtic-speaking Peoples c. 800—1100 A.D., ed. Cuív, B. O (Dublin, 1962), p. 21Google Scholar.

² The monasteries of the Gaelic Church, so many of them on islands or along coastlines, with their store of treasures and relics accumulated from years of royal and aristocratic patronage, were prime targets for the pillaging Scandinavians, and the annals certainly give testimony to their vulnerability. However, in recent years the veracity of the inherently biased, monastically produced annals has been questioned, and so too the ferocity of the Scandinavians, whose heathenism and lack of respect for holy places, it has been claimed, would have earned them a less than fair press from the righteous monks. See Cróinín, Dáibhí Ó, Early Medieval Ireland 400—1200 (London, 1995), pp. 234—37Google Scholar. Although Smyth, Alfred P., Warlords and Holy Men: Scotland A.D. 80—1000 (London, 1984), pp. 141—49Google Scholar, tempers this revisionism with a sobering reminder of the Scandinavians’ capacity, not to mention admiration, for horrifying acts of violence, which must have seriously shocked the peaceful havens of Columban Christianity. For more extensive accounts of the Scandinavians in Scotland, see Crawford, Barbara E., Scandinavian Scotland (Leicester, 1987)Google Scholar; Marsden, John, The Fury of the Northmen: Shrines & Sea-Raiders in the Viking Age (London, 1993), esp. pp. 63—91Google Scholar; & Smyth, Alfred P., Scandinavian Kings in the British Isles 850—880 (Oxford, 1977)Google Scholar. See also, Etchingham, Colmán, Viking Raids on Irish Church Settlements in the Ninth Century (Maynooth, 1996)Google Scholar.

³ Smyth, , Warlords and Holy Men, p. 176Google Scholar.

⁴ Bannerman, John, “Comarba Coluim Chille and the relics of Columba,” Innes Review (hereafter cited as IR) 44 (Spring 1993): 14—47Google Scholar, at p. 42, states that the eventual division of the paruchia “had very little, if anything, to do with the Norse presence.”

⁵ Ibid., p. 33.

⁶ “The violent death of Bláthmac son of Flann at the hands of the heathens in I Coluim Chille,” Annals of Ulster (to A.D. 1131), (hereafter cited as AU) trans. S. Mac Airt & G. Mac Niocaill (Dublin, 1983), A.D. 825. That a detailed account of Bláthmac’s death was composed by Walafrid Strabo, abbot of Reichenau (838—849), demonstrates not only the continuing channels of communication between the Gaelic Church and the continent, but also the fame of this bloody event. While this poem can be used to show that Iona was deemed totally unsafe by the Columban monks, since Walafrid states that Bláthmac chose to go to the monastery so he could be martyred, that he apparently arrived in 818 and did not meet his desired end until 825 does suggest that the Scandinavian raids were not relentless, even at the height of their pillaging. For the poem, see Anderson, Alan Orr, ed., Early Sources of Scottish History A.D. 500—1286 (hereafter cited as Anderson, ES) 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1922), 1: 263—65Google Scholar. See also, Crawford, , Scandinavian Scotland, pp. 44—45Google Scholar; Smyth, , Warlords and Holy Men, pp. 147—48Google Scholar.

⁷ “I Coluim Cille was plundered by the Danes on Christmas Night, and they killed the abbot and fifteen of the elders of the monastery,” AU, A.D. 986.

⁸ Even if Abbot Diarmait were absent, presumably at Kells, for most of his tenure, a community was maintained at Iona under the priorship of the ill-fated Bláthmac.

⁹ The building of this monastery was not completed until 814, at which time Abbot Cellach of Iona resigned his post and probably retired to the new house. AU, A.D. 807; ibid., A.D. 814. See Bannerman, “Comarba Coluim Chille,” p. 32.

¹⁰ Herbert, Máire, Iona, Kells and Deny: The History and Hagiography of the Monastic Familia of Columba (1988; reprint Dublin, 1996), p. 68Google Scholar. Probably at this time such treasures as the Book of Kells were evacuated to the new monastery, which may explain why so many of Iona’s books and manuscripts were to be found in medieval Ireland and not Scotland. It can be inferred, however, from the annals that the actual relics of Columba were still kept at Iona in 831 and up until 849. AU, A.D. 831; ibid., A.D. 849.

¹¹ For example, it was a response to the gradual shift in initiative to the Armagh-Cenél nEogain axis and away from that of Iona-Cenél Conaill, with Kells situated in the territory of the southern Uí Nèill. Herbert, Iona, Kells and Derry, pp. 68—77.

¹² See Anderson, Marjorie O., Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland (hereafter cited as Anderson, KKES) (Edinburgh, 1973), pp. 196—204Google Scholar; eadem., “Dalriada and the creation of the kingdom of the Scots,” in Ireland in Early Medieval Europe, Studies in Memory of Kathleen Hughes, ed. David Whitleock et. al (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 106—32, at 112—25; Hudson, Benjamin T., Kings of Celtic Scotland (Westport, 1994), esp. pp. 37—7Google Scholar; Smyth, , Warlords and Holy Men, pp. 176—85Google Scholar.

¹³ For example, Anderson, “Dalriada,” p. 110, has speculated that Causantin mac Fergusa, king of Picts, may have been chosen as king of Scots in 811 because of the Norse raids on Dál Riata. Likewise, Broun, Dauvit, “The Origin of Scottish Identity in its European Context,” in Scotland in Dark Age Europe, ed. Crawford, Barbara E. (St. Andrews, 1994), pp. 21—31Google Scholar, at pp. 27—30, has suggested that the disappearance of Pictish was caused by Scandinavian raids de-stabilizing Pictish social structures, (although contrast with Wormald, Patrick, “The Emergence of the Regnum Scottorum: A Carolingian Hegemony?,” in Scotland in Dark Age Britain, ed. Crawford, Barbara E. (St. Andrews, 1996), pp. 131—60Google Scholar, at p. 144). Certainly, the destruction of the Fergus dynasty in 839 by a Scandinavian army appears to have facilitated the rise of the MacAlpín dynasty; Smyth, Warlords and Holy Men, p. 180. Lastly, it is possible that Cináed mac Alpín was allied with Godfraid mac Fergusa, (although for a skeptical view on the likelihood of such an alliance, see Hudson, Kings of Celtic Scotland, p. 41), which casts doubt on the belief that the Scandinavian presence in the western isles forced Cináed to transfer the relics of Columba; Bannerman, “Comarba Coluim Chille,” p. 33.

¹⁴ Thus, from the fifth-century Scotti settlement of Fife, to the campaigns of Áedán mac Gabráin, to the rise of the MacFergus dynasty in the eighth century, and to Cináed mac Alpín’s own attacks on Melrose and Dunbar, the Scots’ drive eastward and southward from Dá Riata was a constant feature of Dark Age politics in northern Britain. See Anderson, KKES, p. 204, Bannerman, “Comarba Coluim Chille,” pp. 29—33.

¹⁵ Anderson, “Dalriada,” pp. 116—17; Smyth, Warlords and Holy Men, p. 183.

¹⁶ “In the seventh year of his reign, he transported the relics of St. Columba to a church he had built.” Skene, William F., ed., Chronicles of the Picts, Chronicles of the Scots, and other Early Memorials of Scottish History (hereafter cited as Skene, PS) (Edinburgh, 1867), p. 8Google Scholar.

¹⁷ Bannerman, “Comarba Coluim Chille,” p. 42. In spite of being on the opposite side of Druim Alban, Iona was not inaccessible from Dunkeld. Cináed’s decision to house Columba’s relics at Dunkeld was probably at least partially motivated as a result of an easily traversed route through the mountains from this church back to Iona, as demonstrated by the flight of the serin Coluim Chille to Ireland in 878 in the face of invading “foreigners.” AU, A.D. 878.

¹⁸ Bannerman, “Comarba Coluim Chille,” p. 43. This is implied by the probability that it was at Dunkeld in 878. AU, A.D. 878. That Dunkeld continued to be viewed as the senior partner can be inferred because when the scrin had been taken to Ireland for safety and subsequently lost, it gained as a replacement the next most potent symbol of Columba’s authority, the Cathbuaidh, which itself was replaced by the famous Breccbennach. For a discussion on the importance of relics in the Gaelic Church and the temporal, as well as spiritual, authority that they conveyed to their keepers, see Bannerman, “Comarba Coluim Chille.”

¹⁹ For example, Herbert, Iona, Kells and Deny, p. 70, remarks that “The foundation of Kells initiates a new era in the history of the Columban familia, as its main focus begins to shift from Iona to Ireland.” The belief that the Irish familia Iae was the true heir of the Columban Church is seemingly strengthened because when a comarba Coluim Chille was mentioned in the sources, he was always attached to an Irish house. However, this is because these sources were written in Ireland, and as Bannerman, “Comarba Coluim Chille,” p. 31, argues, to give the head of Dunkeld the same title, as they should accurately have done, would have confused their entries. That early medieval Irish writers did not solely perceive Columba in an hibernian light is demonstrated by an entry in the Félire Oengusso, which reads “Colum Cille, who sets up with the troops of the saints of Alba.” Stokes, Whitley, ed., Félire Oengusso Céle Dé (London, 1905), p. 277Google Scholar.

²⁰ The evidence for this includes: the Life of Catroë, which demonstrates the central role which personal devotion to Columba played in the lives of everyday people, Anderson, ES, 1: 423, 434; the Life of Kentigern, which highlights how the saint’s memory was utilized by the Church, probably with the collusion of the state, to extend the boundaries of Gaelic ecclesiastical, as well as secular, hegemony, Macquarrie, Alan, “The Career of St. Kentigern of Glasgow: Vitae, Lectiones and Glimpses of Fact,” IR 37 (1986): 11—12Google Scholar; and the Irish Annals, which depict Columba as the guardian saint of Alba, Radner, Joan N., The Fragmentary Annals of Ireland (Dublin, 1978), p. 171Google Scholar.

²¹ Hudson, , Kings of Celtic Scotland, p. 42Google Scholar, proposes that Cináed based his power at the palaces of Forteviot and Scone. As discussed by Anderson, “Dalriada,” pp. 116—17, it is difficult to ascertain whether by this time the geographical extent of the chroniclers’ Fortriu included northern Pictland as well as the traditional southern provinces.

²² Cináed mac Alpín’s close association with Dunkeld can be compared to that forged between earlier, Scoto-Pictish kings and other major ecclesiastical centers, e.g., Nechtán mac Derili and Abernethy, and Óengus mac Fergusa (both I and II) and Cennrigmonaid.

²³ Hudson, Benjamin T., “Kings and Church in Early Scotland,” Scottish Historical Review (hereafter cited as SHR) 73 (1994): 145—70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

²⁴ Skene, PS, p. 151.

²⁵ Ibid., p. 9.

²⁶ “We may suspect that the author of the note, writing in one of the older churches such as St. Andrews, wished to invoke the legendary name of Giric in support of his own church’s claim to antique liberties.” Anderson, “Dalriada,” p. 128.

²⁷ Ibid., pp. 128—29.

²⁸ For example, the clerici of the abbey of Deer set their claims within a detailed historical context that included listing former patrons who had freed their church and stressing their house’s connection with Columba. Jackson, Kenneth, The Gaelic Notes in the Book of Deer (Cambridge, 1972), p. 33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

²⁹ See, for example, the works of Broun, Dauvit, including “The Origin of Scottish Identity in its European Context,” pp. 21—31, and “The Origin of Scottish Identity,” in Nations, Nationalism and Patriotism in the European Past, eds. Bjøm, C., Grant, A., and Stringer, K. (Copenhagen, 1994), pp. 35—55Google Scholar.

³⁰ For example, it is thought that the office of mormaer and of thane had Pictish origins. Barrow, G. W. S., The Kingdom of the Scots: Government, Church and Society from the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Century (London, 1973), pp. 57—68Google Scholar; Duncan, A. A. M., Scotland: The Making of the Kingdom (Edinburgh, 1975), pp. 110—11Google Scholar.

³¹ Skene, PS, p. 8. The Scottish Chronicle is the only source for the laws of Áed, but they may have been the leges MacAlpinae mentioned by Fordun. Anderson, “Dalriada,” p. 122; Cowan, Edward J., “ The Scottish Chronicle in the Poppleton Manuscript,” IR 32 (Spring 1984): 3—21Google Scholar, at p. II.

³² Interestingly, Áed mac Eochaid was remembered primarily for his animosity towards the Picts, reversing decades of Pictish ascendancy over Dal Riata. Hudson, Kings of Celtic Scotland, pp. 29—33. By choosing laws promulgated by a king who would probably have had a reputation as a Scottish liberator or hero, or, (if the laws were not from his period), even by attaching his name to them, Domnall was sending out a strong signal of intent to his Pictish rivals.

³³ Anderson, “Dalriada,” p. 122.

³⁴ Domnall II (889—900) was the first king to be styled in the records as king “of Alba” rather than “of Pictavia.” Broun, “The Origin of Scottish Identity in its European Context,” pp. 21—25.

³⁵ Ibid., p. 21; Cowan, “The Scottish Chronicle,” p. 11.

³⁶ For a discussion, see Thomas O. Clancy, “Iona, Scotland, and the Céli Dé,” in Scotland in Dark Age Britain, pp. 111—30.

³⁷ One of the compilers of the Collectio was Cú Chuimne of lona; while Diarmait of Iona played a large part in the céle Dé reforms. See Kenney, James F., Sources for the Early History of Ireland: Ecclesiastical (hereafter cited as Kenney, SEHI) (New York, 1929), pp. 247—50Google Scholar; Clancy, “Iona, Scotland and the Céli Dé,” pp. 111—14.

³⁸ Hudson, “Kings and Church,” p. 156. One of the most detailed of these texts, Liber de Rectoribus Christianis (hereafter LRC), was written by a Leinsterman, Sedulius Scottus, and displays many Irish influences. A translation of this work is to be found in: Sedulius Scottus, On Christian Rulers and the Poems, trans. E. G. Doyle (Binghampton, 1983). For a commentary and a discussion regarding its Irish influences, see Davies, L. M., “Sedulius Scottus: Liber de Rectoribus Christianis, a Carolingian or Hibernian Mirror for Princes,” Studia Celtica 36/37 (1991/2): 34—50Google Scholar. While Sedulius’ treatise does not advocate royal control over the Church, it nevertheless promotes the idea that kings had been “granted authority over both subjects” (i.e., secular and ecclesiastical) and were to act as “stewards” of the Church. LRC, XIX. Thus, despite his obvious debt to earlier Gaelic Church reform texts, he modifies the strict views on sóerad expressed in such legal texts as the canons. Sedulius was part of a Europe-wide tradition that included Hincmar of Rheims and Jonas of Orleans. Davies, “Sedulius Scottus,” p. 35. Hudson, “Kings and Church,” pp. 156—58, has argued that it is likely that the MacAlpíns’ attitude towards government was deeply affected by the theories being formulated at the Carolingian court by Irish scholars, among others, on the divine nature of kingship.

³⁹ See, for example, Anderson, “Dalriada,” p. 130.

⁴⁰ Androw of Wyntoun, The Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, ed. D. Laing (Edinburgh, 1872), book 6, cap. 9.

⁴¹ Skene, William F., Celtic Scotland: A History of Ancient Alban, 3 vols. (2nd ed.; Edinburgh, 1880—1887) 1: 339—40Google Scholar. This assertion was nevertheless questioned by Anderson, “Dalriada,” p. 125.

⁴² Hudson, , “Kings and Church,” p. 156Google Scholar.

⁴³ Wormald, , “The Emergence of the Regnum Scottorum,” p. 143Google Scholar.

⁴⁴ Clancy, “Iona, Scotland and the Céli Dé.”

⁴⁵ Veitch, K., “The Gaelic Church in Northern Britain A.D. 664—717: A Re-assessment,” Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (hereafter cited as PSAS) 127 (1998)Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ ”For God deigned them alien from and void of their heritage as reward for their wickedness, for not only did they spurn the Lord’s mass and precepts, but they also wished [/did not wish] to be equal to others in light of equity.” The exact translation of this extract is disputed, with Anderson, “Dalriada,” p. 119, preferring to read “wished,” while Hudson (Kings of Celtic Scotland, p. 40) proposes “did not wish.” See also Edward J. Cowan, “Myth and Identity in Early Medieval Scotland,” SHR 63 (October 1984): 111—35.

⁴⁷ The above-quoted extract from the Scottish Chronicle has been taken as evidence by Anderson, “Dalriada,” p. 119, of a continuing clash between Scots and Picts over Gaelic and Roman ecclesiological practices and that Cináed’s succession resulted in the reimposition of pre-717 consecrational and sacramental ideas, while Hudson, Kings of Celtic Scotland, p. 40, suggests that the Scots were “instruments of divine retribution” against the anti-Columban Picts. However, if the thesis put forward in Veitch, “The Gaelic Church in Northern Britain,” is accepted, then such a reactionary clash is unlikely to have occurred. It is arguable that from the tenth-century perspective of Gaelic-dominated Alba the chronicler felt compelled to account for the mysterious disappearance of the Picts by not only creating the stark “them and us” scenario, but also one whose apocalyptical connotations conveniently befitted such an apparently rapid decline in fortunes.

⁴⁸ For example, Anderson, KKES, p. 198, argues that it was customary among the Picts for landowners to exercise greater proprietary rights over churches than their Scottish counterparts.

⁴⁹ Anderson, “Dalriada,” p. 127.

⁵⁰ Ibid., p. 127. This suggestion also answers another salient question regarding the post-848 Church in Pictland over which Anderson, ibid., pp. 130—31, puzzled: why, if there was a political and ideological clash between Picts and Scots concerning religious traditions, no Pictish writings survived, as did secular ones in the new Alba?

⁵¹ Arguably, the key word in the entry regarding the announcement of Causantin and Cellach is “custodire” (keep, preserve), as it implies that they were not introducing innovatory Church practices and rights, but upholding ones that already existed.

⁵² Clancy, “Iona, Scotland and the Céli Dé,” pp. 118—20, has highlighted that in theory a church could attain “free” status (sóerad), and its various attendant rights and responsibilities, only once it had fulfilled a number of obligations, such as providing basic pastoral care.

⁵³ Thus, LRC, XIX, reminds the king of “The privileges of Holy Mother Church which a pious ruler should preserve.” The other main duties of a pious king was to bring peace to and provide justice for his realm (XIV—XV), and propagate the Christian faith (XIII).

⁵⁴ Cowan, “Scottish Chronicle,” p. 9, has highlighted that in a Gaelic context, civitatis should be translated as “monastery” rather than “city.”

⁵⁵ Skene, PS, p. 10. This extract comes from The Scottish Chronicle, which Cowan, “Scottish Chronicle,” p. 12, suggests was compiled at Brechin.

⁵⁶ Admittedly, Hudson, Kings of Celtic Scotland, p. 103, following on from Skene, Celtic Scotland, 2: 332, has argued that this extract records the founding, and not the freeing, of Brechin by Cináed. However, that Brechin was a much older house can be inferred because its medieval diocese is redolent of a typically fragmented, organic, monastic-style paruchia rather than an artificial creation at the expense of Cennrigmonaid, while the wording of the extract itself does not appear to imply an actual foundation of a new house.

⁵⁷ AU, A.D. 804.

⁵⁸ Fothad na Canóine is credited with being the author of the Regula Mo Chutu. Printed in Whitley Stokes & Kuno Meyer, eds., Archiv für Celtische Lexicographie, 3 vols. (Halle, 1900—1907), 3: 312—20. See also, Kenney, SEHI, pp. 468—69, 473—74.

⁵⁹ Stokes, Félire Oengusso, p. 4. See also, Hughes, Kathleen, Early Christian Ireland: Introduction to the Sources (Cambridge, 1972), p. 132Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ For a brief discussion on Adomnán’s attempts to gain protection for clerics, see Hughes, Kathleen, “The Church and the World in Early Christian Ireland,” Irish History Society 13 (1962): 100—13Google Scholar.

⁶¹ Caesar, Julius, Seven commentaries on the Gallic Wars and an eighth commentary by Aulus Hirtius, trans. Hammond, C. (Oxford, 1996), book 6, cap. 14.Google Scholar

⁶² For Æthelwulf’s ecclesiastical policy see Haddan, A. W. & Stubbs, W., eds., Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1869—1878), 3: 636, 638, 641Google Scholar. While commenting upon the actions of Áed Oirdnide, Byrne, Francis John, Irish Kings and High-Kings (London, 1973), p. 160Google Scholar, noted that it became common during the ninth century for Anglo-Saxon charters to include clauses exempting clergy from military service.

⁶³ Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, 3: 382.

⁶⁴ This is implied by the rich seam of evidence presented by the hybridized Hiberno-Northumbrian style displayed in such treasures as the carved stones of Meigle and St. Vigeans, the sarcophagus of Cennrigmonaid, and the Book of Kells. For a discussion, see Henry, Françoise, Irish Art in the Early Christian Period to A.D. 800 (London, 1965)Google Scholar; Henderson, Isabel, The Picts (London, 1967), pp. 104—60Google Scholar; eadem, “Pictish Art and the Book of Kells,” in Ireland in Early Mediaeval Europe, ed. Whitelock, pp. 71—102; Anna Ritchie, Picts (Edinburgh, 1989).

⁶⁵ Óengus mac Fergusa was listed among the patrons of St. Cuthbert in the Liber Vitae of Gerschow, Durham. J., Die Gedenkiiberlieferung der Angelsachsen (Berlin, 1988), p. 149CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶⁶ Version D of the Scottish King Lists states that Óengus mac Fergusa “built Cennrígmonaid.” Anderson, KKES, p. 266.

⁶⁷ Skene, PS, p. 187. The clergy of Lochleven were similarly exempted from hosting and bridge building in a grant by Macbeth and Gruoch. Lawrie, Archibald Campbell, ed., Early Scottish Charters prior to A.D. 1153 (Glasgow, 1905)Google Scholar, no. 5.

⁶⁸ For a discussion on the history and provenance of the notitiae in the Book of Deer, as well as a refutation of the claims that they are forgeries resulting from a twelfth-century court case, see Jackson, Book of Deer, pp. 98—102.

⁶⁹ Ibid., pp. 33—34.

⁷⁰ Caesar, Gallic Wars, book 6, cap. 14.

⁷¹ Kenney, SEHI, p. 753.

⁷² Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, 3: pp. 636, 638.

⁷³ For example, the Annals of Ulster record the promulgation of ecclesiastical laws in 753, 757, 767, 772, 778, 780, 783, 788, 793, 799, 812, 813, 814, 823, and 826.

⁷⁴ Skene, PS, p. 151. See also, Anderson, “Dalriada,” p. 127.

⁷⁵ Plummer, Charles, ed., Vita Sanctorum Hiberniae, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1910), 2: cxxxviii—cxxixGoogle Scholar. It is tempting to speculate that the Gospel book that Bower claimed Bishop Fothad encased in silver was the one the community of Cennrigmonaid used to collect tribute from their associated churches and peasantry. Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, ed., D. E. R. Watt, 9 vols. (Aberdeen & Edinburgh, 1987—), 3: ed. John & Winifred MacQueen and D. E. R. Watt, book 6, cap. 24.

⁷⁶ Although likely to have been inserted by a later hand, some grants in the Book of Deer include the declaration that the exemptions were to last “forever” and “till doom’s day.” Jackson, Book of Deer, pp. 33—35, and for a discussion on their provenance, pp. 90—94. Notably, Jackson, ibid., p. 90, highlights that the phraseology used by the Deer scribes was virtually identical to that employed in similar grants from this period in Ireland.

⁷⁷ Scottish examples are to be found in ibid., p. 35, where the toisech of Clann Channan put a “curse on everyone who shall come against” his grant. Herbert, Iona, Kells and Deny, p. 161, notes a similar warning being put to the kings of Tara. English grants from the early medieval period were also sometimes accompanied by maledictions; see Harmer, F., ed., English Historical Documents of the Ninth and Tenth Centuries (Cambridge, 1914)Google Scholar, nos. 6, 8, 15.

⁷⁸ For example, one statute of the Synod of Cashel (1101) noted that lay exactions had become “customary.” Skene, Celtic Scotland, 2: 322.

⁷⁹ Jackson, Book of Deer, p. 36.

⁸⁰ Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, 2: 278—84.

⁸¹ Jackson, Book of Deer, p. 34.

⁸² This could ostensibly be achieved by the clergy through their preaching or the inclusion of pro-patron supplications in set prayers, such as that for Giric in the Dunkeld Litany. The Church, with its wide network of personnel and preaching remit, would have been the early medieval equivalent of the modern-day mass media.

⁸³ The following quotation also significantly demonstrates that, at least by this scribe, Columba was not only viewed as Alba’s premier heavenly guardian, but also as the apostle of the Scots and so, inferentially, their national saint.

⁸⁴ Radner, Fragmentary Annals, p. 171. This aspect of the church-state relationship in early medieval Alba, whereby the laity could enter into a form of “contract” with the saints in which religious devotion was repaid by heavenly protection, was discussed in a paper given by Thomas O. Clancy to the Fortieth Conference of Scottish Medievalists at Pitlochry in January 1997. Interestingly, an account in Alexander Myln, Vitae Dunkeldensis Ecclesiae Episcoporum (Bannatyne Club, 1831, pp. 40, 43), not mentioned by Clancy, that the diocese of Dunkeld was preserved from an outbreak of plague in the sixteenth century due to the people’s adherence to St. Columba, (which significantly echoes a similar story in Adomnán, Life of Columba, ed. & trans. R. Sharpe, (London, 1995), 3: 49, which claims that the Scots and Picts were protected from a plague in the seventh century by the power of St. Columba, demonstrates how this perception of the saint as a protector of his adherents endured well beyond the medieval period.

⁸⁵ For example, Hudson, “Kings and Church,” p. 161, has argued that the alliances that Cináed I and Domnall I made with the Uí Néill were possibly brokered by the clergy of the Armagh-Iona confederation. In an insightful discussion on Abbot Máel Brigte of Armagh and Iona, Hudson demonstrates “how diplomacy and church administration worked along parallel courses” and the way in which he propagated the cult of Patrick among the Scots through political contacts.

⁸⁶ Hudson, “Kings and Church,” p. 164.

⁸⁷ Notably, the term used for cleric in this extract, cliar, can also mean poet. Bethada Náem nÉrenn, ed. Plummer, Charles, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1922), 1: 250; 2: 242Google Scholar.

⁸⁸ Binchy, D. A., Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Kingship (Oxford, 1970), pp. 10—12Google Scholar.

⁸⁹ For a discussion regarding the survival of the filid in Gaelic society and how they remained a “well-organized class of learned men, independent of the Church, who controlled and maintained the structures and ideology of native kingship,” see MacCana, Proinsias, “Regnum and Sacerdotium, Notes on Irish Tradition,” Proceedings of the British Academy 65 (1979): 443—79Google Scholar.

⁹⁰ This is implied by the title Primepscop Fortrenn (chief bishop of Fortriu), which was given to Abbot Tuathal of Dunkeld by the Annals of Ulster, in 865.

⁹¹ The discovery of native-manufactured handbells in the vicinity of Dunkeld suggests not only a rich and well-patronized church, but also may indicate that Dunkeld was the center for bell making in the new, independent familia Iae of Pictland/Alba. Cormac Bourke, “The hand-bells of the early Scottish Church,” PSAS 113 (1983). That Dunkeld attracted the raiding attentions of Ivar II of Dublin in 903 implies that the church’s wealth had become famous not long after Cináed’s death.

⁹² For a discussion on this tradition, see Anderson, “Dalriada,” p. 117.

⁹³ See note 46. Notably, it has been suggested that the Scottish Chronicle, from which this extract comes, originated as a set of royal annals maintained at Dunkeld. Hudson, Benjamin T., “Historical Literature of Early Scotland,” Studies in Scottish Literature 26 (1991): 145—46Google Scholar. The spiritual support that Cináed received through his patronage of Dunkeld is further reflected in his commemoration in the Dunkeld Litany. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, 3: 278—84.

⁹⁴ In spite of the division of the familia Iae, the Church in Alba and Ireland maintained strong cultural links right up until the twelfth century, as shown by the round towers at Abernethy and Brechin. It is also evident in that Irish annalists continued to record the deaths of Scottish kings and churchmen until the end of the eleventh century. For example, see AU, A.D. 1093. This information was probably carried by Columban clergy acting as emissaries, scholars, pilgrims, etc., along surviving pan-Gaelic Church channels of communication. That travel between the two regions was not only mutual, but also involved churchmen of all ranks, is demonstrated by the obituary that records the death of Abbot Cellach of Kildare and Iona “in the country of the Picts,” (AU, A.D. 865), and the Life of Catroë which depicts the eponymous saint journeying to Armagh for religious instruction. Anderson, ES, 1: 435. See Hudson, “Kings and Church,” pp. 160—63, for a discussion on Scoto-Irish religious contacts.

⁹⁵ Jackson, Book of Deer, pp. 31, 34, 42, 50—52.

⁹⁶ John of Fordun’s Chronicle of the Scottish Nation, ed. William F. Skene (Edinburgh, 1872), book 6, cap. 40.

⁹⁷ Anderson, ES, 1: 545, 572.

⁹⁸ Skene, PS, p. 151.

⁹⁹ Hudson, Benjamin T., Prophecy of Berchán: Irish and Scottish High-Kings of the Early Middle Ages (Westport, 1996), p. 87Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁰ MacCana, “Regnum and Sacerdotium,” clearly demonstrates the balance struck between the role of the filid and the Christian cleric in early medieval Gaelic inauguration ceremonies, while Binchy, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Kingship, pp. 10—12, highlights the pre-Christian nature of Gaelic perceptions of kingship, including the persistent belief that an inauguration ceremony was a “marriage” between the king and his kingdom.

¹⁰¹ Clergy found Christian parallels for the idea that a good king brought peace and plenty and an evil one plague and famine in 1 Samuel, a text that appears to have strongly influenced Adomnán and the compilers of the Collectio Canonum Hibernensis. Enright, Michael J., “Royal Succession and Abbatial Prerogative in Adomnán’s Vita Columbae,” Peritia 4 (1985): 83—103, at pp. 88—89CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Enright’s thesis, nevertheless, has been questioned by Macquarrie, Alan, Saints of Scotland: Essays in Scottish Church History A.D. 450—1093 (Edinburgh, 1997), pp. 76—80Google Scholar, who states, at p. 80, that “The parallels with the story of Samuel and David are slight, and certainly do not warrant the suggestion that Adomnán is modelling Columba as a second Samuel in the way that Armagh proclaimed Patrick as a second Moses.”

¹⁰² Kelly, Fergus, Audacht Morainn (Dublin, 1976), p. 32Google Scholar. Interestingly, this text displays little, if any, Christian influence, and so may reflect much earlier pagan Gaelic practices and beliefs.

¹⁰³ LRC, IX.

¹⁰⁴ Berchán describes his reign thus: “Woe to Alba thenceforth, his name will be the madman (dásachtach). He will be a short time over Alba, there will be no noble court not plundered. Woe to Alba through the youth, for their charters, woe for their bequests.” Hudson, Prophecy of Berchán, pp. 87, 204; Skene, PS, pp. 89—90.

¹⁰⁵ Hudson, Kings of Celtic Scotland, pp. 58—59.

¹⁰⁶ In spite of being a “pious and ascetic” king and “a real Christian soldier,” Suibhne was forced to live the life of a bird after unadvisedly manhandling St. Rónán. His indignity was compounded by his death on a dung-heap at the hands of St. Moling’s swineherd. Revealingly, the scribe announced that the tale was “a warning to tyrants.” O’Keefe, J. G., ed., Buile Suibhne (London, 1910)Google Scholar. Just how long such a bad reputation could last due to ecclesiastical displeasure is demonstrated by the fact that this story is as popular today as it was in medieval Ireland, a version recently being presented by Heaney, Seamus in Sweeney Astray (London, 1983)Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁷ LRC, XI.

¹⁰⁸ Quotation from the chapter entitled “Recht Ríg” in Regula Mo Chutu, pp. 314—15.

¹⁰⁹ Jackson, Book of Deer, p. 34.

¹¹⁰ Plummer, Bethada, 2: 277.

¹¹¹ Jackson, Book of Deer, p. 35.

¹¹² Regula Mo Chutu, p. 315. Binchy, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Kingship, p. 10, underlines the pre-Christian elements to such attitudes.

¹¹³ Regula Mo Chutu, p. 315.

¹¹⁴ LRC, VIII. Among the many calamities that the aforementioned Audacht Morainn claimed would befall “false rulers,” was “bereavement of children.” Davies, “Sedulius Scottus,” p. 42.

¹¹⁵ Chapter 6 of LRC deals specifically with the question of how a king could reign more effectively with the “good counsel” of advisors, especially clerics.

¹¹⁶ Anderson, ES, 2: 441.

¹¹⁷ LRC, IX.

¹¹⁸ Ibid., IX.

¹¹⁹ Bower, Scotichronicon, 6: 24, claims that the bishops of St. Andrews were “first and foremost in the kingdom” from the time of Cellach. The Irish annals begin to recognize the preeminence of the bishops of St. Andrews in the mid eleventh century, with Máel Dúin (d. 1055) styled “bishop of Alban and glory of the Gaels,” while Fothad (d. 1093) was entitled “chief bishop of Scotland.” Anderson, ES, 1: 599; AU, AD. 1093.

¹²⁰ Hudson, “Kings and Church,” pp. 166—67. Hudson, nevertheless, arguably erroneously views the development of an episcopate in northern Britain before the accession of the MacAlpíns in a purely English light, thus ignoring the equally important role that the Gaelic clergy played in this process both as initiators and as importers and interpreters of Northumbrian episcopal ideas. Veitch, “Gaelic Church.”

¹²¹ Lawrie, ESC, no. 3.

¹²² Bower, Scotichronicon, 6: 24; and the notes, pp. 462—63.

¹²³ Hudson, “Kings and Church,” p. 167. See also, Ash, Marinell, “The diocese of St. Andrews under its ‘Norman’ bishops,” SHR 55 (October 1976): 106—26, at pp. 109, 115Google Scholar.

¹²⁴ Skene, PS, p. 10. Although it should be noted that Marjorie O. Anderson, “Lothian and the early Scottish kings,” SHR 39 (October 1960): 98—112, at pp. 100—03, expresses doubts whether “oppidum Eden” should be translated as Edinburgh. See also, Barrow, Kingdom of the Scots, pp. 139—61, esp. pp. 148—54; Bernard Meehan, “The siege of Durham, the battle of Carham and the cession of Lothian,” SHR 55 (April 1976): 1—19; A. A. M. Duncan, “The battle of Carham,” ibid., pp. 20—28.

¹²⁵ This can be inferred from the statement in the Historia Regum, which claims that in the reign of Edgar (959—975) Northumbrian territory terminated at the Tyne. Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia (Rolls Series, 1882), 2: 197.

¹²⁶ That Indulf was closely connected with Cennrígmonaid is not only suggested by his expulsion of Fothad, but also by the tradition that he was buried there. Hudson, Prophecy of Berchán, p. 89.

¹²⁷ That Cennrígmonaid enjoyed jurisdiction over most of Lothian that pertained to the Scottish Church (Durham, it should be noted, continued to control Teviotdale), is probably because by the time of the annexation of Lothian, it was recognized even by those members of the ruling dynasty who were associated with Dunkeld as the premier religious site in Alba. Dunkeld, nevertheless, maintained five detached parishes below the Forth at Abercorn, Aberlady, Bunkle, Cramond, and Preston. In his paper given at the seminar “Gaelic Churches in the Middle Ages” held at the University of Edinburgh on 22 May 1997 to mark the retirement of John Bannerman, Simon Taylor argued that Dunkeld gained these southerly possessions due to their ancient relationship with the Columban Church, being way-stations on the pilgrim route from Iona to Lindisfame.

¹²⁸ For example, on the occasion of his victory at Carham, Máel Coluim “distributed many offerings, both to the clergy and to churches.” Skene, PS, p. 131. This was not a uniquely Scottish custom, with Symeon of Durham noting that in preparation for his assault on the Scots, Athelstan granted to the monks of St. Cuthbert “many royal gifts of various kinds…twelve vills and ninety-six pounds’ weight of silver.” Symeon, 1: 76.

¹²⁹ This included members of the rival Cenél Loairn dynasty, such as those mormaers and toísechs of Buchan who patronized the Abbey of Deer and Macbeth, who made a generous grant to the highly influential monastery of Lochleven, which was situated in the political heartland of the Cenél nGabráin (Lawrie, ESC, no. 5).

¹³⁰ By the end of the twelfth century, Ireland had around 34 bishops plus four archbishops, while Scotland (including Galloway and the Isles) had 12 bishops and, of course, no archbishops.

¹³¹ Correspondent to this was the continued promotion of these two houses’ patron saints, Columba and Andrew, both of whose cults likewise created a cultural focus and unity for the diverse peoples of Scotland.

¹³² Anderson, KKES, pp. 198—99; Bannerman, John, “The King’s Poet and the Inauguration of Alexander III,” SHR 68 (October 1989): 120—49, at p. 130Google Scholar.

¹³³ MacCana, “Regnum and Sacerdotium,” p. 452; Nelson, Janet L., “Inauguration Rituals,” in Early Medieval Kingship, eds. Sawyer, P. H. and Wood, I. (Leeds, 1971), pp. 50—71, at p. 55Google Scholar.

¹³⁴ Ibid., pp. 54—63.

¹³⁵ For example, Charles the Bald, (at whose court the Irish monk John Scotus Eriugena was a major intellectual influence; see Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., Early Germanic Kingship in England and on the Continent (Oxford, 1971), pp. 130—34Google Scholar), was ordained at Metz, a monastery to which St. Catroë, and no doubt less well-known Scoto-Irish pilgrims, traveled in the mid tenth century. Interestingly, Catroë is depicted as being a friend and advisor of both King Causantín of Alba and Empress Adelaide of Germany. Macquarrie, Saints of Scotland, pp. 199—10.

¹³⁶ Four bishops officiated at Eardwulf’s consecration, including Higbald of Lindisfarne. Stenton, F. M., Anglo-Saxon England (2nd ed.; Oxford, 1947), pp. 94—95Google Scholar.

¹³⁷ MacCana, “Regnum and Sacerdotium,” esp. pp. 445—56, comments upon the intimate relationship between Irish kings and their clergy and the evolution of Gaelic inauguration ceremonies.

¹³⁸ This was a common theory expounded by ecclesiastical theorists throughout Europe from the eighth century onward. For example, LRC, I, states that a king owed his authority to “divine will.”

¹³⁹ Wasserschleben, Herman, ed., Die Irische Kanonensammlung (Giessen, 1885), pp. 78—79Google Scholar.

¹⁴⁰ Columba is also portrayed as receiving “a glass book of the ordination of kings” from an angel. Adomnán, Life of St. Columba, 3: 5; 1: 36 and 1.

¹⁴¹ Enright, “Royal Succession and Abbatial Prerogative,” pp. 85—88.

¹⁴² Ibid., pp. 88—89. By drawing parallels between Columba and Samuel, the Iona scribes were perhaps reacting to the attempts by the theorists of Armagh to identify Patrick with Moses. Ibid., p. 96. For a different interpretation, see Macquarrie, Saints of Scotland, p. 80.

¹⁴³ Regula Mo Chutu, p. 315.

¹⁴⁴ Wallace-Hadrill, Early Germanic Kingship, p. 135.

¹⁴⁵ Binchy, D. A., “The Fair of Tailtiu and the Feast of Tara,” Ériu 18 (1958): 113—38, at p. 119Google Scholar.

¹⁴⁶ The Armagh-Iona faction played a highly seminal role in Áed’s career. Byrne, Irish Kings and High-Kings, pp. 159—62.

¹⁴⁷ Bannerman, “The King’s Poet,” pp. 126—27, where it is proposed that the practice in Dál Riata and then Alba dated back to the ordination of Áedán mac Gabráin by Columba.

¹⁴⁸ Ibid., pp. 132.

¹⁴⁹ This quotation comes from LRC, I, which is indicatively entitled “Why it is necessary for the pious ruler, endowed with royal power, to dedicate above all else worthy honors to God and to His Holy Churches.”

¹⁵⁰ Traditional Gaelic inaugural sites, themselves often of sacred importance in pre-Christian times, sometimes had a Christian religious site situated nearby. For example, there was a civitas (monastery) in the vicinity of Scone. Skene, PS, p. 151.