‘I prove this from holy writ, in the instance of Jehu: ‘Occident te sacerdotes et cultores Baal, ut habetur primo reg. ex. ubi sic dicitur, Jehu Acab parum coluit Baal, ego autem colam eum amplius. Et paululum post; porro Jehu licet incidiose ut disperdat cultores Baal, dicit, sanctificate diem solennem Baal, &c. et laudatur de hoc. Item de Athalia regina vidente filium suum mortuum surrexit, et interfecit omne semen regium, ut regnaret, et Joyadas summus sacerdos insidiose fecit eam occidi. Et de hoc laudatur ut superius tactum est ad longum. Item, Judith occidit Holofernem per insidias. Et etiam de hoc laudatur pater familias quod ad zizaniæ eradicationem non voluit expectare tempus messis ne triticum simul cum zizaniis eradicaretur, &c. Quod intelligitur in occisione tyrannorum per insidias sed et bonam cautelam et debet expectari loci et temporis opportunitas et expleri ne boni eradicentur,’ &c.
‘This is the proper death for tyrants: they ought to be slain by waylaying, or other means improper to be used toward good men; and for this reason, we are bound, in many instances, to preserve our faith to our capital enemy, but not to tyrants. As the reasons for this, urged by doctors, are common, and of some length, I shall pass them over.
‘AS TO WITCHCRAFT.
‘Eighthly, Any subject and vassal who shall imagine and practise against the health of his king and sovereign lord, to put him to death by a languishing disorder, through covetousness to gain his crown and kingdom,—any one who shall cause to be consecrated, or, more properly speaking, to be directed against him swords, daggers, knives, golden rods or rings, dedicated, by means of necromancy, to the devils, or shall make invocations with characters, sorceries, charms, after having thrust sharp instruments into the bodies of dead men hung on a gibbet, and then into the mouths of such malefactors, leaving them there for the space of several days, to the horror of all who detest these abominable practices; and, beside these arts, shall wear near their bodies a piece of cloth, containing the powder of some of the bones of malefactors, sewed up, or tied, with the hair from the secret parts: I say, such as shall commit any crimes similar to the above, are not only guilty of human high treason, in the first degree, but are disloyal traitors to God their Creator, and to their king.
‘As idolaters, and false to the catholic faith, they are worthy of the double death, here and in the world to come, even when such sorceries and witchcraft shall fail of their intended effect on the king’s person. ‘Quia dicit dominus Bonaventura, lib. ii. d. 6. Diabolus nunquam satisfacit voluntati talium, nisi antequam infidelitas idolatriæ immisceatur, sicut enim ad divina miracula plurimum facit fides, &c. Et ideo experiencia de effectu prædictarum superstitionum secuta in personam præfati regis probat clare ibi fuisse idolatriam et fidem perversam. Item diabolus nihil faceret ad voluntatem talium in tali casu nisi exhiberetur ei dominium quod multum affectat nec se exhibet ad tales invocationes ipsis invocantibus eum, nisi ipsum adorent et sacrificia et oblationes offerant, aut pacta cum ipsis dæmonibus faciant. Item, doctor sanctus secunda secundæ in xi. articulo secundo dicit quod tales invocationes nunquam sortiuntur effectum nisi fuerit falsa corruptio fidei idolatria et pactio cum dæmonibus. Ejusdem opinionis videtur esse Alexander de Hallis, Ricardus de Media-villa et Astensis in summa. Et communiter omnes doctores qui de hac materia locuti sunt, et sicut falsarii monetæ et pecuniarum regis,’ &c.
‘I thus perceive that all the doctors in theology agree in saying, that such sorceries, charms and witchcraft can only succeed by the work of the devil, or by his false means;—and that these sorceries, and suchlike superstitions, have not of themselves the power of hurting any one, but that the devils have the ability to injure any person so far only as shall be permitted them by God.
‘The devils will not do any thing for those that call on them, unless they perform three things, namely, pay them divine honour, which ought solely to be paid to God, by offering them homage and adoration, proving themselves false to the holy catholic faith,—and the doing of which makes them guilty of the crime of high treason.
‘Primum Corrolarium. Should it happen, that for the circumstances above stated, any of these invocators of the devil, idolaters, and traitors to the king, should be confined in prison, and that during the time that their process is carried to judgment, any accomplice of their crimes should deliver or cause them to be delivered from prison, he shall be punished just as these idolaters would have been, as guilty of the crime of high treason in the first and fourth degree.
‘Secundum Corrolarium. If any subject who shall give, or promise to give, a large sum of money to another for poisoning the king his sovereign lord, and the bargain be proven and the poisons laid, although they may fail to produce their effects, through the interference of the providence of God or other means,—those who have committed this crime are guilty of being traitors and disloyal to their sovereign, and shall suffer the double death for high treason in the first degree.
‘Tertium Corrolarium. Any subject who, by treachery and hypocrisy, shall during any mummeries, through malice aforethought, procure dresses for his king, and, having clothed him in such dresses, shall cause them to be set on fire, with the intent that the king his sovereign may be burnt in them, so that he may obtain his kingdom, commits high treason in the first degree, is a tyrant and disloyal to his king, and is deserving of the double death, even should his sovereign escape, for the noble and valiant persons who may have been burnt to death in exquisite pain through his means.