Witchcraft

Under 33 Hen. VIII. c. 8 appointed magistrates, and regulated the coin and 1 Jac. I. c. 12, the offence of witchcraft, of the kingdom. It also provided for levying or supposed intercourse with evil spirits, was upon the people all such sums as the public punishable with death. These acts were not necessities required; and no property of a repealed till 1736. 4 Bla. Com. 60. freeman was, in fact, taxable without the A charge to a jury was upheld that, if consent of the gemote. Bede, lib. 2, c. 5; the accused believed in witchcraft founded 3 Turner, Angl. Sax. 209; 1 Dugdale, Mon. on the belief that the Scriptures taught it 20; Sax. Chron. 126, 140. and, that if, as a result of such belief, The deliberations of their body had great he considered he had a right to kill one ac- weight; all important actions, such as lawcused of causing deaths among his people, making, were done by their advice; but they though he knew such killing was contrary to could not and did not pretend to do without human law, it was not an insane delusion; the consent of the freeholders when a capital Hotema v. U. S., 186 U. S. 419, 22 Sup. Ct. decision — such as the voting of a tax, the 895, 46 L. Ed. 1225. election of a king, the passing of a law — was in question. At first the king of the Eng-

The practices of a witch: a woman (formerly, a man or a woman) supposed to be able to affect the happiness and destiny of other persons by the exercise of supernatural power acquired from intercourse with evil spirits; conjuration; sorcery; enchantment. "A species of offense,"' says Blackstone, "against God and religion, of which one knows not well what account to give, is witchcraft, conjuration, enchqjit- 309-10 (1888); Hatcher v. Hatcher, 80 Va. 171 (1885), cases; BO Mich. «0; 74Me.413; 100 Pa. 481; 102 id. 247; 16 S. C. 227; 17 id. 348. As to testamentary capacity, in addition to the references to "influence" and "insanity" (ad fin.), see 34 Alb. Law J. 4-7 (1886), cases; 4 Law Quar. Rev. 412-48 (1888), Eng. cases; formalities as to execution, 34 Alb. Law J. 486-88(1886), cases; execution, authentication, and construction, 28 Cent. Law J. 161-56 (1880), cases; implied revocation of, ib. 387-91 (1888), oases; costs in contested cases, 18 id. 83-86 (1884), cases; lost wills, 39 Alb. Law J. 44-47, 64-67 (1888), cases; distribution of assets in cases of erroneous construction, 23 id. 588 (1886)

— Irish Law Times. ' A. S. witan, to know: L. vid-, to see. Whence *' witness." 2 See Commonwealth v. Grey, 2 Gray, 502 (1854). ment or sorcery. The thing is a truth to which every nation hath borne testimony, by examples seemingly well attested or by prohibitory laws." The civil law punished with death sorcerers and those who consulted with them, imitating the Mosaic law " Thou Shalt not suffer a witch to live " [by her craft?] Our own [English] laws have been equally penal, condemning culprits to the flames. Statute '6Z Henry VIII (1548), u. 8, made witchcraft and sorcery felony without benefit of clergy; and 1 James I (1603), c. 12, enacted that persons invoking any evil spirit, or consulting, covenanting with, entertaining, employing, feeding, or rewarding any evil spirit, or hurting any person by such internal arts, should be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy, and suffer death; and that if any person attempted by sorcery to discover hidden treasure, to restore hidden goods, to provoke unlawful love, or to hurt any man or beast, he or she should suffer imprisonment and pillory for the first offense, and death for the second. Not a few of those executed under these laws confessed guilt at the gallows. Louis XIV of France forbade the courts to receive informations of witchcraft. Statute 9 Geo. HI (1769), c. 5, disallowed prosecutions for conjuration, witchcraft, sorcery, or enchantment. But pretending to use witchcraft, tell fortunes, or discover stolen goods, by skill in the occult sciences, is still a punishable misdemeanor in England,' and in the States.