Bean

ON ST. BEAN, BISHOP OF MORTLACH, CALLED OF ABERDEEN, IN SCOTLAND,

ABOUT THE YEAR MXXXII.

A HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.

Bean, confessor and bishop, at Mortlach in Scotland. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

Sole §. St. Bean, bishop of Mortlach, distinguished from St. Bean, an Irish bishop of the province of Leinster. The erection of the see of Mortlach, afterwards moved to Aberdeen. The institution of the Culdees. The praises of St. Bean, his death, his cult.

Molanus found both in the Greven edition of Usuard of the year 1515 and in the other of the year 1521, [Molanus confused St. Bean, bishop of Mortlach, with St. Bean, an Irish bishop of the province of Leinster; to which error Baronius added a new error in the Roman Martyrology.] (both of which he calls of the Carthusians of Cologne Usuard's Martyrology, first edition of the year 1568, preface, chapter XIII.,) recorded at the 26th day of October the memory of St. Bean, bishop, and at the 16th of December in Ireland of Bean, bishop and confessor: by which words in both places, although the days are separated by a huge space, the most learned man supposed that the same saint was signified. And indeed, when he had come upon book XI of Boece's History of the Scots Editio princeps of the year 1526, fol. V. CCLIII., where the origins of the chair of Mortlach, afterwards of Aberdeen, are indicated, he supposed that he had found who that St. Bean was, namely the first prelate of the church of Aberdeen, or rather of Mortlach; whence, the letter C having been prefixed, by which he is accustomed to show that a saint has been taken from the Usuard of the Carthusians or of Greven, he wrote in both his editions of Usuard at the 16th day of December: "In Ireland, of Bean, first bishop of Aberdeen and confessor"; by this announcement by no means testifying that Aberdeen is in Ireland, but that the prelate of Aberdeen, or rather of Mortlach, is venerated in Ireland in a singular and exceptional manner. In which matter indeed he most manifestly erred, as we shall soon see; yet he did not sin so far as Baronius, who both in the first edition of the Roman Martyrology of the year 1583 and in the following ones ordered to be printed: "At Aberdeen in Ireland, of St. Bean, bishop"; in the notes referring the reader to Molanus's Usuard: where a new error has been added, namely that Aberdeen is in Ireland, whereas it is an episcopal city of Scotland. Which error is detected in the Roman Martyrology to this very day, although it has been rather often corrected. Further, the Greven editions alone are right, for one St. Bean is venerated on the 26th day of October, another on the 16th of December. The former was bishop of Mortlach in Scotland, which see was afterwards moved to Aberdeen; whence he was called first bishop of Aberdeen; the latter was a bishop in Ireland and indeed in the province of Lagenia or Leinster, as the excellent English hagiographer Butler has gathered from the manuscript collections of Colgan Lifes of saints etc. at the 16th of December at the end..

[2] The two SS. Bean, confused by many, are distinguished. Nor can it be doubted that the St. Bean who on the 26th day of October was announced by Greven is the bishop of Mortlach or (as is commonly said) of Aberdeen. First of all it is established that a Scottish calendar gave light to Greven elsewhere also. Then in the Martyrology according to the use of the church of Aberdeen, which seems to have been copied in the XVI century for the choir of the cathedral church of Moray or Murray in Scotland, and from which the celebrated David Laing published in the proceedings of the archaeologists of Scotland Proceedings of the society of antiquaries of Scotland, p. 270. the names and eulogies of the saints of Scotland sewn onto that Usuardine Martyrology, these things occur at the VII of the kalends of November, which is the present 26th day of October: "On the same day the feast of blessed Bean, bishop, at Fowlis in Strathearn"; similarly in the Breviary of Aberdeen, which, first printed in the year 1509, was reproduced with the greatest diligence at London in the year 1854, there is read at this day: "Of St. Bean, bishop and confessor. At matins IX lessons. Let all things be done from the common of one confessor and bishop with this prayer: O God, who are near to all who call on you in truth, teach us by the intercession of St. Bean, your confessor and bishop, to call on you with a sincere heart, that we may deserve to be worthily heard by you. Through the Lord." And nothing is found there at the 16th day of December concerning St. Bean: whence correct what Chalonner, writer of the English Martyrology Memorial of ancient British piety or a British martyrology p. 172, London 1761., noted at that 16th day of December, namely that in the Breviary of Aberdeen as well as in the Roman Martyrology the memory of St. Bean, bishop of Mortlach or Aberdeen, is celebrated on the 16th day of December. Indeed Robert Keith also, bishop of Fife, although in the Scottish Calendar which he inserted in the history of the bishops of Scotland Historical catalogue of the Scottisch bishops, p. 378, edition of 1824. he recorded at the 26th day of October, according to the Scottish monuments, St. Bean, first bishop of Mortlach, whose see was afterwards moved to Aberdeen, yet elsewhere Ibid., p. 101., deceived by the error of the Roman Martyrology, he committed to writing that Bean, prelate of Mortlach or Aberdeen, was inscribed in the album of the saints at the 16th day of December. This error Challoner admitted also in Britannia sancta Britannia sancta, vol. II, p. 319., where at the 16th of December he praised the same saint; likewise Ferrari, who indeed gave in the General Catalogue of the saints at the 26th of October the name of St. Bean of Mortlach, but wrongly said that he was the same as the one honoured on the 16th of December; nor did Lingard distinguish the one from the other in the English Calendar Cooper, Account of the most important public records, vol. II, p. 483.. Better Harris Nicolas, who in the alphabetical Calendar The chronology of History, p. 137, edition of 1838. referred St. Bean, bishop of Aberdeen, or rather of Mortlach, to the 26th day of October and his Irish namesake to the 16th of December. But the error of Baronius in an Irish book put on a much more wonderful appearance. For when in the Martyrology of Donegal, which O'Clery, an Irish Friar Minor, wrote, at the 16th day of December there was read in Irish Todd and Reeves, Martyrologium Dungallense, p. 337.: "Mophiog of Ard-Camrois on the margin of Loch (bay) Carman, in Ui-Ceinnsealaigh; and of Ros-caoin, in Cluain Fergaile, in Dealbhna de Fir-da-loch", a more recent hand added: "Mobheog in Oengus, i.e. Bean; (see in the Roman Martyrology: see in Molanus's Usuard;) first bishop of Aberdeen or Ardon, i.e. of Ard; whence the error, as if bishop Ab-Ardo, i.e. of Ard, and hence Abardon." It is most rightly reported that Mophiog or Mobheog is the same name as Bean, the particle of veneration Mo being prefixed. But that the Aberdeen of Usuard and Baronius comes from Ard, the preposition Ab being prefixed, is a dream; which deservedly did not please the editors of the Martyrology of Donegal: in whom however I do not approve this, that they would have St. Bean of Mortlach to be the same as St. Bean or Beoan, companion of SS. Nassadius and Mellan, of whom I have spoken above, pp. 803 and following. Beware finally of supposing that there are only three Saints Bean or Beoan; there are many more, all (unless I am mistaken) Irish: of whom see Giraldus Cambrensis Topographia Hiberniæ, dist. II, chapter 40, in Camden., the Life of St. Fursey Acta SS., vol. II of January, p. 39 and following., the indices of Colgan's Acts of the saints of Ireland and Trias thaumaturga, the old Irish poem, published by the most learned man James H. Todd The irish version of the historia Britonum of Nennius, p. CXVI., the Irish Martyrologies and other monuments of that kind; of which, since we have spoken in another place at this same day, there is no reason why we should linger longer on them.

[3] [St. Bean was the first bishop of Mortlach; whose see in the year 1010, on the occasion of the victory won over the Danes, by Malcolm II] Challoner suspected that a Life of St. Bean was never written Britannia sancta, loc. cit.; and perhaps not undeservedly. For if it were otherwise, why are not proper lessons read in the Breviary of Aberdeen? What of the fact that Hector Boece, who published the Lives of the bishops of Aberdeen Scotorum historiæ, book XI, fol. CCLIV., is so jejune? What of the fact that Camerarius, who tried to praise the blessed man, took refuge in commonplaces? What of the fact that Keith, who is said to have left nothing surviving untouched, was content to make the sayings of Camerarius his own? Nor have I myself in the catalogues of the libraries of England or of other regions, which in the museum

are found, discovered any trace of Acts of St. Bean of Mortlach. It remains therefore that I should reduce to a Sylloge the few things which survive. It is agreed among all skilled in Scottish affairs that St. Bean was the first bishop of Mortlach and occupied this chair at the beginning of the XI century [Leslie, De Origine etc. Scotorum, book V, §83, p. 193.]; of which this is the origin and cause. Already for almost two centuries the Danes and other Northmen had troubled Scotland; when a much more savage storm burst. Sueno Forkbeard, son of Harald and king of the Danes, banished from his kingdom, had first demanded succour from Olaf, king of the Norwegians, and Edward, king of the English, by which he might be restored to his throne; but in vain. Thence he had turned his mind to the Scots; by whose aid, initiated in the Christian rites, he had recovered his paternal kingdom. Thence with them he had attacked the English; but in a short time, discord having arisen, he sent two leaders into Scotland, who, having conquered King Milcolumb or Malcolm II, obtained almost the whole of Moray. Struck by this disaster Milcolumb resolved to try the fortune of war again. He met them at Mortlach; the battle was long doubtful; finally, the last dangers pressing in the fight, he bound himself by the pledge of a vow that he would raise a sacred building to God under the protection of St. Moloc, if he came out victor. God heard the pious prayers; the Danes were compelled to draw back, and to consent to conditions of peace: that the Danes, leaving Moray and Buchan, should depart from Scotland; that neither people, while Milcolumb and Sueno lived, should provoke the other by war or bring aid to enemies; that the field in which the battle had been fought should be consecrated for the burial of the dead, a sacred building being placed on it [Boece, Hist. Scot. book XI, fol. CCLIII; Buchanan, Rerum Scotic. book VI, p. 203; Gesta et vestigia Danorum extra Daniam, vol. II, p. 250 and following.]. This was in the year 1010. Having come through this crisis, Milcolumb was wholly occupied in caring for public business; and not unmindful of his solemn pledge and of the treaty made, he built a church at immense expense, the name of St. Moloc being given to it: "which building," says Boece, "either because he had so bound himself by vow, or because the rivers rather read inhabitants of the regions which the rivers Dee and Spey enclose were separated from their bishop by a greater interval than was fitting, was made an episcopal see, and he presented it with estates and lands of Mortlach, Cloveth and Dummeth with their ecclesiastical revenues for the pontifical expenses."

[4] [and not by Malcolm III, in the very place of the victory, a diploma having been given, which is recited, was erected and in the year 1126 moved to Aberdeen by St. David the king.] But the position of this place is to be more nearly defined. This place, then, which I find called Murtilacum, Marthilacum, Murthelach, and now Morthlach, Morthlech and Mortlich, lies in northern Scotland, formerly in Buchan, and now in Moray, in the county of Banff, on the right of the river Spey, from whose bank it is three miles distant, and from the mouth twelve, now a rustic village, having about two thousand inhabitants [Camden, Britannia, Gough edition, vol. III, pp. 418 and 430; Nic Carlisle, a Topographical dictionary of Scotland, under Morthlach.]. There still survives the diploma of foundation [Keith, Scottish bishops, pp. 559 and 560; Jamieson, Historical account of the ancient Culdees, pp. 160 and 161.]: "Malcolm, king of the Scots, to all his upright men, clerics as well as laymen, greeting. Know that I have given and by this my charter confirmed to God and the blessed Mary and all the saints and Bishop Beyn of Murthelach the church of Murthelach, that an episcopal see may be built there, my lands of Murthelach, the church of Cloveth with its lands, the church of Dulmeth with its lands, as freely as I held them, and in pure and perpetual alms; witness myself at Forfar, on the VIII of October, in the sixth year of my reign"; which coincides with the year of Christ 1010. And Forfar or Forfar-Restenet is even now a royal town in the county of the same name. Nicholson would have it Scotorum Hist. p. 210. that the bishopric of Mortlach was erected by Malcolm III, who reigned from the year 1056 or the following up to the year 1093; and indeed, on the testimony of the Rev. M. Russel In Keith, Scottish bishops, p. 560., in the Cartulary of Aberdeen the foundation of the see of Mortlach is read at the year 1070. But this year is certainly erroneous, seeing that it agrees with the VI year of the reign of no Malcolm. Then in another place in the same Cartulary these things occur Ibid. loc. cit.: "In the time of Malcolm, king of Scotland, son of Kenneth, by that Malcolm the episcopal see was first established at Murthlac, on which he bestowed the church of Murthlac," etc.; now Malcolm II was the son of Kenneth IV; and Malcolm III of Duncan; so that even by the authority of that Cartulary Malcolm II is to be called the founder of the chair of Mortlach. Nor is the memory of the battle of Mortlach to be omitted, fought not by Malcolm III, but by Malcolm II. There sat there after St. Bean St. Donortius or Barnocius, who died in the year of Christ 1098; and then Cormac, who in the year 1106 gave place to Nectan; in whose episcopate it is agreed among all that the chair of Mortlach was moved to Aberdeen by St. David I the king. In what year this happened is not altogether plain. Carlisle states that there was an episcopal see at Mortlach for one hundred and twenty years (by which we are led to the year 1139) Dictionary of Scotland, under Morthlach.. But King David held the reins of the kingdom from the 27th day of April of the year 1124 to the 24th of May of the year 1153; and in the month of June, in the thirteenth year of his reign, which coincided with the year of Christ 1126, Nectan was already called bishop of Aberdeen. Hear King David himself In Keith, Scottish bishops, p. 560.: "David, by the grace of God king of the Scots, etc. Let those present and to come know that I have given, granted and by this present charter confirmed to God, and blessed Mary, and blessed Machar, and Nectan, bishop of Aberdeen, the whole town of old Aberdon, etc. witness myself at Forfar, in the thirteenth year of my reign, on the thirtieth of the month of June." Since however this is called the primary charter of the cathedral church of Aberdeen and contains the donation of the town of old Aberdeen, it seems that it is not to be doubted that it was drawn up when Nectan was moved there.

[5] [This erection was made with the consent of the bishop of St. Andrews and perhaps of the archbishop of York. St. Bean seems to have established there Culdees or servants of God, commonly called monks,] Whether the Roman pontiff had any part in establishing the see of Mortlach is very doubtful to me. In actual fact Fordun, the old chronographer of the Scots, reports that St. Bean was promoted by Pope Benedict VIII; but how can these things stand? As is established from King Malcolm's diploma, St. Bean was already a bishop in the year 1010; and Benedict VIII did not ascend the chair of St. Peter until the middle of the year 1012. That there was however added the consent of the bishop of St. Andrews, who is held then alone to have borne the mitre in Scotland, and perhaps also of the archbishop of York, of whose province Scotland was judged to be, and also the counsel of other prelates (for St. Bean had to be consecrated by several bishops), is to be accepted as certain: nor is it to be wondered at that these things were accomplished according to the institutions of the old discipline, since Scotland is placed so far from Italy. Indeed it can be granted to Fordun that these things were afterwards approved and confirmed by Pope Benedict VIII. Jamieson judges Historical account of the ancient Culdees etc., pp. 159 and 160. that those whom they call Culdees, and not canons, were established at Mortlach by St. Bean, since Pope Adrian IV, who sat in the chair of St. Peter from 1154 to 1159, in the bull by which he confirmed the goods to Edward, bishop of Aberdeen, and his church, spoke of the monastery of Cloveth and the town and monastery of Murthlach Ibid., p. 161.; and because, on the testimony of Boece Aberdonensium episcoporum Vitæ, fol. 3., that same Bishop Edward "first of all instituted in the church of Aberdeen men of regular life" (whom he called canons) "as confreres for carrying out divine things with the chaplains"; whence it follows that there was a monastery at Mortlach and therefore religious men; and that these were not regular canons, since otherwise Nectan would have taken a part of them with him when he moved his see to Aberdeen; nor is it to be said that the word monastery is often used of any greater church, above all an episcopal one, since there is mention in the same place of the monastery of Cloveth. I assent to Jamieson the more easily, because I think altogether otherwise than he concerning the Culdees. They, namely, are to me an offshoot of the old priests whom St. Eusebius of Vercelli first wished to be at the same time monks; which institution St. Augustine brought into Africa or extended. This is suggested first of all by the name itself, of which there has been very much dispute, but which beyond controversy signifies servant of God; by which designation all know that the ancient monks and whoever followed a more severe kind of life were called: for Ceile or Keile in Irish, and Gille in Gaelic, is servant, and De or Dia God Cf. Jamieson, Historical account, p. 4.; in which way also is composed the Irish proper name Celicrist and the Scottish Gillicrist, which is servant of Christ.

[6] [who differed from other religious only in this, that they professed the old monastic and canonical institutions, of which entire poverty was not required.] And although the anonymous author who wrote about the year 1140 the History of blessed Regulus and of the foundation of the church of St. Andrews is lengthy in carping at the Culdees of his age and in extolling the canons, I should not dare to say that their institutes differed from the primitive ones. Hear, namely Ibid., p. 383.: "There were held however in the church of St. Andrews, such and so great as it then was, thirteen by carnal succession whom they call Keledei, who lived according to their own estimation and the tradition of men rather than according to the statutes of the holy fathers. And still they live in like manner, and they have some things in common, namely the fewer and the worse; and some things as their own, namely the more and the better, according as each one can obtain from his friends connected with him by some necessary tie, namely blood relations and connections by marriage, or from those whose souls are dear, which is the friends of friendships, or in any other ways." Which whole passage pertains to this, that they are blamed because they did not rightly keep the laws of religious poverty. In the XII century, namely, and also before, there was much dispute on the poverty of canons. In the year 816, namely, the council of Aachen had so ordered the affairs of canons that in one and the same monastery some should live from their own goods, others partly from their own, partly from the goods of the monastery, and others finally, all property being renounced, from the common store of the monastery

received all things necessary for them; nor was this discipline altogether new, since indeed St. Augustine and others had not required entire poverty of all their monks. But when in the XI century Bl. Pope Nicholas II and other pontiffs afterwards had begun to spend many cares by which to induce canons to a wholly common life, and above all after St. Norbert and others had persuaded canons to follow Benedictine poverty, it gradually came about that those alone were judged to fulfil the statutes of the holy fathers who, poor, imitated the poor Christ or lived from a common table; and others who clung to the old institutions were held to bend from the right rule [Cf. on this whole subject parts II and III of the Vetus disciplina canonicorum regularium of Eusebius Amort.]: so that nothing has been said in these things against the Culdees which you would not find in many other places of that age hurled against canons following the Aachen chapters or other old institutions. But we need not cling to these things, since those who have treated of the old canons have exhausted that subject. But if you say that the Culdees were not canons, it is nothing: for in antiquity canons and monks were not distinguished from one another, but there was one monastic order, in which all were contained; and as from those who alone afterwards were called canons the observance of perfect poverty was not demanded, so neither from the others. For this rests on the common life and stability of domicile, which St. Benedict first imposed on his monks: whence, since this was not prescribed by firm law for the more ancient ascetics, whose institutions we have already said the Culdees retained, in vain will you require in them a full renunciation of all things.

[7] Nor is it anything singular that most, leaving their wives, came to the Culdees. The same writer of the History of St. Andrews then adds the following: "After they have been made Keledei, it is not lawful for them to have their wives in their houses; nor others, from whom evil suspicion might arise": in which there is nothing foreign to the common ecclesiastical laws. For at all times it has been lawful, and even now it is lawful, for married persons, the other party consenting, to pass over to the monastic life and solemnly to profess chastity, on this condition however that they be separated from one another, or also, as is now commonly commanded by the superiors of the church, that both spouses embrace the religious life, or at least that the wife be not left to her own discretion and be commended to a most pious matron. It seems however that among the Culdees this abuse crept in, that prebends were conferred only on certain families and carnal succession, as has been said above, was observed. Which is to be understood either thus, that most first entered on marriage and, when they had raised their sons, sought the cloister; and when they had died, their sons, leaving also their wife and children, occupied their place: or if they had entered the cloister as celibates, the sons of a brother or sister or other blood relations succeeded the dead: in which way even now in the East among the schismatics very many bishoprics are held, so that by fixed law the prelates are taken from the same family; from which institutions the men of Hy themselves were not plainly foreign, as is easily detected from the genealogical table of the abbots of this monastery, which William Reeves has most diligently constructed The Life of St Columba, p. 342.. But I would not pursue these things further, being content to say this one thing, that the dissertation of Walter Goodall on the Culdees, which is prefixed to Keith's History of the bishops of Scotland, and Russel's added supplement please me far more than Jamieson's book, and that I plainly agree with the said William Reeves Ibid., p. 368. that the Culdees were not a distinct order, but the common name of Scottish, Irish and other monks of the same language, nor did they have a singular teaching or singular laws.

[8] [The praises of St. Bean, his death, his cult at Fowlis in Strathearn, at Mortlach, etc.] We have already said that nothing but common praises are proclaimed of St. Bean. Fordun namely Scotorum historiæ, fol. CCLIII. calls him a holy man and worthy of the episcopate. Hector Boece Britannia sancta, vol. II, p. 319. has this: "At Mortlach first of all Bean, a man distinguished in piety and erudition, bore the sacred magistracy; he was enrolled among the saints, but some years afterwards." Challoner Menologium Scoticum, p. 261. and Keith Scottish bishops, in the page cited. copy Camerarius, namely that St. Bean for thirty-two years administered the new diocese with such prudence, integrity and the other virtues of a good pastor of souls, that he never suffered the honours of the episcopal rank to be a damage to his humility and his contempt of himself, nor himself to be torn by external affairs from conversation and holy familiarity with God. But if he did not bear the episcopal staff for more years, he could not have died in the year 1047, as Keith reports Scottish bishops, in the page cited., but only in the year 1142, seeing that he was created prelate of Mortlach in the year 1010. As he died at Mortlach, so he found a tomb there at the postern of the church, where his effigy, carved in stone, was to be seen in the neighbouring wall in Keith's age, and perhaps is seen even now. These things being so, how it came about that in the Martyrology of Moray according to the use of the church of Aberdeen his feast is announced, not at Mortlach, but at Fowlis in Strathearn, a parish of the diocese of Dunblane, the reader will perhaps inquire in wonder. But this first of all comes to be considered, that it is an error to suppose that by the word natalis is always indicated the death or beginning of the heavenly life; for often the anniversary day of the deposition, sometimes of the exaltation or translation of relics, likewise sometimes the dedication of a church or any other festivity is indicated by it; further, the difficulty is not removed by this; but a huge field is opened for conjectures. But it seems that it can be determined. Since, namely, St. Bean himself had founded this church, as also the neighbouring one of Kinkell, and had afterwards been made its singular patron, and perhaps nowhere was venerated with a greater concourse of men, hence it happened that at Fowlis in Strathearn his feast was announced by the martyrologists; and indeed at the beginning of the XIII century this church was already called of St. Bean of Fowlis. All of which things are certain to me from a letter which the Rev. Mr. J. Hardy, Protestant minister of Fowlis, with much kindness gave to me; a small part of which I shall relate here: "He is the patron saint of this parish; for he established not only this church of Fowlis, but also that other of Kinkell; which is not far from here. When I had gone to the annals of Inchaffray, I found that Earl Gilbert in the year one thousand two hundred gave this (church of Kinkell) to the abbey of Inchaffray Annales Inchaffrayenses, p. IV.. Some years afterwards the same earl handed over to the same abbey 'the church of St. Bean of Fowlis with all its just appurtenances etc.' The first or original copy of this is still preserved in the chest with the duke of Atholl. A yearly market is held at Foulis on the VIII of the Ides of November; which day according to the old method of determining the spaces of time agrees with the VII day of the kalends of November, that is, with the day of St. Bean. I do not doubt but that this day, like many others of our market days, was the feast of the holy patron." On the other hand, when in the year 1752 in the month of September the Gregorian reckoning was received in England and Scotland, eleven days being omitted, the VIII of the Ides or the sixth day of November according to the old calendar coincides with the XV of the kalends of December or the seventeenth day of November according to the new calendar; wherefore, that the origins of that yearly market may be drawn from the former cult of St. Bean and the concourse of the people to his festivity, it is necessary to suppose that those who afterwards wished to remove the confusion of things added eleven days by error, when as many were to be suppressed. "It may be," the same Rev. Mr. adds, "that a most renowned spring in this parish, whose name is Bannochia or Beannuchia, looks to the holy man"; and certainly it was once the custom (which still obtains in some places of France) that every year priests on the feasts of patrons should bless the waters of springs, praying God (as we are accustomed daily before dinner and supper) that, the saints interceding, he would grant this favour to those who were about to use them, that they might receive nothing from them which did not turn to the salvation of soul and body. Further, Fowlis in Strathearn, which is also Wester-Foulis and Kirk-Foulis, is to be distinguished from Easter-Foulis; which lies on the eastern borders of the county of Perth, on the road by which one goes from Dundee to Cupar (which are towns of the county of Forfar), where in the year 1142 a most beautiful church was erected, and to which Andrew Gray of Fowlis about the middle of the XV century, James II being king, brought canons. On the other hand Fowlis in Strathearn, situated to the west of Perth and on the road which is laid between Perth and Crieff, was the ancient seat of the earls of Strathearn; now having nothing singular, except a cross inscribed with foreign letters [Cf. Carlisle, Topogr. Diction. of Scotland, under the words Foulis (Easter and Wester); Leig's Roadbook of Scotland, p. 278; Spottiswoode, Account of all the religious houses that were in Scotland, after Keith, p. 468; Camden, Gough edition, vol. III, p. 402.]. But since of old the memory of St. Bean was singularly celebrated there, it is necessary that its condition was other. Carlisle wrote by error that the church of Mortlach was dedicated to St. Bean; to St. Moloc, of whom our predecessors have treated at the 25th day of June In the appendix, p. 204., St. Bean himself dedicated it, as Hector Boece and Keith are witnesses. It may be however that, the cult of St. Bean growing, he at length was at some time held as patron, as has often been done elsewhere. More things lie hidden from us, except that among the Scottish Catholics he no longer has ecclesiastical cult.