The Uses of Reform is a study of the Reformation as a movement for behavioral reform, concentrating on Scotland during the first fifty years (1560-1610) of its Reformation as a primary example. The opening chapters trace the development of "Godly Discipline" as part of the European-wide reform movement. Graham follows this general narrative with a study of the creation and implementation of a disciplinary system in Scotland. Finally, he compares disciplinary practices in the Scottish Church with those of the Huguenot communities of France. Looking closely at the proceedings of church...

This is the first modern book-length study of the case of Thomas Aikenhead, the sometime University of Edinburgh student who in 1697 earned the unfortunate distinction of being the last person executed for blasphemy in Britain.Taking a micro-historical approach, Michael Graham uses the Aikenhead case to open a window into the world of Edinburgh, Scotland and Britain in its transition from the confessional era of the Reformation and the covenants, which placed high emphasis on the defence of orthodox belief, to the polite, literary world of the Enlightenment, of which Edinburgh would become a...