were not unacquainted with the art of writing". But that their system was ever established within the limits of Scotland, must not be considered as indisputable. The first alphabet which found its way into Scotland was probably the Roman: and that its introduction was coeval with that of Christianity, may be regarded as the most rational hypothesis. Between the literary and the ecclesiastical history of a nation, an intimate connection will al p« Quum in reliquis fere rebus publicis, privatisque rationibus, Græcis litteris utantur." (Cæsar De Bello Gallico, p. 130.) Joseph Scaliger justly considered this passage as interpolated: Quod quæris de loco Cæsaris, non solum me, sed et nobiliora ætatis nostræ ingenia exercuit, et nondum, ut puto, neque docti homines sibi, neque ego mihi satisfeci. Puto tamen Druidas tum Græcè scisse; reliquam plebem non solum Græcas, sed ne ullas quidem litteras scisse. Nam Cæsar omnino de Druidibus loquitur, cum ait eos in publicis privatisque rationibus Græcis literis usos. Sed ne id quidem placet. Nam illud Græcis delendum." (Scaligeri Epistolæ, p. 93.) Hot, man has shown, that Cæsar must have written " rationibus litteris utantur." (Hotomanni Franco-Gallia, p. 14.) Scaliger's supposition, that the Druids were acquainted with the Greek language, seems by no means founded on probability. In another part of his work, Cæsar has informed us, that tablets, inscribed with Greek letters, were found in the camp of the Helvetii. (De Bello Gallico, p. 18.) Leo Allatius and other critics contend, that these tablets must have been inscribed with Greek letters, adapted to express the articulate sounds of the Helvetian language. (Allatü Animadversiones in Antiquitatum Etruscarum Fragmenta db İnghiramio edita, p. 64. Paris. 1640, 4to.) Hotman, on the other hand, supposes them to have been written, not only in Greek characters, but also in the Greek language. Boxhornius proposes a more comprehensive hypothesis: "Græcis litteris usi sunt Galli pariter et Germani, at non acceptis a Græcis, sed Scythis, a quibus et suas Græci, Scytharum soboles, accepere. Earum Græcis similium litterarum vestigia adhuc hodie supersunt in litteratura Anglosaxonum, quos ortù Germanos esse constat. (Origines Gallicæ, p. 106. Amst. 1654, 4to.) B ways be found to subsist. In this feeble attempt to trace the literary history of Scotland, our attention must cursorily be directed towards the infant church. The accounts which place the conversion of Scotland at the beginning of the third century, are evidently too fabulous to merit a serious refutation. Those who maintain the opinion seem to be chiefly influenced by the authority of some anonymous versifier quoted by Fordun: Christi transactis tribus annis atque ducentis, Tertullian, who flourished about this time, is supposed to afford additional evidence', when he observes, that those parts of Britain which the Romans had found inaccessible, were however subjected to Christ. But on such authorities as these it would certainly be credulous to rely. The verses were probably fabricated by some zealous monk and the passage quoted from Tertullian, as Richardson has shown, is evidently vague and unimportant'. The first authentic account of the propagation of Christianity in this part of the ¶ Fordun. Scotichronicon, vol. i. p. 72. edit. Goodall. ' Forbes. Instructiones Historico-Theolog. p. 159. edit. Wetstenii.—Baronius had drawn the same conclusion. (Annales Ecclesiastici, tom. v. p. 537.) By neglecting to distinguish Scotland from the Scotia of the ancients, this writer has been betrayed into several errors. s Tertullian. adversus Judæos, cap. vii. t Richardson, Prælectiones Ecclesiasticæ, vol. ii. p. 91. island occurs in the ecclesiastical history of Beda; who informs us, that the southern Picts were converted by Ninian Bishop of Whithern". This event Dr Usher refers to the year 412. St Ninian has been extolled as a man of singular attainments" but it may reasonably be questioned, whether he contributed in any considerable degree to disseminate useful knowledge among his converts. Beda farther relates, that St Columba arrived from Ireland in the year 565. Before this period, a considerable number of the Picts were perhaps converted to the Christian faith; but it was not till the ministration of Columba that the king and the nobility abjured Paganism. Brudi the Second received baptism from the saint: and his subjects, we may naturally suppose, were ready to follow the example. St Columba fixed his residence in the island of Iona, which was afterwards denominated Icolmkill. The abbots of this monastery were long regarded as primates of Pictland: and their influence even appears to have extended, in some proportion, to the churches of Ireland. The clergy who belonged to his institution, were a kind of u Bedæ Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, p. 106. edit. Smith. v Usserii Britannic. Eccles. Antiq. p. 1094. “Ninianus Britannus, cujus fama per literas notissima omneis Britannicæ insulæ partes quas oceanus alluit, inradiat, non est, cum de illustribus agitur, temere silentio prætereundus.” LELAND. de Script. Britan. tom. i. p. 56. irregular monks, known by the designation of Culdees. These, according to some historians, were men distinguished for their learning and purity of life. It is sufficiently evident that monks of this denomination were first known in Ireland': and the most learned of the Culdees who belonged to the Scotish monasteries, appear to have been "natives of that island. This saint, if we may credit his biographers, was a man of rare endowments; though the learned Mr Pinkerton has repeatedly charged him with ignorance and illiberality. "Ninian and Columba," he remarks, "were of confined minds, and of bigotted piety, strangers to secular learning, and to those enlarged ideas which prompted Ulphilas, Patrick, and in later times the apostles of Scandinavia, to impart the use of letters, as the first foundation among their converts"." Columba's pretensions to secular knowledge may however be considered as equally valid with those of Patrick. Ireland, it is universally admitted, was * Selden's hypothesis with respect to the Culdees is sufficiently known; and, since the publication of Bishop Lloyd's judicious work, has commonly been rejected by candid enquirers. The same fanciful account of the ecclesiastical polity of ancient Scotland is exhibited in an epistle addrest by the Scotish to the Helvetic churches in the year 1640. This epis tle may be found appended to a work published by William Spang; Re rum nuper in Regno Scotia Gestarum Historia. Dantisci, 1641, 8vo. y For an account of the Irish Culdees and their monasteries, see Ledwich's Antiquities of Ireland, Dublin, 1790, 4to. and Archdall's Monasticon Hibernicum, Dublin, 1786, 4to. 3 Pinkerton's Enquiry into the Hist. of Scatl. vol. ii. p. 277. once a distinguished nursery of learning: but the literary obligations of that country to the pious labours of St Patrick need not be registered as very important. That such a man ever existed, Mr Ledwich has shown to be extremely dubious. Leland, Pitts, and other English biographers, have claimed him as their countryman'; while the Scotish writers have generally represented him as a native of North Britain. A collection of Latin tracts ascribed to this imaginary Scotish author and saint, has been published by Sir James Ware and frequent discussions have taken place with regard to their genuineness. Any future investigation of the subject ought to commence with an attempt to ascertain, whether the reputed writer be a real or a supposititious personage. If St Patrick never existed, it requires no extraordinary sagacity to discover, that he never wrote any epistles or canons, The Romish calender, as Dr a Leland. de Scriptoribus Britannicis, tom. i. p. 36. Pitseus de Illustribus Angliæ Scriptoribus, p. 90. b S. Patricio, qui Hibernos ad fidem Christi convertit, adscripta Opuscula: quorum aliqua nunc primùm, ex antiquis MSS. codicibus, in lucem emissa sunt, reliqua recognita: omnia Notis ad rem historicam et antiquariam spectantibus illustrata: operâ et studio Jacobi Waræi, Equ. Aurati. Lond. 1656, 8vo. The life of St Patrick has been written by a prodigious number of authors. Stanihurst, an Irish scholar of considerable reputation, is perhaps the most elegant of his biographers. (Richardus Stanihurstus De Vita S. Patricii, Hiberniæ Apostoli. Antverp. 1587, 8vo.) At a later period, Dr William Thyer, a native of Cork, wrote Discursus Panegyrici de Nominibus, Tribulationibus, et Miraculis S. Patricii. Duaci, 1617, 8vo. Both these works are as fabulous as might be expected. |