Arovensian, Præmonstratensian, and Belvacensian (who were canons-regular from Aroise, Prémontré, and Beauvais), not few in number or small in size, but full of brethren.' 21 There is a catalogue of religious houses at the end of Henry of Silgrave's Chronicle, written about A.D. 1272, which belongs however to an earlier period, and does not come down later than the reign of William the Lion; and from it alone do we obtain any information as to the Keledean character of these foundations.22 The bishoprics which he found at his accession were those of St. Andrews, Moray, and Dunkeld, to which Ailred, probably with some hesitation, adds Glasgow. Galloway was not included, as it properly belonged to England. We find no trace of Keledei in either Glasgow or Moray; and the catalogue mentions only secular canons, that is, the chapters established after their restoration. The greater part of the new bishoprics which he added were founded in the first few years of his reign; and he appears to have commenced his proceedings by having Robert, bishop-elect of St. Andrews, consecrated in 1128 by the archbishop of York, in the same manner as Turgot had been consecrated, that is, reserving the rights of both sees; and by completing the division of Scotland north of the great range of the Mounth into separate sees.

ment of

The first of these appears to have been the diocese of EstablishRosemarky, or Ross. A charter granted by King David bishopric to the monks of Dunfermline, between the years 1128 and of Ross. 1130, is witnessed by Robert bishop of St. Andrews, who had now been consecrated, John bishop of Glasgow, Cormac bishop of Dunkeld, and Gregory bishop of Moray-these are the four bishoprics alluded to by Ailred-and there now appears as a witness an additional bishop-Makbeth, bishop of Rosmarkyn, or Rosemarky.23 This church, as appears by

21 Pinkerton, Vit. Sanct., p. 442.

22 This document, so far as it relates to Scotland, is printed in the Appendix. 23 Regist. de Dunf., p. 3.

Establishment of bishopric of Aber

deen.

its dedication, was originally founded as a Columban monastery by Lugadius, or Moluoc, abbot and bishop of Lismore, whose death is recorded in 577; but, as we have seen, Bonifacius refounded it in the eighth century, and dedicated the church to St. Peter. Here he placed, according to Wyntoun, secular canons, and we now find the canons designated as Keledei in the catalogue of religious houses. The chapter, however, was reconstituted early in the succeeding century, when the term Keledei disappears, and instead there is a regular cathedral body of canons under a dean.24

The next bishopric established appears to have been that of Aberdeen, embracing the extensive districts between the Dee and the Spey, and including the earldom of Mar and Buchan. The memorandum of the charter by the Mormaer, or Earl, of Buchan, refounding the church of Deer, which has been already referred to, in which Cormac, bishop of Dunkeld, is mentioned, is witnessed by Nectan, bishop of Aberdeen; and this is the earliest notice of that see. According to Fordun, it succeeded an earlier see founded at Mortlach, on the banks of the river Fiddich, which falls into the Spey, and therefore not far from the western boundary of the diocese. account of its foundation. King Malcolm the Second the north, he proceeds: In the seventh year of his reign Malcolm, thinking over the manifold blessings continually bestowed upon him by God, pondered anxiously in his mind what he should give Him in return. At length, the grace of the Holy Ghost working within him, he set his heart upon increasing the worship of God; so he established a new episcopal see at Murthillach, not far from the spot where he had overcome the Norwegians and gained the victory, and endowed it with churches and the rents of many estates. He desired to extend the territory of the

Fordun gives the following After narrating a victory by over the Norwegian army in

24 Reeves's British Culdees, p. 46; Orig. Par. Scot., vol. ii. p. 573-580.

diocese, so as to make it reach from the stream or river called the Dee to the river Spey. To this see a holy man and one worthy the office of bishop, named Beyn, was at the instance of the king appointed, as first bishop, by our lord the Pope Benedict.' 25 The church of Aberdeen appears, however, somewhat earlier to have had a tradition that the see was originally founded at Mortlach, and was transferred to Aberdeen by King David in the thirteenth year of his reign; but the foundation of the church at Mortlach is ascribed to Malcolm Canmore in the sixth year of his reign. This tradition is contained in five charters, or memoranda. of charters, prefixed to the Chartulary of Aberdeen, and the interval between Beyn, the supposed first bishop, and Nectan is filled up by Donercius, the second bishop, and Cormauch, the third bishop.26 That a bishopric was founded there by Malcolm the Second is clearly at variance with the undoubted fact that there was at that time but one bishop in Scotland, whose seat was at St. Andrews, and who was termed the Epscop Albain, or Episcopus Scottorum; and the five documents which contain the Aberdeen tradition have been shown by the learned editor of the Chartulary to be unquestionably spurious.27 The first authentic writ in that Chartulary is a bull by Pope Adrian IV. in 1157, confirming to Edward, bishop of Aberdeen, the church of Aberdeen, the church of St. Machar, with the town of Old Aberdeen and other lands, in which are included the monastery of Cloveth and the town and monastery of Murthillach, with five churches and the lands belonging to them.28 There is here no allusion to Murthillach having been an episcopal see, the seat of which had been transferred to Aberdeen. The designation of monastery points unequivocally to these churches having been old Columban monasteries; and accordingly we find

25 Fordun, Chron., B. iv. c. 40. 26 Regist. Ep. Ab., pref. pp. xvii. xviii.

27 See Preface to Chartulary of Aberdeen by the late Cosmo Innes. 28 Regist. Ep. Ab., p. 5.

Monasteries of Deer and Turiff.

that Murthillach was dedicated to St. Moluoc, the founder of the churches of Lismore and Rosemarky in the sixth century. Of the three bishops who are said to have preceded Nectan, Beyn probably belongs to the Columban period,29 Donercius has all the appearance of a fictitious name, and Cormauch is probably Cormac, bishop of Dunkeld, who, as we have seen, appears in the charter in which Nectan is first mentioned as having rights connected with the church of Deer, and who may have possessed similar claims upon the monasteries of Cloveth and Murthillach, as old Columban foundations, from which probably any clerical element had by this time disappeared.

We fortunately now possess an invaluable record in the Book of Deer, which throws some light upon two Columban foundations in the district of Buchan, forming the northeastern portion of the diocese of Aberdeen, as well as upon the social organisation of the Celtic inhabitants of that district. These are the monasteries of Deer and Turriff, the one founded by St. Columba and placed under the care of his nephew St. Drostan, the other founded by St. Comgan in the following century; and the notices in the Book of Deer are peculiarly valuable, as it shows these monasteries retaining their clerical element and Celtic character unimpaired down to the reign of David I. It is here, if anywhere, that we should expect to find, according to popular notions, these Columban clergy bearing the name of Culdees; but the term Cele De nowhere appears in this record in connection with

29 In the Scotch Calendars St. Beyn appears both on 26th October and on 16th December. The Breviary of Aberdeen has, on 26th October, Beyn Episcopus, and in Adam King's Calendar he is called bishop of Murthillach; but in the Martyrology of Aberdeen he is identified with St. Beyn of Fowlis in Stratherne, who, we learn from the Life of St. Cadroë, lived in the

ninth century. Dempster, in his Menologium, has him also at 16th December as bishop of Murthlach, but this is also the day of St. Mobheoc in the Irish Calendar, whose name was also Beoan; and, as he is mentioned in the Felire of Angus, he must have lived before the eighth century. See Mart. Donegal, p. 337.

them. The peculiar value of this Ms. consists in memoranda of grants to the monastery of Deer, written in the Irish character and language on blank pages or on the margins. These are in two handwritings. The first contains notices of grants preceding the time of Gartnait, Mormaer or Earl of Buchan, who lived in the earlier years of King David's reign. These are written on three blank pages at the end of the MS. and on the margin of the first page. The second begins with the grant by Gartnait refounding the church and dedicating it to St. Peter, and is followed by a short notice of a grant, by the same earl, which probably preceded it, as the grant is to Columcille and Drostan alone, without mentioning St. Peter; and on the margin of the second page, in the same handwriting, is a grant by Colban, the son-in-law and successor of Gartnait. The scribe appears to have added to two of the grants in the first handwriting the important statement that they were made in freedom from Mormaer and Toisech to the day of judgment, with his blessing on every one who shall fulfil, and his curse on every one who shall go against it.' The second of the grants by Earl Gartnait, which appears to have immediately preceded the reconstitution of the church, is witnessed by 'Gillecalline the sacart, or priest, Feradach, son of Maelbhricin, and Maelgirc, son of Tralin,' in whom we have probably the small society to which the clerics of Deer had by this time been reduced, and which rendered a refoundation necessary. As the grant refounding the church is witnessed by the Ferleighinn, or man of learning, of Turbruad, or Turriff, it is not a very violent supposition that he may have been the scribe. The charter granted by King David towards the end of his reign, declaring that the clerics of Deer shall be free from all lay interference and exaction, as written in their book, shows that they had become exposed to the encroachments of the laity and required protection; and the foundation by William, earl of Buchan, of the Cis