History of the Scottish Church (Volume 1) - Paperback

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE LIFE AND WORK OF ST. KENTIGERN, BISHOP OF THE BRITONS The history of Kentigern is interwoven with that of the kingdom of Cumbria, the territory of the ancient Britons. It became an independent sovereignty after the Romans withdrew from the province between the walls. When the Britons begged the Romans the third time for military help against their enemies, the Romans, unable any longer to lend them their legions, advised them to help themselves. With varying success for about five hundred years, 450 to 975, the Britons maintained a struggling independence. In the tenth century the district became a principality annexed to Scotland until it was finally merged in the kingdom in the reign of king David I., who was prince of Cumbria before his accession to the throne. The capital was always Alcluid, better known as Dunbarton, the rocky height on the Clyde; but the territorial extent of the sovereignty varied from time to time with the fortunes of war. The name of Strathclyde probably indicates its earliest limits from Dunbarton to Dumfries, while that of Cumbria or Cambria points to later acquisitions in the present Cumberland, as far as the Derwent Water. This division continued a historical fact in the history of England till the year 1835, for until then the river Derwent formed the southern boundary of the diocese of Carlisle.In the eleventh century the old kingdom of Cumbria is described as including both the dioceses of Glasgow and Carlisle.1 It represents a great Cymric race beset on different sides?by Picts on the north, by Irish-Scots on the west, and by Angles on the east. Such were the people, and such the extent of the " diocese" of which Kenti- gern was bishop. He was not bishop of Glasgow but of the Britons of Cumbria, and his see, as a matter of h...