rl was bled to death
without trial, and his death was followed by the burning of
twelve witches, and four wizards, at Edinburgh. Lady Glammis,
sister of the Earl of Angus, of the family of Douglas, accused of
conspiring the king's death in a similar way, was put to death in
1537. As in England, in the cases of the Duchess of Gloucester
and others, the crime appears to be rather an adjunct than the
principal charge itself; more political than popular. Protestant
Scotland it is that has earned the reputation of being one of the
most superstitious countries in Europe.

In 1541 two Acts of Parliament were passed in England--the first
interference of Parliament in this kingdom--against false
prophecies, conjurations, witchcraft, sorcery, pulling down
crosses; crimes made felony without benefit of clergy. Both the
last article in the list and the period (a few years after the
separation from the Catholic world) appear to indicate the causes
in operation. Lord Hungerford had recently been beheaded by the
suspicious tyranny of Henry VIII., for consulting his death by
conjuration. The preamble to the statute has these words: 'The
persons that had done these things, had dug up and pulled down an
infinite number of crosses.'[96] The new head of the English
Church, if he found his interest in assuming himself the
spiritual supremacy, was, like a true despot, averse to any
further revolution than was necessary to his purposes. Some
superstitious regrets too for the old establishment which, by a
fortunate caprice, he abandoned and afterwards plundered, may
have urged the tyrant, who persecuted the Catholics for
questioning his supremacy, to burn the enemies of
transubstantiation. Shortly before this enactment, eight persons
had been hanged at Tyburn, not so much for sorcery as for a
disagreeable prophecy. Elizabeth Barton, the principal, had been
instigated to pronounce as revelation, that if the king went on
in the divorce and married another wife, he should not be king a
month longer, and in the estimation of Almighty God not one hour
longer, but should die a villain's death. The Maid of Kent, with
her accomplices--Richard Martin, parson of the parish of
Aldington; Dr. Bocking, canon of Christ Church, Canterbury;
Deering; Henry Gold, a parson in London; Hugh Rich, a friar, and
others--was brought before the Star Chamber, and adjudged to
stand in St. Paul's during sermon-time; the majority being
afterwards executed. In Cranmer's