Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A50493
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A defence of the antiquity of the royal line of Scotland with a true account when the Scots were govern'd by kings in the isle of Britain / by Sir George Mackenzie ...
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Mackenzie, George, Sir, 1636-1691.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing M156; ESTC R228307
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87,340
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231
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Scots as well as the Picts had been setled in the Isle at that Time For a vagrant Company of Robbers could not be call'd a Nation or esteem'd a Church And this Author writes of British Nations we must therefore have been a Nation and Church as the rest were and therefore since they were setled so must we have been Nor can this be meant of the North and South Picts though it were prov'd that the Picts were distinguish'd into Northern and Southern For these could no more be consider'd as different People than the Northern and Southern English can now be said to be different Nations 2. That sense was not so much for the honour and extent of the Christian Religion And the Jews might have lookt upon Tertullian as a Jugler for making one Nation appear two 3. Our sense agrees better with Beda who asserts positively that from Reudas's Time the Scots made a third Nation in the Isle of Britain with the Britans and Picts 4. Selden l. 2. c. 8. confesses that the Scoti Pictique were the Gentes non subjacentes Romano Imperio Ammianus Marcellinus who wrote about the Year 360 tells us That the Scots and Picts harrased the Country But the Bishop unjustly adds that then they first harrassed it But this cannot be for Ammianus speaks of their Fear as occasion'd by a Tract of bygon Defeats and this he elegantly expresses by the words congerie praeteritarum Cladium which shews that these he speaks of in the 360 were not the first of many overthrows that the Brittains had got from the Scots and Picts And so our being here must be much ancienter than the 360 which agrees well with the word assueti in Eumenius And our having fix'd and known Limits demonstrates to all who understand the Roman Antiquities that we were then a fix'd and setled Nation in the same Island with the Roman Provinces of the Britans the Sea or any part of it being never signified by their word Limes St. Ierome in his Epistle to Iovian cites Porphire who liv'd in the third Century under Dioclesian and so above 200 Years before the 503. His words are Neither Britain a Province fertil of Tyrants and the Scotish Nation and all the Barbarous Nations dwelling around the Ocean knew Moses and the Prophets By the Scotish Nations Vsher understands not the Scythians but the Scots because they are in this place joyn'd to Britain but tho both he and the Bishop of St. Asaph would apply this citation to Ireland yet this Gloss is most absurd for by the former Argument the word Scots should be apply'd to us for we are join'd to Britain but Ireland is no more join'd to Britain than Scythia And the same Ierome in the next Citation calls the Scots a Nation of Britain where he says That when he was young he saw the Scots a Nation of Britain feed upon Mans Flesh. From which it is clear that the Scots at that time dwelt in Britain which agrees very well with Beda who calls the Scots the third Britannick Nation And Selden calls the Scots and Picts Gentes Britannicas l. 2. c. 8. And this is further clear'd by his asserting that Pelagius was of a Scotish Race in the Neighbour-head of Britain which proves clearly as the learn'd Baronius observes that there were Scots then in Britain who were Christians else how could they have been Pelagians Nor can this eating Man's Flesh be thought any just reflection on the Nation for certainly these had been some Rogues who had fled out of the Nation because they knew they would have been punish'd for this Crime Nor can their eating Man's Flesh in France be charg'd on us but on the French where this is said to be so publickly done that St. Ierome could have seen it and there is no Historian that ever charg'd this on our Nation nor any part of the Isle even in our most barbarous Times And if it had been any ways common there would have been a Law made against it And Boethius relates that there was one mean Man guilty of it who was thereupon executed examplarly And in what Nation are there not some Monsters Another of the Reverend Fathers of the Primitive Church enumerating the Nations which were descended from Iaphet mentions the Britons and Scots whose Isle is Britain This shews that there were Scots living in Britain in Epiphanius's Time and so he proves not only our Antiquity by his own Authority but confirms and explains what was formerly urg'd from Ierome in whose Time he liv'd and to whom he wrote Letters Orosius who in Anno 417 says That Severus thought fit to secure that part of the Isle which he had by a Wall from the other unconquered Nations And that We and the Picts were these unconquered Nations appears from Beda wherein he describes those very Actions in those very words And all these Authors agreeing with Beda and writing of the Times wherein themselves liv'd are sufficient Testimonies according to the Bishop's own strictest Rules And they prove how unkind the Bishop is in lessening Beda's Testimony when it makes for us by saying he spoke then according to the Times wherein these Actions happn'd for we see that they who wrote and liv'd in the Time of those Actions agree fully with him as they speak clearly for us Having thus made plain the Antiquity of our Kings and Nation from the Historians both within and without the Isle I now proceed to clear these from the Principles of sound Reason As to which let us consider That it being acknowledg'd by Vsher and the Authors he cites that Ireland was peopl'd by the Scots before Iulius Caesar's Time and by their own Authors whom that Bishop cites they are said to have been so anciently there that we do not know how many Ages they possess'd that Isle before Iulius Caesar. And they being a very broody People as all Northen Nations and particularly they and we are could not but have multiply'd so exceedingly as to need relief and evacuation by Colonies And it can never be pretended that the Irish did settle any other Colony save in Britain though it be undenyable that all those Northen Nations were very desirous and concern'd to extend by Colonies the Empire of their whole Nation and thereby the Possession and Property of every particular Man in it Nor do we ever read that the Irish had any Wars with Strangers whereby they might have either wanted Men to send into Foreign Colonies or have been forc'd to keep them at home for their own defence Whether then are our Histories more probable which make this Colony to have come over before Iulius Caesar or the Bishop of St. Asaph's account who makes us not to have settl'd here till 503 Years after Christ. And tho I esteem the Irish yet I must remark that our humour differs so much from theirs that it may from thence appear that we stay'd
as the chief of these Isles where the Abbot resided the Records were kept and the Kings were buried might probably be called Insula Hiberniae or Hibernia and that Scotia might be the Ordinary name to all that part of the Isle of Britain benorth the River of Clyde so that the going from Hiberniâ or Scotiâ in Britanniam is nothing but the going to the other side of Clyde by which and Graham's-Dyke that part of the Isle was distinguished from the rest as if it had been a distinct Island 4. The great Controversy at that Time being about the keeping of Easter Laurentius Mellitus and Iustus Bishops did write a Letter to us of the following Tenor. Laurentius Mellitus and Justus Bishops Servants of all the Servants of God To our dearest Brethren the Bishops and Abbots through all Scotland Whileas the Apostolick Sea according to the custom it hath observ'd in the rest of the World did send us to preach the Gospel unto the Heathens in these Western Parts and that it happened to us to come into this Isle which is called Britain we held in religious reverence both the Scots and Britons believing that they did walk after the Custom of the Universal Church But after we had known the Britons we judg'd the Scots to be the better minded Yet now we perceive by Dagamus the Bishop who is come hither and by Columbanus the Abbot in France that the Scots differ nothing in their Observations from the Britons for Dagamus being here refused not only to eat with us but even to stay in the same Inn or Lodging Now that this is only applicable to us and not to the Scots in Ireland the Subject doth prove being Exhortatory Letters to conform in the Observation of Easter wherein the British Scots who follow'd Columba differ'd from the Roman Church 2. The Letter is written to the Scots and relates to other Letters written to the Britons in the same Isle and who needed the same Exhortation And it is to be remembred That Vsher generally concludes that where the Scots and Britons are mention'd in Conjunction by Scots there are to be understood the British Scots 3. Camerarius cites Georgius Newton who about the Year 1500 being then Arch-deacon of Dumblain did write the Acts of that Church and relates that he had seen the Antographum of that Letter among the Records of that Church and so it must necessarily have been written to the Scots in Britain else it had not been in the custody of our Church-men and at Dumblain I could produce many other Citations to prove Scotland to have been call'd Hibernia in those Ages but it is sufficient to add to these unanswerable Proofs already produced the authority of the Roman Martyrology wherein Sanetus Beanus is design'd Episcopus Aberdoniae in Hibernia at the 16 of December To which Vardaeus an Irish-man in vita Rumoldi answers That there might have been a place in Ireland call'd Aberdeen because Aber is an Irish word signifying a Marish and there is a Town call'd Doun in Ireland situated near a Marish A pretty Witticism indeed especially as he proposes the Objection and answers the same as you may see upon the Margin But to take off all Debate Beanus is nam'd in our Chartularies as well as Histories as the first Bishop of Aberdeen and the Mortifications granted to him by our King Malcom 2d in the Year 1010 of the Lands of Murthlack Cloveth and Dounmeth are yet extant and his Tomb is yet to be seen in the Cathedral of Aberdeen at the Postern Door of the Church To the former Passages I must also add That albeit our Country was promiscuously call'd Scotia and Hibernia as has been prov'd yet Scotia even in that Time was the more frequent Name of our Country and which to keep close to Beda appears for when he speaks of the Isle Hy to which the former Citations chiefly relate and which was the place of our Country in which his History being Ecclesiastick is chiefly concern'd as being then one of if not the most famous Monastery in the Western World he expresses it to be in Scotia as where he tells That Ceollach of the Nation of the Scots leaving his Bishoprick in England returned to Hy where the Scots had their chief Monastery And thereafter he tells That the same Ceollach having left his Bishoprick return'd to Scotland And the same Beda writing of Adamnanus calls him Abbot and Presbyter of the Monks that are in the Monastery of Hy. And mentioning the same Adamnanus he tells that he returned to Scotland after his Embassy in England And how can it be denied that Hy is in Scotland since Beda calls it Scotland and says That it belong'd to Britain and is by all Geographers nam'd one of our Hebrides and lies locally within our Country and was one of the first places which we planted and far remoter from Ireland than Kintire and others of our Islands and in which our Kings were buried and our Records kept To conclude this Proposition I shall add these Reflections 1. That it is not so easy for the Bishop of St. Asaph to explicate himself as to these Passages concerning Scotia and Scoti and to make them signifie Ireland and Irish since the 500 Year as before for admitting that the Terms were anciently applicable to Ireland and that the Scots when mention'd here were but by Invasion from Ireland Yet it being acknowledg'd that after the Year 500 we were settled here It follows that when Scotia and Scoti are mention'd in relation to British affairs and in conjuction with the Inhabitans of Britain they must be understood of us and our Country 2. Beda mentioning our Country to be call'd Scotia as well as Hibernia from Columba's Time to his own it is not only an evidence that it was so call'd in that Time but that the Name had not been then first given otherwise he could not have been ignorant of the Change nor would he have failed to remark it so that we may reasonably conclude in his sense the Name of Scotia is as ancient in Britain as the Time he mentions the Settlement Wars and Religion of the Scots there 3. It is evident That the Bp of St. Asaph's Proposition is faulty viz. That when we settled here after the Year 500 our Kingdom was call'd Argyle or Dalrieda for if this had been true this name being so recent could not but have been noticed and used by Gildas and Beda and yet it is never so much as once mention'd by either of them tho Beda upon the occasion of the Monastery of Hy or Icolm-kill and of the Bishops sent thence to England doth frequently mention the Names Hibernia and Scotia and that St. Asaph doth not controvert but that these Bishops were sent from our Isle of Icolm-kill to England 4. We may observe how warrantable Arch-bishop Vsher's Position repeated by the Bishop of St. Asaph