PRE-NORSE RECORDS. 5 



to which no Bishop could lay claim. Ordained by episcopal 

 authority, the monks rendered conventual obedience to the 

 Abbot, to whose jurisdiction the Bishop himself was sub- 

 ject. From this monastic society in the lonely Hebridean 

 island, there streamed forth a purer flow of religion, a 

 clearer radiance of primitive Christianity, than was possible 

 in the Anglo-Saxon Church, with its pretentious hierarchy 

 and its subserviency to Rome. While the Church in Eng- 

 land laboured over tneological subtleties, the monks of lona 

 erected huts and built wooden churches ; while the Anglo- 

 Saxon priesthood received instruction on trifling and even 

 immodest subjects, the Columbans taught the heathen the 

 Word of Life. Puerilities were far removed from these 

 earnest men their work was too pressing, their aims too 

 important, to admit of them. Their tonsure was not 

 orthodox, neither was their observance of Easter yet they 

 converted the Picts. Their methods were unobtrusive, 

 their mode of living was simplicity itself yet their names 

 are held in veneration to this day. 



St. Columba himself struck at the roots the fast 

 withering roots of Druidism, the religion of magic, by 

 proceeding boldly to the Court of Brude, the Pictish King, 

 on the banks of the Ness. His mission was entirely 

 successful. The power of Paganism was broken, and the 

 Picts became a Christian nation. Planting a monastery 

 here and another there with judicious care, St. Columba 

 left behind him schools of Christian instruction, from 

 which issued missioners filled with apostolic fervour, who 

 carried the Gospel to the remotest parts of the Highlands 

 and Isles. We need not stop to discuss the point whether 

 it was Conall, the King of Dalriada, or Brude, the Pictish 

 monarch, who gifted lona to St. Columba. Bede is our 

 authority for the latter statement, and we must assume 

 that the Picts laid claim to the sovereignty of the South, 

 as well as the North, Hebrides. 



There is sufficient evidence to suggest that either St. 

 Columba himself, or his immediate disciples, established 

 churches in the Outer Hebrides. In Lewis, there were 



