COMMISSION FOR THE VERGE. 91 



evil and outcast spirits, by conjuration and witch 

 craft. 



For perjury, it is hard to say whether it be more 

 odious to God, or pernicious to man ; for an oath, 

 saith the apostle, is the end of controversies : if 

 therefore that boundary of suits be taken away or 

 mis-set, where shall be the end ? Therefore you are 

 to inquire of wilful and corrupt perjury in any of 

 the king s courts, yea, of court-barons and the like, 

 and that as well of the actors, as of the procurer 

 and suborner. 



For witchcraft, by the former law it was not 

 death, except it were actual and gross invocation 

 of evil spirits, or making covenant with them, or 

 taking away life by witchcraft : but now by an act 

 in his majesty s times, charms and sorceries in cer 

 tain cases of procuring of unlawful love or bodily 

 hurt, and some others, are made felony the second 

 offence ; the first being imprisonment and pillory. 



And here I do conclude my first part concerning 

 religion and ecclesiastical causes : wherein it may be 

 thought that I do forget matters of supremacy, or of 

 Jesuits, and seminaries, and the like, which are 

 usually sorted with causes of religion : but I must 

 have leave to direct myself according to mine own 

 persuasion, which is, that, whatsoever hath been said 

 or written on the other side, all the late statutes, 

 which inflict capital punishment upon extollers of 

 the pope s supremacy, deniers of the king s supre 

 macy, Jesuits and seminaries, and other offenders of 

 that nature, have for their principal scope, not the 



