A public service announcement:
Effective as of today The Hordes of Pharyngula will henceforth be known as The Gnu Model Army: Defenders of the Faith of Scientific Puritanism (F.D. Sci-Pu)
H/T The ever erudite and effervescently witty Ian H. Spedding FCD
The Renaissance Mathematicus 
Now all we have to do is find a Pharyngula fan who knows about the English Revolution. Some plans are futile, as when Margret, the puritanical wench, rebuffed one of Cromwell’s troopers, explaining “You just can’t put a roundhead in a square Peg!”
They seem to have some instinctive sense with regards to 16th century Scottish politics. Ive always felt.
“that all superstitions and idolatry and the monuments therof, might be utterly removit and banishit out of this realme”
These abuses (the term most often used) is not just an abuse of supernatural power but of science (early modern sense i.e knowledge)
The letter I cite from is an open letter from the clergy to the nobility, it’s thought to have lead directly to this significant shift in law.
“Item forsamekeill as (in as much as) the Quenis Maiestie and the thre Estatis in this present Parliament being informit that the havy abominabill superrstitioun usit be divers of the liegis of this Realme be using of Witchcraftis, Sorsarie and Necromancie, and credence gevin thairto in tymes bygane aganis the law of God; and for avoyding and away putting of all sic vane superstitioun in tymes tocum…..”
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