A general destruction of roods took place in the autumn of 1547, when Heylin tells us "the image of Christ, best known by the name of the rood, together with the images of Mary and John, and all other images in the church of S. Paul, London, were taken down, as also in all other churches in London." At All Hallows, Staining, the loft itself was pulled down, and the "roodloft hangings" sold for 12s. in 1550. Under Queen Mary the work of destruction was of course stayed, and in some cases the damage was even repaired. Thus, at the church just named, a new crucifix was purchased in 1554 at the cost of £6 3s., and the parishoners of S. Pancras, Soper Lane, were warned in October, 1555, that their rood, with all its figures, was to be reinstated by Candlemas. The parish accounts of S. Helen's, Abingdon, for the same year, contain several entries concerning a similar restoration:-- "Payd for making the roode and peynting the same, 5 4 For making the roode lyghtes, 10 6 Payed for peynting the roode, of Mary and John, and the patron of the Church, 6 0" Entries of a like kind are to be found in the accounts of S. Mary Hill, London, for the same year, and in those of S. Giles's, Reading, for 1558. Then came the revived iconoclasm of the days of Elizabeth. Reading pulled down for 4d. in 1560, what had cost 40s. to put up two years before. John Rial spent three days in destroying the rood at S. Margaret's, Westminster, in 1559, and was paid 2s. 8d. for his services; and "carpenters and others, taking down the rood-loft and stopping the holes in the wall where the joices stood" at S. Helen's, Abingdon, received in 1561, the sum of 15s. 8d. But the unaccountable hatred which the fanaticism of the time felt towards these sacred symbols, was not satisfied with their mere removal; nothing less than their destruction with every mark of violence and indignity was enough. Crucifixes were brought to Smithfield and to S. Paul's Churchyard, and there broken to pieces and "burnt to ashes, and together with these in some places copes, also vestments, altar-cloaths, etc." The rood with its images from S. Andrew's Holborn, was burnt to ashes, and that from S. Margaret's, Westminster, was destroyed by "cleaving and sawing" it. Such rage and violence towards the effigy of the Saviour reads more like an account of the ribald and blasphemous paganism of the French Revolution, than a record of the acts of men claiming a burning desire for pure religion. Who can picture a sincerely Christian devotion hacking and hewing at the statue of the Redeemer?