[Sidenote: Establishment of the bishopric of Moray.] The districts beyond the Spey were at this time so little under the influence of the Crown, and their connection with what formed the kingdom proper so slender, that the position of a bishop of Moray appointed by the king can have been little more than nominal. In fact, we know very little of the state of the church in that great Celtic district at this time, except what may be gathered from the dedications of the churches. The low-lying portion of its territory, extending along the south shore of the Moray Firth from the Spey westward, with its fertile soil and temperate air, must always have formed an attractive position for ecclesiastical establishments; and in that part of it which lies between the Spey and the Findhorn three churches come now rather prominently forward. These are the churches of Brennach, or Birnie, Spyny and Kenedor; and we learn something of this last church from the legend of Saint Gervadius or Gernadius, whose day is the 8th of November. He was a native of Ireland, and leaving his home to preach the Word of Life in Scotland, he came to the territory of Moravia or Moray, in which place he associated with himself many fellow-soldiers in Christ, and under angelic direction, as it is said, built an oratory or cell in a place called Kenedor. Here he had a stone bed, and led the life of an Anchorite.[700] A cave near Elgin and a spring of water in the rock above bear his name. An allusion in his legend to a war by the king of the Angles against the Scots, which brought the Anglic soldiers to his neighbourhood, fixes his date to the year 934, when Athelstane, king of Northumbria, invaded Scotland both by sea and land; and his establishment has all the features of a Culdee church. There was no trace, however, of the name of Culdee in this district when Alexander founded his bishopric, and it was not till the time of Bricius, the sixth bishop of Moray, who filled that position from 1203 to 1222, that the bishops had any fixed residence in the diocese. They are said before his time to have had their episcopal seat in one or other of the three churches of Birnie, Spyny and Kenedor. When Bricius became bishop in 1203 he fixed his cathedral at Spyny, and founded a chapter of eight secular canons, giving to his cathedral a constitution founded on the usage of Lincoln, which he ascertained by a mission to England.[701] After his death the seat of the bishopric was removed to Elgin. [Sidenote: Establishment of bishopric of Dunkeld.]