abbey is another mute witness to the destruction of that day. {123b}

It is not my purpose to dilate on the universal destruction of so much
that was beautiful, and that to Scots, however godly, should have been
sacred. The tomb of the Bruce in Dunfermline, for example, was wrecked
by the mob, as the statue of Jeanne d'Arc on the bridge of Orleans was
battered to pieces by the Huguenots. Nor need we ask what became of
church treasures, perhaps of great value and antiquity. In some known
cases, the magistrates held and sold those of the town churches. Some of
the plate and vestments at Aberdeen were committed to the charge of
Huntly, but about 1900 ounces of plate were divided among the
Prebendaries, who seem to have appropriated them. {124} The Church
treasures of Glasgow were apparently carried abroad by Archbishop Beaton.
If Lord James, as Prior, took possession of the gold and silver of St.
Andrews, he probably used the bullion (he spent some 13,000 crowns) in
his defence of the approaches to the town, against the French, in
December 1559. A silver mace of St. Salvator's College escaped the
robbers.

[Head of Christ. St. Andrews. Excavated from the ruins of the Abbey by
the late Marquis of Bute: knox4.jpg]

There is no sign of the possession of much specie by the Congregation in
the months that followed the sack of so many treasuries of pious
offerings. Lesley says that they wanted to coin the plate in Edinburgh,
and for that purpose seized, as they certainly did, the dies of the mint.
In France, when the brethren sacked Tours, they took twelve hundred
thousand livres d'or; the country was enriched for the moment. Not so
Scotland. In fact the plate of Aberdeen cathedral, as inventoried in the
Register, is no great treasure. Monasteries and cathedrals were certain