his gratitude in a substantial
manner. He founded a priory at Strathfillan, on the Dochart, a stream in
the Breadalbane district of Perthshire, and consecrated it to the Saint.
At the dissolution of religious houses this priory with all its revenues
and superiorities passed, by order of the King, to Campbell of Glenorchy,
ancestor of the Lords of Breadalbane. Maurice's conduct on the field
attracted the attention of others besides Bruce. Macleod of Scarinche,
in Lewis, conceived a strong regard for the Abbot, and induced him to
reside for a time at his western home, where he erected a monastery to
St. Kattanus, whose bones lay buried there. Strathfillan, Scarinche, and
Abernethy were cells of Inchaffray.

The Earls continued successively to be bountiful benefactors of the
convent. One of them, Malise, in 1258, presented it with certain of his
slaves (_nativi_)--namely, Gilmory, Gillendes, and John Starnes, the son
of Thomas and grandson of Thore. Absolute serfdom was then a Scottish
institution, comprising part of the labouring class, who were bought and
sold with the land to which they were attached; and gifts of nativi by
their masters to the religious establishments of those times are
frequently recorded.

After the ancient line of Strathearn had failed in the direct male
descent, and when Maurice de Moray, created Earl by David II., had met
his death at Durham in 1346, leaving no issue, the King bestowed the
Earldom upon his nephew, Robert, the High Steward, afterwards Robert II.,
who on his accession to the throne (1370) relinquished the Earldom in
favour of his son David. Seventy years later the title and estates fell
vacant and were merged in the Crown, the bishopric and temporalities
being henceforth held in free barony of the Sovereign.

The intimate association of Inchaffray Abbey with the national and
religious fortunes of Scotland receives further guarantee in 1513.
Whether as chaplain or as common soldier, and under what designation, no
available narrative declares. But certain it is that the stubborn fight
which evoked Scotland's most waefu' dirge, no less than that which
occasioned her immortal paean of victory, was graced by an abbot of this
monastery. The respective fates of these two divines, however, were
widely different. Not even monks, clad though they be in all the panoply
of the Church, are safe from sword or arrow. He of Flodden never saw his
northern charge again. Unknown, yet not