[358] The power of the monastery depended very much on that of the chieftain of the district, and varied accordingly. Thus, in early times, Clonmacnois appears to have claimed the tribute of Connaught, though the primacy was eventually transferred to Tuam. Like St. Andrews in Scotland, Armagh had become far the most powerful abbey in Ireland in the twelfth century.
[359] Ailred (Twysden), p. 348. David found three or four, and left nine sees.
[360] Gregory and Cormac, the Bishops of Moray and Dunkeld, attested the Foundation Charter of Scone. At that time St Andrews was vacant.
[361] Myln, Vit. Dunk. Ep., pp. 5–10. Reg. Aberd., vol. i. p. 76, note; vol. ii. p. 58. Reg. Morav., Nos. 46, 47, 48. Keith, Pref. p. 10. According to Fordun, l. viii. ch. 73, Earl Gilbert gave a third of his earldom to Inch Affray, a third to the bishopric of Dunblane, and only retained a third for himself and his heirs; and the same earl is often described as the Founder of the see. In a strict sense this is doubtful, for Dunblane was undoubtedly amongst the nine Sees existing, according to Ailred, at David’s death; and the poverty of the bishopric five years after Gilbert’s death, in 1223, hardly agrees with the supposed donation of a third of his earldom. Inch Affray was the Foundation of Gilbert, upon which he lavished the tithes of his Can, his rents, his fines, and his offerings. Yet that the bishopric was endowed by the earls is a certainty, because in 1442 James II. declared, that the temporalities of the bishopric, hitherto held of the Earl of Strathearn, were henceforth to be held of the Crown. When the Pope granted to the Bishop a fourth of the tithes of the whole diocese for the support of himself, a Dean, and Canons, the Bishop seems to have abandoned “all right of pension out of the lands or churches of the Earl of Menteith,” who was permitted to found a house for Regular Canons at Inch Mahomoc, making over the church of Kippen to found a Canonry in Dunblane Cathedral, and the church of Callander for the Bishop himself. This arrangement wears very much the appearance of a compromise; as if, at the revival of the see, David had assigned the earldoms of Strathearn and Menteith to the bishop as his diocese, neither of the earls, in the first instance, resigning the church-lands in their possession, until the Earl of Menteith waived all claim to the patronage of the See, in return for the permission to found the family Priory of Inch Mahomoc; whilst the bishop waived all further claim upon the earldom of Menteith, in return for the churches of Kippen and Callander. The diocese was thenceforth confined, in point of fact, to the earldom of Strathearn, in which all its temporalities were situated; and in return for the patronage of the see, no longer disputed by the Earls of Menteith, the successors of Gilbert would have no longer had any reluctance to carry out his intentions.—Vide Innes’ Sketches, etc.; Inch Affray, pp. 204 to 219. In earlier times each earl would have placed his bishop in the family establishments of Inch Affray and Inch Mahomoc.
[362] The Seven Churches, for instance, at Clonmacnois and Glendalough, in Ireland. According to Beda, Hist. Eccl., l. 2, cap. 2; the Welsh monastery of Bangor was divided into seven portions, each containing three hundred monks, under a prior (præpositus). This arrangement may have had some connection with the peculiarity of Seven Churches. Seven British bishops are said to have attended the conference at Augustine’s Oak, and seven bishops are said to have preached the Faith in Gaul.—(Hist. Eccl. Franc., l. 1, cap. 28).
[363] This description is taken from the “History of St. Rule,” etc. (Pinkerton’s Dissertation, vol. 2, Ap. No. 7, sec. 3, and Jamieson’s Culdees, Appendix No. 7), written by a contemporary of the kings Alexander and David. Like most tradition it is a singular mixture of truth and error. The Hungus filius Ferlon, and his son Howonan, contemporaries of Constantine the Great, are evidently Angus Mac Fergus, who reigned from 820 to 834, and his son Eoganan, who was killed in 839. The “Devotion to St. Andrew”—(Pinkerton, No. 12)—exemplifies the growth of error in such traditions, for it represents the saint bidding Angus dedicate to the Church the tithes of his possessions.
[364] Such were the Abbots of Dunkeld, ancestors of the royal line of Atholl, and those of Abernethy, ancestors of the family of that name. From the name of the first Earl of Ross, Ferquhard Mac-in-Sagart (the son of the priest), he was probably of a clerical family of this description. The lay Abbots of Brechin witness many charters. The Abbacy of St. Andrews was vested in the king.
[365] This difference between the Irish and Scottish Churches may probably be traced to the time when Nechtan drove the monks of Iona out of his dominions, and transferred the superiority to Abernethy. It was adopted, most likely, from the Anglo-Saxons, amongst whom I cannot trace the advocatus any more than the Herenach amongst the Scottish Gael. The character may have existed amongst both people, but I am not aware of any name for it; nor has any word like Vogt penetrated into either English or Scottish, as it has into the Germanic and Scandinavian languages.
[366] Reg. Prior. St. And., p. 186. Vide also p. 48, and other papal confirmations.
[367] Reg. Prior. St. And., pp. 43–188. The little Abbey of St. Servans belonged to the bishop, as the brotherhood had, on its first establishment, made over their possessions to the bishop, according to the usual Gaelic custom, in return for food and clothing.—Reg. Prior. St. And., p. 113.