But even in those dioceses in which the church lands had reverted to the crown, either through hereditary succession, or from the forfeiture of their earlier possessors, the Culdees, chosen from amongst the leading provincial families, were far too powerful a body to submit without a struggle to the loss of their former privileges.[370] It appears to have been their object to establish themselves as Regular Canons, independent of the authority of the bishop; and they were occasionally assisted in their endeavours to promote their aim by the earl of the province, with whom they were frequently connected by the ties of relationship. At the opening of the thirteenth century, the Bishop of St. Andrews was obliged to obtain a Papal Bull to prevent the refractory brethren of Monymusk from exchanging the character of Hospitallers for that of Regular Canons; though the Culdees, who seem to have enlisted in their behalf the Earl of Mar and the Bishop of Aberdeen, eventually obtained their object, and before the middle of the same century, they were addressed by the pope as Regular Augustine Canons.[371]
Frequent contests between the Culdees of Kilrimont and the Prior and Canons of St. Andrews can be traced in the Register of that Priory. The Culdees seem to have been connected with the Comyns and their adherents, and to have profited by the preponderance of the national party during the stormy minority of Alexander the Third; for not only was a Papal Bull issued in favour of the married clergy of Scotland, representing that they were unjustly debarred from their rights,[372] but the Prior and Culdees were about this time converted, by the authority of a similar document, into the Provost and Chapter of St. Mary’s; though a proviso was introduced into the latter Bull to secure the privileges of the Canons of St. Andrews.[373] For a short time the Provost and Chapter of St. Mary’s appear to have been placed on a similar footing with the Culdee Chapters of Brechin and Dunblane, and to have re-established a claim to share in the election of the Bishop of St. Andrews; but they were once more reduced to their former subordination after the state of Scotland became more settled, and when the national party came to terms with the opposite faction, to which the Canons of St. Andrews appear to have adhered.[374]
At the close of the century the Culdees again make their appearance, when they elected their provost, William Comyn, to the bishopric of St. Andrews, and as they still followed the fortunes of the party which now supported Balliol, their appeal to Rome, in support of this election, was backed by the whole interest of Edward of England.[375] The pope, however, decided against the Culdees, and as they were now connected with the losing side, they shared in the downfall of the Balliols, and were finally subjected to the jurisdiction of the bishop of St. Andrews.[376] From this time nothing more is heard of the Culdees, though their monastery still existed in dependance on their former rivals; and as in the sister island the Reformation found a prior and twelve Culdees amongst the recognized clergy at Armagh, so at the same era in Scotland, a prior and twelve prebendaries still remained in the little monastery of Kirkheugh, humble representatives of the once powerful and high-born Culdees of Kilrimont.
CHAPTER XI.
MALCOLM THE FOURTH—A.D. 1153–1165.
A. D. 1153.
Six months had barely elapsed since the death of David before the evil consequences of a minority became apparent, and the peace of Scotland was again disturbed by the attempts of the Moray family upon the Crown. Malcolm Mac Heth, the head of the race, had married a sister of Somerled Mac Gillebride, the ancestor of the Lords of Argyle, an energetic and ambitious chieftain, who raised the power of the Oirir-Gael to a height hitherto unexampled, and who now sought still further to increase that power by establishing one of his sister’s children upon the throne. 1st Nov. Upon the very day on which the King of England and the Duke of Normandy solemnly pledged their mutual faith to the ratification of a lasting peace, the storm burst over the south-western coasts of Scotland, and a desultory war seems to have lingered throughout the ensuing winter, amidst the mountains of the west, until an offer of the kingdom of the Isles, in the following year, called away the most formidable supporter of the rebellion.[377]
A. D. 1103.
When the death of the Norwegian Magnus relieved the Islands from the dominion of his son Sigurd, Man again reverted to its former ruler Lagman Godfreyson, though the remainder of his reign was disturbed by the unceasing attempts of his brother Harald to obtain a share in the government. Harald, at length falling into his brother’s hands, was punished by the loss of his eyes; A. D. 1108. and soon afterwards, Lagman, filled with remorse at his own cruelty, undertook an expiatory pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which he never lived to accomplish. At the date of his death, his youngest brother, Olave, was residing at the English Court; but the nobility of the Islands, passing him over, apparently on account of his extreme youth, solicited the appointment of a regent, or guardian to the youthful heir, from the Irish king Murketagh O’Brien; who, gladly acceding to their request, dispatched his brother’s son, Donald Mac Teige, to fill that office during the minority of Olave. Donald had already given considerable trouble in his own country, and a desire to get rid of an impracticable kinsman may have had its weight in the selection of Murketagh; but three years of mis-government exhausted the patience of the Manxmen, the regent was expelled in a general rising, and a successor was this time sought for, in the opposite direction, from Norway. A. D. 1111. The change was hardly for the better, for Ingemund, the next governor, impatient at the idea of filling a subordinate situation, on his arrival at the Lewis, summoned the chieftains of the Northern Isles to meet upon a stated day, and choose him for their king. He and his Norwegians, however, conducted themselves in the meantime with such unrestrained licentiousness, that the Islesmen, carefully guarding the outlets, set fire to the residence of their king-elect, who perished with all his followers in vain attempts to escape from the flames.[378]
A. D. 1112
Four years had elapsed since the death of Lagman, when Olave, who was now probably of age, assumed the government of his father’s kingdom. He is described as a peaceful prince, voluptuous and devout—a combination of opposite features in the same character, by no means confined to that age—and his residence at the Court of Henry the First appears to have assimilated his character in some respects to that of the Scottish David, with whom he is also said to have cultivated a close alliance. He instituted, or remodelled, the bishopric of the Isles, establishing a priory at Rushen, which he filled with a body of monks from Furness Abbey, conferring upon the latter monastery the privilege of electing the bishop of the Isles. Their first choice was unfortunate, and Olave became the patron of that singular bishop, Wimund, whose vagaries, towards the close of David’s reign, have been already noticed in a preceding chapter.[379]