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established about 1120. The Premonstratensian or Norbertine 

 order was founded by S. Norbert about the year 1120, in the 

 diocese of Laon, France. A spot was pointed out to S. Norbert 

 in a vision, and he termed the place Pre montre or Pratum mon- 

 btratum, because the place was "divina revelatione praemon- 

 stratuni." The order was a mixture of the monastic and canonical 

 life, and followed chiefly the rule of S. Augustine. The order was 

 also sometimes called candidtis ordo, because their garV) was 

 entirely wliite. It was confirmed by Pope Honorius II. and 

 Innocent III. After the death of their founder the monks of 

 Premontre published that lie had received his rule, curiously 

 bound in gold, from the hand of St. Augustine himself, who 

 appeared to Norbert one night, and said thus to him — " Here is 

 the rule which I have written, and if thy Brethren do observe it, 

 they, like my children, need to fear notiiing at all in the day of 

 Judgment." The order spread itself into Syria, Normandy, 

 Flanders, Spain, Britain, and elsewhere. According to Dugdale 

 {Monasticon, ii., p. 1057), the Abbey was founded by John, Lord 

 of Kirkconnell, of the Maxwell family. According to another 

 account it was founded by Devorgilla, wife of John Baliol, Lord 

 of Barnard, as a cell to Soul's Seat. The former seems to me to 

 be the more probable, although it must be confessed all is uncer- 

 tainty. In 1235, AfFrica, daughter of Edgar, mentions the lands 

 of Dunscoie as being near the lands of the monks of Dercongal 

 and the King's road, which led from Dercongal to Glencairn 

 {Lib. Cart. Metros 103). In the same year, Odo or Otho, who 

 had been abbot of Dercongal, was elected Bishop of Candida 

 Casa by the monks of Whithorn ; but he was refused consecra. 

 tion, and his opponent, who had been elected by the clergy of 

 Galloway, was preferred (ibid). In 1257, William, Bishop of 

 Glasgow, decided a controversy between the monks of Melrose 

 and the monks of Dercongal regarding the church and titles of 

 Dunscore (ibid) 107. 



The abbot of Dercongal sat in the great Parliament at Brigham 

 in March, 1290 (Rymer, Foed., ii., 471, where the name Dercongal 

 is blundered into Darwongville). Dungal, the "abbot de Sacro- 

 bosco " (Sacred Bush), with his monks, swore fealty to Edward I. 

 at Berwick in August, 129G (Pyrnne, Hist. Coll., iii., p. 653). 

 Prynne gives the name as Saint Boyse. In return King Edward 

 immediately issued a writ to the Sheriff of Dumfriesshire ordering 



