De_ and Anchorite of Clonmacnois,’ the first that invited a party of the poor of Cluain at Iseal Chiarain, and who presented twenty cows of his own to it. Of this it was said— O Conn of Cluain! thou wert heard from Erinn in Alban; O head of dignity! it will not be easy to plunder thy church. And Conn was father of Maolchiarain, coärb of Ciaran, or abbot of Clonmacnois.[654] It is unnecessary to follow this further, but it is obvious how prevalent at this time in Ireland was the marriage of the clergy of all classes and the perpetuation of their ecclesiastical offices in the lines of their own descendants, and that it had even broken down the asceticism of the Anchorite and the canonical rule of the _Cele De_ in this respect. In Scotland we find that the territory of the old monasteries was called _Abdaine_, or Abbacy, a word represented in Latin by ‘abbatia’ or ‘abthania,’ and had to a great extent passed into the hands of laymen who often retained for several generations the name of abbot.[655] The territory termed the Abthania of Dull, which was of great extent and included the modern parishes of Dull and Fortingall, seems to have been in the hands of Crinan, the lay abbot of Dunkeld, and, along with the possessions of the latter abbacy must have placed him on a par as to power and position with the great Mormaers of Alban. [Sidenote: A.D. 1028-1055. Maelduin bishop of Alban.] During the reigns of his son Duncan, and of the usurper Macbeth, we find that Maelduin, called by Bower son of Gillandris, was bishop. He appears as Maldunus, bishop of St. Andrews, granting the church of Markinch with all its land to God, St. Servanus and the _Keledei_ of the island of Lochleven;[656] and his death is thus recorded in 1055 by Tighernac, who was his contemporary: ‘Maelduin, son of Gillaodran, bishop of Alban, the giver of orders to the Gael of the clergy, died in Christ.’[657] Wyntoun tells us he was bishop twenty-seven years, which places the commencement of his episcopate in 1028. [Sidenote: A.D. 1055-1059. Tuthald bishop of Alban.] [Sidenote: A.D. 1059-1093. Fothad last bishop of Alban.] His successor was Tuthald, who is said by Bower to have held the bishopric for four years only, and during his episcopate he grants the church of Scoonie to the same Culdees.[658] This brings us to the year 1059 when Fothad became bishop, two years after Malcolm, surnamed _Ceannmor_ or Great Head, had, by the defeat and death of Macbeth, recovered for his family the kingdom of Scotia; and Fothad’s tenure of the bishopric lasted throughout the whole of his reign. Probably the most important act he performed, and one that exercised a most powerful influence on his church, was the marriage of King Malcolm to the Saxon Princess Margaret, which took place in the spring of 1069. Wyntoun tells us—