Transactions. 127 
established about 1120. The Premonstratensian or Norbertine 
order was founded by 8. 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 Pratwm mon- 
stratum, because the place was “divina revelatione praemon- 
stratum.” The order was a mixture of the monastic and canonical 
life, and followed chiefly the rule of 8. Augustine. The order was 
also sometimes called candidus ordo, because their garb was 
entirely white. It was confirmed by Pope Honorius II. and 
Innocent III. After the death of their founder the monks of 
Premontre published that he 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 nothing 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 Dunscore as being near the lands of the monks of Dercongal 
and the King’s road, which led from Dercongal to Glencairn 
(Lib. Cart. Melros 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, 1296 (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 
