Abbeys -- Scotland; Cathedrals -- Scotland; Church architecture -- Scotland
The west front above the portal and the whole of
the nave were reconstructed about the time of Bishop Dunbar (1422-1435),
and the chapter-house by Bishop David Stewart (1482-1501). The
architecture corresponds with their respective periods, and bears their
coats of arms, engraved on each department.[134]
Dr. Thomas Chalmers considered the ruins of Elgin to be the finest
remains of antiquity in Scotland, and as picturesque in their
variety.[135]
6. DIOCESE OF BRECHIN
The two bishoprics of Brechin and Dunblane were formed from the old
Pictish bishopric of Abernethy, in so far as its churches were not yet
absorbed by the growing bishopric of St. Andrews, which immediately
succeeded it.[136] Abernethy was the last of the bishoprics which
existed while the kingdom ruled over by the Scottish dynasty was called
the kingdom of the Picts; St. Andrews was associated with that of the
Scots.[137] Abernethy was from the earliest days dedicated to St. Bride,
and Panbride in the diocese of Brechin, and Kilbride in that of
Dunblane, indicate, in Dr. Skene's view, that the veneration of the
patroness of Abernethy had extended to other churches included in these
dioceses.[138] From this old Pictish diocese the bishopric of Brechin
was formed, towards the end of King David's reign, about 1150.[139] The
Church of Brechin has no claim to represent an old Columban
monastery:[140] its origin as a church is clearly recorded in the
Pictish Chronicle, which states that King Kenneth, son of Malcolm, who
reigned from 971 to 995, gave "the great city of Brechin to the Lord,"
founding a church to the Holy Trinity, a monastery apparently after the
Irish model, combined with a Culdee college. We hear of it next in two
charters of David I. to the Church of Deer, and in the second of these
the "abbot" of the first appears as "Bishop of Brechin" (about 1150).
The abbacy passed to lay hereditary bishops, and the Culdees were first
conjoined with, next distinguished from, and at last superseded by, the
cathedral chapter.[141]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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