are contained in the cathedral's chartulary and identify the early bishops—Bean, Denortius, Cormac and Nectan—with Mortlach, in present-day Moray. This tradition was seemingly based on a series of early charters that are acknowledged to be fallacious. These charters allowed Hector Boece to construct a history that had successive Mortlach bishops, ending with its fourth prelate, Nectan, who then moved his see to Aberdeen. Outside of his appearance in one of the spurious charters, Nectan is only once documented as bishop of Aberdeen in a small note (c. 1132) made in the Book of Deer. Despite this, Mortlach did possess early ecclesiastical importance. A papal bull of 1157 by Pope Adrian IV confirmed the existence of a monasterium at Mortlach with five attendant churches as belonging to the diocese of Aberdeen. By the 11th century, this type of organisation was characteristic of Culdee (Céli Dé) settlements—the Culdees resembled communities of secular priests who ministered to the populations but were directed from the central mother church (the monasterium). Pope Adrian IV's bull of 1157 also confirmed to Bishop Edward the churches of Aberdeen, St Machar and St Nicholas, together with the town of Old Aberdeen and other lands. The bull authorised bishop Edward to establish a chapter in his cathedral, giving him the choice of introducing regular or secular canons as his clergy but nothing immediately came of this. The lack of a means of funding a fully functioning unit of clerics may have accounted for this. Reforms in the 12th century were partially driven by local landowners who provided churches and priests which in turn led to a lessening in the importance of mother churches. The strongest stimulus for change took place under David I's influence when he introduced an ordinance that guarranteed the rights of the parochial churches and their priests who were to be sustained by the levy of teinds. Consequentially, and particularly in areas of extensive feudal expansion of Anglo-Norman lords such as in the diocese of Aberdeen, had the effect of creating geographically-based and viable parochial entities within the diocese. These local lords, with some regard for the hereafter, granted their right of patronage of the parish churches to the cathedral or to a monstery of their own choosing. This, taken together with newly founded monasteries, impacted upon the Culdee mother churches and pendicle churches to the extent that they were either reduced into becoming ordinary parish