we had against the Romans in conjunction with the Picts the Victories we then got are chiefly to be ascrib'd to us And to crown all we have generously contributed all that was in our power to support that Ancient and Royal Family so unparallell'd for its antiquity by which we were animated and instructed to do all those great Actions till they are now become the Monarchs of the whole Isle having by a happier way extinguished those Wars and Animosities and may he be unhappy who revives them For clearing how this Tradition might have been and was preserv'd Our History tells us of a probable way among many others which was That at the Coronation of our Kings one appeared and recited his whole Genealogy I shall trouble my Reader only with a proof of this Custom which is such as confirms also the Genealogy of King Alexander the 3d in the year 1249 prior to Fordon's time or to the view of any such Debate and is related by Fordon and Major in the Life of that King and being so memorable a Fact and so near Fordon's own time his Relation cannot but be credited His words are That the King being plac'd in the Marble-Chair the Crown upon his Head and the Scepter in his Hand and the Nobility being set below Him a Venerable old High-landed Gentleman stept out and bowing the Knee express'd himself to the King in the High-land Language thus God bless you King Alexander Son of Alexander Son of William c. And so carried up the Genealogy to Fergus the First Which Custom was most solemnly us'd at the Coronation of King Charles the Martyr at which time their Pictures were expos'd and noblest Actions recited As also the reciting of their Genealogy was usual at the Burial of ours Kings a written Proof of which Tradition is to be seen in a Manuscript of Baldredus Abbas Rynalis for that which is the Abbacy of Melros was so called before King David's time who designs them so in the Foundations of the Lands of Melros which he gives to them and is related verbatim by Fordon consisting of eighteen Chapters mentioning the memorable Actions of King David upon whom the Lamentation is made who died 1151 and running up the Genealogy of the said St. David to Fergus the First dedicated to Henry Prince of England Grand Nephew to St. David who came to the Crown of England Anno 1154 under the name of Henry the Second In both which at least Fordon is to be believ'd having sufficient Vouchers This also being ordinary in our High-land Families to this very day not only at Burials but Baptisms and Marriages and in which Families Men continue still to be design'd from their Fathers Grandfathers and very many Generations upwards as is a sufficient Historical Proof of Tradition tho we had no other Warrant for those few Ages Before I come to clear that we had Manuscripts and Records it is fit to consider that is very probable that as the History of most Nations was preserv'd by their Priests and Church-men so ours would be very ready to oblige the Kings under whom and the People among whom they liv'd by writing their Annals And therefore we may reasonably conclude that since we were very early Christians we had therefore ancient Histories written by our Church-men besides those which we may pretend to have been transmitted to them by the Druids And the Bishop himself acknowledges that the Monastery of Hy call'd by us Icolm-kill that is Hy the Cell of Columba was founded about the year 560 and it is undeniable that 48 of our old Kings were buried and our Records were kept there since its Foundation until the Reign of Malcolm Canmore and it is also certain that our Annals were written in our Monasteries such as Scoon Pasley Pluscardin and Lindesfern govern'd by three Scotish-Bishops Aidan Finan and Colman and Abercorn mention'd by Beda and Melross the Chronicle whereof begins where Beda ends as their History now printed shews though certainly that English Manuscript is very unfaithful for most of the things relating to our Nation are omitted as particularly about the beginning in the year 844. Our Manuscript observes which the English has not That Alpin King of the Scots died to whom succeeded his Son Kenneth who beat the Picts and was declared first King of all Scotland to the Water of Tine and after it expresses in his Epitaph Primus in Albania fertur Regnasse Kenedhus Filius Alpini praelia multa gerens And it observes that he was called the first King of Albany not because he was the first who made the Scotish Laws but because he was the first King of all Scotland And each of our Monasteries had two Books the one call'd their Register or Chartulary containing the Records relating to their private securities and another call'd their black-Black-book containing an account of the memorable things which occur'd in every Year And as it is strongly presumable that our Historians would have compil'd our Histories from those So this being a matter of Fact is probable by Witnesses and I thus prove it in such a way and manner as is sufficient to maintain any History Verimundns a Spaniard Arch-deacon of St. Andrews in Anno 1076 as is remarked by Chambers of Ormond declares in the Epistle to his Book of the Historians of Scotland dedicated to King Malcolm call'd Can-more That albeit there are many things in the said Histories which may seem to the Readers to be a little difficult to be believed because they are not totally confirmed by Foreign Historians Yet after have they heard how the Scots were setled in the North Part of the Isle of Albion separated by the Sea from the firm Land and so seldom troubled by Strangers to whom they give no occasions to write their Actions and also that they have not been less happy in having almost always among them the Druids Religious People and diligent Chroniclers before the Reception of the Christian Faith and continually since Monks faithful Historians in the Isles of Man and Icomkill where they kept securely their Monuments and Antiquities without giving a sight or Copy of them to strangers they will cease to wonder This Chambers was a Learned Man and a Lord of Session who wrote anno 1572 and in his Preface says That he had those principal Authors Verimund a Spaniard Turgot Bishop of St. Andrews John Swenton John Campbel and Bishop Elphinstoun c. and many great Histories of the Abbacies of Scoon called the Black-book and of other like Chronicles of Abbacies as that of Inch-colm and Icolmkill the most part whereof he took pains to consider as much as was possible for him He cites Verimund for an account of the Scots and Picts and after he also cites him for the Miracle of St. Andrews in Hungus's time and he gives an account of the tenor of the League betwixt Charles the Great and Achaius and asserts that
the same was extracted out of the Registers and Books he mention'd and particularly out of the second Book of Verimund Sir Richard Baker cites this Verimund among the Authors out of whom he compiled his History and with him he cites Ioannes Campbellus who he says wrote the History of the Scots from the Origine of the Nation till the Year 1260 in which he liv'd And also Turgot who he says wrote our Annals from the beginning till the Year 1098 in which he liv'd and him likewise Hollinshed cites as also Aluredus Rivallensis who wrote the History of King David and died Anno 1166 and Bartholomeus Anglicus who wrote a Chronicle of the Scots and liv'd in the Year 1360. Two of which three last we have reason to think were Scots-men and have been called English-men only because they liv'd in the Counties which now belong to England but then certainly belong'd to us and if they be Englishmen they are yet the more credible Witnesses for us And as the worthy Baker says he compil'd his History out of these Books which he neither would nor could have said if he had not seen them So it is very probable that he did see them our Records and Manuscripts having been industriously carry'd to England by Edward the First as shall be hereafter observ'd Nor can it be answer'd that he cited them at second-hand from Boeth or Buchannan for else he had cited the other Authors whom they cite such as Richardus de sancto victore Fordon Major c. All this doth evidently demonstrate that we had such Historians as Verimund and the others above-cited who asserted before Fordon what he has related so that it was most unwarrantable to say that these things were dream'd by Fordon and Boethius but that Verimund was seen and consider'd by others and cited in a particular part of his Book which could not be copied from Boethius because he doth not cite Verimund for all those Transactions and upon this Balaeus a Learn'd English-man hath rested And Holinshed says that Verimund wrote a Book De Regibus Scotorum Nor can it be deny'd that Gesner in verbo Verimund and other famous Strangers cite him as one who has written our History ab exordio Scoticae gentis usque ad Malcolmi tempora And it is incredible to think so good and grave a Man as Boetius could have been so impudent to assert in his Dedication to King Iames the 5th That these Books were sent to him by the Earl of Argile and his Brother the Thesaurer from Icolmkill and that he had follow'd them in writing his History Especially since he is by Erasmus that great Critick admir'd as a most Learned Man they having studied together at Paris where he remembers that he was in great esteem And in a Letter concerning him Anno 1530 inserted in the Life of Erasmuus he remarks that Boethius was a Person who could not lie How can it then be imagined that he would have adventur'd to have printed a whole Romance and have told his King and the World that he had the Manuscripts by him Nor is this asserted only by Boethius and our own Historians but by Paulus Iovius a very famous Foreign Historian who in his Description of Scotland says That in Iona which we call Icolmkill are kept the ancient Annals and Manuscripts in hidden Presses of the Church and large Parchments asigned by the King 's own hands and seal'd either with Seals of Gold or Wax By which also it appears how nice we have been in securing the Faith of our History the Seals of our Kings being put to what was written by our devout Church-men And whereas the Bishop of St. Asaph to lessen the Credit of Boethius relates that Bishop Gavin Dowglas advised Polidor Virgil not to follow his History Polidor Virgil himself is appeal'd to where there is no mention of Boethius at all nor could it be for Polidor regrates that Gavin Dowglas died Anno 1520 whereas Boethius was not publish'd till 1526 and Boethius himself informs us That the Records from which he form'd his History were sent him from Icolmkill Anno 1525 and no sooner neither did he see those Warrants from which he wrote his History till that Year And it appears by that passage that Gavin Dowglas believ'd our account and produc'd a Manuscript for it which I now cite and use as an accessory Argument and prove it by the Bishop of St. Asaph and Polidor and whereas the Bishop of St. Asaph pretends that the Relation given by Gavin Dowglas agreed with Nennius but contradicted Boethius the contrary is probable by Polidor's own Relation of what Gavin Dowglas writ to him which agrees with Boethius in every thing relating to our Antiquity The Bishop of St. Asaph is also most unjust to Boethius in alledging that Vossius considers him as a fabulous Author For Vossius commends him from what Erasmus and Buchannan say of him and in the end taxes him only a little for having believ'd too many Miracles a fault incident to most Popish Writers in those times but to none more than to the Bishop's own obscure Authors for which among many other Testimonies I refer my Reader to them who writ the Preface to the Histories of Matthew of Westminster and to the Life of King Alfred and Walsingham's History It can also be proved by many famous Gentlemen that the Black Book of Scoon containing our Histories from the beginning was among President Spotwood's Books and was given by Lewis Cant to Major General Lambert and by him to Collonel Fairfax which Book King Charles the first had ransom'd from Rome by a considerable Sum of Money And it is certain that Spotswood had it and the Black Book of Pasley signed by the hands of three Abbots when he compil'd his History Which Book of Pasley together with the famous Book of Pluscardin Buchannan says he had and frequently cites and that there were such Books is known to the whole Nation And I my self have seen in the Learned Sir Robert Sibbald's Library to whom this Nation owes very much a very old Abridgment of the Book of Pasley which Book Bp Vsher himself also cites agreeing in every thing with our Histories and which was extracted per venerabilem virum Ioannem Gibson Canonicum Glasguensem Rectorem de Renfrew Anno 1501. And two other old Manuscripts the one called Excerpta de Chronicis Scotiae Scoti-chronico which comes to the Reign of King Iames the 2d and belong'd to Doctor Arbuthnot Physician to King Iames the 5th and this proves that there were Chronica different from Fordon's And the other Extracta de Registro prioratus Sancti-Andreae giving the Irish Names of our Kings As also I have seen a Manuscript written by a Brother of the minores Observants of Iedburgh in Anno 1533 containing an Abridgment of our History and whereof Doctor Sibbald has another Copy And there is another old Manuscript
A DEFENCE OF THE ANTIQUITY OF THE Royal Line OF SCOTLAND WITH A true Account when the Scots were govern'd by Kings in the Isle of Britain By Sir GEORGE MACKENZIE His Majesty's Advocate in Scotland London Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1685. To the KING SIR DIvine Providence having suffered these Kingdoms to destroy one another for many Ages in divided Monarchies reserv'd their happy Union for the Merciful Royal Family of which Your Majesty is now the Head and mingl'd lawfully in their Veins all those many and different Bloods-Royal which pretended to any Soveraignty in these your Dominions designing thereby at once to reward the Vertue of Your Majesty's Predecessors and to endear that Union to us in preventing future Debates In King Iames Your Royal Grand-Father these Nations got a Monarch who was acknowledg'd to be the Solomon of His Age who excell'd all His Contemporary Princes in King-Craft all his Ministers in Prudence and all His Doctors in Learning None of his Subjects understood the Law better or observ'd it more and who knew as well all that was done at Council-Tables abroad as they who sat at them To Him succeeded Your Majesty's Royal Father whose Life was the best Law a King could make who knew no use of Power save to do good by it who was less careful of His own Blood than of that of his Subjects And I may justly say that Heaven only was govern'd by a better King After we had shown our selves unworthy of such Monarchs the Divine Goodness to try us once more gave us Your Gracious Brother whose Clemency after so many and so great Injuries was as great a Miracle as His Restoration who knew every thing save to be severe and could bear every thing save to see His People in trouble who after the abuse of His Goodness had made his Enemies so insolent that His Servants concluded all was lost did by His extraordinary parts with a gentle easiness peculiar to Himself dissipate those execrable Combinations to our great satisfaction and amazement But Sir the Conscience of His Enemies will far exceed in His Praises the Eloquence of His Servants and so my trembling Hand leaves this Melancholy Subject His Throne is now fill'd with Your Sacred Majesty whose Abilities Your Royal Brother esteemed so much that He shar'd with You the Exercise of the Government before His Death gave you the Possession of the Crown In You Sir Your People have a General to their Armies an Admiral to their Fleet a Treasurer to their Mony whose Courage can lead them as far as theirs can follow and raise the Glory of these Kingdoms as high as they can wish So that if they be not happy they will have this Addition to their Misfortunes that the World will see that they themselves are only to be blam'd for it Our Country Sir does not boast of a rich Soil or a hot Sun but it may that it has given these happy Islands those Gracious and Glorious Kings In return whereof we might have expected kinder Rewards than that any of their Natives should debate its Antiquity and the Veracity of those Histories wherein the great Actions of Your Royal Predecessors were recorded And since the Honour of the Ancient and Royal Race of our Soveraigns is the chief thing wherein we Glory it is hard to deny us a Favour so just on our part and so easy on theirs However Sir since I presume that those of Your other Subjects who controvert this do so rather from want of information than from unkindness I who am resolv'd to make the defence of Your meanest Priviledges my greatest Honour have thought it incumbent to me as Your Advocate to undertake the defence of that Antiquity which makes Your Majesty the most Ancient Monarch upon Earth Which Argument I hope I have manag'd with that Candour which becomes an honest Man and that Zeal which is the Duty of SIR Your Majesty's most Dutiful Loyal and Obedient Subject and Servant Geo. Mackenzie A LETTER to the EARL of PERTH Lord High Chancellor of SCOTLAND Upon his having sent to the Author the Bishop of St. Asaph's Book With some Reflections upon the Design of that Book My Lord I Have read the Book you sent me with that delight I did of old a Play which one may think it resembles more than our Histories do a Romance For what is truly related is so disguised and transposed as may best suit with the Author's Design and with a Rhetorick so Polite and Comical that if the Reasons do not convince yet the Humour and Stile may charm and please even some of those against whom it is design'd This made me unwilling at first to undertake to answer a Book which I suppose might have more Admirers than Proselytes but finding upon a second perusal that the Author had not fully examined the Grounds upon which our Historians proceeded or had suffered himself to be byass'd by Zeal for his Order or Partiality to his Country And that this whole Kingdom take it as an Injury done not only to the Antiquity of the Royal Family but to this our Nation in general I was at last prevailed with to enter the Lists with a kind Design by a sober and candid Information rather to convince and satisfy the Author and those he may have misled than to acquire the vain glory of such a Victory especially over one who bears the Character of a Bishop for which I have so great a Veneration Altho for the Reasons following I cannot but dislike his unnecessary Undertaking and unseasonable and partial Management of a National Debate which we are prohibited to enter upon under pain of a Sedition 1. I am sorry that while these Kingdoms are unhappily divided not in Nations but Opinions the old Animosities amongst Scots English and Irish being forgot and buried and the modern Differences between the Episcopal and Fanatick and Cavalier and Republican or as some term it Whig and Tory are so violent and turbulent the Author should have diverted our just and dutiful Zeal by imploying it in defence of an important right of State unkindly as well as unnecessarily invaded so as the other of near concern to the Church may in some measure come to be neglected 2. The pretext for writing this Book wherein the Antiquity of our Kings and Nation is so much disparag'd being that the Presbyterians and particularly Blondel urg'd from our Historians that we had a Church for some Years without Bishops it seem'd neither just nor fit that any Episcopal Author should have magnify'd so highly the meanest Argument that ever was us'd by a Presbyterian as for it to cut off 44 Kings all preceding Coranus who began his Reign anno 501 and to expose on a Pillory as Forgers our many and grave Historians And that it is a weak Argument appears from this that I have met with very few Laicks in all our Country who had
written by Ventonius yet extant which Buchannan also cites and follows Since the Writing of these Sheets I have seen a very old Manuscript brought from Icolmkill written by Carbre Lifachair who liv'd six Centuries before St. Patrick and so about our Saviours time wherein is given a full account of the Irish Kings By which I conclude that since the Irish had Manuscripts then certainly we must also be allowed to have had them having greater occasion of learning Sciences and writing Histories because of our Commerce with the Romans and polite Britans In this Book also there are many Additions by the Druids of those times from which I likewise may confirm that the Priests in our old Monasteries learn'd our Ancient History from the Druids who preceded them I have seen also an old Genealogy of the Kings of the Albanian Scots agreeing with that mentioned in our History at the Coronation of King Alexander the 2d and which has still been preserv'd as Sacred there I have also seen another old Manuscript wherein the Dalreudini Albanach are considered as setled here six Generations before Eric whom Vsher calls the Father of our Kings I find also in it that Angus Tuerteampher reign'd in Ireland five Generations before our Fergus the First and that in his time the Irish and Albanians divided and separated from one another Which agrees with our Histories which say that the Scots were in this Country long before King Fergus and his Race setled here And these our Irish Manuscripts agree in every thing with the above-cited History of Corbre ' and are in effect Additions to his Book by our old Sanachies Having thus cleared that there were sufficient Warrants upon which our Authors might have founded their Histories I shall in the next place say something of our Historians and make appear that they deserv'd the credit and applause they met with and that they founded their History on those good Warrants from which Verimund Boetius and Chambers are formerly prov'd to have drawn theirs viz. our ancient Annals and Registers Fordon was no Monk as the Bishop is pleas'd to call him and we had no such Monastery as Fordon but he was venerabilis vir dominus Iohannes Fordon Presbyter and is called a Monk by the Bishop who studies still his own conveniency to make the World believe he was inclin'd to lie as the Monks are said to have been in that Age and to shew him interested for the Independency of Monks and Culdees from Bishops This Author began at least to write before the Year 1341 for in his Book he speaks of that as a present Year This Book was so esteem'd that there were Copies of it in most of our Monasteries and one of them we have in very old but in fair Characters continued by Arelat another continued by a Reverend Man Walter Bowmaker Abbot of Icolmkill and found in the custody of one who had preserv'd several of the Manuscripts of that Monastery And both these Continuations have drawn out our Histories to the Reign of King Iames the 2d And it is not to be imagin'd that the Monasteries would have esteem'd it so much or that the Abbot of that Monastery where our chief Annals were kept would have continued it if they and he had not known it to agree with their Annals And Fordon cites frequently through his Book Chronica alia Chronica and Beda and follows him exactly he cites also Adamnanus who liv'd before the Year 700 and Turgot Archbishop of St. Andrews who lived anno 1098 and Alvared who dedicated his Book to King Malcom the 3d about the year 1057. He cites also other foreign Authors such as Sigisbert and Isidor and so has done all that the Bishop requires and all that the best Historians can do Neither does he follow Ieffrey but contradicts him even in the instance of Bassianus as shall be cleared to conviction in answering the Bishop's Objections He has in him also Baldredus or Ethelredus and the Process before the Pope containing the Copies of the authentick Letters Objections Apologies and Answers made and sign'd by Edward 1. and his Parliament and the Scotish Nobility produc'd before the Pope about the year 1300 whereof the Copies are not only extant from Fordon but the Bishop also insinuates that the Originals themselves are extant in England and certainly they were at Rome And Fordon cites many other considerable old Records He writes in a good Stile and with good Judgment and the reason why this Work was not printed was not because it deserv'd not the Press but because Boethius Buchannan and Lesly having printed their Histories in their own time and there being no printing in his it was thought we had Histories enow which also occasion'd the perishing of many of our excellent Manuscripts But why should the Bishop object to us Fordon his not being printed since he cites against us Manuscripts never cited by any and which have been left unprinted in a Country where every thing is printed and I dare say after exact perusal of the Bishops Book and of the Authors cited by him that Fordon is preferable to all those old Legends and most of those Authors which he cites against us venerable Beda only excepted who is still on our side Ioannes Major was Rector of the famous Divinity-School of Paris and was a Man of such Reputation in that University as that he is yet remembred with esteem and a Man of too innocent a life to have written a Romance for a History and he likewise relates to Beda and our Annals Of Iohn Major a full account and Elogium is given by the Learn'd Launoy Academiae Parisionsis illustrata Tom. 2. pag. 652 653. sequent One of the most accurate Writers in this Age says That the talent of writing History hath not been found on this side of the Alps in any save in Buchannan who hath written the History of Scotland better than Livius did that of Rome The Bishop of Condom also and the famous Rapin in their exact Essays concerning History have preferr'd none to him save Mariana the Jesuit whom all Men know to be far inferior but they prefer Mariana because Buchannan was a Protestant Ioseph Scaliger says of Buchannan and Us Imperii fuerat Romani Scotia limes Romani Eloquii Scotia finis erit And Mr. Dryden also my Friend whom I esteem a great Critick as well as Poet prefers Buchannan to all the Historians that ever wrote in Britain And tho I approve as little of Buchannan's Politicks as the Bishop of St. Asaph doth yet I will not be so unjust to him as he is in saying That Buchannan in the Life of Fergus the First refers to our old Annals but he cites them not for there is no such thing in the Life of that King And he was not so much a favourer of Monarchy to have allow'd it the advantage of so singular an Antiquity if he had not found the
Apology against Edward the first of England about the Year 1300 we assert the Tradition of a wonderful Victory obtain'd by our King Hungus against the Saxons by the Relicts of St. Andrew the Apostle by virtue whereof the Scots first receiv'd the Faith of Christ. To which it is shortly answer'd that every Contradiction does not overturn the Truth of a whole History otherwise we need not be troubled to give any other answer to the Bishop's own Book nor is this pretended to be a Contradiction amongst our Historians for they all agree that King Donald was our first Christian King but in that Apology which is alledg'd to contradict our Histories our Predecessors design'd as most Pleaders do and this Eloquent Author does in his Book to gain their Point at any rate For understanding whereof it is fit to know that King Edward the first having upon the Competition betwixt Bruce and Baliol interpos'd with design to make himself Lord Paramount of Scotland he caus'd his Parliament write to the Pope to whom afterwards he wrote himself in which Letter of his it is pretended that we were Vassals to England as descended from Albanactus the second Son to Brutus 2. Because several of our Kings had become Vassals to his Predecessors in the Times of the British Saxon and Norman Kings To which we answer in our Apology That without debating whether the first Inhabitants of the Isle were descended from Albanactus or his Albanians it is asserted that we came from Spain by Ireland and conquer'd the first Inhabitans for which we cite Beda and so tho they had been Vassals we were free not being lyable to the Conditions of the People we conquer'd and as such fought constantly against the Britons who were forc'd to build Severus's Wall against us And as to any homage made by our Kings it was either for the Three Northen Countries of Cumberland Westmoreland and Northumberland confirm'd to us by the Britons to defend them against the Saxons and thereafter again confirm'd by both Saxons and Britons to assist them against the Danes Or was extorted by force from one or two young Captive Kings upon which heads the Popes had declar'd us free which Bulls Edward himself had robb'd unjustly out of our Treasure with other Records which he could not deny but to cajole the Pope their Judg they insinuate that though they were not Tributaries to his Holiness as England was yet they ought to be protected by the Pope because they had been converted by St. Andrew his Predecessors Brother-german St. Andrew having in Hungus's reign obtain'd for them a Victory over the Saxons and so became subject and subservient to the Pope in having converted the Saxons by Aidan Finan and Colman From this Matter of Fact I observe 1. That we own'd the same origination there that our Historians do to this day and so our Ancestors differ'd not from our Historians much less are they irreconcilable as St. Asaph alleadges 2. That the English acknowledg'd us to be as ancient as the Britons they and we being descended from two Brothers 3. That what we said of St. Andrew must needs be upon design to have oblidg'd the Pope meaning certainly either that we were then first effectually converted to the Church of Rome from the Oriental Observations in which we were very long very obstinate and that Rome consider'd that as the true Conversion or that after that time we first became subject tho not feudatary to the Pope as these forecited words subjoyn'd do insinuate But that our conversion from Paganism was more than 400 Years before the Saxons is positively asserted in that same Apology Nor can this have another meaning for it is undeniable that we were Christians long before the reign of Hungus who reign'd 800 Years after Christ and Colman c. liv'd long before that King Nor was Hungus our King we being only Auxiliaries to him then as King of the Picts after which Apology King Robert the 1st being crown'd and having defeated King Edward at Banock-burn where he gain'd a most signal Victory over the English they then being low made application to the Pope and he having discharg'd us by a formal Interdiction to pursue the Victory into England the Nobility to pacify that Pope and to remove the Interdiction at the desire of the King wrote Letter wherein they own the Antiquity of our Nation and Religion and Royal-Line mentioning when we came from Spain as our Historians do with whom they agree exactly Vt ex antiquorum gestis libris collegimus says the Letter which being prior to Fordon proves that all this was not Fordon's Dream and that our History is well founded on old Records prior to Fordon And lastly it appears that our Kings were not Vassals to England for their Crown but only for these Provinces as my Lord St. Asaph confesses and as I have prov'd in my Treatise of Precedency albeit our Independency was as much controverted of old as our Antiquity is now and I hope that the one will shortly appear as unjust a Pretence as the other is already confest to be From this it appears that there is rather a Harmony than real Contradiction here and that any seeming Contradiction is far less than the real ones betwixt Beda and the Bishop of St. Asaph and the following Contradictions wherein he differs from himself For clearing whereof observe That the Bishop says he questions not the truth of any thing that is said to have been within 800 nay within 1400 Years but so it is that this would bring us to be setled here before the Year 300 after Christ for substract 1400 out of 1684 which is the Year in which the Bishop prints his Book his Lordship can controvert nothing except what was done within 284 Years after Christ And yet he decryes our Historians for saying that we were settl'd here before the Year 503 and denies our being Christians for many Years after the Year 300 and to improve this learn'd Bishop's just Concession I must remark that all our Historians agree that Gregory the great King of Scotland who died Anno 892 added Northumberland to the Merse and having defeated the Britons at Lochmaben he forc'd them to renew their ancient League and to confirm to him the former Right his Predecessors got from them to Cumberland and Westmorland for assisting them against the Picts and Saxons which shews also what great things we could do not only alone without but even against the Picts All which being said by our Historians not only within the 1400 Years but the 800 are not controvertible by the Bishop's concession and therefore I understand not why he asserts that we had nothing but the Kingdom of Argyle before the beating and extirpating of the Picts who gave us their possession beyond Drumalbain Nor can I reconcile how the Bishop asserts all alongst and particularly that the Picts had nothing besouth Grahams-dyke or the
Frith of Forth and Clyde and yet he confesses that amongst the South-Picts there was a Monastery of St. Martin at Whit-horn founded by St. Ninian in honour of that Saint and Whit-horn is in Galloway in the furthest south point of our Scotland near eighty miles besouth Forth and himself also confesses Whit-horn to be in Galloway The fourth Objection being that our Historians have followed Ieffrey of Monmoth in many rediculous inventions which were purely his own and particularly in the History of Bassianus who being Emperour is by him pretended to have been kill'd in Britain by Fulgentius which tho Buchannan does not exactly follow yet he still makes Bassianus to have been a Roman Lieutenant and to have been kill'd in Britain whereas it appears not from any Roman Authors that there was any Roman Lieutenant here To this it is answered That no Man comparing our Histories with Ieffrey of Monmouth can think so for we bring not our Nation from Brutus as he does against common sense and tho Ieffrey tells a story of Bassianus the Emperour being kill'd in Britain which contradicts the Roman Story yet Fordon does expresly say it was not that Bassianus who was Emperour but a Captain sent here and so does not follow but contradict Ieffrey And Buchannan to shew that he does not follow him and he understood too well the Roman Story to do so only relates that there was a Bassianus kill'd which no Roman History contradicts and which is not to be presum'd Buchannan would have made since there is nothing in it for the advantage of his Nation and as it is probable the Emperour would not have suffer'd Carausius to make such great preparations without sending a considerable Captain especially since Eutropius tells that after many Wars attempted with Carausius he at last concluded to send a Captain against him without naming who that Captain was It were a hard thing therefore to conclude so great Authors were forgers because they condescend not upon an Author for every indifferent Circumstance and the Notitia Imperii is so far from having taken notice of every Lieutenant in a Legion that I can prove by many Texts of the Civil Law that even Consuls themselves have been forgot when they were only chosen to succeed to those who died during their Consulship But the great Objection used by the Bishop against our Antiquity lyes in the 4th § of the Bishop's first Chapter wherein he asserts That Ireland was peopled by the Scots and was the only Scotland before these times viz. before the Year 503 And in the 5th § That there were no Scots in Britain before the said Year 300. And in the 6th and 8th § That the Scots betwixt the 300 and 500 Years were indeed here but not setled and only by way of Incursion And in the 9th § he asserts That about the Year 500 they first setled here and erected the Kingdom of Argile And in the 12th and 13th § he asserts That after the Year 900 we got the rest of the Country and then only it came to be called Scotland For clearing all these Mistakes without partiality or humour I shall sum up my Answers in these distinct Propositions First It is undeniable in it self and acknowledged by our Adversaries that the first special Names under which Ireland was known were Ierna among the Greeks and Hibernia among the Latins both of which are as I said acknowledg'd by Bishop Vsher himself My second Position is That before the Year 300 there is no Foreign Author produced by either Nation that mentions Scotia Scoti or Scoticae gentes except Seneca who mentions the Scoto-brigantes and Florus the Scoticae pruinae and Hegisippus who mentions Scotia and Porphyrie who mentions Scoticae gentes And tho I have prov'd formerly all these Authors and Passages to be genuine and applicable to us alone yet tho they were only spurious Authors or the conjectural Readings of new Criticks as Bishop Vsher whom my Lord St. Asaph follows alledges Porphyrie only excepted whose Testimony is admitted by him to be in the third Century It clearly follows that my Lord St. Asaph has without sufficient Warrant asserted in the forementioned place that Ireland was called Scotland before the Year 300 he admitting no Author for this save Porphyrie whose Book he acknowledges not to be extant but to be only cited by Ierom who liv'd long after the Year 300. 3. My chief Design in this Book is not to debate the Antiquity of the Names of Scotia or Scoti but only when we first setled under Kings in this Isle And consequently though Arch-bishop Vsher and the Bishop of St. Asaph could prove that the words Scotia and Scoti were not known the first 300 Years except in Porphyrie yet that cannot prove that we were not setled here before that Time For it is undeniable that many Nations have had peculiar Names before those Names can be found in History as Scaliger very well proves and they could not be known in Histories till other Nations had commerce with them and wrote of them which was a thing very accidental And Foreigners do oft-times design Nations by Appellatives which they themselves invent And it is asserted by Bp Vsher that the Scots inhabited Ireland long before the Year 300 tho till then he cannot give an Author for that word And who can deny that the Picts liv'd long here before Eumenius who first mention'd them and liv'd long after Porphyrie who mentions the Scots And it is very observable that to this day neither the Irish nor we are call'd Scots in the true Irish Language for they call their own Country-men Erenach from the word Ierna or Ibernia and us Albanach from Albion and Albania Which also clears that we got that name long before Iulius Caesar's Time since before that time the word Albian was run into desuetude and was succeeded to by the more known name of Britannia And these Originations are the more confirm'd that to this day the same Irish and our Highlanders know no other names to the English save Sassanach because of Saxony from which they came as they call'd us Albanach to distinguish us from themselves from the Country to which we came Which may give us likewise a hint how by Names without Histories most ancient Monuments of Antiquity may be preserv'd And it is fully prov'd before that time we were known in this Country under the name of Dalreudini and Caledonii 4. All those uncontroverted Testimonies that make first mention of the Scots and of Scotland are only applicable to us such as Claudian Pacatius Ammianus c. as has formerly been fully prov'd And since Hegesippus is the first Author produc'd by the Bp of St. Asaph who mentions Scotia and that it has been formerly prov'd that these Passages relate to Us and not to Ireland it follows clearly that the name Scotia was given to Us before it was given to Ireland or
is That no Author mentions our Country by the name of Scotia for the first 1000 years whereas most of all the former Authors both within and without the Isle prove Scotia to have been the name of our Country and the whole Tract of Beda's History proves that since the year 560 this Country was generally so called Whereas neither Gildas nor Beda who lived near that Time and wrote whole Books of us do once call it Dalrieda or Argyle and consequently as I observ'd before the Bishop of St. Asaph's whole Sect. 9. of the first Chapter wherein he asserts that about the Year 500 the Scots erected the Kingdom of Argile or Dalrieda is most unwarrantable for though Beda calls us once Dalreudini yet this is spoken of us by him in the Time of our King Reuda and so near 70 Years before the 503 after Christ. And from this also arises a clear confutation of what the Bishop of St. Asaph asserts that no Author writing within the 1000 Years and naming Scotia means Us which is so far from being so that no Author of Credit Isidore only excepted did then by Scotia mean Ireland And the best Authority that Arch-bishop Vsher gives us for Dalrieda is Iocelin which my Lord St. Asaph hath improved by a new authority out of a Manuscript of the Lord Burghlie's where the Author thinks that Dalrieda and the Kingdom of Argile are the same Authors not to be once mentioned with those whom we cite 7. The distinction of Scotia Major and Minor is lately invented for either Ireland was called Scotia Major before the Year 1000 or only since if the first then it necessarily implyeth that at that Time our Country was also call'd Scotia Minor there being no other place assignable But this is contrary to Arch-bishop Vsher and my Lord St. Asaph's Position who deny our Country was called Scotia at all for the first 1000 Years If it be asserted that this distinction was after the 1000 Years then there was little or no use for it For Vsher tells us that Nubiensis Geographus about the Year 1150 describes Ireland by the name of Hibernia and describes our Country by the name of Scotia and so it seems at that time Ireland had lost the name in our favour and it is not to be imagin'd that Nubiensis remarked the first Periods of the change of the Name and Geographers do describe Countries by their ordinary Names Nor does Vsher produce any other Testimony save a Letter of Dovenaldus Oneil Prince of Vlster to Pope Iohn 22d wherein there is this passage Beside the Kings of lesser Scotland who all came originally from our greater Scotland And a Patent of Sigismund the Emperor To the Convent of the Scots and Irish of Greater Scotland of a Monastery in Ratisbone Now Vsher acknowledgeth the eldest of these two Citations were in the 14th or 15th Century when I hope no body will assert that Ireland was called Scotia Major or that ever the Kings of England who were Lords of Ireland were ever called Lords Majoris Scotiae and it is probable they would have very much affected that Title if the Country had had that name altho they could never make themselves Masters Scotiae Minoris But it is no wonder that the Irish should be glad to tell Foreigners that they were our Chief and so their Country ought to be called Scotia Major notwithstanding that our Nation was then become great and glorious and that Vsher can find no better authority for his distinction of Scotia Major and Minor than these borrowed and magnifying Names used long after he himself acknowledgeth that Ireland had lost the name of Scotia and that We were only in possession of it 8. The mistaking of the Names of Scotia and Hibernia and of that assertion Scotia eadem Hibernia and applying these Names still to Ireland and not to our Country hath been the Ground whereupon we have been injured as to the antiquity of our Kings and Country Saints and learned Men Monasteries and greatness Abroad For admitting it to be true that we were not setled here till the Year 500 yet we have been so happy as to have such excellent Men and to have done so considerable Actions as have been sufficient to tempt our Neighbours and particularly the Irish to take great pains to have both pass for their own In order to which the Irish have lately invented the distinction of Scotia Major and Minor to the end that when any considerable Person is called a Scots-man in History they might claim him as descended from the Greater Scotland But besides that this distinction is too new to be extended to ancient Writers How can it be imagined that our Country only having passed under the Name of Scotland before the 300 and after the 1100 as has been proved Ireland should have assumed the Name of Scotland in that Interval Is it not more reasonable to think that our Country which alone was design'd by that Name before the 300 and after 1100 bore it likewise only or at least chiefly during that interval But to assert that during that space another Country had our old and present designation in a more peculiar manner than we and that in dubious Cases it must be appropriated to them is a piece of confidence which even eminent Wit and Learning cannot support And yet we find in Malcom the Second's Time as was formerly observ'd who began to Reign in the Year 1004 That the Frith of Forth in his Laws in the Book of Regiam Majestatem is call'd Mare Scotiae And it is said there that the same King did distribute omnem Terram Scotiae hominibus suis and it is not to be concluded that this was the first time that our Country was so call'd And about that time Ireland was expressed only by the name of Hibernia for King Henry the 2d of England who began to Reign in the Year 1154 is stiled Lord of Ireland And to clear further that Scotia about those times was the ordinary name for Scotland and Hebernia for Ireland I shall only add some few Passages out of Marianus Scotus who was born in the Year 1028 and died in the Year 1086 who sayes that about the Year 1016 Brianus King of Ireland was killed and a little thereafter at the Year 1034. Malcolm King of Scotland died and Duncan the Son of his Daughter succeeded him And after that he sayes at the Year 1040 Duncan King of Scotland was killed and the son of Finlay succeeded in his Kingdom whom afterward he calls Machetad King of Scotland All which passages agree exactly with our History and the summary of our Kings Lives as they are recorded in our Acts of Parliament and prove that Marianus treats of Scotland and Ireland as different Kingdoms in his Time In the last place I shall make some Remarks upon the most palpable of these Mistakes and of the chief Authors
thereof wherein I shall vindicate the Right and Dignity of our Country and assert these worthy Persons controverted to be ours I shall not insist much against Stanihurst he being solidly confuted by Camerarius and with that severity by Dempster that his Nephew Bishop Vsher as the Duke of Lauderdail remarked in some Judicious Reflections of his upon this occasion did highly resent it and in this Matter hath exceeded his usual Temperament and Moderation And yet Stanihurst never speaks injuriously of our Nation for though he mistakes many things and applys them to his own Country yet it appears to be rather of Design to magnifie it than injure ours for he acknowledeth ingenuously That he doth not clearly see from what time the Name of Scotland commenced And though thereafter he taxeth Boethius upon the Subject of Gathelus and Scota and that he mixeth Fables and Vain glory with his History yet he neither disapproves of Buchannan nor follows he Luddus both of whom he cites and who were immediatly before him his Book being printed at Antwerp in the Year 1584. In his Appendix also Commenting upon Giraldus Cambrensis a Welsh-man and Scretary to King Henry 2d of England and flourished before the end of the 12th Century He translates Cambrensis who describes Ireland by the name of Hibernia and makes frequent mention of our Country under the name of Scotia as when he speaks of the extent of Ireland he says as Stanihurst interprets it that it is equal in largeness to Wales and Scotland And elsewhere he says that Scotland is called the North part of the Isle of Britain And afterwards he tells the Story of Moreds six Sons and that from them the Inhabitants of the North part of Britain by a specifick word were called the Scotish Nation And Stanihurst in his Annotations on these two Chapters contends that before St. Patrick's time our Country was called Scotia and brings for proofs St. Ierome who asserts that the Scots were Gens Britannica but with great concern he vindicates us from the calumny of eating Mens Flesh and for our Antiquity he cites Beda who says that Sub duce Rendâ we made a third Nation in Britain So that we see that neither the Welsh in Giraldus's time nor the Irish in Stanihurst's time had the Opinion of our late Settlement and that our Country was not call'd Scotia for 1000 Years after Christ which their Successors Luddus Cambden Vsher and St. Asaph have had And the Irish in those days took a far better way for advancing their own interest in doing us justice since from all the considerable Actions we did there did arise a measure of that Honour to them from whose Country we came as a Colony Whereas since they were influenc'd by Strangers they have suffer'd themselves to be impos'd upon so as to lessen our true Merit in appropriating immediatly to themselves those devout persons who were really our Country-men not considering that the material unjustice was much greater than the imaginary honour And this Plagiarism and Man-stealing became easie to them since our Reformation from Popery because after that time we became too careless of those eminent Persons both at home and abroad who had liv'd in the Roman Communion or before that time But I will not insist on this for I hope their native kindness will incline them to return to their first just methods If I had leisure I would make larger Reflections to prove how unconsequential Arch Bp Vsher is in making Sedulus and Marianus Irish since by all Writers they are both call'd Scots and Balaeus an Englishman tells us that Sedulius flourish'd under Fergus 2d and Marianus under Macbeth both our Kings and Baronius asserts also this positively And Sedulius having liv'd before St. Patrick's Time who was the first Apostle of Ireland and being Disciple to Hildebert an acknowledg'd Scot and who liv'd in the 390 must be prior to the Irish Christianity which Giraldus and Stanihurst acknowledge to have been first planted by St. Patrick in the Year 432. Nor can Vsher in all his vast reading find any Christians in Ireland betwixt the Year 400 and 432 which was St. Patrick's Time but Kiaranus Ailbeus Declanus Ibarus Tho if Sedulius had been an Irish he had been certainly mention'd and employ'd before those obscure Persons and certainly he would have employed himself before St. Patrick's Time in the Conversion of his own native Country if he had been truly Irish. And as to Marianus Scotus it is a wonder how it can be controverted that he was a Scots-man since our Country was then called Scotland by the Bp of St. Asaph's own confession and Ireland was just then losing that name and Marianus in his whole Book distinguishes betwixt Scoti and Hiberni and mentions the forementioned three Kings of Scotland about whose Time he liv'd and also makes mention of one King of Ireland about that time as has been observed already and particularly speaking of the Conversions by Palladius and St. Patrick he expresly distinguishes betwixt Scoti and Hibernenses But passing these I confess it is pretty ridiculous to see a whole Book written by the above-mentioned Vardaeus and glossed by Sirin and published at Louvain 1662 to prove that Rumoldus Arch-Bishop of Mechlin was an Irish-man since the Arms of Scotland which are Or a Lion Rampant Gules within a doubles Tressure flowred and counterflowred with Flower de lis of the same are plac'd upon every Window of the Catherdral Church built by him and are to this day a part of the Arms of that Archi-Episcopal See Rumoldus himself being a younger Brother of the Royal-Family of Scotland And in which witty Book the Author to confute this is forced to maintain that the Scotish Lion is born by several Irish Familes And the double Tressure tho anciently born by Scotland and which is Blazon'd in that Archi-Episcopal Coat of Arms might have been born by the Irish because that famous League betwixt the Scots and Charlemaigne was made with the Kings of Ireland and not with the Kings of Scotland and that our Kings had never any Leagues with the French till the reign of Charles 7th who was contemporary with our King Iames 1st Whereas the whole French Histories as well as ours and all Foreign Historians as well as either the Leagues yet extant the Priviledges granted thereupon to us recorded in the French Registers and ours many Decisions in Parliaments and other Courts and the universal consent of all the French who ever liv'd since that Time do in all Humility seem to be sufficient Warrants for laughing at this monstruous Assertion as I do at him and others who pretend that the Scotish Monasteries in Germany are Irish since they were founded in Charle-Maigne's Time by William Brother to our King Achaius and others that went there with him and they are to this day govern'd by Abbots and Priors of our Country Nor can it