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 north-eastern 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 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 Cistercian 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.^[723] 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.^[724]

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 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;^[725] 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 thethe 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;^[726] 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 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.’^[727]

As far as we have gone, the Celtic Church appears mainly as dying out by internal decay, and as being superseded by the bishoprics founded in the earlier years of 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.

In the year 1144, Robert, bishop of St. Andrews, who had been prior of the monastery of regular canons of St. 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. Accordingly, 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.^[728] 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 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;^[729] 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 Caledei 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 shall not operate to their prejudice.^[730] In the year 1258 they are finally deprived of their parochial status as vicars of the parish church of the Holy Trinity of St. Andrews.^[731] It is evident from these deeds that the Keledei asserted their claim to be considered as canons, and did not submit without a struggle to be deprived of the right of participating in the election of bishop, from which they are finally excluded in the year 1273. We again find them in a document in 1309, and the position which they had now come to occupy is clearly defined. It is a decision given by Sir Thomas Randulph, the guardian of Scotland north of the Firth of Forth, in a controversy between the Keledei and the bishop regarding territorial jurisdiction, in which he finds that ‘within the bounds of the district termed the Boar’s Chase there are only three baronies, viz., the barony of the bishop of St. Andrews, the barony of the prior of St. Andrews, and the barony of the Keledei, and that these baronies with their inhabitants are under the immediate jurisdiction of the bishop of St. Andrews and of the church, and of no one else.’^[732] While, therefore, the priory of the canons-regular of St. Andrews ‘soon took its place as first in rank and wealth of the religious houses of Scotland, and the prior, with the ring and mitre and symbols of episcopacy, had rank and place in Parliament above abbots and all other prelates of the regular clergy,’^[733] the name of Keledei gradually disappears, being mentioned for the last time in the year 1332, when the usual formula of their exclusion in the election of a bishop is repeated; and instead of them we hear only of the provostry of ‘the church of Saint Mary of the city of St. Andrews,’ of ‘the church of the blessed Mary of the Rock,’ and of the ‘provostry of Kirkheugh,’ the society consisting of a provost and ten prebendaries.^[734]

The Keledei of Lochleven fared no better than those of St. Andrews, and were extinguished in much the same manner by being converted into canons-regular, though the process was a shorter one. They were a small community, and preserved, even as late as the reign of Malcolm Canmore, their original character of an eremetical society. They were the oldest Keledean establishment in Scotland, and thus exhibited its earliest form. By an arrangement between them and the bishop of St. Andrews, their establishment had been made over to him prior to the year 961; and this enabled Bishop Robert, when he established the priory of regular canons in St. Andrews, to convey to the prior ‘the abbacy of the island of Lochleven, with all its pertinents, in order that he might establish in it a body of canons-regular. He conveys to him all the lands which had from time to time been granted to the Keledei of Lochleven, with all their revenues, and likewise the ecclesiastical vestments which belonged to the Chelede, as well as the books which constituted their library.’^[735] This was followed by a charter by King David, in which he declared ‘that he had given and granted to the canons of St. Andrews the island of Lochleven, that they might establish canonical order there; and the Keledei who shall be found there, if they consent to live as regulars, shall be permitted to remain in society with and subject to the others; but, should any of them be disposed to offer resistance, his will and pleasure was that such should be expelled from the island.’^[736] A century later we find that the conversion of the community of Keledei into a priory of canons-regular had been fully accomplished, as in the year 1248 the prior and convent of canons-regular of St. Andrews, on the narrative that ‘Kings David and William of Scotland and Bishops Robert and Richard of St. Andrews had given and confirmed to them the abbacy of Keledei in Lochleven, and that it was desirable to improve the position of their priory of Lochleven and of their brethren the canons-regular of the order of St. Augustine instituted and dwelling there, make over to the church of St. Servanus of Lochleven the property of the island of St. Servanus situated on that lake;’^[737] and we hear no more of the Keledei of Lochleven.

Another community of Keledei connected with the church of St. Andrews was treated much in the same manner. Among the possessions of that church beyond the great chain of the Mounth was Monimusk, situated in the vale of the river Don. The popular tradition of its foundation is that Malcolm Canmore, when proceeding on a military expedition against the people of Moray, came to Monimusk, and, finding that the barony of Monimusk belonged to the crown, he vowed it to St. Andrew in order to procure him victory. This tradition is so stated by Hector Boece, and if it rested upon no better authority it could hardly be received as historical; but it is certain that Malcolm Canmore did make an expedition against the race of Moray in 1078, from which he returned victorious;^[738] and in a bounding charter said to have been transcribed from the Register of St. Andrews, between the lands of Keig and Monimusk, there is added that ‘these are the marches which King Malcolm gave to God and the church of Saint Mary of Monimusk on account of the victory granted to him.’^[739] So far we may infer that it was not an ancient Columban foundation; and it is certain that the bishop of St. Andrews was termed the founder of the house, and that it, like the church of Keledei at St. Andrews, was dedicated to St. Mary, and contained a community of Keledei which probably emanated from that church. Their possessions, too, included those northern churches which were connected with the legend of St. Andrew, or were dedicated to him, as Kindrochet in Mar, Alford and Eglismenythok in Angus. The notices of these Keledei are all to be found in the Register of the Priory of St. Andrews, which contains various grants made to them. They first appear in the year 1170 simply as the ‘Keledei of Munimusc,’ when they receive a grant from Roger, earl of Buchan; but their principal benefactor was Gilchrist, earl of Mar, who flourished between the years 1199 and 1207. He appears to have built them a convent, and enforced the canonical rule upon the Keledei, who now call themselves canons; for we find him granting the church of Loychel to God and St. Marie of Munimusc and the Keledei serving there, and the bishop of Aberdeen confirms this grant to the church of the blessed Mary of Munimusc and the canons, who are called Keledei, serving God there; and again the bishop confirms the grant which Gilchrist, earl of Mar, had made to this monastery which he had founded at Munimusc in the church of St. Mary in which the Keledei previously were. In another confirmation by the same bishop, as well as in one by the bishop of St. Andrews, they are termed simply the canons of Munimusc.^[740] So far then the Keledei seem to have been recognised and favoured, but the storm soon after broke upon them. In 1211 a complaint was laid before the pope by William, bishop of St. Andrews, that ‘certain Keledei who professed to be canons, and certain others of the diocese of Aberdeen in the town of Munimusc, which pertained to him, were endeavouring to establish a regular canonry, contrary to justice, to the prejudice of his church;’ whereupon a commission was issued to the abbots of Melrose and Dryburgh and the archdeacon of Glasgow to inquire into the matter, which resulted in a convention between the bishop of St. Andrews and the Keledei of Munimusc to the following effect:—‘That the Keledei in future should have one refectory and one dormitory in common, and one oratory without a cemetery; and that the bodies of the Keledei and of clerks or laymen who might die when with them should receive the rights of sepulture at the parish church of Munimusc; further, there were there twelve Keledei and a thirteenth, Bricius, whom the Keledei were to present to the bishop of St. Andrews for confirmation, in order that he should be their master, or prior; that on his retirement or death the Keledei were to choose three of their society, from among whom the bishop was to select the one he considered best suited to become their prior, or master, and who was to do fealty to him as the founder of the house of the Keledei;’ that the election of the prior, or master, of the Keledei should be so conducted in future, with this addition, that it should not be lawful for them at any future time to profess the life or order of monks or canons-regular without the bishop’s consent, or to exceed the number; that, when a Keledeus died or withdrew, those who remained were at liberty to fill up the vacant place; but that such Keledeus was, upon his admission, to swear before the bishop or his deputy that he would observe the terms of this composition. The Keledei were to retain the lands called Eglismenythok, which they had received from Robert, bishop of St. Andrews, and other dues commonly belonging to Keledei. They promised to do nothing to the prejudice of the church of St. Andrews or the parish church of Munimusc; and when the bishop of St. Andrews came to Munimusc, the Keledei were to receive him with a solemn procession.^[741] They were thus brought under the more direct control of the bishop of St. Andrews, who is there called the founder of their house, and assimilated to the state into which the Keledei of St. Andrews had been brought. Like them, they consisted of a prior, or head, with twelve members. Like them, they were excluded from all parochial functions. As their position gave them no claim to be considered as a capitular body, it was unnecessary to exclude them from participation in the election of a bishop; and the same provision seems to have been made, though in a more correct manner, for gradually superseding them by regular canons and inhibiting them as each Keledeus died. In a charter granted a few years after by Duncan, earl of Mar, of the church of Loychel and other possessions, they are termed Keledei or canons; but in the confirmation by Alexander the Second the former term is dropped, and they are called simply canons; and in 1245 the Keledei of Munimusk have entirely disappeared, and instead we have, in a confirmation by Pope Innocent IV., ‘the prior and convent of Munimusc, of the order of Saint Augustine.’^[742]

Another feature of the policy by which the kings of this race endeavoured to assimilate the native church to that of Rome, was that of introducing the monastic orders of that church, and establishing monasteries which should form centres of influence for the spread of the new system. Upon these monasteries the remains of the old Columban foundations were to a large extent conferred, and in this policy the monarchs were very generally seconded by the great earls and barons of Scotland. King David, soon after his accession, remodelled the church at Dunfermline which had been founded by Queen Margaret, and placed in it Benedictine monks, consisting of an abbot and twelve brethren, brought from Canterbury;^[743] and he introduced the same monks into the district of Moray, by founding at Urquhart, not far from its eastern boundary, a priory of Benedictines which became a cell of Dunfermline.^[744] Towards the end of his reign, and after the great district of Moray had been brought under subjection to the Crown, he founded at Kinloss, somewhat farther west, and not far from the mouth of the Findhorn, a monastery, in which he placed Cistertians brought from Melrose.^[745] In the following reign another colony of the same monks was brought from Melrose by Malcolm IV., and placed at Cupar-Angus, in the diocese of St. Andrews, where he founded a monastery in the year 1164.^[746] In the reign of his successor another order of Benedictines—those of Tyron—who had been established by King David at Kelso, was introduced into the diocese of St. Andrews. Their principal house was that of Aberbrothock, or Arbroath, founded by King William the Lion in 1173, and dedicated to St. Mary and St. Thomas the Martyr. The same year his brother David, earl of Huntingdon, founded a monastery at Lindores in Fife, for the same order, and in the following year the earl of Buchan, founded at Fyvie, in the diocese of Aberdeen, a priory which was affiliated to Arbroath, and belonged to the same order.^[747]

During the reign of King William the possessions of their principal monastery at Arbroath increased with great rapidity, and estates in land, churches and tithes were heaped upon the new foundation by the earls and barons of Angus and the north. These included many of the old Columban foundations; and, if the Book of Deer throws much light upon the state of Buchan, both as regards the position of its Columban monasteries and the social organisation of its old Celtic population, the Chartulary of Arbroath is in this respect the most important record we have, and we derive from it much insight into the state and characteristics of the old territorial system south of the great range of the Mounth. Among the churches granted by King William, we find in Angus the church of St. Mary of Old Munros, with its land, called ‘in the Scottish speech Abthen,’ or, as it is afterwards termed, ‘the land of the abbacy of Munros,’ with other churches there; in Mar, the churches of Banchory St. Ternan and Coul; in Buchan, Fyvie, Tarves and Gameryn; and in Banff, the churches of St. Marnan of Abirchirdir, Inverbondin, or Boindie, dedicated to St. Brandan, and Banff; and the king likewise grants to them the lands of Forglen, the church of which was dedicated to St. Adamnan, with the custody of the Brecbennach, or banner of St. Columba. Margery, countess of Buchan, grants to them the church of Turfred, or Turriff, dedicated to St. Comgan, which, as we have seen, had preserved its Celtic character as late as the reign of David I. The grants by the earls of Angus give us, however, the most interesting information; and in one of these we come upon an incidental mention of the Culdees. Gilchrist, earl of Angus, grants to the monks of Arbroath ‘the church of Monifod, with its chapels, lands, tithes and oblations, and with the common pasturage and other privileges belonging to it,’ which grant is confirmed by King William.^[748] Malcolm, earl of Angus, grants about the year 1220 the land of the Abthein of Munifeth to Nicholas son of Bricius, priest of Kerimure; and this grant is confirmed by his daughter, Countess Matilda, whose charter is witnessed by William, vicar of Monifeit. Another charter by the same countess is witnessed by William vicar of Monifodh, and Nicholas abbot of Monifodh. Countess Matilda then grants to the monks of Arbroath ‘the land on the south side of the church of Monifodh, which the Keledei held in the life of her father, with a croft at the east end of the church;’ and finally Michael, lord of the Abbathania of Monifoth, holds this croft in feu-farm from the monks of Arbroath.^[749] Here we see an old Abthen, or abbacy, granted to the son of a priest, who then calls himself abbot, while the church is served by a vicar; and a late descendant appears, as in other cases, with the simple designation of ‘de Monifoth,’ and calls himself lord of the Abbathania, or territory of the abbacy. The ancient monastery had therefore now passed into the hands of a hereditary lay abbot, but we also find part of the land held by a body of Keledei, who are only once mentioned, and then pass away for ever. The dedications throw some light on this. The church of Monifieth, situated on the north shore of the Firth of Tay, was dedicated to St. Regulus, or St. Rule; but within the parish was the chapel of Eglismonichty, dedicated to St. Andrew. The dedications, therefore, reflect the two legends of the foundation of St. Andrews—the older Columban foundation under St. Regulus, and the later Pictish one, when the relics of St. Andrew were really introduced. The lay abbacy represents the former. The Keledean establishment belongs to the later foundation. We find, too, John Abbe, son of Malise, granting to the monks the privilege of taking charcoal in the wood of Edale, which is confirmed by Morgund, son of John Abbe. The church of Edale, now Edzell, was dedicated to St. Drostan, the founder of the church of Deer; and here, too, we find one of the old Columban foundations in the possession of a lay family, who seem even to have adopted Abbe as a surname.

Among other churches granted to the monks of Arbroath by King William was ‘the church of Abyrnythy, with its chapels, lands, tithes and oblations, its common pasturage, and all other privileges belonging to it;’^[750] but this church belonged to the diocese of Dunblane, one of the latest bishoprics founded by King David I. Towards the end of his reign he appears to have added two bishoprics to those already founded by him. These were the bishoprics of Dunblane and Brechin. They are mentioned as already existing, in a bull by Pope Adrian addressed to the bishops of Glasgow, Whithern, St. Andrews, Dunblane, Dunkeld, Brechin, Aberdeen, Moray, Ross and Caithness, ten in number, in the second year after King David’s death, in which he directs them to submit to the archbishop of York,^[751] a command which was not obeyed except by the bishop of Candida Casa, or Whithern. The struggle for the independence of the Scottish Church was, however, terminated in the year 1188, when the pope, Clement III., in a bull addressed to King William the Lion in that year, recognised the independence of the Scottish Church, and declared ‘the Church of Scotland to be the daughter of Rome by special grace, and immediately subject to her.’^[752] In this bull the church is said to contain the following episcopal sees—viz., St. Andrews, Glasgow, Dunkeld, Dunblane, Brechin, Aberdeen, Moray, Ross and Caithness, that is, nine of the bishoprics mentioned in the previous bull—that of Candida Casa, or Whithern, remaining subject to the archbishop of York; and these nine bishoprics are obviously the episcopal sees referred to by Ailred of Rivaux, when he states that King David found at his accession only three or four bishops, and founded or restored so many as to leave nine at his death. We find accordingly Samson, bishop of Brechin, witnessing the charter granted by King David to the Church of Deer in the last year of his reign; and again, along with Laurence, bishop of Dunblane, a charter granted by Malcolm IV. to the monks of Dunfermline between 1160 and 1162;^[753] but, although Laurence is first mentioned in the bull of Pope Adrian in 1155, his bishopric is included in the nine left by King David at his death, and must have been founded shortly before and probably at the same time as that of Brechin. The reorganisation of the church under a diocesan episcopacy was thus completed during the lifetime of King David; and during the subsequent reigns we find the occasional appearance of a representative body of seven bishops, in obvious connection with that other body termed the seven earls of Scotland.^[754] The seven bishops of Scotland appear to have consisted of the bishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow, and the five bishops added by King David himself during his reign, omitting the bishops of Dunkeld and Moray, whose bishoprics had been restored in the previous reign of Alexander the First.

The two bishoprics of Brechin and Dunblane thus founded towards the end of King David’s reign were probably formed from the remains of the old Pictish bishopric of Abernethy, in so far as the churches which had been subject to it had not been absorbed by the growing bishopric of St. Andrews which immediately succeeded it. We may infer this from the facts that, though Abernethy was within the limits of the diocese of St. Andrews and surrounded on all sides by her churches, it belonged ecclesiastically to the diocese of Dunblane; that Abernethy was dedicated to St. Bridget, and that we find a Panbride in the diocese of Brechin and a Kilbride in that of Dunblane, indicating that the veneration of the patroness of Abernethy had extended to other churches included in these dioceses. Abernethy, too, was the last of the bishoprics which existed while the kingdom ruled over by the Scottish dynasty was still called the Kingdom of the Picts, while that of St. Andrews was more peculiarly associated with the Scots; and it was in Stratherne and in the northern part of Angus and in the Mearns that the Pictish population lingered longest distinct from that of the Scots, while the latter had their main seat in the central region consisting of the rest of Angus, Gowrey, Fife and Fothrif. The two bishoprics of Dunblane and Brechin on the one hand, and that of St. Andrews on the other, to some extent represented what had at one time been the main territory occupied by the two populations. Abernethy has, by popular tradition, always been peculiarly associated with the Pictish population, and its history, so far as it can be ascertained, shows its connection with the church among the southern Picts from the very earliest period. The legend of its first foundation connects it with the church of St. Ninian, when a church is said to have been established there by King Nectan, who had, while in exile, visited Kildare in the fifth century, and who dedicated his church to St. Brigid, or St. Bride. When the Columban church entered the province of the southern Picts in the end of the sixth century, it was refounded by King Garnard for Columban monks, while the dedication to St. Bride was preserved; but, like Kildare itself, it now contained an establishment of monks. What its fate was during the interval between the expulsion of the Columban monks in the beginning of the eighth century and their reintroduction under Kenneth mac Alpin—whether the monks of Abernethy were expelled and secular clergy introduced, or whether they conformed to the decree of the Pictish king and were allowed to remain—we do not know; but during the reign of the first king of the Scottish dynasty, when the abbot of Dunkeld became the first bishop of his kingdom, Abernethy appears to have been visited and reorganised by the abbot of the mother church of Kildare, and to this period the erection of its round tower can be most probably assigned. On the death of the bishop-abbot of Dunkeld, it became the seat of the bishop of the kingdom, and three elections of these bishops had taken place there when it was in its turn superseded by St. Andrews.

In the reign of Edgar the Keledei of Abernethy first appear on record, but whether they were introduced, as at Lochleven in the eighth century, or, as at St. Andrews, in the tenth, we have no means of ascertaining; but we are told by Bower that this community of Keledei, whom he terms the prior and canons, possessed the lands and tithes which formerly belonged to St. Bridget and her times, and that, as usual with the Keledei, their church had become dedicated to St. Mary.^[755] By King William the church of Abernethy was granted to Arbroath; and we now find the one half of the church and its dependencies in the possession of a hereditary lay abbot, while the other half belonged to the Keledei, for in that reign—some time between 1189 and 1198—Laurence, son of Orm de Abernethy, conveys to the church and monks of Arbroath his whole right ‘in the advowson of the church of Abernethy, with its pertinents, that is, the chapel of Dron, the chapel of Dunbulcc, with the chapel of Erolyn and the lands of Belache and Petenlouer, and with the half of all the tithes which belonged to him and his heirs, the other half belonging to the Keledei, and with all the tithes of the territory of Abernethy and its proper rights, with the exception of those tithes which are appropriated to the churches of Flisk and Cultram and the tithes from his lordship of Abernythy, which the Keledei of Abernethy have and which properly belong to him, viz., those of Mukedrum and Kerpul and Balehyrewelle and Ballecolly and Invernythy on the east side of the river,’ that is, the land extending along the south shore of the Firth of Tay from the river Nethy to the east boundary by Mugdrum. This very instructive grant thus presents to us a picture of Abernethy in which the ancient abbacy is now represented by a family of lay abbots, while the possessions of the old nunnery are held by Keledei, and the lay lord of the territory conveys his abbatial rights to Arbroath, retaining the land, and becomes to all intents and purposes a secular baron of Abernethy, from whom sprang the baronial house of Abernethy. In the succeeding century we find a dispute between the abbot and monks of Arbroath and the prior and Keledei of Abernethy regarding the tithes of certain lands which the abbot declared belonged to their parish church of Abernethy; but it was decided by the bishop of Dunblane against the Keledei.^[756] These Keledei were eventually disposed of in the same manner as the others had been, and were in 1272 converted into a community of canons-regular of St. Augustine. We have no record of the process; but there is no reason to doubt the fact as stated by Bower,^[757] and the name of Keledei no longer occurs in connection with Abernethy.

The church of Brechin, which became the seat of the bishopric founded by King David, has no claim to represent an old Columban monastery; for its origin as a church is clearly recorded in the Pictish Chronicle, which tells us that King Kenneth, son of Malcolm, who reigned from 971 to 995, immolated the great town of Brechin to the Lord; and its dedication likewise indicates a later foundation, for it was dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Like the other churches which belong to the period after the establishment of a Scottish dynasty on the throne in the person of Kenneth mac Alpin, it emanated from the Irish Church, and was assimilated in its character to the Irish monasteries; and to this we may, no doubt, attribute the well-known round tower at Brechin. We hear nothing more of this church till the reign of David the First; but one of the witnesses to the charter granted by him, in the eighth year of his reign, to the church at Deer, is ‘Leot, abbot of Brechin.’ The later charter granted by the same king to the church of Deer is, as we have seen, witnessed by Samson, bishop of Brechin; and that, in this case as well as that of Dunkeld, the abbot had become the bishop is probable, for a charter granted by his successor Turpin, bishop of Brechin, is witnessed by ‘Dovenaldus, abbot of Brechin;’ and the same Dovenaldus, abbot of Brechin, grants a charter to the monastery of Arbroath, of the lands of Ballegillegrand for the health of the souls, among others, of his ‘father Samson,’ thus showing that though Samson had become bishop, the abbacy passed to his son. The charter of Bishop Turpin, which is witnessed by this Dovenaldus, contains among the witnesses ‘Bricius, prior of the Keledei of Brechin,’ who ranks immediately after the bishop of St. Andrews; and it is apparent that the abbacy had now become secularised, for Dovenaldus does not appear among the clerical witnesses, but follows Gilbride, earl of Angus. Brechin thus presents at this time the same features as Abernethy, and shows us the abbacy in the possession of a lay abbot and a community of Keledei under a prior. That the abbacy now passed into the possession of a family of hereditary lay abbots, who, as in other cases, bore the name of Abbe, appears from the chartulary of Arbroath, where we find a grant to the monastery by ‘Johannes Abbe, son of Malisius,’ which is witnessed by Morgund and John, his sons, and Malcolm his brother. He himself too witnesses a charter as ‘Johannes, abbot of Brechin,’ and this grant is confirmed by ‘Morgundus, son of Johannes Abbe.’ The community of Keledei with their prior appear as in other cases to have formed the chapter of the diocese, till they were gradually superseded by a regular cathedral chapter. In the charter by Abbot Dovenaldus we find the prior, who in the earlier charters ranked after the bishop, giving place to the archdeacon of Brechin, while the appearance of ‘Andreas, parson of Brechin,’ indicates that they had now lost their parochial functions. They then appear conjoined with other clergy in forming the chapter in a charter granted by the prior and Keledei and the other clerics of the chapter of the church of Brechin to the monks of Arbroath, and a dean appears among the witnesses. In a charter granted by the bishop of Brechin, the archdeacon, the chaplain of Brechin, and two other chaplains and the dean take precedence of the prior of the Keledei. After the year 1218 we find the Keledei distinguished from the chapter; and in 1248 they have entirely disappeared, and we hear only of the dean and chapter of Brechin.^[758]