Historical treatment of David I and the Scottish church usually emphasises King David I of Scotland's pioneering role as the instrument of diocesan reorganisation and Norman penetration, beginning with the bishopric of Glasgow while David was Prince of the Cumbrians, and continuing further north after David acceded to the throne of Scotland. As well as this and his monastic patronage, focus too is usually given to his role as the defender of the Scottish church's independence from claims of overlordship by the Archbishop of York and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Renewed bishopric of Glasgow Almost as soon as he was in charge of the Cumbrian principality, David placed the bishopric of Glasgow under his chaplain, John, whom David may have met for the first time during his participation in Henry's conquest of Normandy after 1106.Oram, David: The King Who Made Scotland, p. 62. John himself was closely associated with the Tironensian Order, and presumably committed to the new Gregorian ideas regarding episcopal organisation. David carried out an inquest and afterwards assigned to the bishopric all the lands of his principality, except those in the east of his principality which were already governed by the Scotland-proper based bishop of St Andrews.To a certain extent, the boundaries of David's Cumbrian Principality are conjecture on the basis of the boundaries of the diocese of Glasgow; Oram, David: The King Who Made Scotland, pp. 67–8. David was responsible for assigning to Glasgow enough lands directly to make the bishopric self-sufficient and for ensuring that in the longer term Glasgow would become the second most important bishopric in the Kingdom of Scotland. By the 1120s, work also began on building a proper cathedral for the diocese.G. W. S. Barrow, "King David I and Glasgow", pp. 208–9. David would also try to ensure that his reinvigorated episcopal see would retain independence from other bishoprics, an aspiration which would generate a great deal of tension with the English church, where both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York claimed overlordship.Duncan, Scotland: The Making of the Kingdom, pp. 257–9.

Innovations in the church system It was once held that Scotland's episcopal sees and entire parochial system owed its origins to the innovations of David I. Today, scholars have moderated this view. Although David moved the bishopric of Mortlach east to his new burgh of Aberdeen, and arranged the creation of the diocese of Caithness, no other bishoprics can be safely called David's creation.Oram, David I: The King Who Made Scotland, p. 158; Duncan, Making of the Kingdom, pp. 257–60; see also Gordon Donaldson, "Scottish Bishop's Sees", pp. 106–17. The bishopric of Glasgow was restored rather than resurrected.Shead, "Origins of the Medieval Diocese of Glasgow", pp. 220–5. In the case of the Bishop of Whithorn, the resurrection of that see was the work of Thurstan, Archbishop of York, with King Fergus of Galloway and the cleric Gille Aldan.Oram, Lordship of Galloway, p. 173. That aside, Ailred of Rievaulx wrote in David's eulogy that when David came to power, "he found three or four bishops in the whole Scottish kingdom [north of the Forth], and the others wavering without a pastor to the loss of both morals and property; when he died, he left nine, both of ancient bishoprics which he himself restored, and new ones which he erected".A. O. Anderson, Scottish Annals, p. 233. What is very likely is that, as well as preventing the long vacancies in bishoprics which had hitherto been common, David was at least partly responsible for forcing semi-monastic "bishoprics" like Brechin, Dunkeld, Mortlach (Aberdeen) and Dublane to become fully episcopal and firmly integrated into a national diocesan system.Barrow, Kingship and Unity, pp. 67–8 As for the development of the parochial system, David's traditional role as its creator can not be sustained.Ian B. Cowan wrote that "the principle steps were taken during the reign of David I": Ian B. Cowan, "Development of the Parochial System", p. 44. Scotland already had an ancient system of parish churches dating to the Early Middle Ages, and the kind of system introduced by David's Normanising tendencies can more accurately be seen as mild refashioning, rather than creation; he made the Scottish system as a whole more like that of France and England, but he did not create it.Thomas Owen Clancy, "Annat and the Origins of the Parish", pp. 91–115.

Monasticism

David was certainly at least one of medieval Scotland's greatest monastic patrons. In 1113, in perhaps David's first act as Prince of the Cumbrians, he founded Selkirk Abbey for the Tironensian Order. Several years later, perhaps in 1116, David visited Tiron itself, probably to acquire more monks; in 1128 he transferred Selkirk Abbey to Kelso, nearer Roxburgh, at this point his chief residence.Oram, David I: The King Who Made Scotland, p. 62; Duncan, Scotland: The Making of a Kingdom, pp. 145. In 1144, David and Bishop John of Glasgow prompted Kelso Abbey to found a daughter house, Lesmahagow Priory.Duncan, Scotland: The Making of a Kingdom, pp. 145, 150. David also continued his predecessor Alexander's patronage of the Augustinians, founding Holyrood Abbey with monks from Merton Priory. David and Bishop John, moreover, established Jedburgh Abbey with canons from Beauvais in 1138.Duncan, Scotland: The Making of a Kingdom, p. 150. Other Augustinian foundations included St Andrew's Cathedral Priory, established by David and Bishop Robert of St Andrews in 1140, which in turn founded an establishment at Loch Leven (1150x1153); an Augustinian abbey, whose canons were taken from Arrouaise in France, was established by the year 1147 at Cambuskenneth near Stirling, another prominent royal centre.A.A.M. Duncan, "The Foundation of St Andrews Cathedral Priory, 1140", pp. 25, 27–8. However, by 23 March 1137, David had also turned his patronage towards the Cistercian Order, founding the famous Melrose Abbey from monks of Rievaulx.Richard Fawcett & Richard Oram, Melrose Abbey, p. 20. Melrose would become the greatest medieval monastic establishment in Scotland south of the river Forth. It was from Melrose that David established Newbattle Abbey in Midlothian, Kinloss Abbey in Moray, and Holmcultram Abbey in Cumberland.Fawcett & Oram, Melrose Abbey, illus 1, p. 15. David also, like Alexander, patronized Benedictines, introducing monks to Coldingham (a non-monastic property of Durham Priory) in 1139 and making it a priory by 1149.Duncan, Scotland: The Making of a Kingdom, pp. 146–7. David's activities were paralleled by other "Scottish" magnates. For instance, the Premonstratensian house of Dryburgh Abbey was founded in 1150 by monks from Alnwick Abbey with the patronage of Hugh de Morville, Lord of Lauderdale.Duncan, Scotland: The Making of a Kingdom, pp. 150–1. Moreover, six years after the foundation of Melrose Abbey, King Fergus of Galloway likewise founded a Cistercian abbey from Rievaulx, Dundrennan Abbey, which would become a powerful landowner in both Galloway and Ireland and was known to Francesco Pegolotti as Scotland's richest abbey.Keith J. Stringer, "Reform Monasticism and Celtic Scotland", .pp. 128–9; Keith J. Stringer, The Reformed Church in Medieval Galloway and Cumbria, pp. 11, 35.

Not only were such monasteries an expression of David's undoubted piety, but they also functioned to transform Scottish society. Monasteries became centres of foreign influence, being founded by French or English monks. They provided sources of literate men, able to serve the crown's growing administrative needs. This was particularly the case with the Augustinians.Peter Yeoman, Medieval Scotland, p. 15. Moreover, these new monasteries, and the Cistercian ones in particular, introduced new agricultural practices. In the words of one historian, the Cistercians were "pioneers or frontiersmen ... cultural revolutionaries, who carried new techniques of land management and new attitudes towards land exploitation".Fawcett & Oram, Melrose Abbey, p. 17. Duncan calls Scotland's new Cistercian establishments "the largest and most significant contribution by David I to the religious life of the kingdom".Duncan, Scotland: The Making of a Kingdom, p. 148. Cistercians equated spiritual health with economic achievement and environmental exploitation. Cistercian labour transformed southern Scotland into one of northern Europe's main sources of sheep wool.See, for instance, Stringer, The Reformed Church in Medieval Galloway and Cumbria, pp. 9–11.

Ecclesiastical disputes One of the first problems David had to deal with as king was an ecclesiastical dispute with the English church. The problem with the English church concerned the subordination of Scottish sees to the archbishops of York and/or Canterbury, an issue which since his election in 1124 had prevented Robert of Scone from being consecrated. It is likely that since the 11th century, the bishopric of St Andrews functioned as a de facto. In the recently recovered last 20% of Version-A of the St. Andrews Foundation Legend, a text composed at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, some of the contemporary clerics at the bishopric of St Andrews were mentioned by name, and one of these is "Archbishop Giric", referring to Bishop Giric.Dauvit Broun, "Recovering the Full Text of Version A of the Foundation Legend", pp. 108–14. Bishop Fothad II, upon his death in 1093, was recorded in the Annals of Ulster as "Fothud ardepscop Alban", that is, "Fothad, Archbishop of Scotland".AU 1093.2, text & English translation; see also Alan Orr Anderson, Early Sources , p. 49 The problem was that this archiepiscopal status had not been cleared with the papacy, opening the way for English archbishops to claim overlordship of the whole Scottish church.