 In August 1560 , parliament assembled in Edinburgh and legislated that the Scottish church would be Protestant , the Pope would have no authority and that the Catholic mass was illegal . Scottish cathedrals now survived only if they were used as parish churches and as Elgin had been fully served by the Kirk of St Giles , its cathedral was abandoned . An act of parliament passed on 14 February 1567 authorised Regent Lord James Stewart 's Privy Council to order the removal of the lead from the roofs of both Elgin and Aberdeen cathedrals , to be sold for the upkeep of his army , but the <unk> ship that was intended to take the cargo to Holland capsized and sank in Aberdeen harbour . In 1615 , John Taylor , the ' Water Poet ' , described Elgin Cathedral as " a <unk> and beautiful church with three <unk> , the walls of it and the <unk> all yet standing ; but the <unk> , <unk> and many marble monuments and <unk> of <unk> and <unk> personages all broken and defaced " . 
