The Bass Rock : its civil and ecclesiastic history / by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie, D. D. Geology, by Hugh Miller. Martyrology, by the Rev. James Anderson. Zoology and botany by Professor Fleming and Professor Balfour.

  • Thomas M'Crie
Date:
1848]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Bass Rock : its civil and ecclesiastic history / by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie, D. D. Geology, by Hugh Miller. Martyrology, by the Rev. James Anderson. Zoology and botany by Professor Fleming and Professor Balfour. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [9] A story is told, however, relating to his burial, which, though not without its parallels in after times, hears too strong an impress of its monkish origin, to be re- ferred so far back as the early date to which it lays claim. The legend, originating probably in some pious fraud of subsequent contrivance, “ to avoid scandalous divisions,” grows in pomp and circumstance even before our eyes, in the ancient records which have transmitted it. The first version of the story is very simple, being to the effect, “ that the people waxing wroth, took arms, and each of them sought by force to enjoy the same ; and when the matter came to issue, the said sacred body was found all whole in three distinct places of the house where he died ; so as all the people of each vil- lage coming thither and carrying the same away, placed it in their churches, and kept it in great honour and veneration for the miracles that at each place it pleased God to work.” The next version is more in accordance with the solemnity of the occasion : “ The inhabitants of the three parishes which were under his charge (Ald- hame, Tynningham, and Preston), as soon as they knew of his death, assembled in three different troops at Ald- hame, where he breathed his last, severally begging his body. But as they could not agree among themselves, they, by the advice of a certain old man, left the body unburied, and separately betook themselves to prayer. Morning being come, they found three bodies perfectly alike, and all prepared with equal pomp for interment.” So saith the Breviary of Aberdeen. Time advances, and the wonder gathering in bulk, and catching up more rubbish in its way as it rolls down the dark ages, we are informed by Hector Boece in 1526, that the three bodies were found by the priests, when it was hardly dawn (sub dubiam lucem); and that, by orders of the