Amongst the disturbances of the period, St. Giles’ Church was seized upon, in 1571, by Kirkcaldy of Grange, who acted for the Queen’s party, and used it as a fortress. He put soldiers in the roof and tower, who riddled the vault with holes, so as to shoot down on their opponents. After the Reformation the church was considered to be too large for Protestant worship, and in Knox’s time the Magistrates began to cut it up into sections, so as to form several churches. Other alterations were made at different times, and parts were appropriated to other than sacred uses; so that at one time, besides the High Church in the choir and the Tolbooth Church in the nave, there were included under the same roof a grammar school, courts of justice, the Town Clerk’s office, a weaver’s workshop, and a place for the “Maiden,” or instrument of public executions. On the introduction, in 1633, of Laud’s new forms of worship, the church became the see of a bishopric, and the choir was fitted up as a cathedral. Between the downfall of Episcopacy in 1637 and its restoration in 1661, it was once more Presbyterian; but having again become Episcopalian, the bishop was ejected at the Revolution, and the Presbyterian form of worship restored. These variations entailed several alterations in the mode in which the interior was divided up, but the condition of the building up to this century remained little altered for the better. The choir still formed a separate church, having galleries introduced round three sides of it, so as to completely spoil and conceal the architecture. The nave was divided with walls, so as to contain several separate churches, and other incongruous accommodation. The Tolbooth Church occupied the south-west angle, and Haddow’s Hole Church the north-west angle. The Old Church comprised the south transept and portions adjoining, and the Preston aisle was partitioned off as a place of meeting for the General Assembly and other purposes. The dark portions under the crossing and the north transept were occupied as the police office. The alterations and rebuilding of 1829 still left the edifice divided into three separate churches--the choir was appropriated to the High Church, the nave was made into West St. Giles’ Church, and the Old Church occupied the south transept and other portions adjoining. The police office, however, and the Town Clerk’s office were cleared out, and the north transept, which was occupied by the former, was converted into a spacious lobby, from which the three churches entered. Although the ancient architecture of the exterior of St. Giles’ was entirely obliterated by the reconstruction of 1829, it should be added that some advantage was obtained by the removal of the small houses and booths which had been built against the structure and between the buttresses. The houses called the Luckenbooths had also encroached far too close to the edifice, and their removal was a great gain to the church and the town generally.