Christianity reached the Orkneys through the labours of the Columban clergy, and there are many traces in the islands that speak of their work. Under the rule of the Norse, in the ninth and tenth centuries any Christian influence that survived from the labours of such early pioneers of the Christian faith must have died out. The first actual Bishop of Orkney was William the Old, who was consecrated in 1102, held the bishopric for sixty-six years, and died in 1168. His see was first at Birsay, and was removed to Kirkwall on the erection of the cathedral in 1137-1152. The Bishop of Orkney was one of the suffragans of the metropolitan see at Throndhjeim, erected in 1154. In 1472 the see of Orkney was placed under the metropolitan Bishop of St. Andrews.

The story of the foundation at Kirkwall is as follows. The possession of the Orkneys was divided between two relatives, and about the beginning of the twelfth century two cousins, Hacon and Magnus, shared the government. In 1115 Magnus was treacherously slain at Egilsay by Hacon, who thus obtained the whole earldom. Rognvald, son of Magnus' sister, became a claimant for Magnus' share of the earldom, and vowed that if he succeeded he would erect a "stone minster" in honour of his predecessor St. Magnus, who had been canonised. Rognvald was successful, and fulfilled his vow by founding at Kirkwall a cathedral dedicated to St. Magnus. The building was designed and superintended by the Norwegian Kol, the father of Rognvald; the relics of St. Magnus were brought from Christ's Kirk in Birsay, to be deposited in the cathedral as soon as it was prepared to receive them, and until the work was finished they rested in the Church of St. Olaf, an older edifice which then existed in Kirkwall.[205]

"The Cathedral of St. Magnus was thus designed and erected by a Norwegian earl, while the bishopric was under the authority of the Norwegian Metropolitan of Throndhjeim. It is thus practically a Norwegian edifice, and is by far the grandest monument of the rule of the Norsemen in Orkney. In these circumstances, it is not to be expected that the architecture should in every detail follow the contemporary styles which prevailed in Britain, but it is astonishing to find how closely the earlier parts correspond with the architecture of Normandy, which was developed by a kindred race,—the successors of Rollo and his rovers, who settled in that country at an earlier date. There can be little doubt that the Romanesque architecture which prevailed in the north of Europe found its way at a comparatively late date into Scandinavia. The Norman form of that style would naturally follow the same course amongst the kindred races in Norway and Denmark, just as it did in England and Scotland, and from Norway it would be transplanted into Scotland."[206] Kirkwall Cathedral, begun in 1137, was carried on with great expedition, unlike Glasgow Cathedral, which took so long in completion that it gave rise to a proverb, "Like St. Mungo's work, it will never be finished." The Orcadians did their work nobly, and when a difficulty arose as to funds, it was overcome by allowing the proprietors of land in Orkney to redeem their property by a single payment of a sum per acre, paid at once, instead of according to the usual practice, on each succession.[207] Help was received from far and wide, and the building was so liberally sped by the oblations of a past age, that all Christendom was popularly said to have paid tribute for its erection;[208] but the spirit of religion must have been fervid in the islands themselves. The earl who founded the cathedral died after a pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem. "He had begun his High Church on no mean scale, and it was afterwards greatly enlarged in length. To this circumstance, together with its severe simplicity, its narrowness, its height, and the multiplicity of its parts, must be ascribed the most striking characteristic of the pile—its apparent vastness."[209] It has been doubted if either York or Lincoln gives the idea of greater internal length, though Kirkwall measures less by half than the smaller of these minsters. As pointed out by the latest authorities on the cathedral, its western doorways recall the portals of the cathedrals of France rather than those of England; its interior gives the impression of great size, arising from the height and length of the building as compared with its width; the exterior presents at a glance the changes which have taken place in it, and the layers and masses of different coloured stones tell their own tale; the oldest work (comprising several periods) is constructed with dark slaty stone, having red freestone dressings; the Norman work is observed in the transept and several bays of the nave and choir nearest the transept, while the pointed work is specially noticeable in the eastern half of the choir.[210] The first parts of the cathedral built were the three westmost or Norman bays of the choir, with their aisles, both the transepts, the crossing (afterwards altered) intended to receive a tower over it, and two bays of the nave, which served to form an abutment for the crossing. These portions, where unaltered, are said to be in the earliest style of Norman work in the edifice. The round piers and responds of the choir, the two south piers and one north pier of the nave (with their cushion caps), the main arches (with their label mouldings in the choir and transept), the round arched and labelled windows in choir, transept, and nave, and the interlaced arcades in the nave, all point to a somewhat advanced period of Norman work. The choir originally terminated with a central apse beyond the third pier. The Norman windows of the choir aisle have three external orders, with a label ornament in the outer order; the single shafts have cushion caps; the windows are largely splayed internally.[211] An interlacing arcade of round arches, with single shafts and cushion caps (some with volutes) runs round the north, south, and west sides of the transept. The large arches leading into the east chapels are part of the original structure, but the chapels were built later. The lower string-course of the transept is enriched with a four-leaved flower.[212]

After the completion of these portions, attention was given to the continuation of the nave westwards for several bays. The north aisle wall opposite the three bays, west from the crossing, would appear to have been built early.[213] The buttresses are of flat Norman form. The north aisle doorway is pronounced to be Norman in detail, but has been restored at a later date; the south aisle doorway retains its old Norman arch and shafts in the interior, but has been altered externally. The nave piers were probably continued as far as the above doors about this time, with the triforium, but the upper part of the nave walls and the vaulting are later.[214] The transition style is prominently seen in the piers and arches of the crossing, and the windows in the choir nearest the main arches of the crossing, and the triforium openings into the transept, appear to have been altered and rebuilt at the time of this operation. The upper part of the north transept was probably raised and its windows inserted at this time; the raising of the south transept and the introduction of the rose windows is of somewhat later date.[215] This circular window is very similar to that in the east window of the choir. The chapels on the east side of the transept are of the advanced transition period, which, in Orkney, was probably the middle of the thirteenth century.[216] The completion of the nave would be next undertaken.[217] The apse was taken down, and the choir, with its aisles, was extended by three bays eastwards,[218] the style having a resemblance to advanced First Pointed work, with some peculiarities of detail, exhibiting probable French influence from Upsala.[219] The triforium consists of plain, chamfered, semicircular arches and jambs in three orders; the clerestory has simple pointed windows, moulded on sconsion, but without cusps. A vaulting shaft is carried up between the piers.[220] The east end of the cathedral is of First Pointed period, and the great east window fills the whole space available.[221] The three western doorways and the pointed doorway in the south transept are later than the choir;[222] they present the finest examples in Great Britain of the use of coloured stones in the construction.[223] The north doorway and the central doorway of the west front have the colours arranged in concentric rings in the arches, red and yellow alternating. In the south doorway the same colours radiate and alternate, and in the doorway of the south transept the red and yellow stones are arranged chequerwise.[224] They are among the most charming portions of the edifice, and are unique in Scotland. The upper part of the gablet over the centre doorway is of the seventeenth century, and bears the shield of Sir George Hay of Kinfauns, who rented the lands of the bishopric about the beginning of the seventeenth century, the crozier being added to the shield in connection with the lands of the see.[225] The tower has been considerably operated upon in modern times; the old wooden spire was destroyed by lightning in 1671. The parapet and pinnacles are modern, as also the pointed and slated roof—the lower part being of considerable age. The part within the roof of the church is apparently of transition date; the upper part, with the large pointed windows, is probably of fifteenth-century work.[226] There were originally beautiful specimens of wood-work; the canopy over the bishop's throne has disappeared.[227] The tower contains four bells, three of which were given by Bishop Maxwell (1526-1540). The cathedral does not appear to have suffered during the Reformation period, but an attempt made by the Earl of Caithness to destroy it in 1606, during the rebellion of Earl Patrick Stewart and his son, was prevented by the intervention of Bishop Law (sacred be his memory!).

The bishop's palace was founded about the beginning of the thirteenth century. Twenty bishops held the see in succession. The diocese contained the archdeaconries of Orkney, with thirty-five parishes, and of Tingwall (Shetland) with thirteen. The church suffered from vandalism in 1701 and 1855, and the east end is used as the parish church. May the northern minster soon be restored and made worthy of its glorious past. Lord Tennyson's son's diary contains the following entry on the Cathedral of St. Magnus: "Gladstone and my father admired the noble simplicity of the church, and its massive stone pillars, but we all shuddered at the liberal whitewash and the high pews."[228]

A catalogue of the Bishops of Orkney, by Professor Munch of Christiania, will be found in the Bannatyne Miscellany.[229]

CHAPTER IV
SCOTTISH COLLEGIATE CHURCHES

The creation of collegiate churches was a practical endeavour toward ecclesiastical reform in the fifteenth century, when the foundation of monastic establishments ceased. They had no parishes attached to them, and were regulated very much as the cathedrals. They arose with the purpose of counteracting the evils incidental to the monastic system, and were formed by grouping the clergy of neighbouring parishes into a college, or by consolidating independent chaplainries. They were called præposituræ, were presided over by a dean or provost, and the prebendaries were generally the clergy holding adjacent cures. In Scotland, during more recent times, the term "collegiate" was applied to a church where two ministers (as at St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh) served the cure as colleagues, but in the fifteenth century the term had a different and wider significance. Collegiate churches were then an expression of the zeal and munificence that were displayed in the enlargement and decoration of buildings, when all classes vied with each other in the endowment of chaplainries for the maintenance of daily stated service, always including prayers and singing of masses for the souls of their founders, their relations, and benefactors. The collegiate churches were also an evidence from within the Church itself of the need for reform in the great Benedictine and Augustinian abbeys that were then in the ascendant throughout the country.