Thomas Aikenhead
Encyclopedia
Thomas Aikenhead was a Scottish
student from Edinburgh
, who was prosecuted and executed at the age of 20 on a charge of blasphemy
. He was the last person in Britain to be executed for blasphemy.
, Sir James Stewart (grandfather of the future Jacobite
economist Steuart) who demanded the death penalty to set an example to others who might otherwise express such opinions in the future. Aikenhead was the last person hanged for blasphemy in Britain.
, before making the long walk, under guard, to the gallows on the road between Edinburgh and Leith
. He was said to have died Bible in hand, "with all the Marks of a true Penitent".
Thomas Babington Macaulay
said of Aikenhead's death that "the preachers who were the poor boy's murderers crowded round him at the gallows, and. . . insulted heaven with prayers more blasphemous than anything he had uttered."
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
student from Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, who was prosecuted and executed at the age of 20 on a charge of blasphemy
Blasphemy law in the United Kingdom
This article describes the blasphemy law in the United Kingdom.-England and Wales:The common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel were abolished by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. See the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006....
. He was the last person in Britain to be executed for blasphemy.
Indictment
Aikenhead was indicted in December 1696. The indictment read:That ... the prisoner had repeatedly maintained, in conversation, that theology was a rhapsody of ill-invented nonsense, patched up partly of the moral doctrines of philosophers, and partly of poetical fictions and extravagant chimeras: That he ridiculed the holy scriptures, calling the Old TestamentOld TestamentThe Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
Ezra'sEzraEzra , also called Ezra the Scribe and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible he returned from the Babylonian exile and reintroduced the Torah in Jerusalem...
fables, in profane allusion to Esop's FablesAesop's FablesAesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...
; That he railed on ChristJesusJesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, saying, he had learned magickMagickMagick is an Early Modern English spelling for magic, used in works such as the 1651 translation of De Occulta Philosophia, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, or Of Magick...
in Egypt, which enabled him to perform those pranks which were called miracles: That he called the New TestamentNew TestamentThe New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
the history of the imposter Christ; That he said MosesMosesMoses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
was the better artist and the better politician; and he preferred MuhammadMuhammadMuhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
to Christ: That the Holy Scriptures were stuffed with such madness, nonsense, and contradictions, that he admired the stupidity of the world in being so long deluded by them: That he rejected the mystery of the TrinityTrinityThe Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
as unworthy of refutation; and scoffed at the incarnation of Christ.
Trial and sentence
The case was prosecuted by the Lord AdvocateLord Advocate
Her Majesty's Advocate , known as the Lord Advocate , is the chief legal officer of the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved powers of the Scottish Parliament...
, Sir James Stewart (grandfather of the future Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
economist Steuart) who demanded the death penalty to set an example to others who might otherwise express such opinions in the future. Aikenhead was the last person hanged for blasphemy in Britain.
Aikenhead petitioned the Privy Council to consider his "deplorable circumstances and tender years." Also, he had forgotten to mention that he was also a first time offender. Two ministers and two Privy Councillors pleaded on his behalf, but to no avail. On January 7, after another petition, the Privy Council ruled that they would not grant a reprieve unless the church interceded for him. The Church of ScotlandChurch of ScotlandThe Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....
’s General Assembly, sitting in Edinburgh at the time, urged "vigorous execution" to curb "the abounding of impiety and profanity in this land". Thus Aikenhead’s sentence was confirmed.
Execution
On the morning of 8 January 1697, Thomas wrote to his 'friends' that "it is a principle innate and co-natural to every man to have an insatiable inclination to the truth, and to seek for it as for hid treasure. . . So I proceeded until the more I thought thereon, the further I was from finding the verity I desired. . ." Aikenhead may have read this letter outside the TolboothOld Tolbooth, Edinburgh
The Old Tolbooth was a medieval building located on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland.Demolished in 1817, the Tolbooth served various purposes during its existence. It housed early meetings of the Estates of Scotland, Court of Session, and also of the Provost and Burgesses of the Burgh Council...
, before making the long walk, under guard, to the gallows on the road between Edinburgh and Leith
Leith
-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....
. He was said to have died Bible in hand, "with all the Marks of a true Penitent".
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay PC was a British poet, historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, and on British history...
said of Aikenhead's death that "the preachers who were the poor boy's murderers crowded round him at the gallows, and. . . insulted heaven with prayers more blasphemous than anything he had uttered."
See also
- John William GottJohn William GottJohn William Gott was the last person in Britain to be sent to prison for blasphemy. A trouser salesman from Bradford, he led the Freethought Socialist League.In 1911, Gott was sentenced to four months in jail for publishing attacks on Christianity...
- prosecuted for blasphemy and jailed in 1922 - George HolyoakeGeorge HolyoakeGeorge Jacob Holyoake , English secularist and co-operator, was born in Birmingham, England. He coined the term "secularism" in 1851 and the term "jingoism" in 1878.-Owenism:...
Further reading
- Pringle, Helen Are we capable of offending God? Taking blasphemy seriously Ch 3 of Negotiating the Sacred: Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society at ANUAustralian National UniversityThe Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
E Press (originated at a conference in 2004) - Broadside account concerning trials and executions for 'Witchcraft, Adultery, Fornication, &c. &c John Muir, printer, Princes StreetPrinces StreetPrinces Street is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, and its main shopping street. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, stretching around 1 mile from Lothian Road in the west to Leith Street in the east. The street is mostly closed to private...
, Edinburgh, 1826; at National Library of ScotlandNational Library of ScotlandThe National Library of Scotland is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. It is based in a collection of buildings in Edinburgh city centre. The headquarters is on George IV Bridge, between the Old Town and the university quarter... - Thomas Aikenhead Commentary at pp 5-8 (fol. 442-44) of Letter, Rev. Robert Wyllie to the Laird of Wishaw, 16 June 1697; at Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of ScotlandSociety of Antiquaries of ScotlandThe Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is the senior antiquarian body in Scotland, with its headquarters in the National Museum, Chambers Street, Edinburgh...
1876
External links
- Indytment of Thomas Aikenhead - Text of indictment at WikisourceWikisourceWikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, it has...