Magna
Carta and the Declaration of Arbroath, Boswell and Johnson, Walter Scott and
Disraeli, Robert Owen and Keir Hardie – Scotland and England have long mirrored
each other in many ways, says Tom Holland.
The
Tarbat Peninsula, a spit of land sticking out from the northernmost Scottish
Highlands, seems an unlikely spot for a revolution. At its tip stands a
lighthouse, built by Robert Louis Stevenson’s uncle back in 1830 after a deadly
storm in the adjacent Moray Firth; a few miles south lies the tiny fishing
village of Portmahomack. Most visitors there today are tourists, attracted by
its picturesque harbour and sandy beach; but back in the mid-6th century it was
the scene of a momentous experiment.
A
band of ascetics, wandering enthusiasts for an exotic new religion named
Christianity, arrived at the court of a local king. Simultaneously intrigued
and suspicious, he granted them some unwanted land on which to found a
community. “The Haven of Saint Colmóc” – “Port Mo Chalmaig” – was the first
ever monastery on the coast of Easter Ross. For 250 years, until it was
destroyed by a terrible fire at the beginning of the 9th century, Portmahomack
was one of the most celebrated places in Britain.
That
it is impossible to be certain who either the king or “Saint Colmóc” was
reminds us just how dark the Dark Ages can be. Various shocking details were
reported of the people among whom Portmahomack was founded. It was said that
they had come from Scythia; that they fought naked; that they were ruled by
women who kept whole troupes of husbands. Most notoriously of all, they were
reported to tattoo themselves: a barbarous habit that had led them to being nicknamed
“Picti”, or “painted people”. A people more hostile to the norms of southern
lands it would have been hard to imagine. Even the Romans had given up trying
to tame them. Yet where the legions had failed, a hardy band of monks had
succeeded. An outpost of Mediterranean culture had been successfully planted in
the farthest north.
The
coming of Christianity to Pictland was part of a much broader process that
ultimately united the whole of Great Britain in a common religious culture.
Pagan rulers, when they submitted to baptism, were rarely signing up to the
poverty and pacifism preached by monks. What appealed instead was the awesome
potency of the Christian God. Membership of the Church attracted those with
broad horizons and a taste for self-enrichment.
Yet
conversion to Christianity was never a one-way street. At Portmahomack, the
missionaries were influenced by native customs, as well as vice versa. The
tradition of holy men possessed of a privileged relationship to the
supernatural was not unknown to the Picts. Even the tonsure worn by the monks
derived from the Druids. The very stonework of the monastery was incised with
patterns already ancient when the Romans had first arrived in Britain. The
decision to become Christian did not, for the peoples of Pictland, imply
surrender to an alien power. Rather, it reflected a creative engagement with
the world beyond their various kingdoms.
Further
Reading:
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