The Church Of
Elgin Had, In The Intestine Tumults Of The Barbarous Ages, Been
Laid Waste By The Irruption Of
A highland chief, whom the bishop
had offended; but it was gradually restored to the state, of which
the traces
May be now discerned, and was at last not destroyed by
the tumultuous violence of Knox, but more shamefully suffered to
dilapidate by deliberate robbery and frigid indifference. There is
still extant, in the books of the council, an order, of which I
cannot remember the date, but which was doubtless issued after the
Reformation, directing that the lead, which covers the two
cathedrals of Elgin and Aberdeen, shall be taken away, and
converted into money for the support of the army. A Scotch army
was in those times very cheaply kept; yet the lead of two churches
must have born so small a proportion to any military expence, that
it is hard not to believe the reason alleged to be merely popular,
and the money intended for some private purse. The order however
was obeyed; the two churches were stripped, and the lead was
shipped to be sold in Holland. I hope every reader will rejoice
that this cargo of sacrilege was lost at sea.
Let us not however make too much haste to despise our neighbours.
Our own cathedrals are mouldering by unregarded dilapidation. It
seems to be part of the despicable philosophy of the time to
despise monuments of sacred magnificence, and we are in danger of
doing that deliberately, which the Scots did not do but in the
unsettled state of an imperfect constitution.
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