was attempting to exclude from influencing the Scottish Church—would both appear to indicate Gilla Aldan was a non-Scottish appointment. If Fergus was indeed responsible for Whithorn's revival, it would have almost certainly aided his royal aspirations since securing ecclesiastical independence could have been part of the process of ensuring political independence. Gilla Aldan's successor was Christian, a man who was consecrated in 1154 by Hugh d'Amiens, Archbishop of Rouen, who in turn may have been acting as a proxy for Roger de Pont l'Evêque, Archbishop-elect of York. Fergus and his family were remarkable ecclesiastical patrons, working with Augustinians, Benedictines, Cistercians, and Premonstratensians. Surviving charter evidence reveals that Fergus granted the lands of Dunrod, St Mary's Isle (upon which a priory was at some point erected), and nearby Galtway to the Augustinian abbey of Holyrood. A fifteenth-century list of properties belonging to the Knights Hospitaller reveals that Fergus had granted this order of the lands of Galtway (within the mediaeval parishes of Balmaclellan and Dalry) at some point in his career. This transaction appears to further evidence Fergus's alignment with the English Crown. The necrology of the abbey of Newhouse states that Fergus was the founder of a Premonstratensian house at Whithorn. Both he and Christian are stated by the necrology of the abbey of Prémontré to have founded a monastery at Whithorn. Christian's tenure as bishop (1154–1186), and Fergus's reign as lord (×1160), suggest that the priory of Whithorn was founded at some point between about 1154 and 1160. According to the annals of Maurice of Prato, this house was transformed into a Premonstratensian house by Christian in about 1177. These sources, therefore, appear to reveal that Fergus was responsible for the establishment of a possibly Augustinian house at Whithorn, whilst Christian was responsible for its later refoundation as a Premonstratensian institution. Such a switch was not an unknown occurrence in England or on the Continent. Either Fergus or David—or perhaps both Fergus and David—may have been responsible for the foundation of the abbey of Dundrennan, a Cistercian house situated well within the confines of Fergus's lordship. John Fordun and Walter Bower accord its foundation solely to David, although the near contemporary John Hexham failed to note the house amongst David's known foundations. The fact that Walter Daniel, a Cistercian monk from the community at Rievaulx, was highly critical of Galloway and its inhabitants may be evidence that Fergus was