kenneth to be disposed of by the Bishop of Dunblane pro sue voluntatis arbitrio.'. The abbey, in return, was to be free of the fourth of the teinds, and was permitted to have chaplains instead of perpetual vicars, to serve its three churches.1

It was probably about this date, or perhaps a little earlier, that in the reconstruction of the chapter of Dunblane the Abbot of Inchaffray was assigned a canonry-the cathedral dignity next the dean-the precentorship, which we find him. occupying in later documents.

A similar arrangement seems to have been made with the Abbey of Arbroath, which held in the diocese of Dunblane the church of Abernethy, with the chapel of Drun and the chapel of Erolyn. We find the Abbot of Arbroath a canon of Dunblane ratione monasterii sui, and taking part in elections of the Bishops of Dunblane in records towards the close of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century. And the ordinance of the papal delegates settling the questions between the Abbey of Arbroath and Bishop Clement (which must be dated about 1239) is recorded in the old register of the abbey. Its details need not be described here in full: it is enough to say that the abbey was to cede to the bishop the whole of the altarage of Abernethy and certain lands, and the bishop was to provide for the service at Abernethy, and to supply a vicar of the choir to serve at Dunblane nomine abbatis et conventus, while the abbot was to be installed a canon of the cathedral, and to be granted a toft at Dunblane for his manse.2

Attention may be called to the confirmation by the chapter of Dunblane granted on the Sunday next before the Feast of the Purification in the year 1239 (i.e. 1239-40). Now, in that year the Sunday so described fell on January 29, the very

1 The system of serving parish churches by chaplains was less costly to the monasteries than the appointment of vicars. And the charters of the present volume show that permission to have their churches served by chaplains was much desired by the monasteries. 2 Regist. Vetus, No. 241.

day (iv. Kal. Feb.) on which the Bishops of Glasgow and Dunkeld (being then at Dunblane) declared the Abbot of Cambuskenneth to be a canon of Dunblane. If we may venture on conjecture, on this day too the papal commissioners may have appointed the Abbot of Inchaffray to be precentor. If this were so, his first act would seem to have been the subscribing, as he does in a very neat hand, as precentor, the confirmation of the churches which he (as abbot) and his convent held in the diocese. Nicholas is the name of the precentor, and Nicholas] is the name of the Abbot of Inchaffray in charters that come nearest to the above date, both before and after.? But, however this may be, it is certain that in the reconstituted chapter of Dunblane the Abbot of Inchaffray and his successors held the dignity of precentor, taking rank immediately after the dean, and before the chancellor and treasurer. The abbots of Arbroath and Cambuskenneth, though holding canonries, do not appear in the cathedral as dignitaries.3

Clement was full of vigour in recovering the property of his cathedral as well as in the work of reconstructing the material fabric. Shortly after his consecration we find him in controversy with the Abbey of Inchaffray in regard to the churches of Abruthven and Tulliedene, and the second tithes of the Earl of Strathern. The matter was referred to arbitra

1 See facsimile of No. LXVII.

2 It is to be noted that 'N' appears as Abbot of Inchaffray in April 1239. 'H' is an error of transer ption for 'N' in Chartulary of Lindores, p. 59.

3

* From the letter of Boniface VIII. (October 16, 1296) we learn that Thomas, Abbot of Inchaffray and precentor of Dunblane, together with Henry, Abbot of Arbroath and canon, and Patrick, Abbot of Cambuskenneth and canon, were among the compromissarii who had elected Alpin to the bishopric. See p. 251. The papal letter expressly states that the precentorship of Thomas and the canonries and prebends of the other two abbots were held by them ratione dictorum monasteriorum (Theiner, Monumenta, No. 355). The letter is also printed by Stevenson (Documents Illustrative of the History of Scotland, ii. 115117); but the word praeceptoriam (in Stevenson) is an error for precentoriam. Again, Maurice, Abbot of Inchaffray (himself afterwards Bishop of Dunblane), takes part as one of the chapter in the election of Nicholas of Balmyle to the bishopric.-Theiner, Monumenta, No. 386.

tion, and the judgment of the arbiters, dated August 1234, we possess.1

When the question of the payment of the fourth of the teinds of their parish churches arose, Inchaffray, like the other monasteries, endeavoured to make as good terms as possible. Eventually the dispute was settled in the following way. The abbey was to pay yearly twenty marks for a 'dignity,' and ten marks for a 'prebend,' to be established de novo in the cathedral of Dunblane. The dignity was presumably the precentorship to be held by the abbot. In return for these payments the abbey was to be free of the payment of the fourths; and, further, the abbey was to be favoured by allowing some of its parish churches to be served by chaplains instead of vicars, while in the case of others of its churches the bishop consented to a 'modest' sum being assigned to the vicars. In other words the abbey might save by a reduced payment to the vicars who discharged the duty in certain of its parish churches.3

In his efforts to secure his fourths of teinds, or their equivalents, Bishop Clement had to encounter not only the religious houses, but also the lay-patrons of the churches in his diocese. So far as we know at present, the record of negotiations with the Earl of Strathern arising out of the papal decree for the reformation of the episcopal and cathedral revenues has perished. But we possess the record of a compromise between the bishop and Walter Cumyng, Earl of Menteith, determined by the papal delegates, the Bishops of Glasgow and Dunkeld, which relates to a claim of Clement to a pensio from the churches of which the earl possessed the patronage. The bishop was to renounce for himself and his

1 No. LX.

? In cathedrals of secular canons the 'dignities' were ordinarily the deanery, the precentorship, the chancellorship, and the treasurership.

3 See No. LXXX.

• Dated Octave of St. John Baptist, 1238. The deed is printed in the Appendix to the Preface (pp. xix-xxxii) of Lib. Ins. Miss.

successors all claim to the pensio; he was to make no opposition to the earl's constructing the house of Austin Canons in the isle of Inchmahomok (Inchmahome); and to these religious he was to give the church of the isle (in the Lake of Menteith) and the church of Lanyn (Lany, now Leny), which churches were to be served by chaplains and not by perpetual vicars. While on the other hand the earl was required to assign the church of Kippen to form the prebend of a canonry in the cathedral, to which canonry the earl and his successors were to present; he was also to cede to the bishop whatever rights he had in the church of Callander. There is, I think, no good ground for supposing (as is suggested by Mr. Cosmo Innes 2) that the papal delegates were not making satisfactory terms for the Bishop of Dunblane.

The importance of the crisis in the history of the see of Dunblane, affecting as it did not only the revenues of the see and the constitution of the cathedral chapter, but also the story of the three abbeys, and more particularly of Inchaffray, will, it is hoped, justify the fulness of treatment bestowed on this episode in our ecclesiastical annals. The appointment of abbots to cathedral canonries was attended by the evil of nonresidence in the cathedral town. And the evil of non-residence was throughout the whole mediæval period a frequent cause of complaint both in England and Scotland. On the other hand, when weighty matters came up for consideration before the chapter the presence of men of capacity, such as the abbots commonly were, must have been a real advantage. Again, when the chapter of the cathedral was engaged in the duty of electing a bishop, men who were known to the electors as brother-canons, and were liked by them, would often be, so to speak, in the running for the bishopric. Inchaffray gave one bishop, Arbroath gave two bishops, to Dunblane.

1 In 1276 Kyppen was worth 20 lb. a year.-Theiner, Monumenta, p. 115. 2 Lib. Ins. Miss., Preface, p. xviii.

FURTHER GRANTS OF CHURCHES TO THE ABBEY

To the five churches granted to the priory of Inchaffray by Earl Gilbert, in the Foundation Charter, he added before July 12031 the church (St. Serf's) of Dunning.

About 1210 the church of St. Bean of Foulis (Wester) was granted by the same benefactor (No. xxIx.); and before the earl's death further grants were made of the churches of St. Serf of Monyvaird, St. Bridget of Kilbride, St. Serf of Tulliedene and Trinity Gask. In all, eleven parish churches were bestowed on the house of Austin Canons by Earl Gilbert.

The material is not extant for making a comparison of the value of these parish churches and the incomes of the vicars who served them. In the valuation exhibited in Boyamund's accounts (in the years 1275, 1276) as printed by Theiner,3 the value of these churches (as distinguished from the vicarages) is perhaps to be included (with the exception of Madderty) in the income of the abbey. The abbot pays, as tithe, to the papal collector 24lb. 13s. 34d. Ten times this amount represents a large yearly revenue, when the purchasing power of money at that time is taken into account. The tithe of Madderty was 5lb. 5s. 8d. There was no vicar: the church was doubtless served from the abbey. Of the other churches, the names of which appear in Boyamund's Roll (for some are wanting or hopelessly disguised), we find the vicarages paying tithe as follows: Abruthven, 7s.; Strugeith, 28s.; Dunning, 12s.; Auchterarder, 18s.; Kilbride, 18s. 8d.; Gask Christi (Trinity Gask), 5s.; Foulis, 17s. 4d.

The next church granted to Inchaffray was the church of St. Mordac of Kellmurthe, or Kelmurkhe, at the head of Loch Fyne, in the diocese of Argyll. It is the church subsequently known as Kilmorich. The charters containing this

1 See the bull of Innocent III., No. XXI.

* Tulliedene seems to be the Tullychettil (Tullykettle) of post-Reformation record. See Lib. Ins. Miss., pp. 87 and 114. 3 Monumenta, No. 264.

* See Origines Parochiales, vol. ii. part i. p. 82.