Kirk should apologise for hundreds of deaths

Nowadays, it is almost impossible to believe that in Scotland in the great age of witch trials (1550 to 1700), nearly 4,000 innocent people – 84 per cent of whom were women – were tried as so-called witches under the Witchcraft Act 1563.

The murder of so-called witches is a crime instigated by God’s command in Exodus 22:18. For this reason some people believe that an apology is due from the Church of Scotland.

Interestingly, the Church’s Theological Forum has been working in this area and it will both report to the General Assembly and make material available on their website in the same time frame. Certainly, an apology for trying and executing individuals accused of witchcraft has been long in coming.

The General Assembly played a key role in the indictment of Thomas Aikenhead, a 20-year-old student from Edinburgh, who was prosecuted under the Acts against Blasphemy 1661 and 1695, and hanged on January 8, 1697. He was the last person in Great Britain to be executed for blasphemy.

During his trial the Privy Council ruled that they would not grant a reprieve unless the church interceded for him. The Church of Scotland’s General Assembly, sitting in Edinburgh at the time, urged “vigorous execution” to curb “the abounding of impiety and profanity in this landw. Thus Aikenhead's sentence was confirmed, and God’s will was done.

Perhaps as it sits in Edinburgh this week the General Assembly will be moved to apologise for those who also perished for blasphemy and heresy.

DOUG CLARK Currie, Midlothian