Originally the story was intended to include Mary Queen of Scots, but a decision to reserve the later material for a second novel (The Abbot) was probably made before composition resumed in November.

For sixteenth-century monastic life he was indebted to British Monachism; or, Manners and Customs of the Monks and Nuns of England by Thomas Dudley Fosbrooke, of which he owned an enlarged edition published in 1817.

[3] The first edition of The Monastery, in three volumes, was published in Edinburgh by Archibald Constable and John Ballantyne on 23 March 1820, and in London by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown on the 30th.

There is no reason to suppose that Scott was involved with the novel again until the beginning of 1830 when he revised the text and added an introduction and notes for the 'Magnum' edition, where it appeared as Volumes 18 and 19 in November and December that year.

In the many conflicts between England and Scotland the property of the Church had hitherto always been respected; but her temporal possessions, as well as her spiritual influence, were now in serious danger from the spread of the doctrines of the Reformation, and the occupants of the monasteries were dependent on the military services of their tenants and vassals for protection against the forays of Protestant barons and other heretical marauders.

Dame Elspeth's husband Simon had fallen in the battle of Pinkie (1547), and the hospitality of her lonely tower had been sought by the widow of the Baron of Avenel and her daughter Mary, whose mansion had been seized and plundered by invaders, and subsequently taken possession of by her brother-in-law Julian.

[5] Disbelieving the sacristan's tale, the sub-prior visited the tower, where he met Christie of the Clinthill, a freebooter, charged with an insolent message from Julian Avenel, and learnt that the Bible had been mysteriously returned to its owner.

Having exchanged it for a missal, he was unhorsed on his return by the apparition; and, on reaching the monastery, the book had disappeared from his bosom, and he found the freebooter detained in custody on suspicion of having killed him.

During his absence from the tower, Happer the miller and his daughter Mysie arrived on a visit, and soon afterwards came Sir Piercie Shafton, as a refugee from the English Court.

The next day the abbot came to dine with them, and offered Halbert, who had quarrelled with the knight for his attentions to Mary, the office of ranger of the Church forests.

The following morning they fought in a glen, and Halbert fled to the Baron of Avenel, leaving Sir Piercie apparently mortally wounded.

His companion thither was Henry Warden, who offended the laird, and assisted Halbert in his determination to escape from the castle, rather than serve under his host's standard.

The knight, however, had miraculously recovered, and on making his way back to the tower, was accused by Edward of having murdered his missing brother, in spite of his assurance that the youth was alive and uninjured.

Mary Avenel, meanwhile, in the midst of her grief at the supposed death of her lover, was visited by the White Lady, who comforted her by disclosing the place where he had hidden the Bible, which she had secretly read with her mother.

The rest of the family were astounded by the arrival of Christie, who confirmed Sir Piercie's assertion, and announced that he had brought Henry Warden to be dealt with as a heretic by the lord abbot.

But the preacher and Father Eustace had been intimate friends at college, and the sub-prior was urging him to save his life by returning to the bosom of the Church, when Edward interrupted them to confess his jealousy of his brother, and his resolution to become a monk, in obedience to the White Lady who had appeared to him.

Father Eustace then decided to leave his prisoner at the tower, under promise to surrender when summoned to the monastery; and, having learnt from the freebooter that Julian Avenel would fight for the Church, despatched him in search of Sir Piercie and the miller's daughter.

That same night the lord abbot, alarmed by intelligence that English and Scottish soldiers were advancing with hostile intentions against the monastery, resigned his office to the sub-prior.

Having taken the road to Edinburgh, Halbert had joined a squadron commanded by the Earl of Murray, who sent him forward to prevent an engagement between the English, under Sir John Forster, and the supporters of the Church, under the Baron of Avenel.

He arrived too late, but the earl induced Sir John, who had won the battle, to withdraw, and marched his troops to St Mary's.

Father Eustace was then summoned to produce Sir Piercie, who surrendered voluntarily, and a flaw in his pedigree having been proved, Mysie was declared a fitting wife for him, and they were shipped off to Flanders.

The monks, at the intercession of Henry Warden, were allowed to retain their monastery and lands on condition of being laid under contribution; while Edward, who had sought another interview with the White Spirit, was told that the knot of fate was tied, and impressed with the belief that the marriage of his brother with Mary Avenel might prove fatal to both of them.

(principal characters in bold) Introductory Epistle: Captain Clutterbuck, a retired captain living in Kennaquhair [Melrose], writes to the Author of Waverley telling of a visit by a Benedictine monk to retrieve from the monastery ruins the buried heart of the sixteenth-century Abbot Ambrose, and leaving for publication an account of the events of the period which Clutterbuck hopes the Author will undertake, making any improvements he thinks appropriate.

Stawarth Bolton and his English foraying party are received with defiance by Elspet Glendinning's two young sons, Halbert and Edward, but he offers the tower immunity.

Eustace tells Boniface in confession of the events of the day, which he suspects may have been a punishment for his uncharitable interpretation of Philip's adventure; he is irked by the Abbot's pompous and patronising attitude but submits to his authority.

11 (22): Halbert leaves Shafton to seek help from a passing stranger, but when they reach the site of the duel they find only a newly-filled grave.

14 (25): Warden rebukes Julian for his relationship with Catherine, impressing Halbert, who agrees to escape from the castle and take a letter from the preacher to the leader of an advancing body of horse [the Earl of Moray].

2 (27): Eustace finds Shafton's account improbable, but he urges moderation on Edward who is seeking revenge for his brother's supposed death.

11 (36): Later in the year, arriving at the site of a battle between monastic and English forces, Halbert rescues the infant son of Julian and Catherine, who both die, as does Christie.

The author was welcomed back to his home ground, and his landscape descriptions were generally judged excellent, as were the confrontations between the principal characters.