![]() ![]() Yes, Scottish Presbyterians could behave like ayatollahs and the Kirk could, as in the infamous Aikenhead case of 1696, regularly incite public executions for spurious blasphemy or witchcraft charges. The Presbyterians popularised the notion that political power, though ordained by God, was vested not in the monarch or even in the clergy, but in the people. ![]() The springboard for this was the most powerful legacy of the Presbyterian revolution: a universal (or near-universal) education system. And through innovations in philosophy, education, commerce, engineering, industry, architecture, town planning, soldiering, administration, medicine and even tourism, the Scots invented the modern world of capitalist democracy. But rather than suffer the expected dilution into insignificance, Scotland became proportionately the most significant player in the union's empire. The Earl of Roseberry was paid £12,000 from a slush fund operated by the London government to enable this merger to take place. Three consecutive failed harvests at the end of the 17th century, against the backdrop of England's imperial growth, set the circumstances for Scotland's ruling classes to sell out its sovereignty - literally. The Knoxian revolution of the 16th century had resulted in 100 years of almost uninterrupted violence and bloodshed. ![]()
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