ews; the abbeys of Melrose, Dunfermline, and Cambuskenneth
fell: and the proud abbey of Scone, an incomparable monument of the
hierarchic feeling of earlier ages, was, together with the bishop's
palace, levelled to the ground. It may be that the popular fury went
far beyond the original intentions of the leaders, but without doubt
it was also part of their purpose, to make an end above all of the
monasteries and abbeys, from which nothing but resistance could be
expected.[200] It has been regarded even in our days as a measure of
prudence, dictated by the circumstances, that they destroyed these
monuments, which by their imposing size and the splendour of the
service performed in them would have always produced an impression
adverse to the Reformation. On the other hand the cathedrals and
parish churches were to be preserved, and after being cleansed from
images were to be devoted to Protestant worship. Everywhere the
church-unions, which were at once formed and organised on Protestant
principles, gained the upper hand. The Mass ceased: the Prayer-book of
King Edward VI took its place.

So the reformed Scotch Church put itself in possession, in a moment,
of the greatest part of the country. It was from the beginning a
self-governed establishment: it found support in the union of some
lords, whose power likewise rested on independent rights: but it first
gained free play when the French policy of the Regent alienated the
nobility and the nation from her. On the one side now stood the
princess and the clergy, on the other the lords and the preachers. As
their proposals were rejected and preparations made to defend the
hierarchic system with the power of the State, the opposition also
similarly arose, claiming to have an original right: revolt broke out;
the church system of the Romish hierarchy was overthrown and a
Protestant one put in its place. In the history of Protestantism at
large the year 1559 is among the most important. During the very days
in which the revised Common Prayer-book was restored in England (so
definitely putting an end to the Catholic religion of the realm), the
monuments of Roman Catholicism in Scotland were broken in pieces, and
the unrevised Common Prayer-book introduced into the churches. But
yet how great was the difference! In the one country all was done
under the guidance of a Queen to whom the nation adhered, in
consequence of Parliamentary enactments, the ancient forms being
preserved as