Note 379 — Chapter XI · MALCOLM THE FOURTH—A.D. 1153–1165.

Chron. Man, p. 12, 13. The character of Olave is described in a passage redolent of the spirit of the age:—“Dedit ecclesiis insularum terras et libertates, et erat circa cultum divinum devotus et fervidus, tam Deo quam hominibus acceptabilis, propter quod isti domestico vitio Regum indulgebant.” The privileges of Furness Abbey were confirmed by a Bull of Pope Celestine, quoted in Camd. Brit., p. 1450. Wimund is one of the bishops called into existence by Stubbs, to be consecrated with the apocryphal Michael of Glasgow, by Archbishop Thomas of York, who died in 1114—(Twysden, p. 1713). It is scarcely necessary to point out the discrepancy of this date with the real period of Wimund’s adventures, as detailed by the contemporary Newbridge. Wendover calls Wimund the first Bishop of Man, and he is probably right in a certain sense; for the bishopric seems to have been revived or remodelled, as in the cases of Glasgow and Galloway, when Olave solicited a colony of monks from Furness; and as the Irish Northmen looked upon their bishops as members of the Anglo-Norman rather than of the Irish Church, Olave would naturally turn to the Archbishop of York to consecrate the first bishop of his newly-created diocese, which soon afterwards became dependant upon the Archbishop of Drontheim.