Old Photograph Abbotsford Crescent St Andrews Fife Scotland

Old photograph of houses on Abbotsford Crescent in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. Being the centre of the Scottish Church, St Andrews was to be the setting for many of the dramatic events which characterised Scotland's bloody Reformation. David Beaton, born 1494, died 1546, Archbishop of of St Andrews in the 1540s, was a fanatical persecutor of Lutheran supporters: he made a point of witnessing many being burned at the stake. Beaton held widespread influence in the country when George Wishart, born 1513, died 1546, one of Scotland's leading reformers, returned to preach his faith in his homeland around 1543. Outraged, Beaton had Wishart arrested and burnt at the stake outside his residence, the Episcopal Palace, while he watched from his window. Three months later a gang of reformers crept into the Palace and set upon Beaton while he lay in his bed. The terrified Beaton cried out, " Don't slay me, I'm a priest! ". He was nonetheless murdered and his body was hung from the battlements. Possibly it is a reflection of the almost universal contempt in which he was held that his body was not buried for 7 months. In 1559 St Andrews saw another important event in the Reformation. After three days of preaching by John Knox, Scotland's most famous religious reformer, in the Holy Trinity Church, an angry mob stormed St Andrews Cathedral and sacked it, destroying its " altars and idolatrie ". Although the building remained intact it fell into decline.



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