they were the principal missionary institutions of these ages, and that to them many of the parishes in Scotland owe their existence, we may reasonably come to the conclusion, that although, like all human institutions, they had their imperfections, yet they served important ends in their day.

A

CHAPTER III.

David de Bernham.

MONG the comparatively scanty records of the thirteenth century it is impossible now to furnish anything like a detailed or complete biography of David de Bernham. There can be no doubt, however, from the high position which he occupied, and the offices which he filled, that he was one of the foremost, if not the very foremost man of his day. The diocese of St Andrews, of which he became bishop, was at this time, and for centuries before and after, the chief ecclesiastical district in Scotland. It was the recognised head of the other dioceses of the kingdomthe Canterbury of the country-and it extended territorially from the English border on the southeast to districts contiguous to Aberdeen in the north. The town of St Andrews itself, on the north-east of the county of Fife, was the great

B

centre of ecclesiastical power and influence in Scotland in the middle ages. By certain legends 1 associated with the Apostle Andrew, the place got its name from this disciple of Christ, and so deeply did he impress the mind of the people of Scotland, that he ultimately became patron saint of the entire kingdom, having his festival day on the 30th November. From the beginning of the tenth down to the sixteenth century St Andrews was the chief ecclesiastical place in the country. Many of the most striking events in Scottish history are associated with it. Its bishop was "Maximus Episcopus Scottorum," whilst in the days of Patrick Graham (A.D. 1471) it was made an archbishopric, and in those of the all-powerful but unfortunate David Beaton, Chancellor of the kingdom, this archbishop was raised to the lofty dignity of a cardinal.

1 For an account of these legends, see Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol. i. pp. 296, 297; Grierson's St Andrews, pp. 2-9; and Fordun's Scotichronicon, lib. ii. cap. 30. Grierson seems to make the date of St Regulus's arrival with the bones of St Andrew the 29th October 369 or 370; but Skene, on better authority, apparently (Tighernac), connects the Greek monk and the foundation of Kilrimont or St Andrews with the year 761, when Angus, son of Fergus, a sanguinary tyrant, was king of the Picts, with his capital at Abernethy. The land where the town stands was at that time called Muckross, or the land of boars-muck, in the Pictish language, signifying a boar, and ross a land or promontory.

David de Bernham was born about the end of the twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century, in the ancient town of Berwick-on-Tweed. Whether on the English or Scottish side of the classic river, it is now impossible to say. But, judging from the fact that he became connected with the Scottish Church, and remembering, moreover, that in this century the town on the north side of the Tweed belonged to Scotland, it may be inferred that he was born there, and that therefore he was a Scotchman.1 He is said to have been descended from an ancient family of burgesses in Berwick; whilst in the Chartulary of the Priory of St Andrews "he is designed Camerarius Scotia," and is mentioned along with his brother, "Robertus Bernham, Burgensis de Berwick," who is probably the same person that was "major" (mayor) of the town in 1249.2

Bernham was evidently a patronymic-the sur

1 The town of Berwick-on-Tweed, on the Scottish side, seems to have oscillated for centuries between Scotland and England. It was burned in 1173 and again in 1216. It was taken from Scotland and annexed to England in 1333; annexed to Scotland in 1354, to England in 1355, to Scotland in 1378, to England in the same year. Scotland had it in 1384, England in 1385, and finally ceded in 1502. Cromwell took it in 1648, and General Monk on October 29th, 1659.-(Tegg's Dict. of Chron., p. 79.)

2 Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, p. 16.

name of the family-or probably at first the name of a property held by them in Berwickshire.1 It is sometimes written Bernhame, and often Benham, without the "de" preceding it. Nothing is said place where the bishop received his early education; but judging from the fact that he was destined for the clerical profession, he would, no doubt, like others, be trained in one of the schools belonging to some of the great monasteries or priories of the kingdom, where he would give evidence of those great qualities that were soon to raise him to one of the highest positions in the country.

in any ancient record of the

The first recorded appearance of David de Bernham in public is as an ecclesiastic—a subdeacon of the Church-attached to the Court of Alexander II. This monarch, as has already been indicated, ascended the throne of Scotland on the 4th December 1214, and David de Bernham ultimately became his Camerarius, or Chamberlain. In the Chartulary of Dunfermline Abbey (Regist. de Dunf., p. 64, c. No. 107) he appears along with others as a witness in a charter of Bishop William de Malvoisin, giving a grant of the teinds of the church of Kinglassin (Kinglassie

1 Surnames were becoming common in England and Scotland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.