Publisher's Synopsis
The period begun by the influence of Queen Margaret (1047-1093), continued by her sons and their successors on the Scottish throne, and culminating in the Scottish Reformation of 1560, is that with which this book deals. The old Celtic Church of Scotland was brought to an end by two causes-internal decay and external change. Under the first head, notice must be taken of the encroachment upon the ecclesiastic element by the secular, and of the gradual absorption of the former by the latter. There was a vitality in the old ecclesiastical organisation, but it was weakened by the assimilation of the native Church to that of Rome in the seventh and eighth centuries, which introduced a secular element among the clergy; and the frequent Danish invasions, which may be described as the organised power of Paganism against Scottish Christianity, grievously undermined its native force.
