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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2015
The early Christian monuments of Scotland have not received the attention which they deserve since Romilly Allen published his descriptive catalogue in 1903. New discoveries since that date, and a fuller study of the analogous carvings in neighbouring areas, have made necessary some revision of the ideas then current. The investigation is rendered more difficult by the individual character of the series and by the rarity of stones bearing inscriptions. Mrs Curle, in a recent paper has boldly attacked the main problem, that of the monuments north of the Forth, the symbol stones and cross-slabs generally attributed to the Picts. Her thesis does not attempt to cover the whole field but is rather ‘an endeavour to establish a classification and a tentative chronology and to review the comparative material’ (p. 60). The conclusions to which her survey have led the author show a wide divergence from those of earlier writers, and the chronology proposed is revolutionary.
1. The Early Christian Monuments of Scotland. By J. Romilly Allen. Edinburgh. 1903. Cited as E .C .M .S.
2. The Early Christian Monuments of Scotland. By Cecil L. Curie (C. L. Mowbray). Procs. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1941, LXXIV, 60-115. Pagination cited from volume.
3 W. F. Skene, Chronicles of the Picts, etc., Edinburgh, 1867, cited as Skene for references to historical records.
4 If, as is probable, the Chronicon Elegiacum of c. 1270 (Skene, 180) incorporated an earlier poem by Ailred the story was current before 1165.
5 Dunfermline is conventionally dated to 1128 (Royal Comtn. Hist. Mon. Fife, 107) the date of the foundation, but the consecration in 1150 must mark the completion of the destroyed east end, after which the existing nave was begun.
6 Archaeologia, LXXIII, 55. The account of the foundation is preserved in the 13th century version of the legend of St. Andrew (Skene, 191).
7 Theodoric, Vita S. Margaretae Reginae IV.
8 Royal Comm. Hist. Mon. Fife, no. 197, p. 106.
9 Anderson, Scotland in early Christian Times, 42 sqq.
10 Skene, 10 (Pictish Chronicle, here a contemporary authority).
11 Erected by Tuathgall, abbot of Clonmacnoise who died in 811 (Revue archéo logique, Ser. V, XXXII, 110).
12 Henry. Sculpture irlandaise, 165.
13 E.C.M.S. 382.
14 E.C.M.S. 389.
15 E.C.M.S. 392.
16 The earliest example on the Paulinus cross at Dewsbury (early 9th cent.) Colling-wood, Northumbrian Crosses, 43.
17 cf. Brendsted, Early English Ornament, 100.
18 Walafrid Strabo, Vita S. Blaithmaici in Migne, Patrologiae Latina, 114, 1043.
19 Annals of Ulster (Skene, 362). Irish tradition in the nth century believed that St. Columba’s body was then in Ireland (Prophecy of St. Berchan : Skene, 81) ; cf. Reeves, Life of St. Columba, 312 sqq. (Irish Arch. Soc. 1857).
20 For the later history of Iona see Reeves, 369 sqq.
21 Annals of Ulster (Skene, 365).
22 Orderici Vitalis, Hist. Eccl., lib. VIII: III, 398, edit. Le Prévost.
23 Iona, no. 4 ; E.C.M.S. 400.
24 Iona, nos. 1-3 ; E.C.M.S. 398.
25 Annals of Jnnisfalien (Skene, 169) and Annals of Ulster (Skene, 362).
26 Macalister, The Memorial Slabs of Clonmacnoise.
27 Skene, 138, cf. Preface, XLVII sqq.
28 e.g. Martyrology of Tallaght on i August ; cf. Procs. Royal Irish Academy, XXIV, 34.
29 Pictish Chronicle (Skene, 8). These and other dates are based on Irish sources, and are liable to an error of two or three years.
30 Skene, 183.
31 The term ‘high king’ is used in the Irish sense. The Picts were a confederation of several, generally seven, provinces, each with its own dynasty, and the overlordship went from one line to another.
32 Hodgkin, History of the Anglo-Saxons, 11, 453 and 456.
33 Pictish Chronicle (Skene, 9), and Prophecy of St. Berchan (ibid. 91).
34 A History of Northumberland, 111, 114, n. 1.
35 Pope Gregory 1, Letter in Mon. Germ. Hist. Epistolarium, 1, 264.
36 No. 30, E.C.M.S. 362, and no. 32 (ibid. 363). For convenience these monuments are also referred to E.C.M.S. but a fuller publication will be found in D. Hay Fleming, St. Andrews Cathedral Museum, 1931.
37 No. 14, E.C.M.S. 359.
38 e.g. Hist. Eccl. iv, 3, and Vita S. Cuthberti, cap. XLII. The type is discussed with reference to existing fragments in the Whitby report (Archaeologia, in the press).
39 Psalm XXII, 21.
40 ANTIQUITY, X, 428 ; pl. 11 D.
41 E.C.M.S. 81.
42 Tarbat, no. 10, E.C.M.S. 94.
43 Recte 763. See edition of Hennessey and MacCarthy, S.A.
44 Macalister, Archaeology of Ireland, 326.
45 Westwood, Lapidarium Walliae, 9.
46 Archaeologia Cambrensis, LXXXVII, 237.
47 E.C.M.S. 237.
48 Scotland in Early Christian Times, 195.
49 Legend in the Book of Deer (9th century).
50 In the Latín lists see Skene, p. cxxin sqq.
51 e.g. Pictish Chronicle (Skene, 8).
52 Skene, CXXXVI.
53 E.C.M.S. 3.
54 cf. A. W. Clapham, ANTIQUITY, VIII , 45.
55 Annals of Tigernach (Skene, 75), cf. ibid. p. CXXXI.
56 cf. Skene, CXXXIX.
57 Kendrick, Anglo-Saxon Art, pl. LII.
58 ibid. pl. LX.
59 F. Henry, Sculpture irlandaise, pl. 38.
60 Kendrick, op. cit. XCIII.
61 ibid, XCI.
62 Meigle, no. 26, E.C.M.S. 303.
63 Meigle, no. 5, E.C.M.S. 300.
64 E.C.M.S. 286.
65 E.C.M.S. 289.
66 E.C.M.S. 292.
67 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, V, 21.
68 Annals of Tigernach, s.A. 717 (Skene, 74).
69 No. 2, E.C.M.S. 250.
70 cf. T. D. Kendrick, ANTIQUITY, XV, 125.
71 Anderson, Scotland in Early Christian Times, 40.
72 Pictish Chronicle (Skene, 10).
73 Anderson, op. cit. 52.
74 The author desires to thank Mr A. W. Clapham,P.S.A., and Mr T. D. Kendrick, F.S.A., who kindly read this article in manuscript and assisted with advice on many points.
