 As a result, in 1536 the first provincial church council called since 1470 failed to achieve major reforms or a united front against heresy.After the execution of Hamilton, the Crown prosecuted some men and a small number of executions followed in the 1530s and 1540s, but there was no systematic persecution, as the king was not interested in wide-scale bloodletting.An increasing number of lairds and nobles began to favour reform, particularly in Angus, the Mearns, Fife and within St. Andrews University.