to the church which was the
scene of the outbreak, a mob "not of the gentlemen, neither of them that
were earnest professors, but of the rasckall multitude," which finding
nothing to do in the stripped walls and chapels, hurried on, led, no
doubt, by the first of the iconoclasts, who had become intoxicated with
the frenzy of destruction, to the convents of the Grey and the Black
Friars. Their violence grew as they passed on, from one scene of
destruction to another, many of them finding substantial inducements in
the shape of booty, in the well-filled meal-girnels and puncheons of
salt beef in the larders of the monks. By the time they came to these it
may be presumed that the special rage against idolatry had been
assuaged; but the demon of destruction had taken its place. And when the
excited multitude reached the noble Charterhouse with all its
picturesque buildings, "the fairest abbaye and best biggit of any within
the realm of Scotland," surrounded by pleasant gardens and noble trees,
every restraint was thrown aside. It had been founded by James I., and
there lay the remains of his murdered body along with those of many
other royal victims of the stormy and tumultuous past. So much
conscience was left that the terrified monks, or at least the Prior who
is specially mentioned, was allowed to take away with him as much silver
and gold as he was able to carry. The rest was beaten down into
indiscriminating ruin, and "within two days these three great places,
monuments of idolatrie, to wit the Grey and Black thieves and
Charterhouse monks (a building of a wondrous cost and greatness), were
so destroyed that the walls only did remain of all these great
edifications."

That this was in no way the doing of Knox and his colleagues is evident;
but it is equally evident that they treated it as a mere accident and
outrage of the mob, without consequence so far as the greater question
was concerned. When the Queen, exasperated, threatened in her anger on
the receipt of the news to destroy St. Johnstone, and began to collect
an army to march upon the offenders, the Congregation assembled in Perth
professed astonishment and incredulity, treating her threats as the mere
utterances of passion, and thinking "such cruelty" impossible. There is
not a word in the letters to the Queen's Majestie, to the Nobilitie of
Scotland, and the fierce address to the priests in which they afterwards
stated their case, of any wrong on their own si