0] It was in
563, and at the age of forty-two, that he settled at Iona and commenced
his mission-work by founding his monastery[191] there. He met there "two
bishops," who came to receive his submission from him, but "God now
revealed to Columcille that they were not true bishops, whereupon they
left the island to him, when he told of them their history." They were,
thinks Dr. Skene, the remains of that anomalous church of seven bishops
which here, as elsewhere, preceded the monastic church, while Columba
appears to have refused to recognise them as such, and the island was
abandoned to him. Possessed as he was with the soul of a poet, and
susceptible to the impressive in nature, Columba could not have chosen a
finer spot than Iona for his work, or one where he could better combine
with missionary activity a life of purity and self-denial. Tradition
says he landed at the bay now known as Port-a-churaich, and proceeded
to found the monastery and establish the church which was ultimately to
embrace in its jurisdiction the whole of Scotland north of the Firths of
Forth and Clyde, to be for a century and a half the national church of
Scotland, and to give to the Angles of Northumbria the same form of
Christianity for a period of thirty years. The buildings that now remain
are of much later date, but it may be inferred that in its constitution,
spirit, and work the Columban Church was not isolated, but was in
reality a mission from the Irish Church, formed an integral part of it,
and never lost its connection with it. The principal buildings were
constructed of wood and wattles, and were originally (1) a monastery
with a small court, on one side of which was the church, with a small
side chamber, on a second side the guest-chamber, on the third a
refectory, and on the fourth dwellings of the monks; a little way off on
the highest part of the ground were (2) the cell of St. Columba, where
he sat and read or wrote during the day, and slept at night on the bare
ground with a stone for his pillow; and (3) various subsidiary
buildings, including a kiln, a mill, a barn, all surrounded by a rampart
or rath. Not far off was a sequestered hollow (Cabhan cuildeach) to
which Columba retired for solitary prayer. The mill has left its traces
in the small stream to the north of the present cathedral ruins, and
remains of old causeways may be traced from the landing places of
Port-na-martir, Port-Ronan, and Port-na-muintir. All the early
bu