Mr. Jeffrey on Jedburgh. 351 



the accession of Constantine in 306, the religion of Christ 

 may be said to have bsen established throughout the Roman 

 empire ; and eight years after, three of the Roman provinces 

 of this island were represented at the Council of Aries by 

 three bishops, each accompanied by a presbyter and deacon.* 

 The Romanized Britons of Valentia, in the centre of which 

 we now are, were converted by St. Ninian at the beginning 

 of the fifth century. He founded the monastery of Whithern, 

 and it is thought that his diocese extended over the whole 

 province. After the Romans left, the fierce contests for pos- 

 session of the territory would greatly retard, if not entirely 

 stop the progress of Christianity till the pagan Saxons also 

 embraced the new faith. It is reasonable to think that dur- 

 ing the time of Ninian a succession of teachers would be sent 

 out from Whithern, not only to instruct the intellects of a 

 rude people, but to live amongst them and erect little churches 

 in the glades of the woods. When Oswald ascended the 

 Northumbrian throne in 63-1, he asked and obtained a bishop 

 from I to instruct his Northumbrian subjects. The Scottish 

 Aidan was consecrated for the mission, and got from the king 

 the isle of Ijindisfarne for his episcopal seat. But as Aidan 

 did not understand the tongue of the Anglo-Saxon people, he 

 preached in Gaelic, and the king acted as interpreter. In a 

 short time the subjects of the pious Oswald were converted, 

 and churches built throughout the land. Before 845 the 

 possessions of the church of Lindisfarne were augmented by 

 the gift of Bishop Ecfrid of the two Gedewordes, with the 

 churches thereof, and a large tract of land in Teviotdale.f 

 It is therefore certain that a church was in existence here 

 during the beginning of the ninth century, and never after- 

 wards ceased to exist.J Dempster, in his Ecclesiastical His- 

 tory of Scotland, says, that at the end of the tenth century 

 there existed a monastic institution at this place of which 

 one Kennoch was abbot, and that he was afterwards regarded 

 as a saint, and his festival kept on the fourteenth of Novem- 

 ber of each year. After the translation of the episcopal seat 

 from Lindisfarne to Durham in 995, the authority of the 

 bishop over the district gradually declined ; yet there is 

 reason to believe that the church retained some authority 



* Lloyd's Ancient Church Government, p. 72. Caledonia, vol. i. p. 315. 



f Hist. Eccles. Dunelm, Lib. ii. cap. v. 



X Mr. Innes, in his work " Scotland in the Middle Ages,'' gives only Mailros 

 as existing in this part of the country during the 10th century, but he is 

 clearly mistaken, as the gift of the bishop shows. 



Zz 



