soon found that the monasteries offered the richest spoil, and directed their attacks against them, and many noble instances might be given of the courage and self-sacrifice with which the religious met the fury of the pagans. One of the most striking of these we must briefly touch upon, in order that a last gleam of heavenly radiance may rest on our picture of the Celtic Church before it fades away from our sight altogether.

Walafrid Strabo, who died in the year 849, tells us of a certain Blathmac, a prince of royal descent, heir to a throne in Ireland, who gave up his kingly rights to lead the life of a monk in the cloister. For a time he was abbot of a monastery in Ireland, but he was possessed with an unappeasable desire to perfect the offering of his love to Christ by undergoing the 'red martyrdom'-i.e. a death of violence in the Christian cause, in contradistinction to the 'white martyrdom,' which, we conclude, denoted that daily death in self-mortification spoken of by S. Paul when he said, 'I die daily.' In order to attain this height of perfection, Blathmac went, says his chronicler, 'to a certain island placed in the wave-tossed brine, called Iona, and this island he sought under his vow to suffer the marks of Christ, for there the frequent hordes of pagan Danes were wont to come, armed with malignant furies, and there he had not long to wait; the time soon came when the great mercy of our God decreed to associate His servant with His glorious hosts above the stars.' When the Danes were about to attack the island, Blathmac bade his brethren decide whether they would 'endure with him the coming fate, the imminent trial of certain death for the name of Christ, or seek their safety by timely flight;' and some, touched by his words, rejoiced with him to face the raging sword,' while others fled to places of refuge. Then came the fatal morning, and Blathmac stood before the holy altar to celebrate the Eucharistic sacrifice, 'himself a victim acceptable to God, to be offered up to the threatening sword.' Soon 'the cursed bands rushed raging through the unprotected houses, and, furious with rage-the rest of the brethren having been slain -came to the holy father,' demanding the shrine of precious stones and metals enclosing the bones of S. Columba; but he refused, standing firm before them with unarmed hands,' and said, 'Savagely bring your swords, seize their hilts, and kill.— O God, I commend my humble self to Thy protection.' On this 'the pious victim was cut in pieces,' and Blathmac obtained his desire of being a martyr for the cause of Christ.

Passing over the gradual decadence of the old Celtic Church, we come to her final disappearance, when she was at

last altogether superseded, and only the ruins of her desolate sanctuaries, and the old burial-places with their Celtic crosses, remained to speak of her witness to Christ in the dark centuries gone by. The causes which brought the Celtic Church to an end may be classed under two heads-internal decay and external change. Of the first we have already spoken, and the second is inaugurated by the appearance of one of the most striking figures in the history of the eleventh centurythe saintly Margaret, Queen of Scotland, who became the wife of King Malcolm Canmore in 1069. The chroniclers bear unanimous testimony to the exalted character of this noble lady, as unsurpassed in devoted love to God, in entire selfabnegation, and in unwearied desire to benefit the people among whom her lot was cast. But, as a Saxon princess, she had been trained in the system of the great Roman Communion, which she therefore identified with the only true system, so that the Celtic Church, with which she was brought in contact in the land of her adoption, appeared to her to be in error wherever it diverged from it.

In her longing to bring her husband's subjects nearer to her God and theirs, the Queen therefore sought to establish the Roman authority as the one standard of right and wrong in such fashion as to render it logically certain that the Celtic must gradually become entirely incorporated with the Roman Church. The same policy was followed by her son David when he succeeded to the throne after the death of his elder brother Edgar, who seems to have been favourable to the native Church. In the reigns of David and his successors not only was the older ecclesiastical constitution superseded by the ordinary Roman system, but active war was waged against the Culdee establishments, and every effort made to suppress them entirely. A similar course was adopted by the Norman kings towards the religious institutions in Ireland; and when the process of internal decadence was thus accompanied by external aggression, it could only end in the final extinction of the old Celtic Church in its distinctive character. The last of the Coiumban Abbots of Iona died in the closing year of the eleventh century, and that powerful religious house was given over to the Benedictine monks. A few years later the line of native bishops came to an end. The Archbishop of York claimed supremacy over the episcopal sees of Scotland, and the diocese of Candida Casa (otherwise Whithern) recognised his authority. The last trace of the struggle for independence vanished in the year 1188, when Pope Clement III., in a Bull addressed to King William the Lion, declared the

Church in Scotland to be 'the daughter of Rome by special grace, and immediately subject to her.'

And so it is that with the fair vision of the saintly Queen Margaret―anima candida indeed amid the lawless spirits of those evil times-the old Celtic Church, which first dawned on our view in the light of the Candida Casa, fades away from our sight, and disappears behind the stately Roman system which henceforth sat enthroned in her place.

Yet that ancient shrine of the Living God has left an imperishable memory, heritage of all Christians throughout the world in the undeniable witness she bears to the independence of the Churches of Christ in the earlier centuries of our era, and also to the Divine power of that pure Faith which, despite the feebleness of its human agencies and the strength of opposing forces, could penetrate the gross darkness of paganism, and finally dispel it altogether beneath the unobstructed rays of the Sun of Righteousness.

ART. VII.-CYPRUS.

1. Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples: a Narrative of Researches and Excavations. BY GENERAL LOUIS PALMA DI CESNOLA. (London: Murray, 1877.)

2. Histoire de l'Ile de Chypre sous le règne des Princes de la Maison de Lusignan. Par M. L. DE MAS LATRIE. 3 vols. (Paris: à l'Imprimerie Impériale, 1852–61.) 3. Creta, Cyprus, Rhodus, sive de nobilissimarum harum Insularum rebus et antiquitatibus. Apud JOANNIS MEURSII Operum Volumen Tertium. (Florentiæ, 1744.) 4. Cyprus. By R. HAMILTON LANG, late H.M. Consul in the Island of Cyprus. In Macmillan's Magazine' for August and September, 1878.

5. A Description of the East and some other Countries. By RICHARD POCOCKE, LL.D., F.R.S. 3 vols. folio. (London, 1743.)

THE announcement that, by the Anglo-Turkish Convention, Cyprus had been ceded to the British Empire has naturally excited a lively interest in the past history and present condition of our new territory. To the inquiry, what is the best

book on Cyprus? it is not easy to give an unqualified reply. General Cesnola's volume, with its admirable and abundant illustrations, its rich-toned paper and beauteous type, not only ranks high as a livre de luxe, but also contains a vivid résumé of its past history, and a well-written and amusing description of the island under Turkish rule. No one will begin to read it without being carried on with unflagging interest to the end. But its speciality and raison d'être are the individual researches and discoveries of the energetic author. M. L. de Mas Latrie's volumes leave little to be desired by those who wish to investigate thoroughly the period of Lusignan rule in Cyprus, and who have ample leisure for the task. But, of the three volumes before us, the two most bulky comprise the original documents which M. de Mas Latrie has with remarkable perseverance and critical discernment selected from widely dispersed collections, and the third, although extending to more than 500 ample pages, yet only completes the first of the three centuries during which Lusignan kings reigned in the East. Mr. Lang's less pretentious pages, which are still in course of publication in Macmillan's Magazine, aim rather at describing the resources of the island, and at indicating the necessary administrative measures requisite to ensure its prosperity under our control. Mr. Lang writes in a pleasant style, is full of matter, and speaks with the authority of one who has enjoyed and turned to good account opportunities of being thoroughly acquainted, during a residence of nine years, with 'the country, its inhabitants, its capabilities, and its administration.' Of the other volumes named at the head of our paper, we will only say that Pococke will hardly afford new light to those who have any acquaintance with geography or history of the island; whilst Meursius is exclusively valuable for the industry, not always guided by critical knowledge, with which he has collected all that early writers have recorded about Cyprus; a task in which he has been followed and superseded by Engel.

'A glance at any map,' says Mr. Lang, 'will convince the most incredulous of the advantageous position which Cyprus occupies, both as a defence to the Suez Canal, and a possibly future Euphrates Valley Railway.' Nearly a century ago Louis XVI. of France sent M. Sonnini on a voyage through Greece and Turkey, and in the account of his travels, published on his return, under the régime of the Republic, he recommended the conquest of Cyprus as an indispensable starting point for the occupation of Egypt. About the same date the island was visited by Captain J. Taylor, who was attempting

the then most unwonted task of an overland journey to Bombay, and he immediately perceived its importance to the command of the Valley of the Euphrates. These authorities will suffice to prove that it is under no influence of party feeling that Englishmen may rejoice over the peaceable cession to them of the valuable prize whose past history and future prospects we will try, very briefly and imperfectly of course, to set before our readers.

The chain of historic interest which is associated with Cyprus is singularly complete. The island has been identified by modern as well as ancient archeologists with the Chittim and Caphtor of Holy Writ. The statement of Eusebius that the town of Paphos was founded by Israelites in the days of the first Judges is more questionable; but it is certain that its shores were the seat of Phoenician colonies full a thousand years before the Christian era, and their influence on Cypriote art and character may be traced down to comparatively modern times. Greek settlers soon realised and largely appropriated the value of the mineral and agricultural resources of a land which had been celebrated in the poetry of Homer, and visited in the wanderings of Menelaus and Ulysses. The Assyrian, Persian, Macedonian, Egyptian, Roman, Byzantine, and Mohammedan Empires each in turn exercised an important influence on its fortunes. It was the fabled birthplace of Venus, the last retreat of Solon, and the fatherland of Zeno. It was the scene of apostolic labour in the earliest days of the planting of Christianity and of the fostering care of the Empress Helena when the cross was first inscribed on the banner of the Empire. Richard Cœur de Lion won it with characteristic energy, wedded his affianced bride, Berengaria of Navarre, at one of its altars, and sold it in unkingly fashion to Guy de Lusignan for a stipulated sum. Owing to the continuance of the Lusignan dynasty there for three centuries, the effect of the Crusades was more permanently felt in Cyprus than in any other portion of the Eastern Empire. Venice held it for a century beneath its sway. Nothing save the withering influence of Turkish rule could have severed for three hundred years from the stream of modern politics a country so exceptionally fortunate in geographical position and natural resources.

Our own

An unusual number of Greek names was assigned to the island, no less than 16 or 17 being recorded by Meursius; they denote its connection with the worship of Venus, its numerous promontories, and its singular fertility. The name Cyprus is variously derived from a legendary child of Ciny