OBSERVATIONS ON THE KIRKMADRINE EPIGRAPHS. 247 I. OBSERVATION CONJECTURED SAN S E KIRKMADKINONTH E EPIGRAPHS. By JOHN DOWDEST, D.D., F.S.A. (Sow.). e ProceedingsTh f learneo d Societies have often, with much advantage to further research, recorde e resultth d f inquirieo s n i st whicye e ar h hut a very imperfect condition. On the obscure and difficult questions often raise archaeologicay b d l studies, even conjectures that have little positive evidenc thein ei r ventilatesuppore h y ma t d wit o discreditn h . e pageth f Proceedings,o n sI suc s thosa h f thio e s Society, factd an s speculations are brought under the notice of investigators in the same or similar field f researcho s d eventuallAn . y corrections commadee h o et , deficiencies supplied, over-statements toned down and modified, what is worthles guess-wore th n i s k dismissed, while wha solis i t d remainss i t I . with a sense that some such explanation is needed by way of apology that the following notes are submitted for consideration and criticism. I. The two inscribed stones found at Kirkmadrine, in the parish of Stoneykirk, "Wigtownshire, were e broughknowledgth e o t th t f o e learned world by Dr Arthur Mitchell.1 They are generally admitted to be, if not the very earliest, among the earliest of the inscribed Christian monuments of Great Britain. There has, so far as I am aware, been no one who disputes the judgment of Dr Joseph Anderson,2 when he de- clares them to be "the oldest inscribed Christian monuments in Scot- land." Plaster-cast f theso s e stones, procure e prompth y db t liberality of Sir James Simpson, may be found in the Museum of this Society. The stones have been pictured in Dr John Stuart's great work,8 and in r Andersen'D s Scotland Earlyn i Christian Times (second series . 254).p , 4 Putting aside from consideration in the present paper the form and character of the sacred monogram inclosed within a circle (which appears 1 Now Sir Arthur Mitchell, K.C.B. 2 Scotland Earlyn i Christian Times (second series). 91 . p , 3 Sculptured Stones of Scotland, vol. ii. plate Ixxi. 4 Also copied from Stuar Hiibner'n ti s Inscriptiones Britannia! Christianas,n i d an Smith and Cheetham's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 1978, and (more accurately Dowden'n )i s Celtic Church Scotland,n i . 17 . p 8 24 PROCEEDING E SOCIETY , 18989 TH T F . O SMA , on both sides of one of the stones, and on one side of the other) and what is doubtless the remains of the formula A ET « at the top of the principal stone (though the character of these is of the highest im- portance in helping to determine the.approximate date of the monument}, w e inscriptio turth o nt n belo e ?nonograwth e principath n mo l stone (fig. 1). It is well cut, well preserved, and in all but one place (the end . of the fourth line, where the stone appears to have been broken or frayed away) leaveletteringe th doubo o n st t runI s a tfollow.s sa s :— HJ C I A C E N T SCIETPRAE CIPVISACER DOTE8IDE8 VIVENTIVS ETMAVORIVS fourte th f ho d line lettee en th , e Abees rth t thaha n s givei tV s na encroached on (it would seem) by the wearing away of the stone. Whether there was ever any letter in this line following what is repre- sented unable abovar s e 'ssayo ea et w ' . Certainl t woulyi d seem that the fifth and sixth lines were inscribed after the slab of stone had lost tha e e samb fourte th y t s truth ei ma f aeho t i portio d s edgeit An f no . suppliesculptore s lineTh wa , t .seemi s dme a , wito st hruda e stoney b , no means regularly dressed, and had to fit his inscription as best he could. The sense of the inscription (with the. exception of doubts raised by the four last letters of the fourth line), is perfectly obvious. I)r Stuart (followe othersy db fourte ) th supplie f ho d lettee en sth e r th 'T t a ' line, and reads as follows :— HIC IACENT SANCTI ET PRAE CIPVI SACER DOTES ID ES[T] VIVENTIVS ET MAVORIVS 250 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, MAY 9, 1898. r AndersoD d Hiibneran n l reae lasth dt wor MAIOEIVSs da e doubth , t arising fro e ligatur me 'Ath th ' f wit eo e nexhth t letter,, thus fej. The only question I am disposed to raise as to the reading is with regard to the explanation of the last four letters of the fourth line. The introductio n suci ne sens th a d hplacest, f i 'tha n o ei f o e to s is,s i ' extraordinary entirelo s d an ,y contrar e usagth f Christiao eyo t n inscrip- tions, that nothinmose th t cogenghu t necessity would induco t e m e I accepmus . it tt leav o thoshavt o e wh e mad a speciae l studf o y early Christian epigraphy to say whether any- example of it can be found I wil d l an onl; y remark, that among hundred f earlso y Christian inscriptions tha I havt e read tracthero n f sucs eo e i unnatura n ha l con- struction. In a brief inscription like this, where the sense is perfectly obvious without these supposed words d wheran , e usagI ( think s i e ) wholly against their introduction I fee, l compellee th s a t rejeco dt es d i t true interpretation. The conjecture I have to offer is that IDES is the whole, or a part, sacerdotese th e prope oth f fo e r nam on burie f o e than di t place.f I we think that, like th2 e other names, it should have a Latin form of termination in 'vS,' we might read ' IDES[VS],'assuming that the stone at the time when it was sculptured admitted of this addition ; but the assumption doewel e t seem s no l m o t founded . addee b y d thama t commo' IdI a t s i ' n componen f Cymrio t c proper names. Thu fine sw d Idno, Idwal, Idwallon, Iddog, Iddew, Iddon, Idloes, Idcant, Idnerth.8 It is to the Eomano-British Church of "Wales and Cumbria that we naturally turn for illustrations of the name. For this reason, and also because of the apparently very early date of this monu- ment, it would probably be idle to look to Ireland for illustrations of the word; yet it may be worth mentioning that we find Id as the name of one of two brothers with whom St Patrick came in contact.4 We also 1 Inscriptiones Britannice Christianas. 2 This suggestion was made by the writer of the present paper in The Celtic Church in Scotland (1894), p. 16. See also Appendix iv. pp. 333-4. These (Idwa d Idnertan l h were British Bishops d otheran ) s wil foune b l n i d 3 Skene's Four Ancient Books of Wales. W. J. Rees, Gambro-British Saints. Rice Rees, Welsh Saints, and Brut-y-Tywysogion (Rolls Series). Whitley Stokes' editio e Tripartiteth f no Life t oPatrick,S f vol. i94 . 4 OBSERVATIONS ON THE KIRKMADRINE EPIGRAPHS. 251 fin a Bishod f Ato p h Fada n Leinstei t r recorde t 14ta d he Julth n yi Martyrology of German (edited by Whitley Stokes for the "Henry Bradshaw Societ e finyw d" )d n Idnaewhosso An e eth ,. Id nam s ewa of Attarae e Felireth f n OEnguso i , (Stokes' edit. , clvi)p , ; while Ide (one of the variants of Ite) appears in Irish hagiology.1 We see, then, that Id is a frequent component of Celtic names, whether Cymric or Gaelic. As to Viventius, I think it is worth calling the attention of future investigator Gallicad ol n n entra a n n o i yt Martyrologys , publishey db Martene (Ampl. Collect., vi. 658 sq.), where we read "Febr., xiv. Cal. Mart., in Britanniis Faustini, Yiventise." Could there be a transcrip- tional error her f Viventiaeo r Yiventiefo i1 . SACERDOTES.II —The thre twor e(o ) ecclesiastic o whot s e mth monumen s erecte wa te describear d s beina d g " sanct t e prsecipui i sacerdotes.'' I have avoided translating saeerdotes by our English word priests, because this latter word—(naturally enough, as being etymologically only presbyter 'writ small')—suggests to us a rank and status among the clergy which, at all events in the Church during the period within which the Kirkmadrine stones must have been sculptured subordinats wa , e rand statuth bishop a an ko e t f so . There e dangeth s f i importino r g inte fourtth o r fiftho h centur ysensa f eo e worth d sacerdos whic s thewa hn comparatively d rarhighlan e y exceptional. Indeed, while in the later, mediaeval, period the word sacerdos s almosha t invariable referenc whoe on mo t e we- shoulw no d call a priest, in the fourth and fifth centuries sacerdos was applied with incomparably greater frequenc a bishop, o t d thatt i observedy an e b , , withou qualifyiny an t g epithet.