Download the full version of the ebook at

https://ebookmass.com

PreTest Emergency Medicine Adam J. Rosh

https://ebookmass.com/product/pretest-emergency-
medicine-adam-j-rosh/

Explore and download more ebook at https://ebookmass.com

 Recommended digital products (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) that
you can download immediately if you are interested.

PreTest Emergency Medicine 5th Edition Edition Adam J.

Rosh

https://ebookmass.com/product/pretest-emergency-medicine-5th-edition-
edition-adam-j-rosh/

testbankdeal.com

Atlas of Emergency Medicine 5th Edition Kevin J. Knoop

https://ebookmass.com/product/atlas-of-emergency-medicine-5th-edition-
kevin-j-knoop/

testbankdeal.com

The Atlas of Emergency Medicine 4th Edition Kevin J. Knoop

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-atlas-of-emergency-medicine-4th-
edition-kevin-j-knoop/

testbankdeal.com

Reichman’s Emergency Medicine Procedures 3rd Edition

Edition Eric F. Reichman

https://ebookmass.com/product/reichmans-emergency-medicine-
procedures-3rd-edition-edition-eric-f-reichman/

testbankdeal.com
Pretest Neurology 10th Edition David J. Anschel & Daniel
Dicapua

https://ebookmass.com/product/pretest-neurology-10th-edition-david-j-
anschel-daniel-dicapua/

testbankdeal.com

Family Medicine PreTest Self-Assessment and Review 4th

Edition Edition Doug Knuston

https://ebookmass.com/product/family-medicine-pretest-self-assessment-
and-review-4th-edition-edition-doug-knuston/

testbankdeal.com

Socially Extended Epistemology J. Adam Carter

https://ebookmass.com/product/socially-extended-epistemology-j-adam-
carter/

testbankdeal.com

The Ultimate Emergency Medicine Guide – Ebook PDF Version

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-ultimate-emergency-medicine-guide-
ebook-pdf-version/

testbankdeal.com

Critical Care Emergency Medicine 2nd Edition William Chiu

https://ebookmass.com/product/critical-care-emergency-medicine-2nd-
edition-william-chiu/

testbankdeal.com
 Notice
Medicine is an ever-changing science. As new research and clinical
experience broaden our knowledge, changes in treatment and
drug therapy are required. The authors and the publisher of this
work have checked with sources believed to be reliable in their
efforts to provide information that is complete and generally in
accord with the standards accepted at the time of publication.
However, in view of the possibility of human error or changes in
medical sciences, neither the authors nor the publisher nor any
other party who has been involved in the preparation or
publication of this work warrants that the information contained
herein is in every respect accurate or complete, and they disclaim
all responsibility for any errors or omissions or for the results
obtained from use of the information contained in this work.
Readers are encouraged to confirm the information contained
herein with other sources. For example and in particular, readers
are advised to check the product information sheet included in the
package of each drug they plan to administer to be certain that the
information contained in this work is accurate and that changes
have not been made in the recommended dose or in the
contraindications for administration. This recommendation is of
particular importance in connection with new or infrequently used
drugs.
Copyright © 2021 by McGraw Hill. All rights reserved. Except as
permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of
this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by
any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the
prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-26-046895-3
MHID: 1-26-046895-X

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this
title: ISBN: 978-1-26-046894-6, MHID: 1-26-046894-1.

eBook conversion by codeMantra

Version 1.0

All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather

than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a
trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and
to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of
infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in
this book, they have been printed with initial caps.

McGraw-Hill Education eBooks are available at special quantity

discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions or for use in
corporate training programs. To contact a representative, please visit
the Contact Us page at www.mhprofessional.com.

TERMS OF USE

This is a copyrighted work and McGraw-Hill Education and its

licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is
subject to these terms. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act
of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work,
you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce,
modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute,
disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it
without McGraw-Hill Education’s prior consent. You may use the
work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use
of the work is strictly prohibited. Your right to use the work may be
terminated if you fail to comply with these terms.

THE WORK IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” McGRAW-HILL EDUCATION AND

ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO
THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS
TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK, INCLUDING ANY
INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA
HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY
WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. McGraw-Hill Education and its licensors do
not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work
will meet your requirements or that its operation will be
uninterrupted or error free. Neither McGraw-Hill Education nor its
licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy,
error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any
damages resulting therefrom. McGraw-Hill Education has no
responsibility for the content of any information accessed through
the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill Education
and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special,
punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use
of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised
of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall
apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause
arises in contract, tort or otherwise.
 Contributors
Nicole A. Bonk, MD
Assistant Professor (CHS)
Department of Family Medicine and Community Health
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Gastrointestinal Bleeding

Shannon M. Burke, MD
Resident, Class of 2021
BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Fever

Lauren J. Curato, DO, FACEP

Assistant Professor
Department of Emergency Medicine
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
New York-Presbyterian Hospital
New York, New York
Chest Pain and Cardiac Dysrhythmias

Bram A. Dolcourt, MD
Associate Residency Program Director
Sinai-Grace Hospital, Detroit Medical Center
Assistant Professor
Department of Emergency Medicine
Medical Toxicology
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan
Poisoning and Overdose

Joshua Gauger, MD, MBA

Assistant Medical Director
Assistant Professor (CHS)
BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Trauma, Shock, and Resuscitation

Jonah Gunalda, MD
Assistant Professor
Clerkship Director
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Jackson, Mississippi
Abdominal and Pelvic Pain
Altered Mental Status
Headache, Weakness, and Dizziness
Professionalism, Ethics, and Communication

Megan E. Gussick, MD
Assistant Professor
Assistant Medical Director, Division of Prehospital Medicine
BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Wound Care
Corlin Jewell, MD
Education Fellow
BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Environmental Exposures

Aaron Kraut, MD
Residency Program Director
Assistant Professor (CHS)
BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Fever

Nicholas A. Kuehnel, MD
Medical Director, Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Assistant Professor (CHS)
BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Pediatrics

Michael Mancera, MD, FAEMS

Associate EMS Medical Director
Assistant Professor (CHS)
BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Prehospital, Disaster, and Administration

Benjamin R. Parva, MD
 Visit https://ebookmass.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks and enjoy
exciting offers!
Resident, Class of 2022
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Jackson, Mississippi
Altered Mental Status

Kaitlin Ray, MD
Assistant Residency Program Director
Assistant Professor (CHS)
BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Musculoskeletal Injuries

Dana Resop, MD
Assistant Director of Clinical Ultrasound
Assistant Professor
BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Vaginal Bleeding
Ultrasound in Emergency Medicine

Adam J. Rosh, MD, MS, FACEP

Attending Physician
Department of Emergency Medicine
Southern Ohio Medical Center
Portsmouth, Ohio

Daniel Rutz, MD
Assistant Professor (CHS)
BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Eye Pain and Visual Change
Endocrine Emergencies
Psychosocial Disorders
Emerging Infectious Diseases

Jessica Schmidt, MD, MPH

Assistant Ultrasound Director, Medical Student Education
Director of Global Health
Assistant Professor (CHS)
BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisconsin
Ultrasound in Emergency Medicine

Lauren M. Titone, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Emergency Medicine
Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
New York, New York
Shortness of Breath
 Contents
Introduction
Acknowledgments

Chest Pain and Cardiac Dysrhythmias

Questions
Answers

Shortness of Breath
Questions
Answers

Abdominal and Pelvic Pain

Questions
Answers

Trauma, Shock, and Resuscitation

Questions
Answers

Fever
Questions
Answers

Poisoning and Overdose

Questions
Answers
 Altered Mental Status
Questions
Answers

Gastrointestinal Bleeding
Questions
Answers

Musculoskeletal Injuries
Questions
Answers

Headache, Weakness, and Dizziness

Questions
Answers

Pediatrics
Questions
Answers

Vaginal Bleeding
Questions
Answers

Ultrasound in Emergency Medicine

Questions
Answers

Environmental Exposures
Questions
Answers
 Eye Pain and Visual Change
Questions
Answers

Prehospital, Disaster, and Administration

Questions
Answers

Wound Care
Questions
Answers

Endocrine Emergencies
Questions
Answers

Psychosocial Disorders
Questions
Answers

Emerging Infectious Diseases

Questions
Answers

Professionalism, Ethics, and Communication

Questions
Answers

Index
 Introduction
Emergency Medicine: PreTest® Self-Assessment and Review, Fifth
Edition, is intended to provide medical students, as well as house
officers and physicians, with a convenient tool for assessing and
improving their knowledge of emergency medicine. The 570
questions in this book are similar in format and complexity to those
included in step 2 of the United States Medical Licensing
Examination (USMLE). They may also be a useful study tool for step
3, the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Emergency
Medicine and other clerkship examinations.
Each question in this book has a corresponding answer and a
short discussion of various issues raised by the question and its
answer. For multiple-choice questions, the one best response to
each question should be selected. A listing of subject-based
recommended readings follows each chapter.
To simulate the time constraints imposed by the qualifying
examinations for which this book is intended as a practice guide, the
student or physician should allot approximately 1 minute for each
question. After answering all questions in a chapter, as much time as
necessary should be spent reviewing the explanations for each
question at the end of the chapter. Attention should be given to all
explanations, even if the examinee answered the question correctly.
Those seeking more information on a subject should refer to the
recommended reading lists or to other standard texts in emergency
medicine.
 Acknowledgments
A hearty thanks goes out to my family for their love and support,
Danielle, Ruby, Rhys, and especially my parents, Karl and Marcia; the
dedicated medical professionals of the emergency departments at
New York University/Bellevue Hospital, and Wayne State
University/Detroit Receiving Hospital; Catherine Johnson for giving
me this opportunity, and my patients, who put their trust in me, and
teach me something new each day.

Adam J. Rosh

I am forever grateful for the incredible women who shaped my path

in academic medicine: Drs. Gloria Kuhn, Melissa Barton, Michelle
Lall, and Azita Hamedani; the many talented emergency medicine
residents and medical students of both Wayne State University/Sinai-
Grace Hospital and University of Wisconsin for allowing me to be a
part of your education; Adam Rosh and McGraw Hill for this amazing
opportunity; and most of all, my family for loving and supporting me
along the way: especially my husband, Steve, our boys CJ and
Owen, my mom, and my dad.

Ciara J. Barclay-Buchanan
 Chest Pain and Cardiac
Dysrhythmias
Lauren J. Curato, DO, FACEP

Questions
The following scenario applies to questions 1-3.

A 38-year-old woman presents to the emergency department (ED)

with chest pain and mild shortness of breath that began the night
before. She was able to sleep without difficulty, but awoke in the
morning with persistent pain that worsens with a deep breath. Upon
walking up a flight of stairs, she became very short of breath,
prompting her ED visit. On physical exam, she was noted to be
tachycardic and have left calf pain. She has no past medical history
(PMH), but has smoked half pack per day for 15 years and is on an
oral contraceptive.

1. What is the most common electrocardiogram (ECG) finding for

this patient’s diagnosis?
a. S1Q3T3 pattern
b. Atrial fibrillation (AF)
c. Right-axis deviation
d. Right bundle-branch block (RBBB)
e. Sinus tachycardia

2. Which of the following tests is best to confirm the suspected

diagnosis?
a. Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP)
b. Cardiac troponin
c. Chest X-ray (CXR)
d. Computed tomography angiography (CTA) chest
e. D-dimer

3. Which of the following is an indication for the administration of

thrombolytics for this diagnosis?
a. Bilateral proximal clot
b. Hypotension
c. Persistent tachycardia
d. Right atrial dilation
e. Elevated BNP

4. A 70-year-old man with a long history of hypertension presents

to the ED complaining of intermittent palpitations for 1 week. He
denies chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea, and vomiting. He
recalls feeling similar episodes of palpitations a few months ago but
they resolved spontaneously. His blood pressure (BP) is 130/75 mm
Hg, heart rate (HR) is 140 beats/minute, respiratory rate (RR) is 16
breaths/minute, and oxygen saturation is 99% on room air. An ECG
is seen in the figure. Which of the following is the most appropriate
next step in management?

a. Sedate the patient for immediate synchronized cardioversion

with 100 J
b. Prepare patient for emergent cardiac catheterization
c. Administer oral warfarin
d. Administer intravenous (IV) amiodarone
e. Administer IV diltiazem
 Visit https://ebookmass.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks and enjoy
exciting offers!
The following scenario applies to questions 5 and 6.

A 54-year-old woman presents to the ED because of increased

weakness. Her daughter states the patient has been increasingly
tired, occasionally confused, and has not been eating her usual diet
for the past 3 days. The patient has a history of end-stage renal
disease (ESRD) requiring dialysis for the past 5 years. On
examination, the patient is alert and oriented to person only. The
remainder of her examination is normal. An initial 12-lead ECG is
performed as seen in the figure.

5. Which of the following electrolyte abnormalities best explains

these findings?
a. Hypokalemia
b. Hyperkalemia
c. Hypocalcemia
d. Hypercalcemia
e. Hyponatremia

6. Which of the following medications is most important to

administer first?
a. Albuterol
b. Calcium gluconate
c. Dextrose
d. Insulin
e. Kayexalate

7. A 29-year-old tall, thin man presents to the ED for shortness of

breath for 2 days. In the ED, he is in no acute distress. His BP is
115/70 mm Hg, HR is 81 beats/minute, RR is 16 breaths/minute,
and oxygen saturation is 98% on room air. Cardiac, lung, and
abdominal examinations are normal. An ECG reveals sinus rhythm at
a rate of 79 beats/minute. A chest radiograph shows a small right-
sided (<10% of the hemithorax) pneumothorax. A repeat CXR 6
hours later reveals a decreased pneumothorax. Which of the
following is the most appropriate next step in management?
a. Discharge the patient with follow-up in 24 hours
b. Perform needle decompression in the second intercostal space,
midclavicular line
c. Insert a 20 F chest tube into right hemithorax
d. Observe for another 6 hours
e. Admit for pleurodesis

8. A 42-year-old man is brought to the ED by emergency medical

services (EMS). He has a history of alcohol use with multiple
presentations for intoxication. Today, the patient complains of acute
onset, persistent chest pain associated with dysphagia, and pain
upon flexing his neck. His BP is 115/70 mm Hg, HR is 101
beats/minute, RR is 18 breaths/minute, and oxygen saturation is
97% on room air. As you listen to his heart, you hear a crunching
sound. His abdomen is soft with mild epigastric tenderness. The ECG
is sinus tachycardia without ST-T–wave abnormalities. On chest
radiograph, you note lateral displacement of the left mediastinal
pleura. What is the most likely diagnosis?
a. Aspiration pneumonia
b. Acute pancreatitis
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
overthrow of the Angles were, as we have seen, cordial and friendly.
In this work he appears to have been assisted by the family who had
already evangelised the rugged district termed the ‘Rough Bounds,’
as the churches dedicated to them and him are found adjacent to
each other. Among the northern Picts, Adamnan’s principal church
was that of Forglen on the east bank of the river Doveran, in which
the Brecbannoch, or banner of Columba, was preserved; and
separated from it by the same river is Turriff, dedicated to Comgan.
South of the range of the Mounth Adamnan’s most important
foundation was the monastery of Dull in the district of Atholl, which
was dedicated to him, and to which a very extensive territory was
annexed; and closely contiguous to it was the district of Glendochart,
with its monastery dedicated to Fillan, whose name is preserved in
Strathfillan. Fillan again appears in Pittenweem on the south coast of
the peninsula of Fife; and in the Firth of Forth which it bounds is
Inchkeith, ‘on which Saint Adamnan the abbot presided.’[349]
A.D. 704-717. Adamnan, though, as Bede says, a man of
Schism at Iona peace and providentially removed before the
after death of coming Easter, when matters would have been
Adamnan.
brought to a crisis between him and his
recalcitrant monks, seems notwithstanding to have left a legacy of
discord behind him. For the first time since the foundation of the
monastery of Iona, we find in the successor of Adamnan an abbot
who was not a descendant of Conall Gulban. Conmael, son of
Failbhe, was of the tribe of Airgialla in Ireland, who were descended
from Colla Uais; but three years after Adamnan’s death we find
Duncadh, who belonged to the tribe of the patron saint, obtaining the
abbacy. Then three years after we have the death of Conmael as
abbot of Iona. After his death appears Ceode, bishop of Iona, who
dies in 712, and in 713 Dorbeni obtains the chair of Iona, but after
five months’ possession of the primacy dies on Saturday the 28th of
October in the same year. During the whole of this time, however,
Duncadh is likewise abbot.[350] The explanation seems to be that the
community of Iona had become divided on the subject of the Easter
question, and that a party had become favourable to Adamnan’s
views. As he had not succeeded in bringing over any of the
Columban monasteries, they were driven to obtain an abbot
elsewhere, and procured the nomination of Conmael; while the
opposing party having got the upper hand three years after,
Duncadh, the legitimate successor of the line of Conall Gulban,
obtained the abbacy, and there was thus a schism in the community
—one section of them celebrating their Easter after the Roman
system, who had at their head Conmael, Ceode the bishop, and
Dorbeni; and the other and more powerful section maintaining, under
the presidency of Duncadh, the old custom of their church. After
narrating how ‘at that time,’ that is, in 710, ‘Naiton, king of the Picts
who inhabit the northern parts of Britain, taught by frequent study of
the ecclesiastical writings, renounced the error by which he and his
nation had till then been held in relation to the observance of Easter,
and submitted, together with his people, to celebrate the Catholic
time of our Lord’s resurrection,’ Bede closes his notices of the
monastery of Iona by telling us that ‘not long after, those monks also
of the Scottish nation who lived in the isle of Hii, with the other
monasteries that were subject to them, were, by the procurement of
our Lord, brought to the canonical observance of Easter and the right
mode of tonsure. For in the year after the incarnation of our Lord
716, the father and priest Ecgberct, beloved of God and worthy to be
named with all honour, coming to them from Ireland, was very
honourably and joyfully received by them. Being a most agreeable
teacher and most devout in practising those things which he taught,
he was willingly heard by all; and, by his pious and frequent
exhortations he converted them from the inveterate tradition of their
ancestors. He taught them to perform the principal solemnity after
the Catholic and apostolic manner;’ and Bede adds, ‘The monks of
Hii, by the instruction of Ecgberct, adopted the Catholic rites, under
Abbot Dunchad, about eighty years after they had sent Bishop Aidan
to preach to the nation of the Angles.’[351] It is rarely, however, that,
when a change is proposed in matters of faith or practice, a Christian
community is unanimous, and there is always an opposing minority
who refuse their assent to it. So it must have been here, for in the
same passage in which Tighernac notices the adoption of the
Catholic Easter in 716 he adds that Faelchu mac Dorbeni takes the
chair of Columba in the eighty-seventh year of his age, and on
Saturday the 29th of August; while he records the death of Abbot
Duncadh in the following year.[352] We have here again a schism in
the community; and no sooner does Abbot Duncadh with his
adherents go over to the Roman party, than the opposing section
adopt a new abbot.
A.D. 717 The greater part, if not the whole, of the
Expulsion of the dependent monasteries among the Picts seem to
Columban monks have resisted the change, and to have refused
from the kingdom
obedience to the decree which Bede tells us King
of the Picts.
Naiton had issued, when ‘the cycles of nineteen
years were forthwith by public command sent throughout all the
provinces of the Picts to be transcribed, learned and observed;’ for
we are told by Tighernac that in 717, when Abbot Duncadh had died
and Faelchu remained alone in possession of the abbacy, the family
of Iona were driven across Drumalban by King Naiton. In other
words, the whole of the Columban monks were expelled from his
kingdom;[353] and there is reason to think that Faelchu had been at
the head of one of these dependent monasteries in the territories of
the northern Picts.[354] It is possible that the monks of the
monasteries recently established among the southern Picts by
Adamnan may have conformed; but those of the older foundations,
such as Abernethy and Cillrigmonadh, or St. Andrews, were
probably driven out; and thus with the expulsion of the family of Iona
terminated the primacy of its monastery over the monasteries and
churches in the extensive districts of the east and north of Scotland
which formed at that time the kingdom of the Picts.

252. Exceptis duobus populis, hoc est, Pictorum plebs et

Scotorum Britanniæ, inter quos utrosque Dorsi montes Britannici
disterminant.... Cujus (Columbæ) monasteria intra utrorumque
populorum terminos fundata ab utrisque ad præsens tempus valde
sunt honorificata.—B. ii. c. 47·
253. For an account of the remains on this island, see p. 97.
254. See Dr. Reeves’s Adamnan, ed. 1874, App. I. p. 306.
255. Adamnan, B. ii. 23, 25.
256. Ib., B. i. cc. 24, 41; B. ii. c. 15; B. iii. c. 8. See ed. 1874,
Appendix I., for an account of the monasteries in Tiree.
257. Ib., B. i. c. 29.
 258. Ib., B. i. c. 35.
259. Adamnan, B. i. c. 15.
260. Ib., B. i. c. 24.
261. See Reeves’s Adamnan, ed. 1874, App. No. I., for an
account of the remains on this island.
262. Vit. S. Kannechi, cc. 19, 27, 28.
263. Adamnan, B. ii. c. 17; i. 25; ii. 32.
264. See the edition of 1874, p. 274, for a description of these
ruins in Skye.
265. 592 Obitus Lugdach Lissmoir .i. Moluoc.—Chron. Picts and
Scots, p. 67.
266. Colgan, Tr. Th., p. 481. Obits of Christ Church, Dublin, p. 65.
267. Colgan, A.SS., p. 233.
268. Reeves’s Adamnan, ed. 1874, p. 293.
269. Cetrar for coicait lotar hi martrai la Donnan Ega.
270. Book of Deer, published by the Spalding Club in 1869, p. 91.
271. 584 Mors Bruidhe mac Maelchon Rig Cruithneach.—Chron.
Picts and Scots, p. 67.
272. Adamnan, B. ii. c. 34.
273. Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 201. Constantin reigned from 790
to 820 and Gartnaidh from 584 to 599, which places the foundation
of Abernethy during the ten years from 584 to 596.
274. Amra Columcille, by O’Beirne Crowe, pp. 29, 63.
275. Introduction to Obits of Christ Church, by Dr. Todd, p. lxxvii.
276. Vit. S. Cainneci in Archbishop Marsh’s Library, Dublin, cap.
19. The Breviary of Aberdeen gives his festival as ‘Sancti Caynici
abbatis qui in Kennoquy in diocesi Sancti Andree pro patrono
habetur.’—Pars Æstiv. for cxxv.
277. Blaan is mentioned in the Martyrology of Angus the Culdee,
at 10th August as ‘Blann the wild of Cinngaradh;’ and the gloss adds,
‘i.e. bishop of Cinngaradh, i.e. Dumblaan is his chief city, and he is
also of Cinngaradh in the Gall-Gaedelu, or Western Isles.’—Int. to
Obits of Christ Church, p. lxviii.
278. Adamnan, B. i. c. 3. Alither became fourth abbot of
Clonmacnois on 12th June 585, and died in 599.—Reeves’s
Adamnan, orig. ed., p. 24, note.
279. Adamnan, B. iii. c. 23.
 280. This little hill is twice mentioned by Adamnan. In B. i. c. 24,
he describes the saint as ‘in cacumine sedens montis qui nostro huic
monasterio eminus supereminet;’ and on this occasion he has
‘monticellum monasterio supereminentum ascendens in vertice ejus
paululum stetit.’ If the monastery and Columba’s cell have been
rightly placed, it must have been the rocky knoll behind Clachanach
called Cnoc an bristeclach.
281. Vit. Columbæ, autore Cummenio, apud Pinkerton, Vitæ
Sanctorum, cc. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. Adamnan, B. iii. c. 24.
Cummene’s account is enlarged by Adamnan, and he has added the
visit to the barn and the incident of the white horse; but, as
Cummene wrote so much earlier, it has been thought desirable to
discriminate between the two accounts.
282. Adamnan’s word is ‘Ratabusta,’ an unknown word either in
classical or mediæval Latin; and it appears to have puzzled the
transcribers, as other MSS. read ‘Rata busta’ ‘Intra busta,’ ‘In rata
tabeta.’ The Bollandists propose ‘Catabusta.’ Bustum is used for a
sepulchre; and Ducange has Busticeta, which he defines ‘sepulchra
antiqua,’ ‘sepulchra in agro.’ Dr. Reeves thinks it is used here for a
coffin.
283. This frequently happens when the wind blows strongly from
the south-west.
284. St. Columba’s day was the 9th of June, and the year on
which he died is determined by the consideration of whether he must
be held to have died on Saturday evening or on Sunday morning. If
on Sunday, then the 9th of June fell on a Sunday in the year 597. If
on Saturday, then the 9th of June fell on a Saturday in 596. The
former is most consistent with Adamnan’s narrative, who places his
death after midnight, and states the duration of his life in Iona at 34
years, which, added to 563, gives us the year 597. Bede’s
statement, though made on different data, brings us to the same
year. He brings him over in 565, but gives 32 years as the duration of
his life after, which also brings us to 597. Tighernac seems to have
adopted the other view, for he says that he died on the eve of
Whitsunday, ‘in nocte Dominica Pentecosten,’ and Whitsunday fell
on the 10th of June 596; but this is inconsistent with his other
statement, that he came over to Britain in 563, and died in the thirty-
fifth year of his pilgrimage, which brings us to 597.
285. Montalembert’s Monks of the West, vol. iii. p. 269.
Montalembert accepts the whole of O’Donnel’s biography of St.
Columba as true.
286. Adamnan, Pref. 2. His expression ‘insulanus miles’ has been
entirely misunderstood by Montalembert.
287. Amra Choluimchille, by O’Beirne Crowe, pp. 27, 39, 49, 51,
53, 65.
288. Ib., p. 39.
289. Adamnan, B. i. c. 29.
290. Amra Choluimchille, pp. 43, 45.
291. Adamnan, B. ii. c. 14.
292. Bede, Η. E., B. iii. c. 3.
293. Bede seems to refer to this when he says, ‘in quibus omnibus
idem monasterium insulanum, in quo ipse requiescit corpore,
principatum teneret.’—B. iii. c. 4.
294. The expression, ‘whatever kind of person he was himself,’—
verum qualiscumque fuerit ipse,—has been held to imply that Bede
had no great opinion of St. Columba’s sanctity, or, at all events,
referred to traits in his character which were unfavourable, and Dr.
Reeves suggests that he may refer to current stories of the saint’s
imperious and vindictive temper; but the expression appears to the
author to refer to the immediately preceding sentence—‘de cujus vita
et verbis nonnulla a discipulis ejus feruntur scripta haberi’—which
surely refers to the Lives by Cummene and Adamnan. As Bede was
acquainted with Adamnan’s work on the Holy Places, he could
hardly have been ignorant of his Life of St. Columba; and probably
all Bede meant to express was that he had some hesitation in
accepting as true all that Adamnan said of him.
295. Adamnan, B. i. c. 2. It is unnecessary to follow Finten’s
proceedings further. He is the Finten, surnamed Munnu, who
founded Tach Munnu, now Taghmon, in Ireland, and to whom the
churches of St. Mund in Lochleven and Kilmund in Cowal were
dedicated.
296. 598 Quies Baethin abbatis Ea anno lxvi etatis sue.—Tigh.
Tighernac antedates the deaths of Columba and Baithene one year.
The Martyrology of Donegal records two anecdotes of him. ‘When he
used to eat food, he was wont to say Deus in adjutorium meum
intende between every two morsels. When he used to be gathering
corn along with the monks, he held one hand up beseeching God,
and another hand gathering corn.’—Mart. Don. p. 165.
297. Bede, Η. E., B. ii. c. 4.
298. 605 Obitus Laisreni abbatis Iae.—Tigh.
299. Adamnan, B. iii. c. 20.
300. 611 Neman Abbas Lesmoir.—Tigh. 617 Combustio Donnain
Ega hi xv kalendas Mai cum clericis martiribus.—Tigh. Chron. Picts
and Scots, pp. 68, 69.
301. Dr. Reeves’s Adamnan, 1874, p. 294.
302. Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 168. Bishop Forbes’s Calendars,
p. 449.
303. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. iii. c. 1.
304. 623 Bass Fergna abbas Iae.—Tigh.
305. Bede, Η. E., B. ii. c. 14.
306. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. ii. c. 17.
307. Ib., B. iii. c. 3.
308. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. iii. c. 5.
309. ‘Hanc mihi Adamnano narrationem meus decessor, noster
abbas Failbeus, indubitanter enarravit, qui se ab ore ipsius Ossualdi
regis Segineo abbati eamdem enuntiantis visionem audisse
protestatus est.’—Adamnan, B. i. c. 1.
310. 632 Inis Metgoit fundata est.—Tigh. Tighernac antedates at
this period transactions in Northumbria by about three years.
311. Bede in Vit. S. Cudbercti, c. xvi.
312. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. iii. c. 3.
313. The title of the letter is—‘In nomine Divino Dei summi confido.
Dominis sanctis et in Christo venerandis Segieno abbati, Columbæ
Sancti et cæterorum sanctorum successori, Beccanoque solitario,
charo carne et spiritu fratri, cum suis sapientibus, Cummianus
supplex peccator, magnis minimus, apologeticam in Christo
salutem.’
314. The letter is printed at length in Usher’s Veterum Epistolarum
Hibernicarum Sylloge, p. 24, and in Migne’s Patrologia, vol. xxxviii.
 315. According to the Irish method Easter in 631 fell on 21st April,
according to the Roman on the 24th of March.
316. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. ii. c. 19.
317. Ib., B. iii. c. 3.
318. Keating’s History of Ireland, cap. ii. § 7.
319. 635 Seigine abbas Ie ecclesiam Recharnn fundavit. Eocha
abbas Lismoir quievit.—Tigh.
320. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. ii. c. 19.
321. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. iii. c. 17. 651 Quies Aidain episcopi Saxan.
—Tigh.
322. 652 Obitus Seghine abbas Iea .i. filii Fiachna.—Tigh.
657 Quies Suibne mic Cuirthre abbatis Iea.—Tigh.
323. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. iii. c. 25.
324. 660 Obitus Finain mac Rimeda episcopi et Daniel episcopi
Cindgaradh.
661 Cuimine abbas ad Hiberniam venit.—Tigh.
325. Bede, H. E., B. iii. c. 25.
326. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. iii. c. 25.
327. Ib., c. 26.
328. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. iii. c. 26.
329. Ib., B. iv. c. 4.
A.D. 668 Navigatio Colmani episcop cum reliquiis sanctorum ad
insulam vacce albe in qua fundavit ecclesiam.—Tigh.
330. Adamnan, B. iii. c. 6.
331. A.D. 669 Obitus Cumaine Ailbe abbatis Iea. Itharnan et
Corindu apud Pictores defuncti sunt.—Tigh.
332. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. iv. c. 3.
333. Eddii Vit. S. Wilf., c. xxi.
334. A.D. 671 Maelruba in Britanniam navigat.
A.D. 673 Maelruba fundavit ecclesiam Aporcrosan.—Tigh.
335. A.D. 673 Navigatio Failbe abbatis Iea in Hiberniam. A.D. 676
Failbe de Hibernia revertitur.—Tigh.
336. Bishop Forbes, Scottish Calendars, pp. 310-341.
337. Dr. Reeves’s Adamnan, ed. 1874, p. 296.
338. A.D. 674 Quies Failbe abbatis Iea. Dormitatio Nechtain.—Tigh.
He appears in the Felire of Angus on 8th January as Nechtain Nair
de albae, which is glossed Anair de Albain—from the east, from
Alban.
339. A.D. 687 Adamnanus captivos reduxit ad Hiberniam lx.—Tigh.
Reeves’s Adamnan, ed. 1874, p. cli. Adamnan alludes to this
mission, B. ii. c. 1.
340. Adamnan, B. ii. c. 46. Boece states that the monastery was
rebuilt by Maelduin, king of Dalriada, whose death is recorded by
Tighernac in 690. He therefore reigned at the very time when
Adamnan was abbot, and this fixes the date of these repairs as
between 687 and 690.
341. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. v. c. 15. Reeves’s Adamnan, ed. 1874, p.
clxi.
342. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. v. c. 15.
343. Ib. c. 21. He calls him ‘Abbas et sacerdos Columbiensium
egregius.’
344. A.D. 689 Iolan episcopus Cindgaradh obiit. 692 Adamnanus
xiiii annis post pausam Failbe Ea ad Hiberniam pergit.—Tigh. See
Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 408.
345. Dr. Reeves’s Adamnan, ed. 1874, p. clvi. A.D. 697 Adamnan
tuc recht lecsa in Erind an bliadhna seo (brought a law with him this
year to Ireland).—Tigh.
346. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. v. c. 15.
347. A.D. 704 Adamnanus lxxvii anno ætatis suæ, in nonas
kalendis Octobris, abbas Ie, pausat.—Tigh.
348. See Adamnan, Pref. i. and B. i. c. 3. Dr. Reeves considers
that it was written between the years 692 and 697, but it was more
probably compiled immediately after his return from England in 688,
and before his visit to Ireland in 692.
349. ‘Inchekethe, in qua præfuit Sanctus Adamnanus abbas.’—
Scotichronicon, B. i. c. 6.
350. A.D. 707 Dunchadh principatum Iae tenuit.—Tigh.
710 Conmael mac abbatis Cilledara Iae pausat.—Tigh.
712 Ceode episcopus Iea pausat.—Tigh.
713 Dorbeni cathedram Iae obtinuit, et v. mensibus peractis in
primatu v kalendis Novembris die Sabbati obiit.—Tigh. The 28th day
of October fell on a Saturday in the year 713. The passage recording
the death of Conmael is corrupt.
 351. Bede, Hist. Ec., B. v. c. 22.
352. A.D. 716 Pasca in Eo civitate commotatur. Faelchu mac
Doirbeni cathedram Columbæ lxxxvii ætatis anno, in iiii kal.
Septembris die Sabbati suscepit.—Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 73.
The 29th day of August fell on a Saturday in the year 716.
A.D. 717 Dunchadh mac Cindfaeladh abbas Ie obiit.—Ib. p. 74.
353. A.D. 717 Expulsio familiæ Ie trans dorsum Britanniæ a
Nectono rege.—Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 74.
354. In the Breviary of Aberdeen is the legend of S. Volocus,
patron saint of Dunmeth and Logy in Mar, both in Aberdeenshire.
Volocus is the Latin form of Faelchu, as Vigeanus is of Fechin,
Vynanus of Finan, and Virgilius of Fergal.
 MAP
illustrating History of
MONASTIC CHURCH
prior to 8th. Century

J. Bartholomew, Edin.
 CHAPTER V.

THE CHURCHES OF CUMBRIA AND LOTHIAN.

A.D.573. Ten years after the landing of St. Columba in

Battle of Ardderyd. Iona the great battle of Ardderyd, or Arthuret, was
Rydderch Hael fought between the pagan and the Christian
becomes king of
parties in Cumbria; and the same year which saw
Strathclyde.
Aidan, who had taken part in it, inaugurated by
St. Columba as independent king of Dalriada, likewise witnessed the
establishment of another of the chiefs who fought in that battle,
Rydderch Hael, or the Liberal, as Christian king of Strathclyde, and
the restoration of a Christian Church to its Cumbrian population. As
Columba was the founder of the Christian Church among the
northern Picts, so Kentigern was the great agent in the revolution
which again christianised Cumbria. We are not, however, so
fortunate in the biographers of Kentigern as we are in those of
Columba. While those of the latter lived when the memory of his
words and acts was still fresh in the minds of his followers, Kentigern
found no one to record the events of his life till upwards of five
centuries had elapsed after his death. A fragment of the life which
had been used by John of Fordun and a complete biography by
Jocelyn of Furness are all we possess, but neither of them was
compiled before the twelfth century.[355]
Oldest account of The older life, of which a fragment only
birth of Kentigern. remains, states that ‘a certain king Leudonus, a
man half pagan, from whom the province over which he ruled in
northern Britannia obtained the name of Leudonia, had a daughter
under a stepmother, and the daughter’s name was Thaney.’ This girl,
having become Christian, ‘meditated upon the virginal honour and
maternal blessedness of the most holy Virgin Mary,’ and desired, like
her, to bring forth one who would be for the honour and salvation of
her nation in these northern parts. She ‘had a suitor, Ewen, the son
of Erwegende, sprung from a most noble stock of the Britons,’ but
she refused to marry him; upon which the king her father gave her
the alternative of either marrying him or being handed over to the
care of a swineherd, and she chose the latter. The swineherd was
secretly a Christian, having been converted by Servanus, a disciple
of Palladius, and respected her wishes. Her suitor Ewen, however,
succeeded by a stratagem in violating her in a wood, and she
became with child, upon which her father ordered her to be stoned
according to the laws of the country; but as none of the officers
presumed to cast stones at one of the royal family, she was taken to
the top of a hill called Kepduf and precipitated from it; having made
the sign of the cross, however, she came down to the foot of the
mountain unhurt. The king then ordered her to be given over to the
sea, saying, ‘If she be worthy of life, her God will free her from the
peril of death, if He so will.’ They brought her, therefore, to the firth,
which is about three miles from Kepduf, to the mouth of a river called
Aberlessic, where she was put into a curach, that is, a boat made of
hides, and carried out into deep water beyond the Isle of May. She
remained all night alone in the midst of the sea, and when morning
dawned she was in safety cast on the sand at Culenros, which,
according to sailors’ computation, is thirty miles distant from the Isle
of May. Here she suffered the pains of labour; and, as she lay on the
ground, suddenly a heap of ashes which the day before had been
gathered together close to the shore by some shepherds, was struck
by a gust of the north wind, which scattered around her the sparks
which lay hid within it. When, therefore, she had found the fire, the
pregnant young woman dragged herself at once, as best she could,
to the place indicated by God, and in her extreme necessity, with
anxious groans, she made a little heap with the wood which had
been collected the day before by the foresaid shepherds to prepare
the fire. Having lighted the fire, she brought forth a son, the chamber
of whose maturity was as rude as that of his conception. Some herds
found her there with the child, and while some gave her food, others
went straight to the blessed Servanus, who at that time was teaching
the Christian law to his clerics, with one accord saying, ‘Sir, thus and
thus have we found;’ to whom the saint said, A Dia cur fir sin, which
in Latin means ‘O utinam si sic esset,’[356] and the youths replied,
‘Yea, father, it is a true tale and no fable which we tell; therefore we
pray you, sir, come and see, that thy desire may without delay be
satisfied;’ and he also, when he had learnt the order of the events,
rejoiced with great joy, and said, ‘Thanks be to God, for he shall be
my dear one.’ For as the child was being born, when he was in his
oratory after morning lauds, he had heard on high the Gloria in
excelsis being solemnly sung. And after an address to his clerics, in
which he vindicates the manner in which the conception of the
blessed Kentigern had taken place, and ‘praises Him who alone
governeth the world, and hath, among others, blessed our country
Britain with such a patron,’ this fragment unfortunately terminates.[357]
Jocelyn’s account Jocelyn, whose narrative, as the Bishop of
of his birth. Brechin well observes, is here directed at
undoing the weird legend of the earlier life, which gives the
unedifying account of the conception of Kentigern, does not name
either father or daughter. He calls Kentigern’s mother simply ‘the
daughter of a certain king, most pagan in his creed, who ruled in the
northern parts of Britannia.’ Neither does he name the suitor who
betrayed her, but declares that she had no consciousness by whom,
when, or in what manner she conceived, and had possibly been
drugged. He states that, according to the law of the country, any girl
in her situation was to be cast down from the summit of a high
mountain, and her betrayer beheaded; that she was taken to the top
of a high hill called Dunpelder, and was cast down, but came to the
bottom uninjured; that she was then taken out to sea by the king’s
servants, and placed in a little boat of hides made after the fashion of
the Scots, without any oar, and, ‘the little vessel in which the
pregnant girl was detained ploughed the watery breakers and eddies
of the waves towards the opposite shore more quickly than if
propelled by a wind that filled the sail, or by the effort of many
oarsmen;’ that the girl landed on the sands at a place called
Culenros, in which place at that time Servanus dwelt, and taught
sacred literature to many boys who went to be trained to the divine
service. The birth then takes place as in the other narrative, and they
are brought and presented to Servanus, who ‘in the language of his
country exclaimed, Mochohe, Mochohe, which in Latin means “Care
mi, Care mi,” adding, Blessed art thou that hast come in the name of
the Lord. He therefore took them to himself, and nourished and
educated them as if they were his own pledges. After certain days
had passed, he dipped them in the laver of regeneration and
restoration, and anointed them with the sacred chrism, calling the
mother Taneu and the child Kyentyern, which by interpretation is
Capitalis Dominus.’ He then educates him, and the gifts of grace
manifested by the boy were so great that ‘he was accustomed to call
him, in the language of his country, Munghu, which in Latin means
Karrissimus Amicus.’[358] Kentigern is brought up by Servanus, and
the usual boyish miracles are recorded as evidences of his sanctity,
till, having excited the jealousy and hatred of his fellow-students, he
resolves, under Divine guidance of course, to leave the place. He
accordingly retreated secretly, and ‘journeying arrived at the Frisican
shore, where the river, by name Mallena, overpassing its banks
when the tide flows in, took away all hope of crossing;’ but the river
is miraculously divided to enable him to pass, the tide flowing back
so that the waters of the sea and of the river stood as walls on his
right hand and on his left. He then crosses a little arm of the sea
near a bridge, which by the inhabitants is called Servanus’s bridge;
and on looking back, he saw that the waters had not only flowed
back and filled the channel of the Mallena, but were overflowing the
bridge and denying a passage to any one. Servanus, who had
followed in pursuit of the fugitive, stood above on the bank and
endeavoured to persuade him to return, but without success; and
‘having mutually blessed each other, they were divided one from the
other, and never looked in each other’s face again in this world. And
the place by which Kentigern crossed became after that entirely
impassable; for that bridge, always after that covered by the waves
of the sea, afforded to no one any longer means of transit. Even the
Mallena altered the force of its current from the proper place, and
from that day to this turned back its channel into the river Ledone; so
that forthwith the rivers which till then had been separate from each
other now became mingled and united.’ Kentigern passes the night
at a town called Kernach, where he finds an old man, Fregus, on his
death-bed, who dies in the night; and ‘next morning Kentigern,
having yoked two untamed bulls to a new wain, in which he placed
the body whence the spirit had departed, and having prayed in the
name of the Lord, enjoined upon the brute beasts to carry the burden
placed upon them to the place which the Lord had provided for it.
And in truth the bulls, in no way resisting or disobeying the voice of
Kentigern, came by a straight road, along which there was no path,
as far as Cathures, which is now called Glasgu’, and halted near a
certain cemetery which had long before been consecrated by Saint
Ninian. Here Kentigern lives for some time; and then ‘the king and
clergy of the Cumbrian region, with other Christians, albeit they were
few in number, came together and, after taking into consideration
what was to be done to restore the good estate of the church, which
was well-nigh destroyed, they with one consent approached
Kentigern, and elected him, in spite of his many remonstrances and
strong resistance, to be the shepherd and bishop of their souls;’ and
‘having called one bishop from Ireland, after the manner of the
Britons and Scots of that period, they caused Kentigern to be
consecrated bishop.’[359]
Anachronism in Such is the substance of these narratives; and
connecting St. here we are met, at the very outset, by a great
Servanus with St. anachronism. Along with the lives of Kentigern
Kentigern.
there is found a life of Servanus, in which he is
made the founder of the church of Culenros; but there is not one
syllable about his having been the master of Kentigern, or in any way
connected with him, but the whole events of his life, as there given,
indisputably place him, as we shall afterwards see, nearly two
centuries later.[360] In spite, therefore, of the statements of his
biographers and of the belief of popular tradition, the only conclusion
we can come to is that Servanus and St. Kentigern were divided by a
more impassable barrier than the river Mallena—the stream of time,
and that they had never looked in each other’s face at all. The
scenery, however, of the narrative can be easily identified. The hill
called in the one narrative Kepduf, and in the other Dunpelder, is
Traprain Law, formerly called Dumpender Law, in the county of
Haddington. It is an isolated hill and, along with North Berwick Law,
forms a conspicuous object in the landscape. It is about 700 feet
above the level of the sea, and on the south side it is nearly
perpendicular. It is distant about seven or eight miles from Aberlady
Bay, the Aberlessic of the older narrative. Culenros is Culross, on the
north shore of the Firth of Forth, here called the Frisican shore, as
the Forth itself is called by Nennius the Frisican Sea. The names of
the two rivers Mallena and Ledone are simply the Latin terms for the
flood and ebb tide, but the course of the two rivers, the Teith and the
Forth, seems to have suggested the legend. They run nearly parallel
to each other till they approach within three miles of Stirling, when
the southern of the two rivers, the Forth, takes a sudden bend to the
north, as if it would flow backwards, and discharges its waters into
the Teith, the two forming one river, but adopting the name of the
former. Kernach is Carnock, in the parish of Saint Ninian’s in
Stirlingshire.
Earlier notices of If, however, that part of the legend which
St. Kentigern. introduces Servanus must be rejected, the
remainder derives some support from the old Welsh documents. In
the Triads of Arthur and his Warriors, which are undoubtedly old, the
first is termed ‘Three tribe thrones of the island of Prydain;’ and the
third of the tribe thrones is ‘Arthur, the chief lord at Penrionyd in the
north, and Cyndeyrn Garthwys, the chief bishop, and Garthmwl
Guledic, the chief elder.’[361] The chronology of the life of Kentigern is
not inconsistent with that which here connects him with the historic
Arthur, and the epithet Guledic, which was applied to the chief
among the Cymric kings of the north, gives us Garthmwl as the
name of the king of the district in which Glasgow was situated. In the
Bonedd y Seint ynys Prydain, or Pedigrees of the Saints of Britain,
we find the following pedigree: ‘Kyndeyrn Garthwys, son of Ywein,
son of Urien Reged, son of Cynfarch, son of Meirchiawngul, son of
Grwst Ledlwm, son of Cenau, son of Coel; and Dwynwen, daughter
of Ladden Lueddog of the city of Edwin (Ddinas Edwin, or
Edinburgh), in the north, was his mother.’[362] We have seen that prior
to this period Monenna had founded a church on the summit of
Dunpelder, in which she established nuns;[363] and it is possible that
Dwynwen or Taneu may have been one of these nuns, who, by the
violation of her religious vow, had incurred the sentence of being
exposed in a curach in the adjacent firth. There is nothing impossible
in a small boat being driven before an east wind as far as Culross;
and certain it is that on the shore where she is said to have landed
there was a small chapel dedicated to Kentigern.[364] We learn from
the narrative that there had been an earlier church at Glasgow
founded by Ninian, which Kentigern may have restored, and he
makes his appearance in the martyrologies in the ninth century as
‘Saint Kentigern, Bishop of Glasgow and Confessor.’[365]
Kentigern driven Jocelyn, after describing Kentigern’s mode of
to Wales. life and how he spread the faith of Christ in his
diocese, tells us that, ‘a considerable time having elapsed, a certain
tyrant, by name Morken, had ascended the throne of the Cumbrian
kingdom,’ who ‘scorned and despised the life and doctrine of the
man of God in much slandering, in public resisting him from time to
time, putting down his miraculous power to magical illusion, and
esteeming as nothing all that he did.’ But after a time Morken dies
and is buried in the royal town, which from him was called Thorp
Morken. ‘After this,’ says Jocelyn, ‘for many days he enjoyed great
peace and quiet, living in his own city of Glasgow, and going through
his diocese;’ but, ‘when some time had passed, certain sons of
Belial, a generation of vipers of the kin of the aforenamed King
Morken, excited by the sting of intense hatred and infected with the
poison of the devil, took counsel together how they might lay hold of
Kentigern by craft and put him to death.’ In consequence of this
Kentigern resolved to leave the north and proceed to Menevia in
South Wales, now Saint David’s, where St. David then ruled as
bishop. The Morken here mentioned is probably one of the kings
termed Morcant by Nennius; and it is quite in accordance with the
history of the period that the increasing power of the pagan party in
the northern districts of Cumbria should have driven Kentigern from
Glasgow and forced him to take refuge in Wales. Jocelyn describes
him as proceeding by Carlisle, and says that, ‘having heard that
many among the mountains were given to idolatry or ignorant of the
divine law, he turned aside, and, God helping him and confirming the
word by signs following, converted to the Christian religion many
from a strange belief, and others who were erroneous in the faith.’
‘He remained some time in a certain thickly-planted place, to confirm
and comfort in the faith the men that dwelt there, where he erected a
cross as the sign of the faith, whence it took the name of, in English,
Crossfeld, that is, Crucis Novale, in which very locality a basilica,
recently erected, is dedicated to the name of the blessed Kentigern.’
Jocelyn then tells us that, ‘turning aside from thence, the saint
directed his steps by the sea-shore, and through all his journey
scattering the seed of the Divine Word, gathered in a plentiful and
fertile harvest unto the Lord. At length safe and sound he reached
Saint Dewi.’
Kentigern founds St. David was, as we have already seen, one
the monastery of of the great founders of the monastic church; and
Llanelwy in Wales. Kentigern had not been long with him when he
applied to the king for land to build a monastery, where he might
unite together a people acceptable to God and devoted to good
works; and the king, whom Jocelyn calls Cathwallain, allowed him to
choose his own place. Kentigern, ‘with a great crowd of his disciples
along with him, went round the land and walked throughout it
exploring the situations of the localities, the quality of the air, the
richness of the soil, the sufficiency of the meadows, pastures and
woods, and the other things that look to the convenience of a
monastery to be erected;’ and is finally conducted by a white boar ‘to
the bank of a river called Elgu, from which to this day, as it is said,
the town takes its name.’ Here he commenced to construct his
monastery; ‘some cleared and levelled the situation, others began to
lay the foundation of the ground thus levelled; some cutting down
trees, others carrying them and others fitting them together,
commenced, as the father had measured and marked out for them to
build a church and its offices of polished wood, after the fashion of
the Britons, seeing that they could not yet build of stone, nor were so
wont to do.’[366] Here we are treading on somewhat firmer ground.
The monastery described is that of Llanelwy, afterwards called St.
Asaph’s. It is in the vale of Clwyd, at the junction of the river Elwy
with the Clwyd, a name possibly given to it by Kentigern from some
fancied resemblance to the river and valley in the north where he
had his original seat; and the Red Book of St. Asaph’s records
several grants made to Kentigern by Maelgwyn Gwyned, the king of
North Wales at this time.[367]
The description given by Jocelyn of the construction of the
monastery is probably not an inapt account of how these early Irish
monasteries were erected; and indeed it may be considered a type
of the larger monasteries, for Jocelyn tells us, ‘There flocked to the
monastery old and young, rich and poor, to take upon themselves
the easy yoke and light burden of the Lord. Nobles and men of the
middle class brought to the saint their children to be trained unto the
Lord. The tale of those who renounced the world increased day by
day both in number and importance, so that the total number of
those enlisted in God’s army amounted to 965, professing in act and
habit the life of monastic rule, according to the institution of the holy
man. He divided this troop, that had been collected together and
devoted to the divine service, into a threefold division of religious
observance. For he appointed three hundred, who were unlettered,
to the duty of agriculture, the care of the cattle, and the other
necessary duties outside the monastery. He assigned another three
hundred to duties within the enclosure of the monastery, such as
doing the ordinary work and preparing food and building workshops.
The remaining three hundred and sixty-five, who were lettered, he
appointed to the celebration of divine service in church by day and
by night; and he seldom allowed any of these to go forth out of the
sanctuary, but they were ever to abide within, as if in the holy place
of the Lord. But those who were more advanced in wisdom and
holiness and who were fitted to teach others, he was accustomed to
take along with him when, at the urgent demand either of necessity
or reason, he thought fit to go forth to perform his episcopal
office.’[368] Allowing for some exaggeration in the numbers of those in
the second and third divisions, this is probably a very correct picture
of the monasteries in the early monastic church of Ireland and
Scotland when the head of the monastery was also a bishop.
A.D. 573. After some account of Kentigern’s life at his
Rydderch Hael monastery in North Wales, Jocelyn returns to the
becomes king of north in order to ‘show what his adversaries
Cumbria and
suffered, how he returned to the Cumbrian
recalls Kentigern.
region, and what he did there.’ He tells us, after
an imaginative account of the fate of those who had driven out
Kentigern, that, ‘when the time of having mercy had arrived, that the
Lord might remove the rod of his fierce anger and that they should
turn unto Him and He should heal them, He raised up over the
Cumbrian kingdom a king, Rederech by name, who, having been
baptized in Ireland in the most Christian manner by the disciples of
Saint Patrick, sought the Lord with all his heart and strove to restore
Christianity.’ ‘Wherefore,’ continues Jocelyn, ‘King Rederech, seeing