Series 3 > Charters of the Abbey of Inchcolm

INTRODUCTION
xvn
instance, of what Dr. Scott calls the ‘ Cohimh&-tendenz. ’
In the earliest charter of the present collection there is
mention of ‘ Ecclesia Sancti Columbe de Insula,’ i.e. be¬
fore c. 1162-69, Columba had been accepted as the saint
associated with the island. There is evidence also in the
Scotichronicon of the revival of a Columba-cult in the
fifteenth century ; and the saint, by this time, had be¬
come the subject of legends typical of medieval hagio¬
graphy. The Coupar MS. of the Scotichronicon1 thus
describes Inchcolm :—
‘ Alia insuper insula, ad occidens distans ab Incheketh,
quae vocatur Aemonia, inter Edinburch et Inverkethyn,
quam quondam incoluit, dum Pictis et Scotis fidem
praedicavit, Sanctus Columba abbas.’
The Scotichronicon not only records the devotion of King
Alexander i. to St. Columba and the response of the Saint
to his prayers, which led to the foundation of the monas¬
tery ; it narrates a series of miraculous interventions of
St. Columba :—in 1835, pirates had plundered the island
and carried off an image of St. Columba from the Abbey
church—they were saved from the consequent storm
which overtook them by promising amends to the Saint
and restoring their spoils ; 2 c. 1336, English pirates had
carried off the woodwork of the choir of the monastery’s
church of Dollar—the sudden sinking of their ship opposite
Inchcolm is attributed to the vengeance of St. Columba ; 3
in 1385, when English invaders had attempted to set on
fire the church of Inchcolm by igniting a lean-to shed
beside it, the invocation of St. Columba secured a change
in the wind and saved it; 4 in 1411, Archibald, Earl of
Douglas, after encountering contrary winds, made an
offering to St. Columba at Inchcolm—he then obtained
1 i., cap. 29 ; in GoodalTs edition, i., cap. vi.
2 Scotichf., xiii., cap. xxxiv.
3 Ibid., xiii., cap. xxxvii.
b
Ibid., xiv., cap. xlviii.