266 DR THOMAS A. WISE ON SOME OF THE 
of Kintore, of the wood of Crechie, and, most probably, of many others which have 
been destroyed. It is probable, therefore, that the erect stones, with the sacred 
pagan symbols of the Deity, were prepared during the first century. 
At an early period, a remarkable change occurred in the religious opinions of 
the Caledonians. They became believers in Christianity. This we know from the 
crosses they erected still retaining peculiar ornaments, and pagan symbols; 
proving that they had not entirely rejected their ancient opinions; as druidical 
monuments were supposed to be purified from the contamination of heathenism, 
by being carved with the figure, or altered in the shape of the cross. This change 
of faith must have been facilitated by the Buddhist doctrine of the Trinity, and 
the liberality of their sentiments regarding other religious creeds, which is still so 
marked a peculiarity in Buddhist countries. “ We find,” writes M. Huc, “many 
of these Buddhist priests (lamas) attach the utmost importance to the study and 
knowledge of évwth ; and we find the same men coming, again and again, to seek 
instruction from us in our holy religion.”* It appears to be this same liberality 
of sentiment which is now opening a way to the Christianizing of the great Chinese 
Empire, which produced a corresponding effect in the conversion of the Caledonians. 
Such conversions must have been made at an early age, as TERTULLIAN, who 
wrote his celebrated Treatise against the Jews (a.p. 209), affirms, as a known 
truth, that ‘those parts of Britain where the Romans had no access were sub- 
jected to Christ,” or had become Christians.+ Those early converts could not 
communicate with their neighbours, in consequence of the constant warfare 
with the Romans and other tribes which were not able to conquer the great 
Pictish kingdom north of the Forth. Even the Meeatz, or Midland Britons, were 
still idolaters when the Caledonians were Christians, which explains why the 
Scottish deputies, in the famous debate regarding the independence of their 
kingdom before Pope Boniface VIII., declared that the Christian missionaries, 
who converted the Caledonians in the primitive ages, came directly from the 
east ;t and the account by Bene of the dispute between Bishop Cotman and 
Witrorp.§ When the Bishop alleged the example of St John the Evangelist, 
with all the churches over which he presided, for adhering to the Jewish custom 
of keeping Easter, Wrrorp declared that wherever the Church of Christ is spread 
abroad the western form was kept, “ except only these and their accomplices in 
obscurity ; I mean,” said he, “ the Picts and the Britons, who foolishly, in these 
two remote islands of the world, and only a part even of them, oppose all the 
rest of the universe.” || Their missionaries seem to have proceeded directly 
from one of the then congregations of Asia Minor, which were most probably in- 
* Travels in Tartary, Tibet, and China, vol. i., p. 65. 
{ Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca Christo vero subdida. Contra Judeos, ec. vil. 
t Innes’ Critical Essay, p. 620, and Civil and Eecl. Hist., p. 14. § a.p. 662. 
|| Breve, Keel. Hist., b. ii, ch. 25. 
