Servant and Steward: Scotland

One of the highlights of my Easter holiday to Scotland was a visit to Loch Ness. Though I did not see Nessie, the beauty of the loch itself was worth the somewhat out of the way drive:

Surrounded as it is by forests and hills, and despite being a place of tranquility and beauty, Loch Ness is a place that, if it doesn't have a monster, feels as if it should have a monster. Imagine my surprise, then, when the priest who was showing me around his beloved land told me that Saint Columba (who died on June 9, 597) himself is said to have encountered Nessie.

The tale is recorded in Adamnan's The Life of St. Columba and is available over at Fish Eaters:

On another occasion also, when the blessed man was living for some days in the province of the Picts, he was obliged to cross the river Nesa; and when he reached the bank of the river, he saw some of the inhabitants burying an unfortunate man, who, according to the account of those who were burying him, was a short time before seized, as he was swimming, and bitten most severely by a monster that lived in the water; his wretched body was, though too late, taken out with a hook, by those who came to his assistance in a boat.

The blessed man, on hearing this, was so far from being dismayed, that he directed one of his companions to swim over and row across the coble that was moored at the farther bank.

And Lugne Mocumin hearing the command of the excellent man, obeyed without the least delay, taking off all his clothes, except his tunic, and leaping into the water.

But the monster, which, so far from being satiated, was only roused for more prey, was lying at the bottom of the stream, and when it felt the water disturbed above by the man swimming, suddenly rushed out, and, giving an awful roar, darted after him, with its mouth wide open, as the man swam in the middle of the stream.

Then the blessed man observing this, raised his holy hand, while all the rest, brethren as well as strangers, were stupefied with terror, and, invoking the name of God, formed the saving sign of the cross in the air, and commanded the ferocious monster, saying, "Thou shalt go no further, nor touch the man; go back with all speed." Then at the voice of the saint, the monster was terrified, and fled more quickly than if it had been pulled back with ropes, though it had just got so near to Lugne, as he swam, that there was not more than the length of a spear-staff between the man and the beast.

Then the brethren seeing that the monster had gone back, and that their comrade Lugne returned to them in the boat safe and sound, were struck with admiration, and gave glory to God in the blessed man. And even the barbarous heathens, who were present, were forced by the greatness of this miracle, which they themselves had seen, to magnify the God of the Christians (Chapter XXVIII).

As you can tell, the legend of the Loch Ness Monster goes back quite a long time.

20 April 2015

Reforming the teaching of the Reformation, as seen in Scotland

Professor Eamon Duffy has written a brief article in which he argues why the story of the Reformation needs reforming. Duffy's argument, however, is not simply another attempt at "revisionist" history, but rather an attempt to tell what really happened:

For five centuries England has been in denial about the role of Roman Catholicism in shaping it. The coin in your pocket declares the monarch to be Defender of the Faith. Since 1558 that has meant the Protestant faith, but Henry VIII actually got the title from the Pope for defending Catholicism against Luther. Henry eventually broke with Rome because the Pope refused him a divorce, and along with the papacy went saints, pilgrimage, the monastic life, eventually even the Mass itself – the pillars of medieval Christianity.

All of this was accompanied by tremendous destruction of Catholic churches, cathedrals, libraries, monasteries, etc., not just in England, but across Europe. Over the Easter holiday I witnessed firsthand some of this destruction wrought in Scotland, especially at the ruins of the Cathedral of St. Andrew in St. Andrews.

The above photo was taken from near what had been the main doors of the Cathedral of St. Andrew, looking toward what remains of the wall behind the main altar, behind which was the choir for the canons of the Cathedral.

This photo gives you just a small sense of the size, grandeur, and beauty of the most important cathedral in Scotland, first completed in 1272 (it underwent a few renovations/restorations after that):

John Knox, one of the "reformers" in Scotland, preached so vehemently in 1559 that he roused the people to rip down the trappings in the cathedral. By 1600, the Cathedral of St. Andrew was in ruins, after which the grounds of the Cathedral were turned into a cemetery:

Even the graves of the canons were desecrated:

One of the official signs in the ruins of the cathedral even declared the Catholics had "abandoned" the cathedral complex, without bothering to mention why. Regrettably, I did not take a picture of this sign.

As if all of this destruction were not senseless enough on its own, the "reformers" of the Church of Scotland, after destroying Catholic churches, built their own churches, in Gothic style, complete with stained-glass windows, statues of saints, votive candles, and holy water.

Such destruction in Scotland was, of course, not only reserved to the Cathedral of St. Andrew. A sign in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh noted that "the fortunes of the Catholic Church were affected by the religious leanings of the monarch." A more honest way to put it would be to say that the treasures of the Catholic Church were stolen. What are these treasures to which the sign refers? These:

That's right: the treasures of the Catholic Church "affected" by the monarchs were the vessels and appointments used for the worship of God. You will not likely read about this in most history textbooks.

As a student of history, I have studied this destruction wrought by the so-called Reformation, but, in my 37 years of life, this was the first time I walked in Catholic places destroyed by Protestants. I have, over the years, been in many Catholic places destroyed by Muslims, which is lamentable enough, but there was something especially sad and painful about walking in Catholic places destroyed by fellow Christians, a pain of which I could not find the words to express.

Why is this aspect of the history of the Reformation not well known and discussed in history classes and textbooks? Professor Duffy briefly explains:

At the height of the hysteria, Protestant mythology achieved definitive form in a book that would shape the writing of Tudor history down to our own day. In 1679 Gilbert Burnet, a Scottish cleric, published the first volume of a massive History of the Reformation, an anti-Catholic narrative given scholarly credibility by the inclusion of dozens of documents gathered from public and private archives. Burnet would be the chief propagandist for the “Glorious Revolution” which deposed James II and set the Protestant William of Orange on the throne. His history rammed home the message that Catholicism and Englishness were utterly incompatible: Catholicism was tyranny, Protestantism liberation. “They hate us,” he wrote, “because we dare to be freemen and Protestants.”

It was a message the nation wanted to hear: Burnet was thanked by a special vote of Parliament. His work was supplemented by John Strype, another ardent “Orange” cleric, in a stream of biographies and collections of Reformation documents, many of them gathered from Foxe’s archives. Till well into the 20th century, historians of the English Reformation would rely on Burnet and Strype for their source materials, in the process perpetuating their late-Stuart take on the Tudor age.

Thankfully, as Duffy goes on to note, "historians no longer take that venerable Protestant version for granted, but it is still alive and well in the wider culture." Still, there is much work yet to be done to give a true and accurate account of what happened, and why.

About

06 July 2017

Islamic State Ongoing Updates - July 2017

09 June 2015

Saint Columba, Nessie, and the power of the Cross

20 April 2015

Reforming the teaching of the Reformation, as seen in Scotland