THE STATUTES OF ICOLMKILL. 241 



lona nearly all the principal men in the Hebrides, who 

 unreservedly submitted themselves to him as the Com- 

 missioner of the Crown. The representatives of the Long 

 Island were Macleod of Harris, Donald Gorm, and the 

 Captain of Clanranald. Then were enacted, with the 

 consent of the chiefs, the celebrated Statutes of Icolmkill 

 which form a landmark in Hebridean history, and the 

 operations of which modified in a remarkable degree the 

 turbulent habits of the Islesmen. The Statutes are nine 

 in number, each one of which deserves attention. Mr. 

 Gregory has given an excellent synopsis of them in his 

 well-known history.* The nine Statutes deal with : (i) 

 the maintenance of the clergy and churches ; (2) the 

 establishment of inns ; (3) a reduction in the number of 

 idlers attached to the chiefs' households or otherwise ; (4) 

 the punishment of sorners ; (5) the drinking habits of the 

 Islesmen ; (6) education ; (7) the prohibition of firearms ; 

 (8) the discouragement of bards ; (9) enactments for 

 enforcing obedience to preceding Acts. 



The success of Bishop Knox in concluding this epoch- 

 making agreement with the chiefs of the Hebrides, is 

 a noteworthy object-lesson in the taming of a warlike 

 people. What the military expeditions of successive kings 

 had failed to accomplish in a century, the persuasive argu- 

 ments of a clergyman brought about in the course of a 

 single interview. The policy of pacifying the rebellious 

 Hebrideans had proved fruitless, because the means em- 

 ployed had been wrong-headed. Conquest by force had 

 failed ; but the eloquence of the silver-tongued Bishop 

 proved irresistible. The character of the Islesmen had 

 been misunderstood by the monarchs of Scotland and their 

 councillors. It was left to a man who had studied their 

 characteristics, to show how the habits of a quarrelsome 

 and lawless people could be diverted into channels of 

 peaceableness among themselves, and loyalty to constituted 

 authority. The Bishop of the Isles deserves an enduring 



* History of the Western Highland* and Isles of Scotland, pp. 330-33. 



