avenge that injury, that they should never from that day concur
with them in any action.' They, easilie inflambed, gave the alarm,
and so was that abbey and palace appointed to the saccage; in doing
whereof they took no long deliberation, but committed the whole to
the merriment of fire; whereat no small number of us was so
offended, that patientlie we could not speak to any that were of
Dundee or Saint Johnstone."

The reader will see in this frank narrative how many elements were
conjoined to bring about the outrage. Local jealousy and despite, the
rage against the Bishop and his priests, the eagerness of the needy in
hope of spoil, the excitement of a fray in which the first blow had been
struck by the adversary with just the crown of a supposed religious
motive to give the courage of a great cause to the rioters: while on the
other hand the Bishop's rashness in taking the defence upon himself and
slighting the assistance offered him is equally apparent. It is evident
enough, however, that the lords themselves had no urgent interest in the
preservation of the ancient buildings, and that Knox cared little for
any of these things. The watch of the preacher at the door of the
Bishop's girnel or storehouse, keeping back the rioters by his
exhortations, is a curious illustration of this point. He would not have
the people soil their souls with thieving, with the Bishop's meal and
malt; as for the historical walls, the altar where the old kings had
been anointed or the sanctuary where their ashes lay, what were they?
Knox was too much intent on setting Scotland loose from all previous
traditions--from the past which was idolatrous and corrupt, and in which
till it reached to the age of the Apostles he recognised no good
thing--to be concerned about the temples of Baal. What he wanted was to
cut all these dark ages away, and affiliate himself and his country
direct to Judaea and Jerusalem, to the Jewish church, not the Gothic or
the papal, or any perverted image of what he believed primitive
Christianity to have been. He served himself heir to Peter and Paul, to
Elijah and Ezekiel, and perhaps in the strong prepossession of his soul
against contemporary monks and ecclesiastics did not even know that the
Church which was so corrupt, and the religious orders which had fallen
so low, had ever brought or preserved light and blessing to the world.
Scottish history, Scottish art, were corrupted too, and wo