Alteration in their relative position.

Causes, however, had already been in operation during the latter part of this period, which were destined soon after its termination to alter very materially the relative position of these kingdoms. During the entire period of a century and a half which had now elapsed since the northern Picts were converted to Christianity by the preaching of Saint Columba, there is hardly to be found the record of a single battle between them and the Scots of Dalriada. Had they viewed each other as hostile races, it is difficult to account for the more powerful nation of the Picts permitting a small colony like the Scots of Dalriada to remain in undisturbed possession of the western district where they had settled. Prior, indeed, to the mission of Saint Columba we find the king of the northern Picts endeavouring to expel them, but after that date there existed a powerful element of peace and bond of union in the Columban Church. It was in every respect a Scottish Church, with a Scottish clergy supplied from Ireland. The Columban foundations had spread over the whole nation of the Picts. They owed their civilisation to its influence, and intrusted the education of their children to its monastic schools; and the Columban church of the Picts was, along with the Columban monasteries in the north of Ireland, under the jurisdiction of the abbot of Hii or Iona. As long, therefore, as this powerful influence lasted, the Picts were content to remain at peace with the Scots of Dalriada, and to view them as forming, as it were, one state along with the Pictish provinces in a Christian confederacy; but the king who now reigned over the Picts, Nectan, son of Derili, was led to adopt a course which worked an entire revolution in the ecclesiastical relations of the Picts and Scots, and led, as its inevitable result, to a change in their friendly relations.

Legend of St. Bonifacius.

In the reign of this Nectan it is reported that a missionary named Bonifacius, who came from Rome, landed in the Firth of Forth, and made his way through Pictavia till he came to a place called Restinoth. Here he met Nectan, king of the Picts, with his army, who, with his nobles and servants, received from Bonifacius the sacrament of baptism. The king gave the place of his baptism, which he dedicated to the Holy Trinity, to Bonifacius. Many people were indoctrinated there into the Christian faith, and he employed himself in the erection of churches there and in other places. The legend tells us that Bonifacius was an Israelite descended from the sister of St. Peter and St. Andrew, and a native of Bethlehem; that he was accompanied by six other bishops—Benedictus, Servandus, Pensandus, Benevolus, Madianus, and Principuus; two virgins, abbesses, Crescentia and Triduana; seven presbyters, seven deacons, seven sub-deacons, seven acolytes, seven exorcists, seven lectors, and seven door-keepers; that he founded one hundred and fifty temples of God, consecrated as many bishops, and ordained a thousand presbyters; that he converted and baptized thirty-six thousand people of both sexes, and died on the 16th of March.[[370]] This is of course mere legend, and when reduced to its probable meaning amounts to no more than this, that he brought over the king of the Picts and many of his people from the Columban Church to conformity with the Church of Rome. He is termed in the calendars Kiritinus; his day is the same with that in the Irish calendars of Curitan, bishop and abbot of Rossmeinn, and he is said to have been one of the saints who became security for the Cain Adomnan,[[371]] which places him at this time. Bonifacius was therefore in reality probably a missionary from that part of the Irish Church which had conformed to Rome, and the church of Restinoth or Restennet being dedicated to St. Peter is an indication of the character of his mission.

Nectan, son of Derili, conforms to Rome.

This legend is clearly connected with the statement Bede makes towards the close of his narrative—and here he is narrating events which happened during his own life—‘that at this time,’ that is, in the year 710, ‘Naitan, king of the Picts who inhabit the northern parts of Britain, taught by frequent study of the ecclesiastical writings, renounced the error by which he and his nation had till then held in relation to the observance of Easter, and submitted together with his people to celebrate the Catholic time of our Lord’s resurrection. In order that he might perform this with the greater ease and authority, he sought assistance from the nation of the Angles, whom he knew to have long since formed their religion after the example of the holy Roman and Apostolic Church. Accordingly he sent messengers to the venerable man Ceolfrid, abbot of the monastery of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, which stands at the mouth of the river Tyne at the place called Jarrow, desiring that he would write him a letter containing arguments, by the help of which he might the more powerfully confute those that presumed to keep Easter out of the due time; as also concerning the form and manner of the tonsure for distinguishing the clergy; not to mention that he himself possessed much information in these particulars. He also prayed to have architects sent him to build a church in his nation after the Roman manner, promising to dedicate the same in honour of the blessed Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and that he and all his people would always follow the custom of the holy Roman Apostolic Church, as far as they could ascertain the same in consequence of their remoteness from the Roman language and nation.’ Bede then gives us the letter addressed by Abbot Ceolfrid to ‘the most excellent lord and most glorious king Naitan,’ of which there is strong reason to think he was himself the author, being at the time a monk at Jarrow, and thus concludes the narrative:—‘This letter having been read in the presence of king Naitan and many others of the most learned men, and carefully interpreted into his own language by those who could understand it, he is said to have much rejoiced at the exhortation, insomuch that, rising from among his great men who sat about him, he knelt on the ground giving thanks to God that he had been found worthy to receive such a present from the land of the Angles; and, said he, I knew indeed before that this was the true celebration of Easter, but now I so fully know the reason for the observance of this time, that I seem convinced that I knew very little of it before. Therefore I publicly declare and protest to you who are here present, that I will for ever continually observe this time of Easter, together with all my nation; and I do decree that this tonsure which we have heard is most reasonable shall be received by all the clergy in my kingdom. Accordingly he immediately performed by his regal authority what he had said. For the cycles of nineteen years were forthwith, by public command, sent throughout all the provinces of the Picts to be transcribed, learnt, and observed, the erroneous revolutions of eighty-four years being everywhere obliterated. All the ministers of the altar and the monks adopted the coronal tonsure; and the nation being thus reformed, rejoiced, as being newly placed under the direction of Peter, the most blessed prince of the apostles, and made secure under his protection.’[[372]]

Establishment of Scone as the capital.

There is strong reason for concluding that the scene of this assembly, where we see the king of the Picts surrounded by his nobles and his learned men, was no other than Scone, which had then become, as it was afterwards, the principal seat of the kingdom, and that from the Mote Hill of Scone issued now, as similar decrees issued afterwards, that public decree which regulated the form of the Christian Church among the Picts; that it was here too that Nectan dedicated his church to the Holy Trinity; and that it was from these events and the scene enacted there that the Mote Hill came to be known as the ‘Hill of Belief.’[[373]]

The seven provinces.

The reference too to the provinces of the Picts, combined with the statement in the legend that the Roman mission, as it may be called, had seven bishops at its head, leads us to conclude that the division of the kingdom of the Picts into seven provinces existed at this time. A tract of the twelfth century tells us that the territory anciently called ‘Albania,’ from the Picts, ‘Pictavia,’ and now corruptly ‘Scotia,’ was in ancient times divided by seven brethren into seven parts. ‘The principal part was Enegus and Moerne (now Angus and the Mearns or Kincardineshire), so called from Enegus, the eldest of the brothers. The second part was Adtheodle and Gouerin (now Atholl and Gowry). The third, Sradeern and Meneted (now Stratherne and Menteith). The fourth, Fif and Fothreve (now Fife and Kinross). The fifth, Marr and Buchen (now Mar and Buchan). The sixth, Muref and Ros (now Moray and Ross). The seventh, Cathanesia citra montem and ultramontem (now Sutherland and Caithness). That each province had a sub-province within it, and that these seven brothers were seven kings having seven sub-kings under them.’ These seven brothers are different from the seven sons of Cruithne of the Pictish legend, as the eldest is here called Angus, but they are obviously merely the ‘eponymi’ of the people of seven provinces. That this division can belong to no later period is apparent from the omission of that part of the western districts which formed the Scottish kingdom of Dalriada; and of the sub-kings we find one noticed at this very time,—Talorgan, son of Drostan, who is mentioned by Tighernac as flourishing from 713 to 739, when his death is recorded as ‘Rex Athfhotla’ or king of Atholl.[[374]] Four of these provinces composed the territory of the southern Picts, and the district of Gowrie forms the central region in which they all meet, and here on the east bank of the Tay was Scone, the principal seat at this time of the kingdom of the Picts.