he abbey was burnt in 1272 and 1380.

Referring to its chartulary as a record of the names of the old Scottish
families Dr. Cosmo Innes says:--

"Many of our ancient families went down in the War of Independence,
and few of our present aristocracy trace back beyond the revolution
of families and property which took place under Bruce. The Earls of
Angus, Fife, and Strathearn are little more than mythological
personages to the modern genealogist.... It is the common case all
over Scotland."[435]

In connection with the monks he has the following interesting note:--

"It is to be remarked that in Scotland, as in other countries, while
the secular or parochial clergy were often the younger sons of good
families, the convents of monk and friars were recruited wholly
from the lower classes; and yet--not to speak of the daily bread,
the freedom from daily care, all the vulgar temptations of such a
life in hard times--the career of a monk opened no mean path to the
ambitious spirit. The offices of the monastery alone might well seem
prizes to be contended for by the son of the peasant or burgess, and
the highest of these placed its holder on a level with the greatest
of the nobility."[436]

The last abbot was Cardinal Beaton, at the same time Archbishop of St.
Andrews. The abbey suffered after the Reformation from the revenues
having become the property of the Hamiltons, and as they were
appropriated to the private use of that family, there were no funds to
keep up the buildings, which fell gradually into decay, and were freely
used by the magistrates and townspeople as a quarry. The property was
converted into a temporal lordship in favour of Lord Claude Hamilton,
third son of the Duke of Chatelherault.

In sketching the history of this famous abbey, the "Aberbrothock
Manifesto" of 1320 must be recalled, in which it becomes manifest that
the Scottish Church was never a complaisant vassal of Rome.[437] There
breathes in it a spirit of freedom and natural independence, and a
refusal to accept the interference of Rome in the affairs of the State.
The Scottish nobles protest against the papal countenance given to the
English aggressions, and distinctly tell Pope John XXII. that "not for
glory, riches, or honour we fight, but for _liberty alone_, which no
good man loses but with his life."[438]

The abbey church consisted of a choir of three bays, with side