Edinburgh, St Giles

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Edinburgh, St Giles. Founded 854, formally dedicated 1243, and rebuilt in stone after burning by Richard II (1385), St Giles was created a collegiate church in 1467, enlarged, and enriched. On Knox's return from Geneva, it became involved militantly in the new reformed church's activities. Although France and catholicism were surmounted, conflict with monarchs and episcopacy persisted throughout the 17th cent.: Charles I made Edinburgh a bishopric and St Giles a cathedral, before Cromwell's men cut it into four. Subsequently under presbyterian rule, the ‘high kirk’ was reconstructed in the 19th cent. and then enhanced by the Thistle chapel (1911).

A. S. Hargreaves

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