Cast them oot, I say!
The Reformation and St Andrews
After several years of travel John Knox returned to St Andrews in June 1559 during the political and religious upheavals of the Scottish Reformation.
Protestants, like Knox, who wished to abolish papal authority and reform the church recieved backing from powerful groups apposed to Scotland's pro-French regent, Mary of Guise, who had replaced the Earl of Arran in 1554.
Military skirmishing between the Regent and her opponents led to prolonged uncertainty: this was resolved in favour of the reformers who enjoyed English support in 1560.
Knox preached passionately in several towns; and after a powerful sermon in St Andrews on 11th June 1559 altars, images, statues and tombs were destroyed in a burst of furious popular enthusiasm encouraged by the "Protestant Lords".
The cathedral itself remained standing but was stripped of its furnishings, and was soon abandoned as a place of workship.
After a century of neglect, by the end of the seventeenth century the cathedral had been reduced to much the same decayed condition as we see today. The main use of the precinct came to be as a burial ground containing many elaborately carved symbolic memorial stones.