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be enough of itself to show that Reginald, or his informant St Aelred, understood the 'Clerks' or 'Scolofthes' of Kirkcudbright to be Scholars. But as if to place his meaning beyond doubt, he inscribes the chapter with the rubric - Of a certain Pictish scholar (de scholastico quodam Pictorum) who rashly broke the peace of St Cuthbert's cemetry, by a bull-bait upon St Cuthbert's day, and of the retribution which befell him."

Two inferences may legitimately be drawn from the above incident: first, that bull-baiting was evidently a pastime in Scotland in the twelfth century; and secondly, that some at least of the inhabitants of Galloway at that comparatively late period of Scottish history were known as Picts.

The second order in the scholastic offices of the Scottish Church in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, according to Dr Robertson, was "the Master of the Schools." Such "masters," or rectors as they might probably be called, are mentioned in documents as existing in those times in Abernethy, the ancient capital of the Pictish kingdom, in Perth, Stirling, Edinburgh, Ayr, Roxburgh, Berwick-on-Tweed, Aberdeen, Glasgow, and other places in Scotland, which,

we may suppose, were to a certain extent considerable towns or centres of population; and we gather from this that, in such places at all events, the Church had its schools.

The Ferleiginn, Scholasticus, or Lecturer, was the third or highest grade; and the office which such a person held is said to have been, in the early Irish and Scoto-Irish Churches, what the Chancellor was in the English and Scoto-English Churches after the twelfth century—namely, as may be supposed, not merely the Keeper of the Bishop's Seals, but the judge in certain matters, and at times the principal expounder of the various philosophical systems which had been in existence before that time. Such lecturers were to be found in St Andrews and other places in Scotland. And therefore we may infer that the Church of Scotland in the middle ages, both in its religious houses and in its cathedrals and principal parish churches, was not unmindful of the education of youth. There was not, indeed, at this early period, any such thing as a university in Scotland. It was not until the beginning of the fifteenth century that the University of St Andrews-the first in Scotland-came into existence. Neither were there any common schools. But nevertheless, in the previously comparatively

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THE SCOLOCS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

dark ages, the ecclesiastical archæologist cannot fail to discover traces of a widespread educational system pervading the land; not, indeed, doing what should have been done, but perhaps in some measure adequate to the peculiar circumstances of the times.

CHAPTER XII.

Medieval Missions and Preaching.

LTHOUGH perhaps it would not be correct to speak of Missions, in the modern sense of the term, in connection with the Church of Scotland in the thirteenth century, yet there were not wanting, within the pale of that Church in that age, those who found their way into distant lands; whilst the Church as a whole had its emissaries in various parts of the heathen world. In China, India, Persia, and a great part of Northern Asia, there were at this time not only missionaries, but Christian Churches and numerous bodies of Christians, leavening the masses of society with Gospel truth and the wholesome influence of Christian example. The divine command which was given in ancient Palestine by the Founder of Christianity Himself—" Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature"-although at times not obeyed so readily and zealously as it ought

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to have been, has never, however, been lost sight of by the true followers of the Saviour; and although in this century many of the most celebrated churchmen gave themselves up chiefly to the study of theology-the scholastic philosophy, logic, and metaphysics in the great schools of Europe-yet at the same time there were many who, in a humble and self-denying manner, and animated with a truly Christian spirit, went forth from home and country to preach the glad tidings of salvation to perishing souls.

In all probability there would be many Scotsmen among these devoted bands. At all events, Scotsmen were not only to be found at this time in many parts of the continent of Europe, but they would seem also to have had a good reputation there. There is an amusing description given of the adventures of an English cleric named Sampson, who afterwards became abbot of the famous monastery of St Edmundsbury in Suffolk,1 in the latter part of the twelfth century,

1 This was a Benedictine abbey, founded in the year 633 by Segebert, king of the East Angles, who left his throne and "became a religious there." The name, however, was given to the place in consequence of the body of Edmund (king and saint) being taken there in the year 903. The value of the abbey at the dissolution is said to have been given at £2336, 16s. Od.; but now this may probably represent a sum of between forty and fifty thousand pounds.

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