re is some
overlapping of procedure implied by this, the confusion seems to have
been yet greater in actual practice. A brief narrative of some cases
prior to 1558 will illustrate the strangely unsettled state of
procedure. Pollock and Maitland relate several trials to be found in the
early pleas. In 1209 one woman accused another of sorcery in the king's
court and the defendant cleared herself by the ordeal. In 1279 a man
accused of killing a witch who assaulted him in his house was fined, but
only because he had fled away. Walter Langton, Bishop of Lichfield and
treasurer of Edward I, was accused of sorcery and homage to Satan and
cleared himself with the compurgators. In 1325 more than twenty men were
indicted and tried by the king's bench for murder by tormenting a waxen
image. All of them were acquitted. In 1371 there was brought before the
king's bench an inhabitant of Southwark who was charged with sorcery,
but he was finally discharged on swearing that he would never be a
sorcerer.[6]

It will be observed that these early cases were all of them tried in the
secular courts; but there is no reason to doubt that the ecclesiastical
courts were quite as active, and their zeal must have been quickened by
the statute of 1401, which in cases of heresy made the lay power their
executioner. It was at nearly the same time, however, that the charge of
sorcery began to be frequently used as a political weapon. In such
cases, of course, the accused was usually a person of influence and the
matter was tried in the council. It will be seen, then, that the crime
was one that might fall either under ecclesiastical or conciliar
jurisdiction and the particular circumstances usually determined finally
the jurisdiction. When Henry IV was informed that the diocese of Lincoln
was full of sorcerers, magicians, enchanters, necromancers, diviners,
and soothsayers, he sent a letter to the bishop requiring him to search
for sorcerers and to commit them to prison after conviction, or even
before, if it should seem expedient.[7] This was entrusting the matter
to the church, but the order was given by authority of the king, not
improbably after the matter had been discussed in the council. In the
reign of Henry VI conciliar and ecclesiastical authorities both took
part at different times and in different ways. Thomas Northfield, a
member of the Order of Preachers in Worcester and a professor of
divinity, was brought before the council, togethe