Establishment of bishopric of Caith

ness.

tercian abbey of Deer in the year 1219 seems to have brought to a close its history as a Celtic monastery. The monastery of Turbruad, or Turriff, appears also to have existed as a Celtic monastery at the same time, and we have some incidental notices of it in the Book of Deer. Domingart, Ferleighinn Turbruad, or 'lector of Turriff,' witnesses one of Earl Gartnait's grants, and that by his successor Colbain is witnessed by Cormac, Abb. Turbruad, or abbot of Turriff;' but it probably passed into lay hands before the end of David's reign, as his charter of confirmation is witnessed by Cormac de Turbrud,' or Cormac of Turriff, without any designation implying a clerical character.30 The charter

by Cainnech, Mormaer or Earl of Buchan, refounding the church of Deer, contains the last notice of Cormac bishop of Dunkeld; and Gregorius, the bishop of Moray, appears to have been translated to Dunkeld, as in a charter by David the First to Dunfermline, granted before the death of his queen, Matilda, in 1130, we find as witnesses Robert bishop of St. Andrews and Gregorius bishop of Dunkeld; and along with them appears, for the first time, Andreas bishop of Cataness, or Caithness.31

This great district, which comprised both the modern counties of Caithness and Sutherland, and extended from the Dornoch to the Pentland Firths, was at this time in the possession of the Norwegian earl of Orkney; and, though he held the earldom of Caithness nominally under the crown of Scotland, its connection with the Scottish kingdom was as yet but a slight one. The erection of it into a diocese and the appointment of a bishop by the king of Scotland could have had little reality in them till they were accepted by the Norwegian earl; and David appears to have provided his new bishop with the means of supporting his position by

30 For these notices see the Book of Deer, edited for the Spalding Club by Dr. John Stuart, and his valuable Preface.

31 Regist. de Dunf., p. 5.

conferring upon him the church of the Holy Trinity at Dunkeld, with its possessions of Fordouin, Dunmernoch, Bendacthin, or Bendochy, Cupermaccultin, Incheturfin and Chethec, or Keithock. Towards the end of David's reign Andrew probably obtained a footing in Caithness, as he made over this church to the monks of Dunfermline; 32 and we find his immediate successors, John and Adam, living in Caithness, and claiming certain subsidies from the people. The principal church of the diocese was that of Dornoch, situated in the district of Sutherland, on the north side of the Dornoch Firth. This church was dedicated to St. Bar or Finbar, and his festival was held on the the 25th of September. This is the day of St. Bar or Finbar, bishop of Cork in the Irish Calendar; but the legend given in the Aberdeen Breviary obviously identifies him with St. Finbar of Maghbile, the preceptor and friend of St. Columba, whose day in the Irish Calendar is the 10th of September. There seems, therefore, to be some confusion between the two, and it is more probable that it was, like Rosemarky, a Columban foundation. The name of St. Duthac, to whom the church of Tain on the opposite shore of the firth is dedicated, is connected also with the church at Dornoch, where he is said to have performed a miracle on St. Finbar's day; 33 and in his time the Keledei may have been introduced here, where we find them in the catalogue of religious houses. In the year 1196 that portion of the earldom of Caithness which lay between the Ord of Caithness and the Dornoch Firth appears to have been taken from the Norwegian earl and bestowed upon Hugh of Moray, of the then rising family of De Moravia; and the appointment of another member of the family, Gilbert de Moravia, soon after to the bishopric of Moray led to the proper organisation of Dornoch as a cathedral. But the Culdees had by this time disappeared, and the clerical element reduced, as was usual, to 32 Regist. de Dunf., p. 74. 33 Brev. Ab., Pars Hyem., fol. lxvi.

The com

Keledei

canons.

a single priest; for his deed establishing a cathedral chapter of ten canons, with the usual functionaries of dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer and archdeacon, proceeds on the narrative that in the times of his predecessors there was but a single priest ministering in the cathedral, both on account of the poverty of the place and by reason of frequent hostilities; and that he desired to extend the worship of God in that church, and resolved to build a cathedral church at his own expense, to dedicate it to the Virgin Mary, and, in proportion to his limited means, to make it conventual.'

' 34

As far as we have gone, the Celtic Church appears munities of mainly as dying out by internal decay, and as being supersuperseded seded by the bishoprics founded in the earlier years of by regular King David's reign, and the establishment of the ordinary cathedral staff of canons with their dean and other functionaries. We have now arrived at that period of David's reign when an active war against the Culdee establishments commenced, and every effort was made to suppress them entirely, and when the process of internal decay was accompanied by a course of external aggression which we must now follow as it rolled from St. Andrews, into whose hands their fate was committed, westward, till it finally reached the far shores of the island of Iona.

Suppression of Keledei

drews.

In the year 1144, Robert, bishop of St. Andrews, who had been prior of the monastery of regular canons of St. of St. An- Augustine at Scone, founded a priory for the same canons at St. Andrews, and, besides various lands, granted to them two of the seven portions of the altarage of St. Andrews, which then belonged to lay persons, and likewise the hospital of St. Andrews, with the portion which belonged to it; and this grant was confirmed in the same year by the pope Lucius II. The object of this foundation evidently was that it should in time supersede the Culdees. Accord

34 Original at Dunrobin, quoted in Orig. Par., vol. ii. part ii. p. 601.

ingly, in the same year King David grants a charter to the prior and canons of St. Andrews, in which he provides that they shall receive the Keledei of Kilrimont into the canonry, with all their possessions and revenues, if they are willing to become canons-regular; but, if they refuse, those who are now alive are to retain them during their lives, and, after their death, as many canons-regular are to be instituted in the church of St. Andrews as there are now Keledei, and all their possessions are to be appropriated to the use of the canons. Three years later Pope Eugenius III., by a bull directed to the prior of St. Andrews, deprived the Keledei of their right to elect the bishop, and conferred it upon the prior and canons of St. Andrews, and at the same time decreed that, as the Keledei died out, their places were to be filled up by canons-regular. The Keledei appear to have resisted these changes, and to have continued to assert their right to participate in the election of the bishop, as the decree depriving them of it was renewed from time to time by subsequent popes down to the year 1248. About the year 1156, Robert, bishop of St. Andrews, granted to the prior and brethren of St. Andrews the whole of the portions of the altarage, with the exception of the seventh, which belongs to the bishop, thus adding three more later to the three portions they already possessed; and six years later Bishop Arnald gave the whole of the altarage, which was divided into seven portions, and had been held by seven persons not living a conventual life, to the canons professing a regular life and living in community. Of the two bodies into which the community of St. Andrews had been divided, that one which had passed, with the exception of the bishop's share, into the hands of secular persons, thus came to be represented by the priory of regular canons. In 1220 we find a bull by Pope Honorius III. requiring the legate

35 These deeds will be found conveniently brought together in Reeves's British Culdees, Evidences, M.

VOL. II.

2 B

of the apostolic see to inquire into a dispute between the Prior and convent of St. Andrews on the one hand, and the Bishop and those clerics of St. Andrews who are commonly called Keledei on the other, in regard to their respective possessions. The Keledean community at St. Andrews now appears under the name of the Provost and Keledei of the Church of St. Mary; and they are so designated in a document connected with the controversy between the prior and convent of St. Andrews and the provost of the church of St. Mary of St. Andrews and the Keledei living there as canons and their vicars; 36 and in the same year there is a bull by Pope Innocent the Fourth to the prior and canons, who are now termed the Chapter of St. Andrews in Scotland of the order of St. Augustine, which narrates that it had been ordained by his predecessors that, on the decease of the Keledei, their place should be filled up by canons-regular, and their prebends and possessions made over for their use; but that, the prebend of Gilbert the Keledeus having become vacant, the Keledei refused to give it up or to allow a regular canon to be introduced in his place, contrary to these statutes; and it directed the Keledei to be excommunicated if they did not obey them. Master Richard Vermont, Keledeus, appears on behalf of the Keledei, and resigns the prebend, which is made over to the canons. Three years later we find in another bull 'the provost and chapter of the Caleder of the church of St. Mary in the city of St. Andrews' still claiming to participate in the election of the bishop, and supported by the archdeacon. In a subsequent bull, two years after, addressed to the prior and chapter of the cathedral church of St. Andrews of the order of St. Augustine, on the narrative that 'two of the Keledei of the church of Saint Mary of Kilrimont, who term themselves canons,' had been allowed to take part in the election of a previous bishop, it is decreed, with consent of the Keledei, that this 36 Reeves's British Culdees, p. 114.