but nothing worthy of notice occured in them. Numerous ecclesiastical councils were held in these early ages at Perth: one was held so early as 1020. One under John de Salerno in 1201, who, as cardinal legate, confirmed the agreement that the bishops of St Andrews and Glasgow had made with the Abbot of Kelso, that the latter should present vicars to the several churches which belonged to the monastery of Kelso, in their respective dioceses. Another in 1206; and a fourth one in 1211, by William, the Bishop of St Andrews, and Walter, the Bishop of Glasgow, the Pope's legates. A general council of the Scottish Church, was called at Perth in 1221, by a legate from Rome, to obtain aid for the prosecution of the holy war. Another papal agent, it would appear, traversed the country, soliciting money for the same object, but which he spent as quickly as it was received. The church at this period showed her grasping disposition in various ways. A bull of Pope Honorius, in 1225, allowed the Scottish prelates to hold a provincial council without the mandate of a legate, or the summons of a metropolitan. Construing the papal act in favour of their own powers, they called ecclesiastical councils without the Pope's permission or knowledge. But they abused the privilege thus obtained in oppressing the country. council held by them, among other canons, they ordained that the parish priest should be entitled to pasture his cattle in any place of the parish he pleased. In 1242, David, the Bishop of St. Andrews, called a provincial council at Perth. The canons enacted by it were ratified by the estates; and being confirmed by the king, continued to be the ecclesiastical law of Scotland till the abolition of the papal authority at the time of the Reformation. This period of the history of Scotland is distinguished for contentions between the clergy of the Scottish church with the court of Rome on the one hand, and the Kings of Scotland on the other. To dilate on their respective pretensions does not belong to our subject; we, therefore, can only refer cursorily to the general councils which were held in the midst of these disputes. One was held at Perth in 1269. A bishop of the Scottish church called this council, and presided over it. Another of a more important character was held in 1275. Bagimont having been sent by the Pope to collect the tenth of all the benefices in Scotland, for the relief of the Holy Land, held One of the canons of this council prohibited all secular employments from Saturday at noon till Monday morning. an ecclesiastical council at Perth, where the clergy, with the excep tion of the Cistertians, who were exempted, agreed to pay the tenth of their benefices, upon oath, and under the terrors of excommunication. They felt keenly, at the same time, the oppressive nature of the demand, and induced Bagimont to repair to Rome, to solicit some abatement of the tax. He returned to Scotland without having accomplished the object of his mission: the coffers of the holy see had to be replenished, so that no arguments could persuade the Pope to relinquish the claim he had made on the Scottish church. But amidst the intrigues and usurpations of the Romish church, an event happened which has been well denominated "one of the deepest among those national calamities which chequer the history of Scotland." We refer to the death of Alexander III. Margaret of Norway succeeded to the crown, she having been acknowledged at a meeting of the estates of the realm, held at Scone, 1283-4, as heir to the crown "failing any children, whom Alexander might have; and failing the issue of the late Prince." The King of England projected a marriage between his son, Prince Edward, and the young Queen of Scotland. The latter, however, on her passage from Norway to Scotland was seized with a mortal disease, and died at Orkney in September, 1290. She was only in her eighth year. This new national calamity, for so it may well be designated, cast a gloom over the whole nation. No provision had been made for the succession of the Scottish crown beyond the offspring of Alexander, as Lord Hailes appropriately remarks, "the nation looked no further, and perhaps it durst not look farther." Under these circumstances the Scottish crown was claimed by different competitors. Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale, assembled his followers and suddenly came to Perth, where many of the nobility join. ed him. But Scotland, if she had been true to herself, notwithstanding there being various claimants of the crown, might have been saved the devastations and bloodshed which followed, if the money and power of England had not introduced traitorous counsels. Edward, on perceiving the divisions among the Scottish nobility regarding the succession to the crown, immediately threw off the mask; and openly demanded of the Scots "their hearty recognition of his title of Lord Paramount of Scotland." By secret intrigues, and the money and promises he destributed among the nobility, new candidates were induced to come forward as competitors for the crown; and no less than eight appeared, along with the clergy and nobles of Scotland, at Norham Castle, all of whom acknowledged the superiority of Edward, "agreeing to receive judgment from him as Lord Paramount, and consenting that he shall possess the kingdom to whom he awards it." Thus was basely surrendered the independence of Scotland, and to complete her humiliation the whole castles and fortresses of the kingdom were placed at Edward's disposal. In the summer of the same year he visited Scotland, and proceeded as far as Perth, and thence to Dunfermline, St Andrews, Kinghorn, and Linlithgow; and at these places called upon persons of all ranks, earls, barons and burgesses, to sign the rolls of homage, as vassals of the King of England. After several delays, on the ground that great difficulties stood in the way of finding the nearest lineal descendant to the crown, Edward at last bestowed it on John Baliol, who claimed the crown as the descendant of Margaret, the eldest daughter of David Earl of Huntingdon. Baliol was accordingly crowned at Scone upon St Andrew's day, and soon after passed into England and finished the last scene of his own and Scotland's degradation, by doing homage to the King of England at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Baliol soon found, however, he had got only the nominal possession of the kingdom: he was made to feel that Edward considered him but as one of his creatures set up to forward his designs, and who, when found to be of no farther use, could easily be set aside. The King of England showed in various ways that he really considered himself as holding "direct dominion" over Scotland: by summoning Baliol to appear in England, to answer complaints preferred against him in administering the affairs of his kingdom, and distributing lands and pensions amongst the clergy and barons. Baliol's spirit sunk under the annoyances to which Edward subjected him. Undecided in character, he vacillated between abject submission and weak endeavours to assert his independence. At last the party who then ruled in the Scottish parliament, determined to rid their country of English influence and control, prevailed on Baliol to dismiss all the Englishmen whom he maintained at his court, excluded himself from power, by placing him in a sort of captivity, and appointed four bishops, four earls, and four barons, to manage the affairs of the country. These guardians, in the name of Baliol, drew up an instrument renouncing all fealty and homage to Edward. Of course such a proceeding was the signal for war on the part of both countries. Edward assembled an army of thirty thousand foot, and four thousand horse, and laid seige to Berwick, which he soon got possession of, and delivered over to a brutal soldiery. Seventeen thousand persons, were put to the sword. For two days the city ran with blood like a river; and the churches, to which the miserable inhabitants fled for sanctu ary, were violated, robbed of their ornaments, and turned into stables for the English cavalry. His Battle of Dunbar speedily followed, of which the King of England was victor: all .Scotland now lay prostrate at his feet. The progress through the country was that of a triumphant conqueror; and town after town quietly submitted to him. He halted at Perth, where he remained three days, and kept the feast of the nativity of St John the Baptist, "with circumstances of high feudal pomp and solemnity, feasting his friends, creating new knights, and solacing himself and his barons." Baliol was shortly afterwards deprived of the crown of Scotland, under the most humiliating circumstances: he meanly submitted, in the presence of the Bishop of Durham and the barons of England, to be stript of the royal robes, and have the crown and sceptre taken from him; and then standing as a criminal, with a white rod in his hand, perform a most debasing feudal penance. He delivered his eldest son, Edward, to the king of England as a hostage for his future conduct. The former, with his father, were shortly after sent to the Tower of London, where they remained for three years in confinement. Though anticipating a little some of the events we are now narrating, we may mention the ultimate fate of John Baliol. Through the mediation of the Pope, he was allowed to be set at liberty, on condition of residing on his estate of Baillenl in France. To shew in what light Edward regarded this mean spirited person, he ordered, before Baliol embarked at Dover, his trunks to be searched, and whatever was of value to be retained. The menials of Edward detected a crown of gold, the great seal of Scotland, many vessels of gold and silver, and a considerable sum of money. Edward kept the whole of these except the money, which was given back. The crown was hung up in the shrine of St Thomas the Martyr. From Perth, Edward went northwards as far as the province of Moray; and on his return to hold his parliament at Berwick, carried away with him, from the abbey of Scone, the ancient and fatal stone * • The Lia-faile, called also Clach na cineamhuinn, (fatal stone) is traced to a remote origin. Legend supposes it to have been the' pillow of Jacob; and to have been brought from the Holy Land to the sacred island. This memorable stone is that whereupon the kings of Ireland used to be inaugurated, in times of heathenism, on the hill of Tarah. It was at a very early period brought from Ireland to Dunstaffnage; from thence to Scone in 842, by Kenneth II. The ceremony of inaugurating the kings of Scotland was peculiar. The regal chair, or sacred stone, stood before the cross, in the eastern division of the chapel. Upon this the sovereign sat-the crown was placed on his head, the sceptre in his hand; upon which for centuries the Scottish kings had been crowned and anointed. This, along with the sceptre and crown, were deposited in the Cathedral of Westminster, as trophies and memorials of his conquest of Scotland. It is affirmed by historians, that Edward, in his progress, sought to destroy every record and monument connected with the antiquity and independence of the nation. Accordingly, he carried away the charters he was invested with the royal mantle, and the nobility, kneeling in homage, threw their robes beneath his feet. A Highland bard. clothed in a robe of sky blue, stood before the sacred stone, and recited to the king, as he sat on it, the genealogy of the kings of Scotland, from the foundation of the monarchy. It is also recorded, that every noble and baron brought so much earth in his boots, that he might see the king crowned standing on his own land, which earth was afterwards thrown on the Boot-Hill, or omnis terra. When the fatal stone was removed to Westminster Abbey, Edward caused it to be placed in a new chair, to which was added a step, when the whole was settled near the altar, before the shrine of St Edward. By the treaty of Northampton, it was stipulated that the stone should be returned to Scotland. For this end writs were issued by Edward III., which were never executed, and whatever doubts may have been entertained, it still remains in Westminster Abbey. It is strange that the prophecy should still continue to be fulfilled, which, there is no doubt, is of celtic origin. The following is an English translation: "Except old saws do feign, Where they this stone shall find." The English chroniclers, however, reverse the prediction, and affirm that the liafaile was removed to Westminster to be kept as a memorial of the subjugation of Scotland. Hardyng alludes to the subject in the following manner :— "This stone was called the regale of Scotland, On which the Scottish kynges wer breechelesse set For holynes of it, so did they of debte, All their kynges upon this stone was sette, To tyme that kinges of Englande afterward In remembrance of kynges of Scottes always, |