njunction was not
observed, and the roofs were also demolished. In 1600 the choir was
re-roofed, and is the present parish church. But the ruins still speak
of the former grandeur of this old church-town, and perhaps a like day
may yet dawn for Dunkeld, as has been seen at Dunblane.

4. DIOCESE OF ABERDEEN

The earliest ecclesiastical history of Aberdeen is connected with St.
Machar (a disciple of St. Columba), who preached the Gospel among the
Northern Picts and settled on the banks of the Don, founding there both
a Christian colony and a church, which, from its situation, was called
the Church of Aberdon. Another band of Columban missionaries established
themselves in the sequestered vale of the Fiddich, at Morthlac, and in
the beginning of the twelfth century the "Monastery of Morthlach"
possessed five dependent churches.[104] The tradition that there was a
bishopric at Murthlack or Morthlach is not founded on reliable evidence,
and is discredited by Dr. Cosmo Innes[105] and Dr. Skene.[106] What
David I. did was to graft on the Culdee monastery of St. Machar the
chapter of a new diocese, and in this manner the bishopric was founded
before 1150, and endowed with old Culdee possessions, among others with
the "Monastery of Morthlach" and its five churches.[107] The third
bishop, Matthew de Kininmond, began to build a cathedral between 1183
and 1199 to supersede the primitive church then existing,[108] "which
(new building), because it was not glorious enough, Bishop Cheyne threw
down."[109] The second edifice was begun by Bishop Cheyne about 1282,
and the work was interrupted by the Scottish war with Edward I. during
the bishop's absence in temporary banishment. "The king (Bruce) seeing
the new cathedral he had begun, made the church to be built with the
revenues of the bishopric."[110] The cathedral thus built was thrown
down in turn by Bishop Alexander Kininmond, who succeeded in 1355 and
began the present cathedral about 1366. "Of his operations there remain
two large piers for the support of the central tower, which form the
earliest portion of the structure of St. Machar's now remaining."[111]
The dean and chapter (of which Barbour, the father of Scottish poetry,
was a member) taxed themselves for the fabric in sixty pounds annually
for ten years; the bishop surrendered revenues worth about twice that
sum; the Pope in 1380 made a grant of indulgences to all who should help
the work. All these appliances but avai