Church.—It is not known by whom Christianity was introduced into Man, but from the large proportion of names of Irish ecclesiastics surviving in the appellations of the old Manx keeills, or cells, which are of similar type to the Irish oratories of the 6th and 7th centuries, and in the dedications of the parish churches, which are usually on ancient sites, it may be reasonably conjectured that Manxmen were, for the most part, Christianized by Irish missionaries. During the incursions of the pagan Vikings Christianity was almost certainly extirpated and it was probably not reintroduced before the beginning of the 11th century. The two most important events in the history of the medieval Manx Church were the formation of the diocese of Sodor (q.v.) and the foundation of the abbey of Rushen, a branch of the Cistercian abbey of Furness, in 1134. This latter event was important because the Cistercians were exempted from all episcopal visitation and control, by charter granted by the pope, and were, therefore, only subject to his rule and that of the abbots of their own order. From this time till the Reformation we find that there was an almost continuous struggle between the laity and the spiritual barons and monks, who had obtained great power and much property in the island. In 1458 the diocese was placed under York. The dissolution of the religious houses in Man was not brought about by the English Act of 1539, which did not apply to the island, but by the arbitrary action of Henry VIII. From such evidence as is available it would seem that the Reformation was a very slow process. When Isaac Barrow (uncle of his well-known namesake) became bishop in 1663 the condition of the Church was deplorable, but under him and his able and saintly successors, Thomas Wilson (1698-1755) and Mark Hildesley (1755-1773). it attained to a very much higher level than the English Church during the same period. After Hildesley’s time it was again neglected, and successful missions by John Wesley and others resulted in the establishment and rapid increase of Nonconformity. It was not till the second decade of the 19th century that the condition of the Church began to improve again, and this improvement has steadily continued. In 1878 a Sodor and Man theological school was established for the training of candidates for holy orders. This school has been affiliated to Durham University. In 1880 four rural deaneries were established, and commissioners were constituted as trustees of endowments for Church purposes. In 1895 a cathedral chapter, with four canons, was constituted under the name of the “Dean and Chapter of Man,” the bishop being the dean of the cathedral church. A Church Sustentation Fund was established by Bishop Straton in 1894, with a view to supplementing the incomes of the clergy, which had been greatly reduced on account of the low price of corn. There have been several acts giving Nonconformists equal rights with Churchmen. Among these are the Burials Acts of 1881 and 1895, which permit burials to take place in churchyards without the rites of the Church of England, and allow any burial service, provided it be Christian, in mortuary chapels. At the present day Nonconformists, chiefly Wesleyan Methodists, probably outnumber Churchmen, and there is a small number of Roman Catholics and Presbyterians. The bishop, who has a seat, but not a vote, in the House of Lords, is assisted by an archdeacon, a vicar-general, a registrar and a sumner-general. The jurisdiction of the only remaining ecclesiastical court, which is presided over by the vicar-general, as representing the bishop, is mainly in connexion with affiliation questions, the swearing-in of churchwardens and the granting of faculties. The power of the Manx Convocation to make canons, though not exercised since 1704, has never been abrogated, and so far affords a token that the Manx Church is a separate national Church governed by its own laws, which, however, must be approved by the insular Legislature.
Education.—It was not till 1872, when the insular Legislature passed the Public Elementary Education Act, that the Manx State undertook any direct responsibility for education. This act differed from the English Act of 1870 in three important particulars: (1) it at once constituted every town and parish a school district under a school board; (2) the attendance of children was made compulsory; and (3) every elementary school, those in connexion with the Church of Rome excepted, was obliged to provide for non-sectarian instruction in religious subjects, and for the reading of the Bible accompanied by suitable explanation. Since the date of this act education has made extraordinary strides. It became free in 1892, and a higher-grade school was established in Douglas in 1894. The public elementary schools, which are nearly all managed by School Boards, are subject to the control of a local “Council of Education” appointed by the Tynwald Court; but, as the Manx Act of 1872 requires that, in order to obtain a government grant, the schools shall fulfil the conditions contained in the minutes of the education department at Whitehall, they are examined by English inspectors and compelled to attain the same standard of efficiency as the English and Welsh schools. In 1907 an act establishing a system of secondary education was passed by the Legislature. The total number of public elementary schools in 1906 was 47, 42 being board and 5 denominational. Besides King William’s College, opened in 1833, which provided a similar education to that obtainable at the English public schools, there are grammar schools in Douglas, Ramsey and Castletown.
The Manx language (see [Celt]: Language) still lingers, the census of 1901 showing that there were about 4400 people who understood something of it. There is now no one who does not speak English.
Economics.—Municipal government was established in 1860, and in 1876 vaccination was made compulsory, as also was the registration of births, marriages and deaths in 1878. It was not till 1884 that the sanitation of the towns was seriously taken in hand; but ten years more elapsed before the sanitary condition of the island was dealt with by the passing of an act which constituted parish and village districts, with commissioners elected by the people, who had, in conjunction with a board elected by the Tynwald Court and an inspector appointed by it, to attend to all questions relating to sanitation and infectious diseases. As a result of these measures the death-rate has been greatly reduced. In 1888 a permissive poor law was established; it has been adopted by all the towns except Peel and by seven of the seventeen country parishes. Before this date the poor had been dependent on voluntary relief, which broke down owing to the growth of a temporarily employed class occupied in administering to the wants of the summer visitors. The total number of persons in receipt of poor relief averages about 920, and that of lunatics about 212. The average number of births during the five years 1902-1906 was 21.6, of marriages 6.1, and of deaths 17.6 per thousand. The rateable annual value of the parishes, towns and villages is about £400,000. The revenue for the year ending the 31st of March 1907 was £86,365, and the expenditure £75,728. The largest revenue raised was £91,193 in 1901, and the debt reached its maximum amount, £219,531, in 1894.
History.—The history of the Isle of Man falls naturally into three periods. In the first of these the island was inhabited by a Celtic people. The next is marked by the Viking invasions and the establishment of Scandinavian rule. The third period is that of the English dominion. The secular history of the Isle of Man during the Celtic period is an absolute blank, there being no trustworthy record of any event whatever before the incursions of the Northmen, since the exploits attributed to Baetan MacCairill, king of Ulster, at the end of the 6th century, which were formally supposed to have been performed in the Isle of Man, really occurred in the country between the Firths of Clyde and Forth. And it is clear that, even if the supposed conquest of the Menavian islands—Man and Anglesey—by Edwin of Northumbria, in 616, did take place, it could not have led to any permanent results; for, when the English were driven from the coasts of Cumberland and Lancashire soon afterwards, they could not well have retained their hold on the island to the west of these coasts. It is, however, possible that in 684, when Ecfrid laid Ireland waste from Dublin to Drogheda, he temporarily occupied Man. During the period of Scandinavian domination there are two main epochs—one before the conquest of Man by Godred Crovan in 1079, and the other after it. The earlier epoch is characterized by warfare and unsettled rule, the later is comparatively peaceful. Between about A.D. 800 and 815 the Vikings came to Man chiefly for plunder; between about 850 and 990, when they settled in it, the island fell under the rule of the Scandinavian kings of Dublin; and between 990 and 1079, it was subject to the powerful earls of Orkney. The conqueror Godred Crovan was evidently a remarkable man, though little information about him is attainable. According to the Chronicon Manniae he “subdued Dublin, and a great part of Leinster, and held the Scots in such subjection that no one who built a vessel dared to insert more than three bolts.” The memory of such a ruler would be likely to survive in tradition, and it seems probable therefore that he is the person commemorated in Manx legend under the name of King Gorse or Orry. The islands which were under his rule were called the Suðr-eyjar (Sudreys or the south isles), in contradistinction to the norðr-eyjar, or the north isles, i.e. the Orkneys and Shetlands, and they consisted of the Hebrides, and of all the smaller western islands of Scotland, with Man. At a later date his successors took the title of Rex Manniae el Insularum. Olaf, Godred’s son, was a powerful monarch, who, according to the Chronicle, maintained “such close alliance with the kings of Ireland and Scotland that no one ventured to disturb the Isles during his time” (1113-1152). His son, Godred, who for a short period ruled over Dublin also, as a result of a quarrel with Somerled, the ruler of Argyll, in 1156, lost the smaller islands off the coast of Argyll. An independent sovereignty was thus interposed between the two divisions of his kingdom. Early in the 13th century, when Reginald of Man did homage to King John, we hear for the first time of English intervention in the affairs of Man. But it was into the hands of Scotland that the islands were ultimately to fall. During the whole of the Scandinavian period the isles were nominally under the suzerainty of the kings of Norway, but they only occasionally asserted it with any vigour. The first to do so was Harold Haarfager about 885, then came Magnus Barfod about 1100, both of whom conquered the isles. From the middle of the 12th century till 1217 the suzerainty, owing to the fact that Norway was a prey to civil dissensions, had been of a very shadowy character. But after that date it became a reality and Norway consequently came into collision with the growing power of Scotland. Finally, in 1261, Alexander III. of Scotland sent envoys to Norway to negotiate for the cession of the isles, but their efforts led to no result. He therefore initiated hostilities which terminated in the complete defeat of the Norwegian fleet at Largs in 1263. Magnus, king of Man and the Isles, who had fought on the Norwegian side, was compelled to surrender all the islands over which he had ruled, except Man, for which he did homage. Two years later Magnus died and in 1266 the king of Norway, in consideration of the sum of 4000 marks, ceded the islands, including Man, to Scotland. But Scotland’s rule over Man was not firmly established till 1275, when the Manx were defeated in a decisive battle at Ronaldsway, near Castletown. In 1290 we find Edward I. of England in possession of Man, and it remained in English hands till 1313, when it was taken by Robert Bruce after besieging Castle Rushen for five weeks. Then, till 1346, when the battle of Neville’s Cross decided the long struggle between England and Scotland in England’s favour, there followed a confused period when Man was sometimes under English and sometimes under Scottish rule. About 1333 it had been granted by King Edward III. to William de Montacute, 1st earl of Salisbury, as his absolute possession, without reserving any service to be rendered to him. In 1392 his son sold the island “with the crowne” to Sir William Le Scroope. In 1399 Henry IV. caused Le Scroope, who had taken Richard’s side, to be beheaded. The island then came into the possession of the crown and was granted to Henry de Percy, earl of Northumberland, but, he having been attainted, Henry IV., in 1406, made a grant of it, with the patronage of the bishopric, to Sir John Stanley, his heirs and assigns, on the service of rendering two falcons on paying homage and two falcons to all future kings of England on their coronation.
With the accession of the Stanleys to the throne there begins a better epoch in Manx history. Though the island’s new rulers rarely visited its shores, they placed it under responsible governors, who, in the main, seem to have treated it with justice. Of the thirteen members of the family who ruled in Man, the second Sir John Stanley (1414-1432), James, the 7th earl (1627-1651), and the 10th earl of the same name (1702-1736) had the most important influence on it. The first curbed the power of the spiritual barons, introduced trial by jury, instead of trial by battle, and ordered the laws to be written. The second, known as the Great Stanley, and his wife, Charlotte de la Tremoille (or Tremouille), are probably the most striking figures in Manx history. In 1643 Charles I. ordered him to go to Man, where the people, who were no doubt influenced by what was taking place in England, threatened to revolt. But his arrival, with English soldiers, soon put a stop to anything of this kind. He conciliated the people by his affability, brought in Englishmen to teach various handicrafts and tried to help the farmers by improving the breed of Manx horses, and, at the same time, he restricted the exactions of the Church. But the Manx people never had less liberty than under his rule. They were heavily taxed; troops were quartered upon them; and they also had the more lasting grievance of being compelled to accept leases for three lives instead of holding their land by the “straw” tenure which they considered to be equivalent to a customary inheritance. Six months after the death of the king Stanley received a summons from General Ireton to surrender the island, which he haughtily declined. In August 1651 he went to England with some of his troops, among whom were 300 Manxmen, to join King Charles II., and he and they shared in the decisive defeat of the Royalists at Worcester. He was captured and confined in Chester Castle, and, after being tried by court martial, was executed at Wigan. Soon after his death the Manx Militia, under the command of William Christian, rose against the Countess and captured all the insular forts except Rushen and Peel. They were then joined by a parliamentary force under Colonel Duckenfield, to whom the Countess surrendered after a brief resistance. Fairfax had been appointed “Lord of Man and the Isles” in September, so that Man continued under a monarchical government and remained in the same relation to England as before. The restoration of Stanley government in 1660 therefore caused as little friction and alteration as its temporary cessation had. One of the first acts of the new lord, Charles (the 8th earl), was to order Christian to be tried. He was found guilty and executed. Of the other persons implicated in the rebellion only three were excepted from the general amnesty. But by order in Council they were pardoned, and the judges responsible for the sentence on Christian were punished. His next act was to dispute the permanency of the tenants’ holdings, which they had not at first regarded as being affected by the acceptance of leases, a proceeding which led to an almost open rebellion against his authority and to the neglect of agriculture. In lieu of it the people devoted themselves to the fisheries and to contraband trade. The agrarian question was not settled till 1704, when James, Charles’s brother and successor, largely through the influence of Bishop Wilson, entered into a compact with his tenants, which was embodied in an act, called the “Act of Settlement.” Their compact secured the tenants in the possession of their estates in perpetuity on condition of a fixed rent, and a small fine on succession or alienation. From the great importance of this act to the Manx people it has been called their Magna Carta. As time went on, and the value of the estates increased, the rent payable to the lord became so small in proportion as to be almost nominal. James died in 1736 and the sovereignty of the isle passed to James Murray, 2nd duke of Atholl. In 1764 he was succeeded by his only surviving child Charlotte, Baroness Strange, and her husband, John Murray, who, in right of his wife, became Lord of Man. About 1720 the contraband trade greatly increased. In 1726 it was, for a time, somewhat checked by the interposition of parliament, but during the last ten years of the Atholl régime (1756-1765) it assumed such proportions that, in the interests of the imperial revenue, it became necessary to suppress it. With a view to so doing an Act of Parliament, called the “Revesting Act,” was passed in 1765, under which the sovereign rights of the Atholls and the customs revenues of the island were purchased for the sum of £70,000, and an annuity of £2000 was granted to the duke and duchess. The Atholls still retained their manorial rights, the patronage of the See, and certain other perquisites, which were finally purchased for the excessive sum of £417,144 in 1828. Up to the time of the Revestment the Tynwald Court passed laws concerning the government of the island in all respects and had control over its finances, subject to the approval of the lord. After the Revestment, or rather after the passage of the “Mischief Act” in the same year, Imperial Parliament legislated with respect to customs, harbours and merchant shipping, and, in measures of a general character, it occasionally inserted clauses by which penalties in contravention of the acts of which they formed part might be enforced in the island. It also assumed the control of the insular customs duties. Such were the changes which, rather than the transference of the sovereignty from the lord to the king of Great Britain and Ireland, modified the Constitution of the Isle of Man. Its ancient laws and tenures were not interfered with, but in many ways the Revestment adversely affected it. The hereditary lords were far from being model rulers, but most of them had taken some personal share in its government, and had interested themselves in the well-being of its inhabitants. But now the whole direction of its affairs was handed over to officials, who regarded the island as a pestilent nest of smugglers, from which it was their duty to extract as much revenue as possible. Some alleviation of this state of things was experienced between 1793 and 1826 when the 4th duke of Atholl was appointed governor, since, though he quarrelled with the Keys and was unduly solicitous for his pecuniary interests, he did occasionally exert himself to promote the welfare of the island. After his departure the English officials resumed their sway. But they were more considerate than before. Moreover, since smuggling, which had only been checked, not suppressed, by the Revesting Act, had by that time almost disappeared, and the Manx revenue was producing a large and increasing surplus, the Isle of Man came to be regarded more favourably, and, thanks to this fact and to the representations of the Manx people to English ministers in 1837, 1844 and 1853, it obtained a somewhat less stringent customs tariff and an occasional dole towards erecting its much neglected public works. Since 1866, when the Isle of Man obtained a measure of at least nominal “Home Rule,” the Manx people have made remarkable progress, and at the present day form a prosperous community.
Monuments.—The prehistoric monuments in Man are numerous. There are earth entrenchments, seemingly of the earliest period; fragments of stone circles and alignments; burial cairns with stone cists of several successive periods; urn mounds and crannoges or lake dwellings. The monuments belonging to the historic period begin with the round tower on Peel islet, the humble Celtic keeills and the sculptured crosses in which the island is especially rich. Of these crosses about one-fourth have inscriptions in the old Norse language. The origin and history of the early buildings remaining on the island are obscure. The castles of Rushen and Peel are the only important buildings of a military character which survive, but the remains of ecclesiastical buildings are numerous and interesting, though, with the exception of St German’s Cathedral on Peel islet, now in ruins, they are only small and simple structures.
Arms.—There has been much controversy about the origin of the arms of the island—the “three-legs” found on a beautiful pillar cross near Maughhold churchyard belonging to the latter part of the 14th century. It was probably originally a sun symbol and was brought from Sicily by the Vikings. The motto quocunque jeceris slabit is of comparatively recent origin.
Bibliography.—History and Law: The Manx Society’s publications, vols. i.-xxxii., notably the Chronicon Manniae (vols. xxii. and xxiii., edited by Munch); Sir Spencer Walpole, K.C.B., The Land of Home Rule, an essay on the history and constitution of the Isle of Man (London, Longmans, Green & Co., 1893); A. W. Moore, M.A., C.V.O., The Diocese of Sodor and Man, S.P.C.K.’s series of Diocesan Histories (1893); and A History of the Isle of Man, (2 vols., London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1900); The Statutes of the Isle of Man from 1817 to 1895, Gill’s edition, 6 vols. (vol. i. 1883 to vol. vi. 1897, London, Eyre & Spottiswoode); Richard Sherward (Deemster), Manx Law Tenures, a short treatise on the law relating to real estate in the Isle of Man (Douglas Robinson Bros., 1899). Archaeology and Folklore: P. M. C. Kermode, F. S. A. Scot., Manx Crosses (London, Bemrose & Sons, 1907); E. Alfred Jones, The Old Church Plate of the Isle of Man (Bemrose & Sons, 1907); A. W. Moore, C.V.O., M.A., The Folklore of the Isle of Man (London, D. Nutt, 1891). Language and Philology: A Dictionary of the Manx Language (Manx-English), by Archibald Cregeen (1835); A Practical Grammar of the Antient Gaelic, or Language of the Isle of Man, usually called Manks, by Rev. John Kelly, LL.D.; Manx Society’s publications, vol. ii. (1859, reprint of edition of 1804); The Manx Dictionary in two ports (Manx-English, English-Manx), by Rev. John Kelly, William Gill and John Clarke; Manx Society’s publications, vol. xiii. (1866); The Book of Common Prayer in Manx Gaelic, being translations made by Bishop Phillips in 1610 and by the Manx clergy in 1765, edited by A. W. Moore, C.V.O., M.A., and John Rhys, M.A., LL.D.; Outlines of the Phonology of Manx Gaelic, by John Rhys (Oxford University Press, 2 vols., 1893-1894); First Lessons in Manx, by Edmund Goodwin (Dublin, Celtic Association, 1901); Manx National Songs, with English words, from the MS. collection of the Deemster Gill, Dr J. Clague and W. H. Gill, and arranged by W. H. Gill (London, Boosey & Co., 1896); Manx Ballads and Music, edited by A. W. Moore (Douglas, G. and R. Johnson, 1896); A. W. Moore’s The Surnames and Place Names of the Isle of Man (London, Elliot Stock, 1906, 3rd ed.). Natural History: P. G. Ralfe, The Birds of the Isle of Man (Edinburgh, David Douglas, 1905).
Hall Caine’s novels, The Deemster, The Manxman, &c., have no doubt tended to popularize the island. The most truthful description of the social life of the people is to be found in a novel entitled The Captain of the Parish, by John Quine. Bibliotheca Monensis (Manx Society, vol. xxiv.) contains a good list of MSS. and books relating to the island up to 1876, and A. W. Moore’s History of the Isle of Man has a list of the most important MSS. and books up to 1900.