edinburgh university press blasphemies of thomas aikenhead boundaries of belief on the eve of the enlightenment nov 2008

[...]... Edinburgh s jurisdiction that straddled the lower end of the High Street, east of the Netherbow), and most of them were poor.8 The tall buildings noted by Morer and other visitors were the result of strong population growth, coupled with a topography that encouraged people to build up rather than out This concentration of people living literally on top of each other, with workshops on the street level,... while the trial (and execution) may comprise the main drama here, they make little sense if divorced from their historical context A full exploration of that context is critical for any microhistorical study of Thomas Aikenhead It will help us comprehend what to modern eyes seems incomprehensible – the imposition of capital punishment for a crime of belief at the end of the era of confessionalisation, even... Davie, The Scottish Enlightenment (London: Historical Association, 1981), pp 9–10; Arthur  the blasphemies of thomas aikenhead Herman, The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots’ Invention of the Modern World (London: Fourth Estate, 2002), p 7; Alexander Broadie, The Scottish Enlightenment (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2001), pp 33– 4; Richard Sher, Church and University in the Scottish Enlightenment (Princeton:... archaeogeophysical surveyor in the Department of Classical Studies, Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Akron Historians could not reconstruct the past without the help of the archivists and librarians who are its keepers In Edinburgh, the staffs of the National Archives of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland, the Edinburgh University Library and the Edinburgh City Archives were... tearing them down and building new stone structures around central courtyards He built Mylne’s Square, opposite the Tron Kirk, in the 1680s, and Mylne’s Court, on the north side of the Lawnmarket in the higher reaches of the High Street, around 1690 The amenities of the town centre were further improved by the provision of water, pumped in from the nearby village of Colinton to a series of fountains in the. .. reputation for toleration Two recent studies of the decline of witch-hunting also make passing reference to Aikenhead s case, exploring the conjunction, first noted among historians by Macaulay, between it and one of the last revivals of the Scottish witch-hunt; like the witches of Renfrewshire, Aikenhead was an ‘enemy of God’, albeit of a less traditional type.11 The Aikenhead case seems ripe for the. .. 16 the blasphemies of thomas aikenhead Edinburgh, wrote in 1705 that the Nobility generally resort to the Trone Church, which is the principall, and the Lord High Commissioner [the king’s representative in the General Assembly] has a Throne erected in it’, alongside places for the provost of Edinburgh and the Lord High Chancellor, who represented the king in parliament.24 The minister at the Tron... craftsmen, also controlled commerce in the traditional way – by limiting entry into their ranks, and using the burgh council’s legal authority to enforce the privileges of their guild members The de jure control of commerce did not lead to the de facto control of wealth, however The seventeenth century had been a good time for Scotland’s legal profession, and by the 1690s the combined wealth of Edinburgh s... his capacity as their assistant director, for supplying me with a reproduction of the drawing of the tollbooth, which comes out of the library collection It is used in this book with their kind permission, as well as the permission of the Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, in which it originally appeared The maps that appear in the introduction and Chapter 1 were expertly prepared by Ann Donkin, archaeogeophysical... result of a process controlled by the state, and its agents were present in force Aikenhead was flanked by two columns of troops, which suggests that the authorities feared some kind of disturbance From the mercat cross they filed down the High Street, past the Tron Kirk, in front of which Aikenhead had uttered one of his alleged blasphemies on a cool evening the previous August After passing through the . h1" alt="" The Blasphemies of Thomas Aikenhead The Blasphemies of Thomas Aikenhead Boundaries of Belief on the Eve of the Enlightenment Michael F. Graham Edinburgh University Press For my. crime of belief at the end of the era of confessionalisation, even after the alleged British watershed of 1688–9, and on the eve of the Enlightenment – and in so doing will help to elucidate the. Akron. Historians could not reconstruct the past without the help of the archivists and librarians who are its keepers. In Edinburgh, the staffs of the National Archives of Scotland, the National