the dominion of the priests, and their
brethren of the West of Scotland equally under the dominion of the
doctrinal antipodes of the priests; while the parallel might be
illustrated by a reference to those Highland Franciscans called "The
Men," whose belcher neckcloths represent the cord, and their Kilmarnock
bonnets the cowl.

At the commencement of Christianity the difference between the religious
Celt and the religious Saxon was naturally far more conspicuous than it
is now. Bede's description of the thoughtful calmness with which
Ethelbert studied the preaching of Augustin, with all the consequences
which the adoption of the new creed must bring upon his kingdom, is
still eminently characteristic of the Saxon nature. In the life of St
Wilbrord a scene is described which is not easily alluded to with due
reverence. The saint had prevailed on a Frisian Prince to acknowledge
Christianity, and be baptised. Standing by the font, with one foot in
the water, a misgiving seized on him, and he inquired touching his
ancestors, whether the greater number of them were in the regions of the
blessed, or in those of the spirits doomed to everlasting perdition. On
being abruptly told by the honest saint that they were all, without
exception, in the latter region, he withdrew his foot--he would not
desert his race--he would go to the place where he would find his dead
ancestors.

The conversion of the Picts by Columba seems to have proceeded
deliberately. We find him, in the narrative of his life, exercising much
influence on Brud their king, and occasionally enjoying a visit to the
royal lodge on the pleasant banks of Lochness. There he is seen
commending his friend and fellow-labourer St Cormac to the good offices
of the Regulus of the Orkney Islands, who is also at the court of Brud,
to whom he owes something akin to allegiance; for Columba looks to Brud
as well as to the Orcadian guest for the proper attention being paid to
Cormac. Still, honoured and respected as he is in the court of the
Pictish monarch, Columba is not that omnipotent person which he finds
himself to be in Dalriada and in Ireland. There still sits an unpleasant
personage at the king's gate. A Magus, as he is called--a priest of the
old heathen religion--is in fact well received at court, where, although
doomed to be superseded by the Christian missionary, he yet seems to
have been retained by the king, as a sort of protest that he had not put
himself entirel