ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



field are within short distances of the sea, situated in locis maritanis^ to 

 which the saint was obliged to digress from the direct route to his de- 

 stination in Wales. It has been claimed that these churches occupy 

 sites hallowed by the presence of Kentigern. 1 None of them are men- 

 tioned in Jocelyn's biography with the exception of Crossfield, which 

 must be Crosthwaite. A church was built in Jocelyn's day on the site 

 where it was believed that Kentigern erected the cross as the sign of 

 salvation and as a witness to its triumph in the district. As no other 

 Kentigern dedications are known in England, the tradition which ascribed 

 the evangelization of Cumberland to his agency is deserving of the highest 

 respect. 



Nothing seems to be known for a long period of Kentigern's suc- 

 cessors or the fortunes of the Christian church in the diocese of Glas- 

 gow, which he founded and over which he ruled. The Inquest of 

 David, 2 a document ascribed to the year 1 1 20, which deals with the 

 history of the see, so far as it could be ascertained by ' the elders and 

 wise men ' of Cumbria at that date, points to a serious state of affairs. 

 The narrative of the Inquest is worthy of attention. The king of the 

 province, the jurors said, co-operated with the magnates of the kingdom 

 in founding, in honour of God and of St. Mary the Blessed Mother, the 

 church of Glasgow as the pontifical seat of the bishop of the Cumbrian 

 region. That church flourished in the holy faith, and by divine direc- 

 tion received Kentigern as its first bishop. But after Kentigern and his 

 many (plures) successors were gathered to God, insurrections, arising 

 everywhere, not only destroyed the church and its possessions, but wasted 

 the whole country and drove the inhabitants into exile. When a con- 

 siderable time had elapsed, tribes of different nations poured in and took 

 possession of the desolated region. These tribes, differing in race and 

 language and custom, clung to heathenism rather than the worship of 

 the faith. Looking back from the beginning of the twelfth century on 

 the early history of the diocese of Glasgow, the Cumbrian jurors could 

 see nothing but anarchy and confusion after the death of Kentigern. 

 Several successors the saint is said to have had in his diocese, but neither 

 their names nor the dates at which they lived have come down to us. 

 The district was the battle ground of conflicting races Britons, Picts, 

 Scots and Angles. Until the middle of the seventh century the con- 

 fusion lasted, when the Anglian race obtained the mastery and absorbed 

 at least the southern portion of the country into the kingdom of 

 Northumbria. 



When we pass from the dark period during which the Britons 



1 Bishop Forbes first called attention to the dedications in Cumberland in connexion with Kenti- 

 gern's missionary journey (Historians of Scotland, v. pp. Ixxxiii.-lxxxv.). Others have followed in the 

 Bishop's steps (Trans. Cumb. and Westmorl. Arctxeol. Soc. vi. 328-337, vii. 124-127). But such methods 

 of argument are very unsafe. Jocelyn evidently constructed his narrative from the Kentigern dedica- 

 tions existing in his time. 



a Registrum Episcopates Glasguensis, No. I., printed at the joint expense of the Bannatyne and 

 Maitland Clubs in 1843. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Eccles. Doc. ii. 17. In 1901 it was issued 

 in facsimile as a tract in Glasgow. 



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