Note 559 — Chapter VIII · THE KINGDOM OF SCOTIA.

Simeon of Durham gives the following picture of the Durham clergy in the tenth century. In mentioning the slaughter of the monks of Lindisfarne, and the escape of the bishop with the body of St. Cuthbert, he adds that ‘Tradita sibi districtione paulatim postposita, ecclesiasticam disciplinam odio habuerunt, remissioris vitæ illecebras secuti. Nec erat qui eos sub ecclesiastica censura coerceret, utpote cultura Dei destructis monasteriis et ecclesiis pene deficiente. Seculariter itaque omnino viventes carni et sanguini inserviebant, filios et filias generantes. Quorum posteri per successionem in ecclesia Dunelmensi fuerunt nimis remisse viventes, nec ullam nisi carnalem vitam quam ducebant, scientes nec scire volentes. Clerici vocabantur, sed nec habitu, nec conversatione clericatum prætendebant.’—Sim. Hist. Ec. Dun. Pref. The step was but a short one from this state of matters to that of lay possessors of the benefices. The oldest legend of St. Andrew bears a title which contains the following: ‘Et quomodo contigerit quod tantæ abbatiæ ibi factæ antiquitus fuerint quas multi adhuc seculares viri jure hereditario possident.’—Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 138.