The Reformation

Paul Landowski, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Image: The Reformation Wall in Geneva depicting, left to right: Farel, Calvin, Beza and Knox. During Mary Tudor’s reign of terror, in which almost 300 reformers were rounded up and burnt at the stake, Knox fled to...

By CHE, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Image: George Wishart, from the Presbytery Hall, Edinburgh Theological Seminary, Photo: Paul James-Griffiths Following the deaths of the Glasgow martyrs in 1539, the council of the cruel hunted for more victims, finding six more that...

By CHE, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Image: The Cowgate, Edinburgh. In this street Alexander Alane/Alesius was born (1500) With tears and deep anguish Alexander Alane witnessed the agonising six-hour burning of his friend Patrick Hamilton by the council of the cruel. As...

By CHE, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Edinburgh Castle: taken from Craigmillar Castle by Paul James-Griffiths. Adam Wallace was burnt for his faith in Christ in 1547 on Castle Hill, just below Edinburgh Castle. Following the death of George Wishart, the next recorded...

John Napier was an extraordinary genius. The Encyclopaedia says about him: ‘There is no British author [scientist] of the time except Napier whose name can be placed in the same rank as those of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, or Stevinus.’ Even David Hume,...

King James IV was a great patron of the arts, science and medicine in Edinburgh and in 1505 the Royal College of Surgeons was founded here as the Incorporation of Surgeon Barbers of Edinburgh, which made it the oldest medical fellowship in the world. During the...