=4. Church Reforms.=--Alexander deserves to be remembered for the spirit and wisdom with which he upheld the independence of the national church. Anxious to carry out in the same spirit the reforms already begun by his mother, he appointed her confessor _Turgot_, Prior of Durham, to the See of St. Andrews, and asked the _Archbishop of York_ to consecrate him. The Archbishop on this claimed the canonical obedience of all the Scottish bishops, declaring that the whole country was in his province. This demand was clearly unjust; for, though _Lothian_ was undoubtedly so, the Scottish Church was older than his own, and had never been dependent on any foreign See. This difficulty was got over by the consecration of the new bishop by the _Bishop of London_, and Turgot was installed as head of the Church from which his own priory of _Durham_ had originally branched off. Instead of identifying himself with the interests of his new charge, he did all he could to bring the Scottish Church under the authority of the Archbishop of York, so that he and the King soon quarrelled; and as the King refused to let the Bishop go to _Rome_ to lay his case before the _Pope_, he resigned, and went back to Durham, where he shortly afterwards died. To evade the claims of York, the King resolved that his next bishop should be chosen from the southern province. _Eadmer_, a monk of _Canterbury_, the friend and biographer of _Anselm_ the Archbishop, accepted the bishopric. But he proved no better than Turgot, for he persisted in considering himself and his bishopric as dependent on Canterbury; and as the King would on no account agree to this, he too resigned and went away. Though he afterwards repented, and proposed to return, it was then too late, for _Robert, Prior of Scone_, had been appointed in his stead. As Alexander left no children, his brother _David_ succeeded him, so that _Strathclyde_ or _Cumbria_ was re-united to the kingdom.