1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910827232503321

Autore

Graham Michael F

Titolo

The blasphemies of Thomas Aikenhead : boundaries of belief on the eve of the enlightenment / / Michael F. Graham

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Edinburgh, : Edinburgh University Press, c2008

ISBN

0-7486-5345-7

1-281-94776-8

9786611947767

0-7486-3427-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (193 p.)

Classificazione

NN 4040

Disciplina

345.4110288

941.1068

Soggetti

Blasphemy - Scotland - History - 17th century

Enlightenment - Scotland

Hanging - Scotland - History - 17th century

Scotland Intellectual life 17th century

Scotland Civilization 17th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Abbreviations; A Note on the Text; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Edinburgh and Scotland in the 1690's; The Politics of Blasphemy; 'So unnaturall a seasone': The Dreadful Year 1696; The Making of a Blasphemer; Trial and Execution; The Aftermath: Public Opinion in Scotland and England; Conclusion; Bibliography of Works Cited; Index

Sommario/riassunto

This is the first modern book-length study of the case of Thomas Aikenhead, the sometime University of Edinburgh student who in 1697 earned the unfortunate distinction of being the last person executed for blasphemy in Britain. Taking a micro-historical approach, Michael Graham uses the Aikenhead case to open a window into the world of Edinburgh, Scotland and Britain in its transition from the confessional era of the Reformation and the covenants, which placed high emphasis on the defence of orthodox belief, to the polite, literary world of the



Enlightenment, of which Edinburgh would become a