458 SORCERY AND OCCULT ARTS. who was burned impenitent. Some others involved in the accu- sation likewise perished at the stake, while some were permitted to abjure and were punished with crosses — probably the only occa- sion in which this penance was administered in the British Isles.* While Bishop Ledrede was busy at this good work a trial oc- curred in England which illustrates the difference in efficiency between the ecclesiastical methods of trial by torture and those of the common law. Twenty-eight persons were accused of employ- ing John of Xottingham and his assistant, Bichard Marshall of Leicester, to make wax figures for the destruction of Edward II., the two Despensers, and the Prior of Coventry, with two of his officials who had tyrannized over the people and had been sus- tained by the royal favorites. Bichard Marshall turned accuser, and the evidence was complete. The enormous sums of twenty pounds to Master John and fifteen pounds to Bichard had been promised, and they had been furnished with seven pounds of wax and two ells of canvas. From September 27, 1324, until June 2, 1325, the two magicians labored at their work. They made seven images, the extra one being experimental, to be tried on Bichard de Sowe. On April 27 they commenced operating with this by thrusting a piece of lead into its forehead, when at once Bichard de Sowe lost his reason and cried in misery until May 20, when the lead was transferred to his breast, and he died May 23. The ac- cused pleaded not guilty and put themselves on the country. An ordinary jury trial followed, with the result that they w T ere all acquitted. A similar case came to light at Toulouse in June, 1326, when some sorcerers were discovered who had undertaken to make way with King Charles le Bel by means of figurines. They were promptly despatched to Paris, and the matter was taken in hand by the secular court of the Chatelet. It had all the re- sources of torture at its command, and its speedy and vigorous justice undoubtedly soon consigned them to the stake, although Pierre de Vic, a favored nephew of John XXII., who had been inculpated in their confessions, was pronounced innocent. It was probably not long after this that a similar attempt was made on the life of John XXIL, though the culprits escaped until 1337, wmen
- Wright's Contemporary Narrative of the Proceedings against Dame Alice
Kyteler, Camden Soc, 1843.
