Page images
PDF
EPUB

Conduct of the Bishop of Winchester as Vifitor of St. Mary Mag

ibid.

Birkett's Sermon on Christmas-day, 1769, at Greenwich, ibid.

Letter to the Baptist Church, meeting at Goodman's-fields, 240

Dr. Gibbons's Account of the terrible Fire at Burwell, in Cam-
bridgeshire, Sept. 8, 1727,

ibid.

241

[blocks in formation]

Newton's Review of Ecclefiaftical History,

.318

ibid.'

Critical Remarks on a System of Ecclefiaftical History and Mo-
rality,

ibid.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

THE

CRITICAL REVIEW.

For the Month of January, 1770.

ARTICLE I.

Hiflorical Memorials. By Sir David Dalrymple. 4to.-Sold by Balfour, at Edinburgh.

HESE memorials appear to have been printed occa

Tfonally, and at different times; they are concerning,

Firft, The provincial councils of the Scottish clergy, from the earliest accounts to the era of the reformation.

Second, Canons of the church of Scotland; drawn up in the provincial councils held at Perth, A. D. 1242, and A. D. 1269. Third, An examination of some of the arguments from the high antiquity of Regiam Majeftatem; and an enquiry into the authenticity of Leges Malcolmi.

Fourth, A catalogue of the lords of feffion, from the inftitution of the college of juftice, in the year 1532, with hiftorical notes..

The author of thefe pieces, who is likewife a fenator of the college of juftice in Scotland, and an excellent antiquary, acknowledges that the hiftory of the church of Scotland, during remote ages, is involved in impenetrable obfcurity; and that his intention is not to enter into any field of controversy on that head. "Moft of the incidents, fays he, which I am to relate; are little known; fome of them are curious; and, as I have no hypothefis to maintain, they will all be impartially related."

The first provincial council mentioned by this author is faid to have been held under Conftantine king of Scotland, and VOL. XXIX. January, 1770. Kel.

B

Kellach, bishop. The learned editor has not informed us, whether this Conftantine was the fecond of that name, who began his reign, according to the Scotch hiftorians, in 858. Be that as it will, he is inclined to think that the Mons Credulitatis at Scone, is the fame with the Mons Placiti at the fame place retained by Malcolm Mac Kenneth, when he generously parcelled out all Scotland among his vaffals. We believe it would be no difficult matter to prove that the Mons Credulitatis was a very different place from the Mons Placiti; and unimportant as the difference appears at prefent, it might perhaps ferve to elucidate the nature of that very extraordinary prefent which Malcolm made to his people, or, as this editor pleases to call them, his vaffals. Without difputing the Mons Credulitatis to have been the mount of faith, it is without all doubt that the moot hill is entirely a Saxon word for Mons Placiti, or the mountain of pleas or debates, called in Saxon motes; and we believe that the Scotch to this very day, retain the term of the Moot Hill of Scone. The want of hiftorical evidence prevents us from examining whether Malcolm, if he made fuch a diftribution, did not oblige his vassals to repair to this judicial, and perhaps legiflative hill, which he is faid to have referved for his own use, in order to make them fwear to the terms upon which they were to hold their lands. We know not, nor is it very material, whether any appearance of that hill now remains; but it is beyond doubt, that moft fovereign princes of thofe ages chofe fome eminence by way of fuggeftum, either natural or artificial, be it ever fo trifling, on which they placed the royal throne, and held their motes or courts of juftice; all, however, we have faid on this head is mere matter of conjecture and analogical enquiry.

This author is of opinion that the account of Alexander II. king of Scotland having, in 1237, refuted to fuffer a pope's legate to enter his dominions, becaufe no legate had ever been admitted into his kingdom, is erroneous; as legates had held coun cils in Scotland before, particularly in 1221, at Perth, for which he quotes the chartulary of Murray. This certainly is a ftrong authority, if that chartulary is authentic, or if the priest entered Scotland with legantine powers. If the words of Matthew Paris are properly confidered, Alexander might mean no more than that none of his predeceffors had willingly suffered a legate to enter their kingdom. Perhaps the king understood by a legate only a Roman tax gatherer, fent to fleece his people as he had done the English.

In the remaining part of this differtation the reader, who is fond of Scotch ecclefiaftical hiftory, will find many excellent obfervations upon the inaccuracy of its authors and compilers as

well

« PreviousContinue »