Druidism was the religion of the Celtic race two thousand years before the Christian era, though it had no place south of the Alps, or east of the Rhine, or in the lands between the Adriatic and the Tigris; or, east of a line having Germany on its west, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia. But Gaul and Britain and, though less conspicuously, Ireland, were its home; and Man, within a few miles, with a people of the same race and language as the greater islands, was not unlikely to come under the power of the same system. The expulsion of the Druids from Anglesey in the yeare 59 of our era, by the imperial forces, might naturally lead them to seek refuge in the other imolia, which was not far away. In generations before Saint Patrick's time, the Munster tribe of Desí who banished from Tipperary and Waterford Ireland entered South Wales in about 368. Proposed birth places are those many spots along the British Coast from the Severn to the Clyde, the Rheged region in Cumberland in Welsh documents as well as the Dunbarton area from the missionary influence of St. Ninian. Tírechán relies largely on a now lost text by Ultan, bishop and abbot of Louth who died about 630. The more intimate relations of Man to Ireland might suggest the same thought of probability; for, as late as 636, the Druidic pretender had contended with Donald, the Christian king, for the crown of Ulster, according to an lrish account of the time. In the Manx language, again, are found terms in which the Druidic idea is suggested; as " Glendarragh," the oak glen. On the whole, some might hold that the alleged ruins are wanting in the specific marks of Druidism, and that it was late in the centuries (about the sixteenth) before any writer favoured a Druidic era. Still some shadows of the system seem to linger in Man, in thought, language, and memorials; and some probabilities remain with the thought that it is not unnatural that the religion of Britain and Ireland, in the pre-Christian ages, was the religion of people of the same race and language in Man. One-third was for Rushen Abbey; the remaining two-thirds were divided between the Bishop and the parish clergy.

 

In the yeare 1011, King CANUTE sailed to Norway with 50 large ships, drove out King Olave, and brought it under subjection to himself. In the yeare 1012, CANUTE King of the English, and of the Danes, and of the Norwegians, returned. In the yeare 1013, St. Olave the king, son of King Harold, returned to Norway, whence he had been driven by CANUTE, and being unrighteously killed by the Norwegians, passed to the Lord with the glorious crown of martyrdom. In the yeare 1017, MALCOLM, King of the Scots, died, and was succeeded by Duncan. In the yeare 1015 was celebrated the dedication of the Church of St. Edmund, king and martyr, in which, by the advice of his prelates and nobles, Canute established regulars, removing the secular priests. In the same year, fire which could not be quenched, consumed many places in England and the accession of Olaf, the son of Harold, afterwards St. Olaf, to the Norwegian crown in 1015; In the yeare 1035, Siward, Duke of the Northumbrians, by order of King Edwin entered (Easter Ross) Scotland with a large army, gave battle to Macbeth, put him to flight, and made Malcolm king, as Edwin had ordered. 1036, 1037, 1038, 1039, 1040, 1041, 1042, 1043, 1044, Nothing to record. In the yeare 1051, Malcolm, King of Scotland, laid waste England as far as Cleveland, and married Margaret. In the same yeare died Gødred, son of Sytric, King of Man, who was succeeded by his son Fingall. ONE of these is the Norse invasions. They have left their impress on Man, just as they did on Shetland and Orkney and the Hebrides, on their southern course to Britain and the Irish Sea. The Island then was held as a " Norwegian Principality." The conquest of it by Gødred Crovan at the battle of Sky Hill, in 1077, stands connected with his escape from the Norwegian defeat at Stamford Bridge by the English King in 1066, the same who, later in that year, fell at Hastings before William the Conqueror.

 

The list of Gødred's successors included Reginald (1229), Olaf (1237), Harold (1248), the last of the dynasty being Magnus (1265). The Scotch supremacy followed under Alexander III., who changed the arms of Man from the Norwegian ship to the Three legs. The Manx kingdom was " Man and the Isles " until 1156.

 

On the conquest of the Isles by Somerled, it became simply "Man." Early in the thirteenth century Reginald had surrendered it to the Pope. Leaving the marks of these violent times, let us go to the ages of early Christianity in the ruins of the Treen Chapels. These are traces of a happier memory. They may belong, perhaps, to the age of Saint Ninian at Whithorne, when he laboured within sight of the Island, and will be considered in the next chapter, Earlier than these, some of the ruins have been deemed Druidic. Next, come the Runic memorials, after the early, Christian, and found chiefly in the churchyards. Lastly, we have the Romanist ruins, most conspicuous of all, and of which a summary may here be given. Chief among them is the Cathedral on the Islet of Peel, with its five acres of land and rock, anciently termed " Holme," a term signifying, according to Canon Bright, of Oxford, in his work on The Early English Church, ground surrounded or washed by a river. The tower near the Cathedral is not unlike the round towers of Ireland. CHRONICLE OF FLORENCE OF WORCESTER. A.D.1083 This same king Egbert was the eighth among the kings of the English nation who ruled over all their southern provinces, separated by the river Humber and neighbouring boundaries from those which lie to the north. The first who held this dominion was Ella, king of the East Saxons; the second Celin, king of the West Saxons, called in their tongue " Ceaulin;" the third was Ethelbert, king of Kent; the fourth was Redwald, king of the East Angles, who held the government of that nation as chief,* even in Ethelbert’s lifetime; the fifth was Edwin, king of the Northumbrian nation, that is, those who dwelt to the north of the river Humber, the most poweiful of all who inhabited Britain. His rule extended alike over the people, both English and Britons, with the exception of Kent; and he subjected to the dominion of the English the Mevanian islands, which are situated between Ireland and England. The sixth monarch of all England, he himself being the most christian king of Northumbria, was Oswald. The seventh was Oswy, who for a time maintained his supremacy within nearly the same limits, and to a very great extent subjugated the Picts and Scots who inhabited the northern extremities of Britain, making them tributaries. The eighth, as we have already stated, was King Egbert. In his time, as it is reported, St.. Swithin was born, who, sprung from a noble line of ancestors, when his youthful years were passed, was admitted to holy orders by St. Helmstan, bishop of Winchester. King Egbert also committed his son Ethelwulf to his care for instruction in sacred learning.