The Christianisation of Scotland was the process by which Christianity spread in what is now Scotland, which took place principally between the fifth and tenth centuries.
Christianity was probably introduced to what is now Lowland Scotland by Roman soldiers stationed in the north of the province of Britannia. 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.
Traditional narratives depict Scotland as largely converted by Irish missions associated with figures such as St. Columba, from the fifth to the seventh centuries, but many of these figures were later constructs or founded monasteries and collegiate churches in areas to which Christianity had already spread. Scholars have identified a distinctive form of Celtic Christianity, in which abbots were more significant than bishops, attitudes to clerical celibacy were more relaxed, and there were significant differences in practice with Roman Christianity, particularly the form of tonsure and the method of calculating Easter, although most of these issues had been resolved by the mid-seventh century.
After the reconversion of Scandinavian Scotland in the tenth century, Christianity under papal authority was the dominant religion of the kingdom. The process of Christianisation was also significant in the development of Scottish national identity, the Hiberno-Scottish mission to Continental Europe, the development of Insular art, and the introduction of Latin and formal education.
Background
Pre-Christian religion
Very little is known about religion in Scotland before the arrival of Christianity. 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. It is generally presumed to have resembled Celtic polytheism. The names of more than two hundred Celtic deities have been noted, 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.B. Cunliffe, The Ancient Celts (Oxford, 1997), , p. 184. The Celtic pagans constructed temples and shrines to venerate these gods, something they did so through votive offerings and performing sacrifices, possibly including human sacrifice. According to Greek and Roman accounts, in Gaul, Britain and Ireland, there was a priestly caste of "magico-religious specialists" known as the druids, although very little is definitely known about them.R. Hutton, Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain (Yale University Press, 2009), , p. 17. Irish legends about the origin of the Picts and stories from the life of St. Ninian, associate the Picts with druids. The Picts are also associated in Christian writing with "demon" worship, which may be a Christian interpretation of their deities, and one story concerning St. Columba has him exorcising a demon from a well in Pictland, suggesting that the worship of well spirits was a feature of Pictish paganism. Roman mentions of the worship of the Goddess Minerva at wells, and a Pictish stone associated with a well near Dunvegan Castle on Skye, have been taken to support this case.P. Dunbavin, Picts and ancient Britons: an Exploration of Pictish Origins (Third Millennium Publishing, 1998), , p. 41.
Roman influence
The roots of Christianity in Scotland were probably among the soldiers and ordinary Roman citizens who lived in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall.L. Alcock, Kings and Warriors, Craftsmen and Priests in Northern Britain AD 550–850 (Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland), , p. 63. The archaeology of the Roman period indicates that the northern parts of the Roman province of Britannia were among the most Christianised in the island.Lucas Quensel von Kalben, "The British Church and the Emergence of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom", in T. Dickinson and D. Griffiths, eds, Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, 10: Papers for the 47th Sachsensymposium, York, September 1996 (Oxford, 1999), , p. 93. Chi-Rho inscriptions and Christian grave-slabs have been found on the wall from the fourth century, and from the same period the Mithraic shrines (known as Mithraea) that existed along Hadrian's Wall were attacked and destroyed, presumably by Christians.I. Smith, "The Origins and Development of Christianity in North Britain and Southern Pictland", in J. Blair and C. Pyrah, eds., Church Archaeology: Research Directions for the Future, (York: Council for British Archaeology, 1996), p. 20.
Post-Roman kingdoms
After the collapse of Roman authority in the early fifth century, four major circles of influence emerged in Northern Britain. In the east, the kingdoms of the Picts eventually stretched from the River Forth to Shetland. In the west were the Gaelic (Goidelic)-speaking people of Dál Riata, who had close links with Ireland, from where they brought with them the name Scots. 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.J. R. Maddicott and D. M. Palliser, eds, The Medieval State: essays presented to James Campbell (London: Continuum, 2000), , p. 48.
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.O. Davies, Celtic Spirituality (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1999), , p. 21. Their gods included Tiw, Woden, Thor and Frig, all of whom gave their names to days of the week, and Eostre, whose name was appropriated for the spring festival of Easter. While British Christians continued to practice inhumation without grave goods, the pagan Anglo-Saxons are visible in the archaeological record from their practice of cremation and burial in urns, accompanied by extensive grave goods, perhaps designed to accompany the dead to the afterlife.N. Brooks, Anglo-Saxon Myths: State and Church, 400–1066 (London: Continuum, 2000), , p. 23. However, despite growing evidence of Anglian settlement in southern Scotland, only one such grave has been found, at Dalmeny in East Lothian.L. R. Laing, The Archaeology of Celtic Britain and Ireland, c. AD 400–1200 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), , p. 306.
Early spread and missions
The traditional view of the Christianisation of Scotland has seen it as carried out by Irish-Scots missionaries and to a lesser extent those from Rome and England. 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.R. A. Fletcher, The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity (University of California Press, 1999), , pp. 231–3. Missionaries from Ireland were operating on the British mainland from at least the sixth century. This movement is traditionally associated with the figures of St. Ninian, St. Kentigern and St. Columba.Fletcher, The Barbarian Conversion, pp. 79–80. 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. This would have included trade, conquest and intermarriage.G. Markus, "Conversion to Christianity", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), , pp. 78–9.
Britons
Most scholars agree that the place-name element eccles-, from the Brythonic word for church, represents evidence of the British church of the Roman and immediate post-Roman period. In Scotland most of these are located in the south of the country in the area of the British successor states that would be known as the Hen Ogledd, or the Old North.G. W. S. Barrow, "The childhood of Scottish Christianity: a note on some place-name evidence", in Scottish Studies, 27 (1983), pp. 1–15. From the fifth and sixth centuries, inscribed stones indicate Christianity through their dedications and are spread across southern Scotland. The earliest is the so-called Latinus stone of Whithorn, dating to around 450.J. E. Fraser, From Caledonia to Pictland: Scotland to 795 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), , p. 89. A slightly later stone at Kirkmadrine commemorates sacerdotes, which may be bishops. Among the key indicators of Christianisation are cemeteries containing long cists, which are generally east–west in orientation, like Christian graves.E. Proudfoot, "The Hallow Hill and the Origins of Christianity in Eastern Scotland", in B. E. Crawford, ed., Conversion and Christianity in the North Sea World: The Proceedings of a Day Conference held on 21st February 1998, St John's House Papers (St. Andrews, University of St. Andrews Press: 1998), , pp. 57 and 67–71. These cemeteries are suspected, or known to be Christian, because of their proximity to a church, or because they have Christian inscriptions.E. Proudfoot, "Archaeology and Early Christianity in Scotland", in E. H. Nicol, ed., A Pictish Panorama (Balgavies, Angus: Pinkfoot Press, 1995), , pp. 27–8. They are found from between the end of the Roman era in the early fifth century and the twelfth century. They are concentrated strongly in eastern Scotland south of the River Tay, in the modern East and Borders of Scotland.S. Foster, Picts, Gaels and Scots: Early Historic Scotland (London: Birlinn, 2004), , p. 77. Writing in the sixth century, St. Patrick also mentioned Coroticus, who probably ruled from the fort at Dumbarton rock and who had already accepted Christianity. The poem Y Gododdin, set in the early sixth century and probably written in what is now Scotland, indicates that the warriors of Gododdin, probably a kingdom based the site of modern Edinburgh, were Christian, receiving communion and confessing their sins before battle.
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.T. O. Clancy, "The real St Ninian", The Innes Review, 52 (2001). 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.A. Macquarrie, Medieval Scotland: Kinship and Nation (Thrupp: Sutton, 2004), , p. 46.B. Webster, Medieval Scotland: the Making of an Identity (New York City, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1997), , pp. 50–1. However, it is clear that Christianity had already gained a foothold across what is now southern Scotland before the sixth century.
Gaels
The conversion of the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata in the west of modern Scotland is traditionally attributed to the work of St. Columba. However, given the close cultural and linguistic ties, and the short distance across the seas, between the region and Ireland, which had begun to be Christianised from at least the fifth century, it is likely that Christianity had already reached this part of modern Scotland before his arrival in the mid-sixth century. 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.