401. Proceedings against THOMAS AIKENHEAD, for Blasphemy: 8 WILLIAM III. A. D. 1696. [Now first printed from the Records of Justiciary in Edinburgh, and MSS. the property of Lord King.*] CURIA JUSTICIARIE, S. D. N. Regis tenta in Pretorio Burgi de Edinburgh, vigesimo tertio die meusis Decembris 1696, per honorabiles viros Adamum Cockburne de Ormistoune Justiciarium Clericum, Dominos Colinum Campbell de Aberuchill, Davidem Hume de Crocerig, Joannem Lauder de Fountainhall, et Archibaldum Hope de Rankeiller, Commissionarios Justiciarij dicti S. D. N. Regis. Curia legittime affirmata. Intran' Thomas Aikenhead, sone to the deceast James Aikenhead, chirurgeon, in Edinburgh, prisoner in the Tolbuith thereof. YOU are indyted and accused, att the in stance of sir James Stewart, his majesties advocat for his highnes interest, and by speciall order of the lords of his majesties privy councill, that where by the laws of God, and by the * These MSS. for the use of which I am indebted to his lordship, appear to havé belonged to the great Locke, the maternal uncle of lord chancellor King. +"No counsel appeared for the prisoner; nor does it seem that one word was urged in his be half during the course of the trial. Four or five witnesses were examined, one of them a writer in Edinburgh, the rest students at the University, lads from eighteen to twenty, or twenty-one years of age. They proved most of the articles of the libel, with this addition, that the prisoner said he was confident Christianity would be utterly extirpated by the year 1800. There was however a material defect in the evidence. The article most highly criminal, viz. the railing against God, and cursing our Saviour, was not proved at all, but was an inference drawn by the jury from the prisoner's cursing Ezra, and saying that the inventors of the scriptural doctrines would be damned, if there be such a thing as damnation. lawes of this and all other well-governed Christian realmes, the cryme of blasphemy against God, or any of the persons of the blessed Trinity, or against the holy Scriptures, or our holy religione, is a cryme of the highest nature, and ought to be severely punished: Lykeas by the act of parliament, first parliament Charles 2d, act 21, Intituled, act against the cryme of blasphemie, it is statute and ordained, that whosoever not being distracted in his witts shall raill upon or curse God, or any of the persons of the blessed Trinity, shall be processed before the cheife justice, and being found guilty, shall be punished with death; and by 11th act, 5 session of the present current parliament, the forsaid act is not only ratified, but it is farder statute, that whosoever shall in their wryteing or discourse denye, impugne or quarrell, or argue, or reason against the being of God, or any of the persons of the blessed Trinity, or the authority of the holy Scriptures, of the Old and New Testaments, or therein, which by the statute subjected the offender to a capital punishment. "Besides these defences, had the court been endued with the humanity to appoint counsel for the prisoner, it would undoubtedly have been pled for him, that these were rash words, drawn from him in the heat of controversy, which by no means coincided with his serious notions; and that he heartily repented of the warmth which betrayed him into expressions so dissonant from his own sentiments, and so offensive to the feelings of others.-Had these defences been offered for him, the jury could have connot, without being guilty of perjury, victed him of obstinately persisting to deny the Trinity, which the statute required." Arnot, 326. According to Arnot the following passage in Fountainhall relates to the father of this Thomas Aikenhead: "April 20. James Aikenhead apothecary in Edinburgh is pursued before the privy council, "The jury unanimously found the pri- for selling poisonous and amorous drugs and soner guilty of railing against God, railing at philters to provoke lust, whereby a woman had and cursing Christ, and of the whole other narrowly escaped with her life, had not doctor articles in the libel. This verdict the jury, even Irvine given her an antidote. The council reby the statute, were not warranted to pro-ferred the trial and report thereof to the college nounce. The railing against God, and cursing Christ, ought to have been facts directly proved, and not inferences drawn from cursing the inventors of scriptural doctrines; and as for denying any of the persons of the Holy Trinity, it was not the denial, but obstinately persisting of physicians,, as being periti in arte; who thought such medicaments not safe to be given without first taking their own advice." Of the case of this man, (miscalled Aiken) there is a short report in Maclaurai, the Providence of God in the government of the world, shall for the first fault be punished with imprisonment, ay, and while he give publict satisfaction in sackcloath to the congregatione within which the scandall is committed; and for the second fault be ffyned, besydes his being imprisoned as above, and for the third should be punished with death, as ane obstinat blasphemer: Nevertheless it is of verity, that you Thomas Aikenhead, shakeing off all fear of God and regaird to his majesties lawes, have now for more than a twelvemoneth by past, and upon severall of the dayes within the said space, and ane or other of the same, made it as it were your endeavour and work in severall compainies to vent your wicked blasphemies against God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and against the holy Scriptures, and all revealled religione, in soe far as upon ane or other of the dayes forsaid, you said and affirm ed, that divinity or the doctrine of theologie was a rapsidie of faigned and ill-invented nonsense, patched up partly of the morall doctrine of philosophers, and pairtly of poeticall fictions and extravagant chimeras, or words to this effect or purpose, with severall other such reproachfull expressions; Lykeas you scoffed at, and endeavoured to ridicule the holy scriptures, calling the Old Testament Ezra's faules, by a profane allusione to Esop's fables, and saying that Ezra was the inventer therof, and that being a cunning man he drew a number of Babylonian slaves to follow him, for whom he made up a feigned genealogie as if they bad been descended of kings and princes in the land of Canaan, and therby imposed upon Cyrus who was a Persian and stranger, persuading him by the devyce of a pretendit prophecy concerning himself; and as for the New Testament, you not only scoff at it, but in your scoffing did most blasphemously raill upon our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, calling the said New Testament the History of the Impostor Christ, and affirming him to have learned magick in Egypt, and that coming from Egypt into Judea, he picked up a few ignorant blockish fisher fellows, whom he knew by his skill and phisognomie, had strong imaginations, and that by the help of exalted imaginatione he play'd his pranks as you blasphemously terme the working of his miracles: Lykeas you affirmed Moses, if ever you say ther was such a man, to have also learned magick in Egypt, but that he was both the better arteist and better politician than Jesus; as also you have cursed Ezra, Moses, and Jesus, and all men of that sort, affirmeing the holy Scriptures to be so stuffed with maddness, nonsense, and contradictions, that you admired the stupidity of the world in being soe long deluded by them: Lykeas you reject the mystery of the blessed Trinity, and say it is not worth any man's refutation, and you also scoffe at the mistery of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, affirining blashphemously that Theantropos is as great a So in the Original. contradictione as Hircus Cervus, or a quadratum to be a rotundum; and as to the doctrine of redemptione by Jesus, you say it is a proud and presumptuous devyce, and that the inventars therof are damned, if after this life ther be either rewaird or punishment; you also deny spirits, saying that the notion of a spirit is a contradiction, and you have maintained that God, the world, and nature, are but one thing, and that the world wastrom eternity; and you assert that man's imaginatione duely exalted by airt and industry can do any thing, even in the infinite power of God: you have lykwayes in discourse preferred Mahomet to the blessed Jesus, and you have said that you hoped to see Christianity greatly weakened, and that vou are confident that in a short tyme it will be utterly extirpat, and you have been so bold in your forsaid blasphemies, that wi.en you have found yourself cold, you have wi-bed-to be in the place that Ezra calls Hell, to warune yours self there: and these blasphemous railings and expressions in the words above sett down, or words to the like purpose, you have wiLkedly uttered in severall companies without the least provocatione, but meerly prompted by your irreligious and devilish mahce against God and our blessed Savi ur, and the most concerning truths of the holy Christian religion. By all which, it is manifest, that you are guilty ant and pairt of horrid blasphemy, railling against and cursing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and impugneing and denying the truth of the holy Scriptures, and the quarrelling and argueing against the being of God and against his providence in making and governing the world, which being found by the verdict of an Assize, you ought to be punished by death, and the confiscation of your moveables, to the example and terror of others to committ the lyke in tyme coming. Sic Subscribitur, JA. STEWART. Pursuer-Sir James Stewart, his Majesties Advocate. My Lord Advocate produced an act of councill for pursueing the pannal, wherof the tenor followes: Act and Remitt of Council for pursuing Thomas Aikenhead before the Lords of Justiciary for Blasphemy, &c. EDINBURGH, November 10, 1696. The lybell at the instance of sir James Stewart, his majesty's advocate, against Thomas Aikenhead, sone to the deceast James Aiken head, apothecary, for Blasphemy, being this day called in presence of the lords of his ma jestie's privy council, and the lord advocate and sir Patrick Hume his majesties sollicitor, compearing personally for his majesty's interest; and the defender compearing also personally, the lybell and answers therto being read, the saids lords of his majestie's privie councill have remitted and hereby remitts the said Thomas Aikenhead defender to be pursued befor the It appears that Aikenhead before his tria! endeavoured by the following Petition and Retraction, to prevail upon the Court of Justiciary to desert the diet against him : Unto the right honourable the Lord Justice General, Justice Clerk, and remanent Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's Justiciary. The Supplication of Thomas Aikenhead, now prisoner in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. "Humbly Sheweth; That your petitioner being indicted and cited to appear before your lordships to underly the law for the crimes contained in the criminall indictment raised! against me, and which crimes therin contained are so odious and abominable in themselvs, that I do not only from my very heart abhorre and detest then, but I do tremble and abhorre either to repeat the samen myself, or to hear the samen repeated and objected against any person · born of Christian parents. And therefore your petitioner doth with all humility and ingenuity represent to your lordships, that he doth ingenuously acknowledge it to be his greatest hapyness that he was born and educat in a place where the gospell was professed and so powerfully and plentifully preached, upon a true improvment of which benefite he doth truely be lieve the salvation of his immortall soui doth intirely depend. (2.) I do firmly believe the immortality of the soul, and that ther shall be a resurrection of my body at the last day, at which time they shall be again united, and there after either made eternally happy in heaven, or otherwise condemned in everlasting and endless torments. (3.) I do firmly own and believe in the unity and Trinity of the Godhead, and that ther is no salvation to be expected otherwise than by the blood and merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and by a firm believing and relying upon the samen. (4.) I do also profess and ingenuously believe the scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be cannonicall, and written and dictated by holy men in ASSISA. James Bowden, late baillie, of Edinburgh. spired by the Holy Ghost, and to be of divine authority and set down as a rule for our obedience and faith, and by believing whereof a happy immortality may be obtained, and no otherways. And I do also believe, and assent to the whole other principles of our holy Protestant religion, such as the celebration of baptism and the holy sacrament of the Lord's supper, as truely institute and ordained by our blessed Saviour, and thereafter practised by his holy Apostles and their successors to this very hour, and that the said sacraments are to this moment celebrated with the greatest purity in our reformed Protestant churches in Brittain and Ireland. "All which premises I do not only own and acknowledge to be the true grounds of my own faith and beleif, but that I am obliged to own and mantain the samen albeit with the hazard and loss of my life and all things earthly, and I do believe, own, and acknowledge the haill heads of our reformed religion, contained in our confession of faith as approven by act of parlialiament. And I firmly believe that in case I should hapen to depart from a true belief of the premises or any part thereof, the just punishment due therefore could be no less than the eternall ruine and tormenting of my body and immortall soul in hell for ever, as is threatned by our blessed Lord and Saviour in his holy Evangells. "This being premised, it is furder represented to your lordships, that denying the haill articles of the indictment raised against me as they are lybelled, so whatever expressions might have escaped me relateing to any of the articles in the said indictment, the samen was uttered or expressed by me not as my own privat sentiments and opinions, but were repeated by me as sentiments and opinions of some atheisticall writers whose names I can particularly condescend upon, and whose books I did receave from who is not only insert in the list of the witnesses to be adduced against me, but was the cheif and principall instrument who constantly made it his work to interrogat me auent my reading of the said atheisticall principles and arguments therin contained, and of which I am now very sensible and heartily sory for: and am convinced that these books are most villanous and atheisticall, and ought neither to be printed nor exposed to public view: but I absolutely deny that ever the expressions contained in the indictment were uttered by me in the terms lybelled, at least that ever they were spoken by me as my own privat opinions or sentiments, but that whatever expressions I had relating to what is lybelled, were only expressed by me as the arguments, set down in the said atheisticall books, which had unhappily Robert Forrester, late Kirk theasurer there. | sense, within the tyme lybelled, which is a veener. Jerom Robertsone, perivig-maker, there. James M'Clurg, late dean of Gild. Patrick Thomsone, late thesaurer. William Pattoune, late baillie of Edinburgh. Robert Elphingstoune, of Lopnes. George Mossman, stationer, there. George Fullertoune, of Dreghorne. James Dunlop, merchant, in Edinburgh. The assyse lawfully sworne, noe objectione of the law in the contrair. Five persons summoned on the jury refused to attend, and were fined 100 merks each. His Majestie's Advocate for probation adduced the witnesses after deponeing, viz. Mr. Adam Mitchell, student, in Edinburgh, aged twenty years, not married, purged of malice, prejudice, and partial councill; depones he has bein severall tymes in company with Thomas Aikenhead, panuall, when he heard him affirme that divinity or the doctrine of theology was ane rapsodie of feigned and ill invented non fallen in my hands as said is, and seing I was at the time lybelled minor, and as yet am so, and under age, and that I do perfectly desist and abhorre the atheisticall expressions lybelled against me, and do truely believe the articles above represented as the true principles of my faith and religion, and am content to testify my sorrow and remorse to the world for my former escaps as to any thing contained in the indictment, hopeing by the blessing and assistance of our blessed Saviour, not only to be delivered from all such snares and temptations in time coming, but likewise to lead a life suteable to the gospell and the expectation of eternal life, through the blood and merits of our dear and only Saviour. "May it therefore pleas your lordships seriously to consider the premisses, and to have compassion on my young and tender years (not being as yet major), and that I have been so innocently betrayed and induced to the reading of such atheistical books, and after reading therof, being exceedingly imposed upon to give an account of the abominable and atheistical principles contained and asserted in them, and that I do truely own the true Protestant religion as the only means and way to eternal life and happyness, and do abborre all atheistical principles, and others whatsoever any way contrair therto, and am resolved by the assistance of Almighty God to make my abhorrence of what is contained in the said lybell, appear to the world by my subsequent life and conversation, an ia respect of my said minority and non-age, and what is above represented, and that this is only the first time, that ever I was questioned upon such an account, to desert the dyet against me. And your petitioner shall ever pray, &c." Lord King's MSS. twelve moneth, and that he has heard him scoff at the Scriptures of the Old Testament, calling them Ezra's Romances; depons that he heard him say that our Saviour wrought no miracles but what any other man might have wrought by ane exalted fancie; and speaking of Moses, he called him a magitian, and comparing him with Jesus he called him the better artist and polititian of the two; depons that be heard him deuy our Saviour Jesus to be the sone of God, and that the Apostles were a company of silly witless fisher-men; and he heard him say that he wondered the world was so long deluded with their contradictions and nonsense; farder depons, that he has heard him reject the mystery of the holy Trinity, and he heard him reject Theanthropos or God-mau that oftner than any other thing; and that as a contradictione, and it was as absurd as Hircus Servus, that is a goat and ane hart in one animall; depons that he heard him mantaine that man's imaginatione, raised by airt and industry to a high pitch, could doe as much as our blessed Saviour did; and this is the truth as he shall answer to God. Sic Subscribitur, A. MITCHELL. Mr. John Neilsone, wryter, in Edinburgh, aged near to twenty years, unmarried, purged of malice, prejudice, and partiall councill, and solemnly sworne; depons that within the tyme lybelled he has frequently heard the pannall affirme that divinity or the doctrine of theologie was a cheat and rapsodie of ill-invented nonsense; as also he has heard him frequently scoff at the holy Scriptures, and ridicule the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and call them Ezra's Fables, and that Ezra was the inventer of them; as also he has severall tymes heard him say that Ezra being a cunning man, he drew a number of Babylonian slaves to follow him, for whom he made up a feigned genealogie, as if they had bein descendit of kings and princes in the land of Canaan, and imposed upon Cyrus who was a Persian and stranger, persuadeing him by the pretendit devyce of a prophecie concerning himself, and gott a great quantity of gold from Cyrus, and gold vessells that was never in the temple, upon pretence that they had bein taken out of the temple of Jerusalem, wheras truely it was not soe; depones he has heard him scoff at the New Tes lament, and affirme that our Saviour had learned magick in Egypt, and that coming from Egypt unto Judea he picked up a few blockish ignorant fisher fellows, whom he knew by his skill in phisognomy had strong imaginations, none having stronger imaginationes than ignorant people, and that our Saviour by his own and his Apostles imaginationes played his pranks; he also heard the pannall affirm, that Moses (if ever ther was such a man) had also learned magick in Egypt; depons he heard the pannall curse Ezra and all the inventers of the Scriptures, and all the promoters of them, ministers and others, and he has heard him affirme that the Scriptures were full of contradictions; depons he has heard him several tymes deny that our blessed Lord was the sone of God, and affirme that God-man was a contradiction, and compare Theanthropos to a squaire triangle, and he has heard him say that if ther was any punishment after this life, surely Ezra and his followers, whom he called Ezraits, were damned; and farder heard bim assert that man's imaginatione exalted might dee any thing; and also heard him say, that within some hundreds of years the whole world would be converted to his opinion, and the Christian religion would be wholly ruined; and depones that he heard him say one night in August last, when he was cold, he wished to be besyde the place Ezra called hell to warme himself there, causa patet; and this is the truth as he shall answer to God. Sic Subscribitur, Jo, NEILSON. hell, to warme himself there; and farder de- Mr. John Potter, student, aged 18 years, unmarried, purged of malice, prejudice, partiall councill, and solemnly sworne; depones nihil novit. Mr. Mungo Craig, student, in Edinburgh' aged twenty one yeares, unmarried, purged of malice, prejudice, and partiall councill, and solemnly sworne; depones that within the tyme lybelled he has heard Mr. Aikenhead, the pan. nall, several tymes affirme that the studie of divinity and the doctrine of theologie was a rapsodie of feigned and ill contryved nonsense, and that it was worse than the fictiones of the Mr. Patrick Midletoune, student, at the col- poets, for they had some connexione, but the ledge of Edinburgh, aged twenty years, un- Scriptures had none; depones he has heard him married, purged and sworne; depones that he scoff at, and ridicule the holy Scriptures, and has heard the pannall, within the tyme lybelled, frequently call the Old Testament, Ezra's severall tymes affirme that the Scriptures were Fables, and that Ezra was the inventer of the Ezra's Fables or Romances, and that Ezra and books thereof; and depones he has heard him the Jewes were a number of vagabounds, such revile the books of the New Testament, and as Ogyptians, Goths or Vandals, and imposed call them the books of the imposter Jesus upon Cyrus and gott from him gold and jewells, Christ; and that he expressed it in a scorning pretending that they were brought from the and jeiring manner, and affirmed that Christ temple at Jerusalem; depons he has heard him had learned magick in Egypt, and called him scoff at the Scriptures of the New Testament, a magician, and that returning from Egypt to and say the history of them was a fable, and Judea, he picked up a few blockish ignorant the Revelatione was ane alchimy book for find-fisher-fellows who had strong imaginations, ing out the philosophers stone. And that our Saviour was a magician, aud did all his miracles by his imaginatione, and the lyke could be done by natural causes, and that he choysed twelve fishers that were ignorant, whom he knew to have strong imaginationes by which he wrought his wonders; depons that he heard him call Moses ane magitian, and that Mahamet was both the better airtist and polititian than Jesus; and he heard him curse Ezra, and has heard him say that as many pages as was in the Scriptures ther was as many contradictiones in it; and heard him say that the Trinity of the persons was a great contradiction, and lykways that the incarnation was as great a contradictione as Hircus-Cervus, and that the authors and propagators of the doctrine of Redemptione by Jesus, was the damnedst crew in the world, and that they would have the most perplexed thoughts of any for ever; and has heard him affirme that God, the world, and nature, are but one thing, and that the world was from eternity; and also heard him assert, that man's imaginatione duely exalted by airt and industry could doe any thing, even in the infinite power of God, and that he hoped to see Christianity greatly weakened, and that he was confident that in the year 1800 it would be utterly extirpat; depones, that about the midle of August last, about eight o clock at night, goeing by the Tron kirk, he hard him (being cold) say that he wished to be in the place Ezra called and that by the help of ane exalted imagination he played his pranks as he termed our Saviour's miracles, and that if ther was any such man as Moses, that he had studied magick, being bred up in the king's court, and was a better airtist and pollitician than Jesus, and that he heard him curse Moses, Ezra, and particularly our Saviour Jesus, and if ther was any punishment after this life the deserved the worst, and all the inventors of the doctrine of redemptione; and he made it his frequent discourse that the holy Scriptures were stuffed with such contradictions that the stupidity of the world was admirable in having believed them so long; and farder depones that he used to condemne and reject the mystery of the Trinity, and that God-man was as great a contradictione as a quadratum rotundum, and heard him call the doctrine of Redemption a proud and presumptuous devyce, and that the inventers of it were damned if ther were any punishment after this life; depones he asserted that God, the world, and nature, were all one thing, and that the world was from eternitie; and has heard him frequently assert that man's imaginatione duely exalted by airt and industry might creat a world, and produce any thing produceable; depones he heard him say, he hoped to see Christianity greatly weakened, and shortly to be extirpated, and that farder heard him curse those that baptizmed him, and say that baptisme was a magicall ceremony |