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18 Gaelic Society of Inverness.
ScotbiiuL nortli of the Friths, were divided into two nations, the
Northern and the Southern Picts, and that tlie mission of St
(Jolumba was to the Northern Picts. I venture to suggest, however,
that this is a mistake. The statement rests on the authority
of Bede, who, as I have mentioned, says that Ninian converted
the Southern Picts. But in Bede's time King Oswy had
extended liis dominions up to tlie Grampians, and thus for a time
created a division between the Picts subject to his aiithority, and
those beyond the mountains wlio remained independent, and thus
probably misled Bede. He heard or read that Ninian had conveited
the Southern Picts, and assumed that they were those
subject to the Saxons ; but I think it is obvious that the Picts,
with whom St Ninian came in contact, were those of Galloway,
and they would naturally, in his time, be designated as Southern
Picts, as distinguished from the Picts dwelling beyond the
Northern Wall. The statement in the Saxon Chronicle is as
follows :
" A. r)G5. This year Ethelbert succeeded to the Kingdom of
the Kentish-men, and held it tifty-three years. In his days the
hfily Pope Gregory sent us baptism, that was in the two and
thirtieth year of his reign ; and Columba, a mass-priest, came to
the Picts, and converted them to the faith of Christ ; they are
dwellers by the northern mountains. And their king gave him
the Island which is called li [lona] ; therein are live hides of land,
as men say. There Columba built a monastery, and he was
abbat there thirty-seven years, and there he died when he was
seventy-two years old. His successors still have the ])lace. The
Southern Picts had been baptized long before : Bishop Ninia, who
had been instructed at Home, had preached baptism to them,
whose church and his monastery is at Whitherne, consecrated in
the name of St Martin : there he resteth, with many holy men.
Now in li there must ever be an abbat, and not a bishop ; and
all the Scottish bishops ought to be subject to him, because
Columba was an abbat and not a bishop.
"A. 5G5. Tins year Columba, the presbyter, came from the
Scots among the Britons, to instruct the Picts, and he built a
monastery in the Island of Hii."
Be this as it may, however, it is (juite clear that the Picts never
were divided jiolitically into two nations. We have lists of their
kings, and they never had more than one king at a time, and
there can l>e no doubt that Brude M'Mailchon, who was converted
by Saint Columba, reigned over the whole Pictish race north of