The biographer of St. Margaret bears testimony, however, in favour of the Anchorites. He says that at this time ‘there were many in the kingdom of the Scots, who, in different places, enclosed in separate cells, lived in the flesh, but not according to the flesh, in great straitness of life, and even on earth lived the life of angels. In them the queen did her best to love and venerate Christ, and frequently to visit them with her presence and converse, and to commend herself to their prayers; and, as she could not induce them to accept any earthly gift from her, she earnestly requested them to deign to prescribe for her some work of charity or of mercy. Whatever was their desire she devoutly fulfilled, either in recovering the poor from their poverty, or relieving the afflicted from the miseries which oppressed them; and as the religious devotion of the people brought many from all parts to the church of St. Andrews, she constructed dwellings on both sides of the sea which divides Lodoneia, or Lothian, from Scotia—that is, the Firth of Forth—that the pilgrims and the poor might put up there and rest and find there ready everything required for the refreshment of the body. Servants were placed there to minister to them, and vessels provided in which they were ferried across without payment.’^[668] It is probable that among those anchorites who commended themselves so much to her favour were the Cele De of Lochleven, for we find Malcolm and Margaret, king and queen of Scotia, giving devoutly the town of Ballechristin to God the Omnipotent and the Keledei of Louchleven, with the same liberties as before;^[669] and Bishop Fothad too, here called Modach, son of Malmykel, ‘a man of most pious memory, bishop of St. Andrews, with whose life and doctrine the whole region of the Scots was happily enlightened, gives to God and St. Servanus and the hermit Keledei on the island of Lochleven, living there in the school of all virtues devoutly and honourably, with the same liberties, the church of Auchterderran.’^[670]

The church of Iona, too, benefited by her. When, on the death of Thorfinn, earl of Orkney, in 1057, the provinces of Scotland which he had subjected to his sway reverted to their natural rulers, the native population of the Western Isles appear to have placed themselves under an Irish chief, Diarmed, son of Maelnambo, who ruled them till his death in 1072.^[671] This led to a renewed connection with Ireland; for, in the same year, 1057, Gilchrist Ua Maeldoraid, who was of the race of Connal Gulban, became coärb of Columcille both in Ireland and in Alban, and died in 1062,^[672] and three years later Dubhtach of Alban, the chief anmchara, or soul-friend, of Erinn and Alban, died at Armagh.^[673] This is no doubt that St. Duthac who has left his name on the west coast in Loch Duich, and in Bailedhuich or Tain. After Gilchrist’s death we find the coärb of Columcille at Kells, while there appears at Iona a separate abbot, who is simply called grandson of Baetan; but in 1070 he is slain by Gilchrist’s son,^[674] and the absence of the Christian names of both, with what appears to have been a violent attempt to establish hereditary succession in the family of Ua Maeldoradh, rather indicates that these were laymen. Two years after, on the death of Diarmed, the Isles seem to have fallen into the hands of King Malcolm, and the state of Iona with a ruined monastery, and the decay of its clergy, seems to have attracted the attention of Margaret; for Ordericus Vitalis tells us that, ‘among the other good deeds of this illustrious lady, she restored the monastery of Iona, which Columba, the servant of Christ, erected in the time of Brude, son of Meilocon, king of the Picts. It had fallen to ruin in the storms of war and the lapse of ages, but this faithful queen rebuilt it, and furnished it with monks, with an endowment for performing the Lord’s work.’^[675] It is clear from this statement that what the queen repaired was the monastery. The existing ruins show no appearance of any work of the time of Queen Margaret, but they are the remains of a later monastery. What she restored was the older stone monastery which preceded the present buildings. The church, which is situated on the south side of the choir of the abbey church, and the small oratory which had enclosed the shrine of St. Columba, were probably still entire, and their remains belong to a still older period; but the other buildings of the monastery were no doubt in a ruinous state, and had perhaps been so ever since the great attack of the Danes upon it in 986; and these she now rebuilt, and reorganised the establishment of monks. It is probable, too, that she has left traces of her restoration in the Norman doorway of the chapel of St. Odhran. In the last year, however, of King Malcolm’s life the Western Isles passed again under the rule of the Norwegians, having been ceded by him to Magnus surnamed Barefoot, king of Norway; and this cession was renewed by his son Edgar in 1097. The two expeditions by King Magnus to the Western Isles, which led to their cession in these years, have been combined in the Norse Saga into one, so that it is difficult to know to which of them to refer the following incident related in the Saga:—‘King Magnus came with his army to the Holy Island, that is, to Iona, and gave quarter and peace to all men that were there, and to the property of every one. It has been said that King Magnus opened the smaller church of Kollum-killa, but did not go into it. He immediately locked the door, and said that no man should be so bold as to go in there, and that church has never been opened since.’^[676] This was no doubt the small oratory which had held the shrine of St. Columba. The Saga was written about the year 1221, and it is unlikely that a church used simply for the service of the monks should have remained closed for a century and a quarter; but it is probable that if, as in the case of Templemolaga, the ecclesiastical buildings consisted only of the larger church, the remains of which still exist in what is called the Nameless Chapel, on the north side of the choir of the abbey, and of the small oratory of the shrine, the latter would be meant by the expression of the little church of Kollum-killa; and the awe and reverence with which King Magnus regarded it, and his motive for closing it, would be natural enough. In the last year of the century but one, 1099, died Donnchad, grandson of Moenaig, the last of the old abbots of Iona.^[677]

The line of the native bishops of Alban, too, was to come to an end in this century, for in the last year of King Malcolm’s reign died also Fothad, who is termed high bishop of Alban,^[678] and no successor was appointed to him for fourteen years, when a stranger, the first of a line of bishops who were of foreign descent, was placed in the see of St. Andrews. We get a glimpse into the state of the church at this time from a grant to the Keledei of Lochleven by Ethelred, a younger son of King Malcolm. It runs thus:—‘Edelradus, a man of venerated memory, son of Malcolm king of Scotia, abbot of Dunkeld and likewise earl of Fyf, gave to God the Omnipotent and St. Servanus and the Keledei of the island of Louchleven, with the utmost reverence and honour, and with every freedom, and without any exaction or demand whatever in the world from bishop, king, or earl, Admore, with its rightful boundaries and divisions; and, seeing that this possession was given him by his parents while he was yet in boyhood, he with the more affection and love immolates it to God and St. Servanus and those men serving God there; and this collation and donation, when first made, was confirmed by the two brothers of Edelradus, David and Alexander, in the presence of several men worthy of credit, such as Constantin, earl of Fyf, a most discreet man, and Nesse; and Cormac, son of Macbeath, and Malnethte, son of Beollan, priests of Abernethy; and Mallebride, another priest; and Thuadhel and Augustinus, a priest, who were Keledei; and Berbeadh, rector of the schools of Abernethy; and before the rest of the whole community of Abernethy then living there, and before God the Omnipotent and all saints.’^[679] Here we find Edelradus, or Ethelred, the young son of King Malcolm and Queen Margaret, appearing as lay abbot of Dunkeld, and granting lands to the Keledei of Lochleven, who still continued to be the same community of hermits which they were at the beginning. The grant appears to have been confirmed at Abernethy. The community there were its witnesses, and we find that they consisted, first, of secular priests, of whom two are named; secondly, of a body of Keledei, three of whom are named, two of them being priests; and, thirdly, of a functionary here called rector, or governor, of the schools, but who can have been no other than the Ferleighinn, or lector, of the Irish churches.

To the same period we may apply the description of the church of St. Andrews given at the end of the larger legend of St. Andrew. We there read that the ‘kingdom of the Picts having been entirely destroyed and occupied by the Scots, the substance and possessions of the church alternately increased or decreased as kings and chiefs showed devotion to St. Andrew. Of these we cannot speak in detail, but we must treat compendiously of what relates to ourselves. The royal city was called Rymont, or royal mount, which King Hungus gave to God and the holy apostle. Those holy men who brought the relics of the blessed apostle having departed this life, as well as their disciples and followers, the religious service there died away, as the people were barbarous and uncultivated. There were kept up, however, by carnal succession, in the church of St. Andrew, such as it then was, thirteen, commonly called Keledei, whose manner of life was shaped more in accordance with their own fancy and human tradition than with the precepts of the holy fathers. Nay, even to the present day their practice continues the same; and although they have some things in common, these are trifling in amount and value, while they individually enjoy the larger and better portion, just as each of them happens to receive gifts, either from friends who are united to them by some unavoidable tie, such as kindred or connection, or from those whose soul-friends, that is, spiritual advisers, they are, or from any other source. And after they are made Keledei they are not allowed to keep their wives within their lodgings, nor any other women who might give rise to injurious suspicions. Moreover, there were seven “personæ,” or beneficiaries, who divided among themselves the offerings of the altar, of which seven portions the bishop used to enjoy but one and the hospital another; the remaining five were apportioned to the other five members, who performed no duty whatever either at altar or church, and whose only obligation was to provide, after their custom, lodging and entertainment for pilgrims and strangers when more than six chanced to arrive, determining by lot whom and how many each of them was to receive. The hospital, it is to be observed, had continual accommodation for a number not exceeding six; but, from the time that, by God’s goodness, it came into the possession of the canons, it has been open to all comers. The above-mentioned beneficiaries were also possessed of their private revenues and property, which, upon their death, their wives whom they openly lived with, and their sons or daughters, their relatives or sons-in-law used to divide among themselves; even the very offerings of the altar at which they did not serve—a profanation which one would blush to speak of, if they had not chosen to practise it.’ We are further told that at this time ‘there were none who served at the altar of the blessed apostle, nor used mass to be celebrated there, except upon the rare occasions when the king or the bishop visited the place. The Keledei, however, were wont to say their office after their own fashion in a corner of a church, which was very small.’^[680]

From this account we can gather that there were at St. Andrews at this time in point of fact two churches, and that the community consisted of two divisions, connected with these churches respectively. The first was the church containing ‘the altar of the blessed apostle’ St. Andrew, and the revenues of this church were appropriated by seven persons, one of whom was the bishop, the second the hospital, and the other five laymen, or lay rectors as they might be termed, who were married, and whose portions were inherited by their families. The only burden imposed upon them was to provide lodging and entertainment for pilgrims and strangers beyond the number which the hospital could accommodate. There was no provision for service in this church, except on rare occasions when the king or bishop visited the place. The second was a smaller church, which belonged to a body of thirteen Keledei, probably the prior or provost, and twelve brethren, who lived apart, had wives, and possessed private property, as well as certain ecclesiastical dues which were inherited by their families. In this church they performed divine service according to their own rite, and they also provided from their body an anmchara, soul-friend, or confessor.^[681] That this was one of their proper functions appears from the Rule of the Cele De, attributed to Maelruain, which contains the following passage: ‘Difficult indeed is the duty of the anmchara, or soul-friend, because, if he give the proper remedy, it is oftener violated than observed; but if the soul-friend does not give it, its liability falls upon himself, because several deem it enough to make the confession without doing the penance; but it is better to proclaim their welfare to them, though they do not respond to the penance enjoined by the confessor. Another soul-friend may be gone to, if necessary, after the permission of the first soul-friend.’^[682] The one party represented that portion of the community which formerly consisted of secular clergy, but whose position and revenues had, with the exception of those of the bishop and the hospital, been usurped by laymen, while their clerical duties remained unperformed. The other party consisted of the only clerical portion of the community. They represented what had originally been a society of Anchorites or Hermits, but now presented all the features of Secular canons, as they became modified in Ireland on the introduction of the canonical rule. The state of the church of St. Andrews, as we find it here pictured, is almost an exact reproduction of what we find at Armagh at the same time. Here, prior to 1126, the abbacy was in the hands of laymen, and there is no appearance of any of the usual officers of a great monastery. The only clergy who are mentioned in connection with the houses of prayer are the Cele De. Dr. Reeves gives us the following account of the Cele De of Armagh. After stating that the ‘community of the Culdees was originally a college of secular clergy who lived together and submitted to a rule, the principal requirement of which was a common table:’ ‘that they were analogous to secular canons, who in many instances formed the ancient chapters of cathedral and collegiate establishments;’ and also that ‘the maintenance of divine service, and, in particular, the practice of clerical worship, seems to have been their special function, and on this account they formed an important element in the cathedral economy;’ he adds, ‘These Cele De, then, of Armagh continued to be the officiating clergy of the churches here, and by degrees grouped themselves around the great church, where they became the standing ministers of the cathedral. They were presided over by a prior, and numbered about twelve individuals. This prior had the charge of the services in church, and superintended the order of public worship, which was principally choral;’^[683] and this correspondence between the Cele De of the metropolitan churches of Ireland and Scotland is what we might expect, as we have seen that the rules adopted in Ireland for the Cele De were introduced into Scotland in 921 shortly after the church of St. Andrews had been placed at the head of the Scottish Church.

The only other church where we obtain some insight into its condition is the church of Iona. It remained for upwards of half a century under Norwegian rule, and we hear nothing of it after King Magnus’s visit to the holy island; but when, along with the southern portion of the Western Isles, it again reverted to their native rulers, we obtain a notice of the state of the community, which we may well consider equally applicable to this period. No abbot appears; but the goodmen, or chiefs of the family of Iona, who claimed the right of electing an abbot, were four in number. These were, first, the Sacart mor, or great priest; secondly, the Ferleighinn, or lector; thirdly, the Disertach; and fourthly, the Cenn, or head, of the Ceile De, and the rest of the chiefs of the family.^[684] During this period, when Iona was in the hands of the Norwegians, the coärbs of Columcille were the abbots of Kells, and we find in that church the counterpart of the first three of these chiefs of the family. In the Irish charters in the Book of Kells we find mention of the Sacart and the Ferleighinn. Thus, in the oldest charter, granted before 1084, there is mention of ‘the coärb of Columcille, that is, Domnall mac Robartaigh, with all the ecclesiastics of Kells, in like manner, both Sacart, or priest, Epscop, or bishop, and Ferleighinn, or lector.’^[685] Again, a charter, some ten years later, relates to ‘land which the Sacart, or priest of Kells and his kinsmen purchased, that is, O’Breslen and his kinsmen,’^[686] which rather implies that the priesthood was hereditary in his family. Then, in a charter granted between 1128 and 1138, we have the ‘coärb of Columcille, viz., Gilla Adomnan O’Coirthen, and the Sacart of Kells, viz., Maelmartin O’Breslen, and the Ferleighinn of Kells, viz., Guaire O’Clucan;’^[687] and finally, in a charter granted between 1128 and 1140, the goodmen, or chiefs, of Kells are mentioned. They are ‘Muredach O’Clucan, abbot of Kells; Conaing O’Breslen, the Sacart; Guaire O’Clucan, the Ferleighinn; and Aedh, son of Mac Rechtogan, the Vice-Erenagh.’^[688] From these charters we see that the office of Sacart, or priest, was hereditary in the family of O’Breslen. The charters of Kells, too, throw light upon the chief of the family of Iona termed the Disertach; for the oldest charter in the Book of Kells is one before 1084, in which the king of Tara, or of Ireland, Maelsechnaill, and the coärb of Columcille, ‘with all the ecclesiastics of Kells, both priest and bishop and lector, and also the vice-erenagh, with the young clerics of the congregation of Columcille, have all granted for ever Disert-Columcille in Kells, with its garden, to God and to pious Deoradh, or pilgrims, no pilgrim having any lawful possession in it at any time until he devotes his life to God and is devout.’ This last clause is obviously to prevent the Disert falling into the hands of a layman.^[689] Then, in a later charter, ‘the family of Kells have granted, for the support of Deoradh, or pilgrims, Ardcamma, that is, Baile Ui Uidhrin, with its mill and all its land, and Baile Ui Chomhgain, with all its land and with its mill, to God and to Columcille and to the bishop O’Cellaigh, the senior of all the men of Meath, and to Malmaire O’Robhartaigh, the Cenn, or head, of the Disert, on the third of the Ides of November, the feast of Martin, in the year when the kine and swine of Ireland perished by a pestilence. The Disert of Kells is granted to pious pilgrims for ever. Whatever layman or clergyman shall oppose this grant, he shall be accursed of Columcille and Finan and the clergy of Ireland and of the Christian church in general.’^[690] We find then the name of Cenn na Disert, or Head of the Disert, appearing at Kells about the same time as that of Disertach makes its first appearance in connection with the family of Iona, and that in the former case it originated from the abbot of Kells, Domnall Ua Robartaigh, in conjunction with the king of Ireland, founding what was called a Disert for pious Deoradh, or pilgrims, and that this Disert became known by the name of Disert Coluimcille. The old burying-ground in Iona, which, along with the remains of the vallum, is the sole relic of the original monastery of Columcille, bears the name of Cladh an Disert, or the burying-ground of the Disert; and as Domnall, the abbot of Kells, was coärb of Columcille from the year 1062 to 1098, that is, during the entire life of Margaret as queen, who had shown such a warm interest in the anchorites and pilgrims of Scotland, it is not an unreasonable supposition that she too, in conjunction with the coärb of Columcille, had included in her work of restoration at Iona the foundation here of a Disert for pious pilgrims.

Of the Cele De there is no trace at Kells, at least under that name, for by this time the name of Cele De had long passed in Ireland from the Deoradh, or pilgrims, to the Secular canons, nor do they appear in connection with any of the Columban monasteries in Ireland; but we find the type of the Iona Cele De in another Irish monastery. This was the celebrated monastery of Clonmacnois, which was founded on the banks of the Shannon in the sixth century by St. Ciaran, one of the twelve apostles of Ireland, and where St. Columba had been received with so much honour in the later years of his life. And here, with the exception of the Disert and its Disertach, which, as we have seen, had been derived from the Columban monastery of Kells, we find the same ecclesiastical functionaries in the community as appear in that of Iona. The Sacart, or priest, makes his appearance at Clonmacnois before the year 914, when the death of Maelbairrfinn, Sacart, or priest, of Clonmacnois, is recorded. In 948 we have the death of a prim-sacart, or chief priest of Clonmacnois; and in 1109 he appears under the same designation as he bears in Iona, and in the same position of being, in the absence of an abbot, at the head of the community; for in that year died Flaithbertach Ua Loingsigh, coärb of Ciaran, and Sacart mor, or great priest, of Clonmacnois. We also find the Ferleighinn frequently mentioned both under that title and that of Scribnidh, or scribe, during the eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries, as one of the community of Clonmacnois; and here, as elsewhere, this office was frequently combined with others in the community. But the most remarkable feature of the community at Clonmacnois is the appearance of a line of hereditary Anchorites, descending from father to son for several generations, and finally merging in the title of Cenn na Cele De, or head of the Culdees. The first of these is Eoghan, Anchorite of Clonmacnois, who died in 845. His son Luchairen appears as scribe and anchorite at Clonmacnois. Egertach, the son of the latter, is Erenagh of the little church of Clonmacnois, and his son Dunadhach is bishop of Clonmacnois; but Dunadhach’s son Dunchadh is first Ferleighinn, or lector, of Clonmacnois and afterwards its Anchorite. His son Joseph appears as Anmchara, or soul-friend, of Clonmacnois, and he was father to Conn na mbocht, or of the poor, whose death is recorded in 1031 as Cenn na Cele De, or Head of the Culdees, and Anchorite of Clonmacnois.^[691] A century later we find this title of Head of the Cele De of Clonmacnois hereditary in a family called Ua Neachtain; for in 1132 is recorded the death of Uareirghe Ua Neachtain, Cenn Cele De, or Head of the Culdees of Clonmacnois. In 1170 that of Maelmordha, son of Uareirghe, ‘a learned charitable senior, the prosperity and affluence of Clonmacnois and Cenn na Chele De,’ or Head of the Culdees; and in 1200 that of Uareirghe, son of Maelmordha, son of Uareirghe Ua Neachtain, ‘one of the noble sages of Clonmacnois, a man full of the love of God and of every virtue, and Cenn Cele De,’ or Head of the Culdees of Clonmacnois.^[692]

We thus find this title of Head of the Culdees emerging in the eleventh century out of that of Anchorite at Clonmacnois; and at Iona we likewise find that there were Anchorites in the tenth century who occupied an important position in the community, while a century later the same title of Cenn na Cele De, or Head of the Culdees, appears there also. The origin and position of the Cele De were probably the same in both communities.^[693]