Transactions. IIS 



come. In the course of time a religious life presented itself to 

 many of all creeds and countries as the only one worth living- ; 

 and in the habits of the Monastic orders men and women, young and 

 old, beheld a similar, but greatly more attractive, profession and 

 dress than that of the soldier in his regimentals. 



A new direction was given to this spirit when, at the call of 

 Peter the Hermit and St. Bernard of Clairvaux, thousands of 

 young men joined the Crusades to drive the infidel out of the 

 Holy Land — a I'eligious war which lasted from A.D. 1096 to 

 A.D. 1274. 



Orders of Chivalry had existed before the Crusades to protect 

 females from the lawlessness of the age, but their bloody combats 

 in this cause represented mere physical force, and, as a rule, it 

 was only within a Monastery that females found a safe refuge. 

 The Crusades gave a religious turn to chivalry, but still repre- 

 sented the physical force, while the monastic life included the 

 spiritual strength of the nation. I should mention that the 

 support which the Church of Rome gave to the Crusades was a 

 powerful factor in the spread of the influence of that Church and 

 consequent gradual extinction of the Culdee organisation in 

 Scotland. 



The leading founders of the Monastic system in Great Britain 

 were St. Augustine in England, St. Columba in Scotland, and St. 

 Patrick in Ireland — all about the 6th century. But the Monastic 

 buildings then erected were few in number and insignificant in 

 appearance— chiefly of timber and wicker work — and in Scotland 

 we must come to the latter half of the Middle Ages to find those 

 Cathedrals and Abbeys being erected, the ruins of which as we 

 now see them g'ive but a faint idea of their original grandeur and 

 beauty. 



There were Cathedrals in existence before Abbey churches, 

 but many of the latter subsequently became the Cathedrals of 

 Episcopal sees ; and here I should explain the difference between 

 what is known as the Secular and the Regular clergy, from which 

 difference arose long and bitter jealousies between the two 

 (especially in Scotland) until by the founding of Collegiate insti- 

 tutions a sort of compromise for peace was effected. 



The Secular clergy were those who traced their spiritual 

 descent from the Apostles, Bishops (or Presbyters), Priests, and 

 Deacons, and at a later period from the Bishop of Rome as Pope 



