'Emigrants' and 'Exiles':migration in the early Irish and Scottish church Brian Lambkin, Director of the Centre for Migration Studies A central theme in both Irish and Scottish migration studies is the distinction between voluntary and forced migration, which is highlighted in the titles of major books in the field by the contrasting terms 'emigrants', or 'adventurers', and 'exiles'.1 However, it has received relatively little attention with regard to the medieval period.2 Migration was central to the process by which the early Irish Church established itself in Scotland, most notably on Iona, in the sixth century. This article is concerned mainly with migration between Ireland and Scotland as evidenced by Adomnán's Life of Columba – 'a source of the first importance for the early history of Ireland and Scotland'.3 In particular it is concerned with how the distinction between 'emigrants' and 'exiles' was understood, in both secular and sacred contexts, and it finds that in the early medieval period, c.300–800, as distinct from later periods, Irish migrants to Scotland and Irish and Scottish migrants further afield were thought of less as 'exiles' than as 'emigrants' or 'adventurers'. At the heart of Adomnán's Life of Columba is the migration of the saint from Ireland to Scotland.4 Alan and Marjorie Anderson, the editors of the Latin text Vita Columbae, translate each of the following migration terms by 'departure': exitus, egresus, transitus and emigratio. [End Page 133] However, close examination of the contexts in which these four terms are used reveals that they do not function simply as synonyms for 'departure'. It turns out that exitus and egresus are restricted in meaning to the 'departure' or 'leaving' stage of the three-stage process of migration (departure, crossing, arrival). As might be expected, transitus and emigratio are closer in meaning to modern English 'transition' and 'emigration' than to 'exile': transitus is restricted in meaning to the intermediate stage of 'crossing' between 'old world' and 'new world'; and emigratio refers to the whole three-stage process of 'emigration'. Exitus (departure) is used to refer particularly to the moment or 'hour' of death at which the soul 'exits' from the body. Thus, Adomnán refers to the tunic which Columba wore 'in the hour of his exitus from the flesh',5 and Lugaid reports having a vision of Iona 'in the hour of his [Columba's] blessed exitus'.6 When Columba says 'you could by no means know anything of my exitus except what I myself have even now disclosed to you', he is referring specifically to the time of his death, which he had previously predicted would be 'at midnight of this following venerated Lord's-day'.7 The focus of the exitus is on a 'point of exit', fixed in both time and space. This is exemplified by Columba's report of an angel that 'has returned through the roof-courses of the church, leaving no trace of that exitus'.8 The 'exit' of the soul from the body at the point of death is thus seen as analogous to the angel's 'exit' (departure) from the body of the church through the roof. Egresus (departure) refers to that of the soul from the body at death, as in: 'after the holy man's egresus from the body';9 'I have a few secret words concerning my egresus';10 'a thing [giving a blessing by moving his hand] that in the egresus of his soul he could not do by voice';11 'after the egresus of the holy soul, when the matin hymns were ended, the sacred body was carried back from the church';12 and 'even after the egresus of his most gentle soul from the tabernacle of the body'.13 As these references make clear, the egresus of the soul is thought of as beginning while the dying person is still alive: Columba is still able to move his hand in benediction while his egresus is underway. It continues for some time after the exitus, the moment when his soul 'exits' his body – for at least as long as the matin hymns are sung. [End Page 134] There are four incidents where egresus...

John Gordon of Glencat’s story may be perused for its own human interest, but it is also a story that singularly reveals the conditions and problems facing Scots Catholics in the eighteenth century. John Gordon of Glencat is best known for his Memoirs, a book of apostasy and diatribe against the Scots College Paris which was published in 1733 with a second edition in the following year. In this work, he claimed that he was taken to the Scots College, Paris against his will and kept prisoner there for thirteen years, making his escape after refusing to submit to Unigenitus on what was going to be the day of his ordination to the priesthood. After selling his books to buy lay clothes, he was taken through France in a cart, covered with a blanket, as he was hotly pursued by the ecclesiastical authorities. In this highly unlikely tale, the ‘thirteen years’ stay in the college is contradicted by his own testimony. He left Scots College Paris in August 1730. If he had been thirteen years there, he would have entered in 1717. Yet he wrote that Alexander Smith was Prefect of Studies at the time of his arrival, and Alexander Smith did not arrive in Paris until June 1718. Glencat also stated that he had met his cousin Robert Gordon at Gordon Castle a year and some weeks before going to Paris, but Robert Gordon did not arrive back in Scotland until March 1719. He further recounted that he travelled to Paris in the company of John Farquharson, son of Robert Farquharson of Achriachan, and John Farquharson went to Paris in 1721. The ‘thirteen years’ claim, though appearing in the very title of his book, is clearly false. Elizabeth Harding, whose book will be discussed presently, said that the registers of the college proved that Glencat was admitted on 12 November 1722. William Clapperton accepted this date, conjecturing that John Gordon was the eldest of three received that year. This, however, does not fit all the facts. All three arriving in 1722 were described as very young whereas Glencat was then eighteen. The eldest of the three was