Christianisation of Scotland

After the collapse of Roman authority in 410 AD, Christianity is presumed to have survived among the British enclaves in the south of what is now Scotland, but retreated as the pagan Anglo-Saxons advanced.

The lack of native written sources among the Picts means that it can only be judged from parallels elsewhere, occasional surviving archaeological evidence and hostile accounts of later Christian writers.

The names of more than two hundred Celtic deities have been noted[clarification needed], some of which, like Lugh, The Dagda and The Morrigan, come from later Irish mythology, whilst others, like Teutates, Taranis and Cernunnos, come from evidence from Gaul.

In the south were the British (Brythonic-speaking) descendants of the peoples of the Roman-influenced kingdoms of "The Old North", the most powerful and longest surviving of which was Alt Clut.

Finally, the Anglo-Saxons had overrun much of southern Britain and held the Kingdom of Bernicia (later the northern part of Northumbria), which reached into what are now the Borders of Scotland in the south-east.

[7] While the Picts and Scots would have remained pagan, most scholars presume that Christianity would have survived after the departure of the Romans among the Brythonic enclaves and retreated as the Anglo-Saxons advanced north.

Historian Richard Fletcher argued that motivations for these missions may have included the example of St. Patrick, the idea of Peregrinatio and a growing interest in evangelism.

[12] However, historian Gilbert Markus highlights the fact that most of these figures were not church-founders, but were usually active in areas where Christianity had already become established, probably through gradual diffusion that is almost invisible in the historical record.

[13] The figure of St. Ninian, traditionally credited with introducing Christianity to the region of south-west Scotland, is now widely regarded as a later construct and may have been the result of scribal confusion with the Irish saint Finnian.

[12][19] The church known as Candida Casa was dedicated to him at Whithorn in the sixth century and from there St Kentigern seems to have created a new centre of worship at Govan or Inchinnan, which would extend an influence across the Strathclyde region.

In this view, the role of clergy owing their loyalty to Iona and elsewhere was to consolidate the position of Christianity in the region and beyond and to provide pastoral care for the people there.

A separate mission, that may have been an attempt to evangelise the north-east, was undertaken by Columba's younger contemporary, another Irish priest, Donnán of Eigg, who had a large number of churches dedicated in his name in the region.

[26] Evidence for an early date for Christianisation include the fact that St. Patrick, active in the fifth century, referred in a letter to "apostate Picts", indicating that they had previously been Christian, but had abandoned the faith.

[21] The evidence of place names suggests a wide area of Ionan influence in Pictland, where there are large numbers of dedications of churches to Iona abbots of the seventh century.

[31] In the past historians used the term Celtic Church to describe a specific form of Christianity with its origins in the conversion of Ireland, traditionally associated with St. Patrick and which later spread to northern Britain through Iona.

It is also used as a general description for the Christian establishment of northern Britain prior to the twelfth century, when new religious institutions and ideologies of primarily French origin began to take root in Scotland.

Subsequent missions from Canterbury then helped convert the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, reaching Northumbria in the early eighth century, where Iona had already begun to have a presence.

[35] In addition scholars have identified significant characteristics of the organisation of Irish and Scottish Christianity as relaxed ideas of clerical celibacy, intense secularisation of ecclesiastical institutions, and the lack of a diocesan structure.

Before 714 he wrote to Ceolfrith, abbot of Wearmouth, asking for a formal refutation of the Irish position over the calculation of the date of Easter and for help in building a stone church "in the manner of the Romans".

[23] Orkney, Shetland, Western Isles and the Hebrides eventually fell to the pagan Norsemen, curtailing the influence of the church in the Highlands and Islands.

[38][39] The threat posed by the Vikings may have forced a union between the kingdoms of Dál Riata and the Picts under Kenneth mac Alpin, traditionally dated to 843.

[23] While the official conversion of Scandinavian Scotland took place at the end of the tenth century, there is evidence that Christianity had already made inroads into the Viking controlled Highland and Islands.

[45] One of the major effects of the conversion of the Vikings was to bring an end to plundering raids on Christian sites, which may have allowed them to recover some of their status as cultural and intellectual centres.

The Canmore dynasty that would rule Scotland from the eleventh century to the end of the thirteenth identified itself with Christianity and a strong relationship emerged between the crown and church.

[48] After the conversion of the Picts and the assimilation of Pictish culture into that of the Scots and Angles a common artistic style emerged in Britain and Ireland, known as Insular art.

[49] Surviving examples are found in metalwork and carving, but mainly in illuminated manuscripts, highly decorated with intricate patterning, like the Book of Kells—which may have been wholly or partly created in Iona.