But the influence of this Church soon spread beyond the boundaries of that kingdom. Oswald, son of Aidilfrid, having been driven from Northumbria, found refuge in Iona, and there acquired a knowledge of religion and literature. Having regained his throne, he sent, in 635, to Iona for monks to introduce the Christian faith amongst his people. St. Aidan was the first of these missionaries sent, and, with the king’s consent, he fixed his monastery on the island of Lindisfarne. He also founded monasteries at Old Melrose and Coldingham, then within the bounds of Northumbria. It was to the Columban Church thus established that the Angles between the Humber and the Forth owed their permanent conversion to Christianity. After a time St. Aidan was succeeded by St. Cuthbert, who continued and extended this pious work. But after being twelve years in charge of Lindisfarne, St. Cuthbert retired, like so many of the same monastic school, to a “desert” or hermitage, situated on the solitary island of Farne, more distant from the mainland than Lindisfarne. Here he erected his hermit’s cell, the account of which, given by Bede,[28] is most interesting, as it so fully explains the nature of such structures. The enclosure was circular, and about 4 or 5 perches in diameter. Externally the wall was about the height of a man, but in the interior somewhat higher, owing to the soil and rock having been excavated. The wall was composed of massive unwrought stones and turf. The enclosure contained a dwelling-place divided into two parts, one being an oratory and the other a room suitable for common uses. The roof was formed of rough beams and thatched with straw. At the landing-place outside the enclosure a large house was erected to give shelter to the monks when they visited the hermit. Although called for a time to the Bishopric of Lindisfarne, St. Cuthbert again retired to his hermitage, and there expired A.D. 687.
When the Columban Church had existed in Northumbria for about thirty years, new influences arose, before which that monastic form gradually declined. The principal of these influences came from the South, and was part of that steady pressure from Rome which by degrees brought all Churches into uniformity of doctrine and observance. England was to a great extent the spiritual child of Rome, having been reconverted to the faith by the direct intervention of the Pope after the desolation caused by the heathen Danes. This was accomplished by the mission of St. Augustine, who was sent by Pope Gregory to England in 596 for the reformation of religion. The ecclesiastics from Rome brought with them the Roman forms and observances and the Roman mode of building. Thus St. Augustine, so soon as he was established in Kent, set about the erection, at Canterbury, of a cathedral, with two towers attached to the nave and a circular baptistry, in imitation of St. Peter’s at Rome. Other instances occur of the introduction of building with stone after the Roman manner. Bede describes how Benedict Biscop, in 676, brought masons from Gaul to carry out buildings in stone, and how the churches of St. Peter at Monkwearmouth, and St. Paul at Jarrow, were erected by Benedict Biscop (670-80) with stone, “according to the manner of the Romans.” Bede further mentions that Nectan, King of the Northern Picts, sought, in 710, for masons to be sent to him from Monkwearmouth, who should build churches for him according to the fashion of the Romans.
St. Winifred, Bishop of York, the great opponent of the Columbans in Northumbria, had also erected stone churches in the seventh century after the Roman manner at Hexham, York, and Ripon.
Northumbria was at this period (during the seventh and part of the eighth centuries) the most powerful and advanced portion of England. It was the nursery of learning and poetry, the home of Bede and Caedmon. Religion also flourished, as is proved by the remains of the pre-Conquest churches which still survive.[29] Many of these show traces of the works of the ancient Romans in the country, being built, partly at least, with Roman wrought stones from the ruins in the district. The influence of the Columban period is observable in the numerous crosses carved with Celtic work which still survive in Northumbria.
The pre-Norman churches have some peculiarities. They are remarkable for the height of the walls, as compared with the width of the building. Thus at Monkwearmouth and Jarrow (erected by Benedict Biscop in the seventh century), the width of the nave is 18 feet, while the height of the walls is 30 feet. The carved lacertine figures of the porch at Monkwearmouth have likewise a Celtic character. Square towers at the west end of the nave form common features of these churches, and the jambs of the doors and windows are often inclining, like those of Ireland. Some of these features may be observed in one or two of our Scottish churches, such as that of St. Regulus at St. Andrews and Restenot Priory.
As the Roman influence prevailed, that of the Columbans waned, till, finally, that of Rome was, after the Synod of Whitby in 664, definitely adopted, and the Columbans were driven off. After the expulsion of the Columbans from Northumbria, the Roman forms and observances were gradually extended over the southern parts of Scotland, then included in the dominions of Oswy, King of Northumbria. Various circumstances tended to aid this process. When the victory of the Picts at Dunichen, in 685, terminated the rule of the Angles in Scotland, Nectan, king of the Celtic kingdom, was brought into contact with the Roman missionaries, whom he found in his extended southern provinces, and became, in 710, a convert to their ideas. He seems to have warmly espoused their cause, and desired that their rules and forms should be universally adopted throughout his kingdom. But the Columbans still clinging to their own observances, King Nectan at length, in 717, issued a decree, expelling from his dominions all ecclesiastics who refused to conform to the Roman practices.
Up to this period there had been an increasing tendency to asceticism in the Columban Church, leading the monks to forsake the cœnobitical or monastic life in common, and to adopt that of the hermit or Anchorite. This had the effect of breaking up the monastic system which had hitherto succeeded so well amongst the Celtic tribes of Ireland and Scotland, and also tended to encourage the introduction of the secular hierarchy of the Roman system.[30]
The hermits were known on the Continent as Deicolæ, or Worshippers of God, and in this country by the title of Keledei or Culdees. The similar order which arose in the Celtic Church afterwards played an important part in Scottish ecclesiastical matters. They first appear in Scotland after the expulsion of the Columbans—the establishment of St. Serf on an island in Lochleven being of this school.
The Deicolæ were organised in 747 as an order of Secular Canons with the object of bringing the secular clergy into a cœnobitical life, so as to help to counteract the then prevailing tendency to the eremitical mode of living. The nature of the structures erected under the latter form of religious observance is well illustrated in the cells and oratories already alluded to, which were erected in such numbers on the lonely and deserted islands on the West Coasts of Ireland and Scotland.
The advent of the Roman emissaries in Scotland is embodied in several mythical legends. Such is the story of the arrival of St. Boniface with a complete following of persons representing all the offices of the Roman service, and his favourable reception by King Nectan indicates the goodwill with which they were welcomed.[31] The dedications of churches to St. Peter, superseding the dedication to the ancient native Saints, further mark the change from Iona to Rome.