CHAPTER XI.
ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES.
EXT to the Castle of Edinburgh, the ancient
Parish Church of St Giles, and the Abbey
of Holyrood, form the most prominent objects
of interest in the history of the capital. The
existence of the first Parish Church of Edinburgh
is traced to the second century after the death
of its tutelar saint, the Abbot and Confeseor
St Giles, who was born in Greece, of illustrious
parentage, in the sixth century, and afterwards
abandoning his native land, and bestowing his
wealth on the poor, retired into the wilderness
of Languedoc, and founded the celebrated
monastery which long after bore his name.
To some wandering brother from the banks
of the Rhone, we probably owe the dedication
of the ancient Parish Church of Edinburgh
to St Giles, a favourite saint who owes his
honours in the southern capital to Matilda,
the Queen of Henry I. of England, and daughter
of St Margaret, Queen of Malcolm Canmore,
who founded there St Giles’s Hospit.al for
lepers, in 11 17. The Bishopric of Lindisfarn,
which comprehended Edinburgh, dates so early
as A.D. 835, and Simeon of Durham, in reckoning
the churches and towns belonging to the see in the pear.854, mentions EdminsburcA among
the latter.’ We can only infer the existence of the Church, however, from this notice, as it
is not directly mentioned, nor can we discorer its name in any authentic record till the
-reign of Alexander 11.-who succeeded his father, William the Lion, in 1214-when
Baldredus, Deacon of Lothian, and John, Perpetual Vicar of the Church of St Giles, at
Edinburgh, a f b their seals in attestation of a copy of certain Papal bulls and other charters
Maitland, p. 270.
VIGNETTE-chapel of Robed, Duke of Albany, St ades’s Church.
3 B
