amendments that were inserted in the act of repeal, 18 and it is not impossible

that they were opposed to repealing the act against witchcraft. Certainly there
is no reason to suppose that the church was resisting the encroachment of the s
tate in the subject. As a matter of fact it is probable that, in the general qu
estion of repeal of felonies, the question of witchcraft received scant attentio
n.
There is indeed an interesting story that seems to point in that direction and t
hat deserves repeating also as an illustration of the protectors attitude toward
s the question.
Edward Underhill gives the narrative in his autobiography: When we hade dyned,
the maior sentt to two off his offycers with me to seke Alene whome we mett
withalle in Poles, and toke hym with us unto his chamber, wheare we founde fygur
es
sett to calke the nativetie off the kynge, and a jugementt gevyne off his deathe
,
wheroff the folyshe wreohe thoughte hymselfe so sure thatt he and his conselars
the papistes bruted it all over. The
kynge laye att Hamtone courte the same tyme, and me lord protector at the Syone
unto whome I caryed this Alen, with his boke
off conejuracyons, cearkles, and many thynges beloungynge to thatt dyvlyshe art,
whiche he affyrmed before me lorde was a lawfulle
cyens science, for the stature agaynst souche was repealed. Thow folyshe knave
sayde me lorde yff thou and all thatt be off thy
cyens telle me what i shalle do to-morow, I wylle geve the alle thatt I hsbr com
maundynge me to
cary hym unto the Tower Alen was examined about his science and it was discovere
d that he
was a very unlearned asse, and a sorcerer, for the whiche he was worthye hangyng
e, sayde
MrRecorde. He was however kept in the Tower about the space off a yere, and the
n by frendshipe delyvered. So scapithe alwayes the weked 19 But the wicked were
not long to escape. The beginning of Elizabeths reign saw a serious and success
ful effort to put on the statute-book definite and
severe penalties for conjuration, sorcery, witchcraft, and related crimes. The
question was taken up in the very first year of the new reign and a bill was
draughtes 20 It was not, however, until 1563 that the statute was finally passed
. It was then enacted that those who shall use, practise, or
exercise any Witchecrafte, Enchantment, Charme or Sorcerie, whereby any person s
hall happen
to be killed or destroyed, their Concellors and Aidours, shall suffer payness of
Death as a
Felon or Felons. It was further declared that those by whose practices any pers
on was wasted,
consumed, or lamed, should suffer for the first offence one years imprisonment a
nd should be put
in the pillory four times. For the second offence death was the penalty. It wa
s further
provided that those who by witchcraft presumed to discover Chapter VIII 24 treas
ure or to
find stolen property or to provoke any person to unlawfull love should suffer a
years
imprisonment and four appearances in the pillory. With this law the history of
the
prosecution of witchcraft in England as a secular crime may well begin. The que
stion
naturally arises, What was the occasion of this law How did it happen that just
at this
particular time so drastic a measure was passed and put into operation. Fortuna
tely part of the
evidence exists upon which to frame an answer. The English churchmen who had be
en driven out
of England during the Marian persecution had many of them sojourned in Zuric and
Geneva, where
the extirpation of witches was in full progress, and had talked over the matter
with eminent.
Continental theologians. With the accession of Elizabeth these men retunred to
England in
force and became prominent in church and state, many of them receiving bishopric
s. It is
not possible to show that they all were influential in putting through the statu
te of the fifth
year of Elizabeth. It is clear that one of them spoke out plainly on the subjec
t. It can
hardly be doubted that he represented the opinions of many other ecclesiastics w
ho had
come under the same influences during their exile 21. John Jewel was an Anglica
n of Calvinistic
sympathies who on his return to Englant at Elizabeths accession had been appoint
ed Bishop
of Salisbury. Within a short time he came to occupy a prominent position in the
court. He
preached before the Queen and accompanied her on a visit to Oxford. It was in t
he course of
one of his first sermons-somewhere between November of 1559 and March of 156022-
- that he laid
before her his conviotions on witchcraft. It is, he tells her, the horrible usi
ng of your poor
subjects, that forces him to speak. This kind of people I mean witches and sorc
erers within
these few last years are marvellously increased within this your graces realm.
These
eyes have seen most evident and manifest marks of their wickedness. Four graces
subjects
pine away even unto death, their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speec
h is benumed, their
senses are befeft. Wherefore, your poor subjects most humble petition unto your
highnessis,
that the laws touching such melefactors may be put in due execution. The church
historian,
Strype, conjectures that this sermon was the cause of the law passed in the fift
h year of
Elizabeths reign, by which witchcraft was again made a felony, as it had been in
the reign
if Henry VIII 23. Whatever weight we may attach to Strypes suggestion, we have
every right to
believe that Jewel introduced foreign opinior on witchcraft. Very probably ther
e were many
returned exiles as well as others who brought back word of the crusad on the Con
tinent but Jewels
words put the matter formally before the queen and here government 24 We can tra
ce the effect
of the ecclesiastics appeal still further. The impression produced by it was re
sposible
probably not only for the passage of the law but also for the issue of commissio
n to the justice
of the peace to apprehend all the witches they were able to find in their