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    ecclesiastical , ) did not approve or practise it ; nay , further , " that jn several oases at least they succeeded eacfy pt ^ er in their offices by inheritance . In Ireland , upon a similar principle , even in the bishopric of Armagh , it seems that there was a hereditary succession of fifteen generations . But in the early history of the papal system there was every where so much difference of opinion and practice on this point of celibacy , that not much need be said about it as affecting the Culdees .

    Alcuin , who flourished in the eighth century , in his epistle addressed " to the very learned men and fathers in the province of the Scots , " seems to testify that they did not practise auricular confession . * ' It is reported , " he says , " that none of the laity made confession to the priests . " Alcuin , however , concurs with Bede ( nearly his contemporary ) in the testimony

    which he bears to their wisdom and piety , and particularly to the religious excellence of the morals of the laity . St . Bernard also mentions of Malachy , an Irish bishop in the twelfth century , that " he anew instituted the most salutary use of confession ; " and from the same authority it is gathered that the ceremony of confirmation was not in use .

    It has also been argued from the language of Bede , that , without the ceremonies used by the Romanists , they baptized in any water they came to Lanfranc , as to the Irish Christians , reports , that " infants were baptized by immersion , without the consecrated chrism . " From the Commentary on St . Paul's Epistles , left by Sedulius , who was either a Scotch or Irish bishop of the eighth century , it would appear that the doctrine of the real presence was no part of his creed , or at least was not put very forward by him as a matter of belief ; and it has been remarked

    by Sir James Dalrymple , that the Culdee churches were not dedicated to Saints or to the Blessed Virgin , but to the Holy Trinity . Jamieson has also carefully recorded other grounds for believing that in services for the dead , the worship or erection of images , and the doctrine of works of supererogation , there was great heresy in these ancient churches ; and undoubtedly their services are always reproached by the adherents of the Roman Church as uncanonical and irregular in the highest degree . David Buchanan has summed up his view of the matter in terms certainly full as strong as the evidence will bear ; but we have no doubt that in the main the differences .

    between the churches were practically pretty much what is reported ; though , as has appeared above , we are sceptical as to the extent to which the more ornate rituals and observances of Rome were for any length of time the subjects of conscientious resistance on the part of the British and Scotch churches . Buchanan writes thus : " About the end of the seventh age , men from Scotland , given to ambition and avarice , went frequently to Rome for preferment in the church , and

    seeing it lay much that way then , they did their best to advance the design of the Romish party , wherein all the skill of worldly men was employed , both in Rome and among the Scots of that party . Many men went to and fro between Rome and Scotland to bring the Scots to a full obedience unto Rome and conformity . By name there was one Boniface sent from Rome to Scotland , a main agent for ' Rome in these affairs ; but he was opposed

    openly by several of the ScotsCuldees or divines , namely , by Clemens and Samson , who told him freely , * that he and those of his party studied to bring men to the subjection of the Pope , and slavery of Rome , withdrawing them from obedience to Christ ; ' and so , in plain terms , they reproached to him and to his assistants , * that they were corrupters of Christ ' s doctrine * establishing a sovereignty in the Bishop of Rome , as the only successor of

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    £ 64 Th * . Culifcdsof I < M&

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1827, page 864, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1803/page/8/