The C. of St. Andrews were of more importance, and not perhaps of less antiquity, than those of Lochleven. The death of an abbot of St. Andrews is chronicled by the Irish annals in 747. It is not said that he was a Culdee; but in 944, when Constantine, the of Scots, exchanged his crown for a monk's cowl, it is recorded that he became " abbceof the Culdees of Andrews." No more is heard of them till about the mid dle of the 12th century. A priory of canons regular had now been planted beside them, and from its records we learn that in the church of St. Andrew, such as it then was, there were thirteen C., holding their office by hereditary tenure, and "living rather according to their own pleasure and the traditions of men, than after the rules of the holy fathers;" that some few things of little importance they possessed in common; that the rest, including what was of most value. they held as their private property, each enjoying what lie got from relatives and kinsmen, or from the benevolence granted on the tenure of pure friendship, or otherwise; that after they became C., they were for bidden to have their wives in their houses, or any other women of whom evil suspicion could arise; that the altar of St. Andrew was left without a minister, nor was mass celebrated there except on the rare occasion of a visit from the king or the bishop, for the C. said their own office after their own way in a corner of the church. The attempt to supplant the C. by canons regular, which had succeeded at Lochleven, was repeated at St. Andrews, but The C. kept their own church—St. Mary's, or the Kirk of the lIetigh—and had a voice along with the canons regular in the election of the bishop. Their abbot disappears about the middle of the 11th c.; and soon afterwards their "prior" exchanges that title for the name of " provost." Their distinctive character was gradually passing away; before the end of the 14th c., they lose their share in the election of the bishop; their name of Culdee is heard no more; their church, about the same time, takes the name of the King's chapel-royal; and henceforth there remains nothing to distinguish them from the secular priests of other collegiate churches.
The C. of the church of St. Mary at Monymusk, in Aberdeenshire, appear to have been founded by the bishop of St. Andrews towards the end of the 11th century. In the beginning of the 13th c. they are found making claim to be regarded as canons regular. The claim was resisted by the bishop of St. Andrews, and in 1211, after an appeal to Rome, the dispute was settled by a compromise, which provided that there should be thirteen C. at Monymusk, of whom one—to be chosen by the bishop from a list of three presented by the other C.—should be the master or prior; that they should have a refectory, a common dormitory, and an oratory, but no cemetery; that they should not adopt the monastic or canonical life or rule without leave of the bishop; and that when he came to Monymusk, lie should be received by the C. in solemn procession. Before this agreement is 50 years old, the name of C. disappears from Monymusk, and their house is recognized as a priory of canons regular.
C. are found neibernethv, in Strathearn, about 1120. In the end of that century, their possessions appear to have been divided between their hereditary lay-abbot (the founder of the noble family of Abernethy) and the prior and C. by whom the burden of the ecclesiastical offices was borne. In 1273, they were transformed into canons regu lar. The same partition of the Culdee revenues which appears at Abernethy-, is found also at Brechin. A layman, who is abbot only in name, inherits a large share of the Culdee patrimony, and transmits it to his descendants, who soon lose even the name of abbot. The prior and his C., meanwhile, are absorbed into the chapter of the new bishopric, founded at Brechin by king David I., about 1145; in less than a hundred years, the name of C. disappears, and the chapter is one wholly of secular canons. The same silent change of C. into secular canons, which took place at Brechin during the 13th took place also at Dunblane, at Dunkeld, at Lismore, at Rossmarky, and at Dornoch. C. are found in .the bishop's chapter at each of these places in the 12th c.; they disappear before the end of the 13th c. leaving the chapter one of secular canons.
At bunkeld, as at Brechin and at Abernethy, great part of the Culdee revenues was held by a lay-abbot, whose office was of such mark as to be hereditary in the royal family. The father of "the gracious Duncan," and the son of St. Margaret, were Culdee abbots. If a tradition of the 1Gth c. can be received as authority for what passed in the 12th c., the C. of Dunkeld were married, like the priests of the Greek church, but lived apart from their wives during their period of service at the altar.
C. are found holding land at Monifeith, near Dundee, about 1200; and there was a lay-abbot of Monifeith; but there is nothing to show whether lie was or was not a Culdee. The C. of Muthill, in Strathearn, appear with their prior in charters of the beginning of the 13th century. Nothing more is known of them. Jocelin of Fumes, in his Life of St. Kentigern, or Mango, written about the year 1180, relates that the disciples of that saint at Glaserow, in the Gth c., had all things in common, but lived each in his own hut, whence they were called "solitary clerks," and more commonly "Culdees." C. appear as one of the ecclesiastical fraternities of Iona in the year 1164; and the faint vestiges of a circular building (about 15 ft. in diameter) called " Cothan Cuildich," or the Culdee's cell, are still shown in the island.
Only one or two traces of C. have been observed in England. The canons of St. Peter's, at York, were called C. in the reign of iBtlielstan (924-31); and a charter of tEthelred, in the year 1005, speaks of the canons of the English cathedrals generally as cultures &rid. The term is of doubtful import, and the charter itself is not beyond suspicion.
Of the C. in Wales, we have only one notice. Giraldus Cambrensis, writing about 1190, describes the island of Bardsev, on the coast of Caernarvon, as inhabited by " most devout monks, called celibates or Culdees." Such is a concise recapitulation of all that is certainly known of the Culdees. Before their history was ascertained, opinions were held regarding them which now find few if any supporters among arclie2ologists. It was believed that they were our first teachers of Christianity; that they came from the cast before corruption had yet overspread the church; that they took the Scripture for their sole rule of faith; that they lived under a form of church-government approaching to presbyterian parity; that they rejected prel acy, transubstantiation, the invocation, of saints, the veneration of relics, image-worship, and the celibacy of the clergy; and Alta they kept their simple worship and pure doc trines undefiled to the last, and were suppressed only by force and fraud, when the Roman Catholic church triumphed over their older and better creed. For all this. it is now clearly seen that there is no foundation. There is no reason to suppose that the C. differed in any material point of faith, discipline, or ritual from the other clergy of the British islands and western Christendom. Their name was their only peculiarity.
The best, account of the Irish C. is given in a dissertation by the Rev. Dr. Reeves, in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish, Academy for 1860. The best account of the Scottish C. is given in Mr. Grub's Ecclesiastical Histom of Scotland, vol. i. pp. 226-43 (Aberd. 1361). The opinions formerly held regarding the Scottish C. will be found in Selden's preface to the Decem, Historite Anglicanee Scriptores, reprinted in his Opera, vol. ii. pp. 1129-16; sir J. Dairyniple's Collections concerning the Scottish History (Edin. 1705); and the late Rev. 1)r. Jamieson's Historical Account of the Ancient Culdees (Edin. 1811). The opinions of Wes:: writers are controverted in bishop Lloyd's Historical Account of Church Goren/went, chap. vii. ; Goodall's Preliminary Dissertation and bishop Russell's Supplement, prefixed to Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops (Edin. 1824); Pinkerton's Inquiry into the Early History of Scotland, vol. ii. pp. 270-73 (edit. 1814); and Chalmers's Caledonia, vol. i. pp. 434-39 (Loud. 1807). On the subject of the C. generally, reference may be made to Lanigan's Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol. iv.; to the dissertation by .1. van Backe in the Acta Sanctorum Octobris, vol. yiii.; and to Skene's Ceitie Scot land, vol. ii.