high way, upon the sea, or of dwelling houses,
letting out of ponds, cutting of purses, stealing of deer by night,
counterfeits of coin, evidences charters, and writings, and divers
other needless to be remembered. If a woman poison her husband, she is
burned alive; if the servant kill his master, he is to be executed for
petty treason; he that poisoneth a man is to be boiled to death in
water or lead, although the party die not of the practice; in cases of
murder, all the accessories are to suffer pains of death accordingly.
Perjury is punished by the pillory, burning in the forehead with the
letter P, the rewalting of the trees growing upon the grounds of the
offenders, and loss of all his movables. Many trespasses also are
punished by the cutting off of one or both ears from the head of the
offender, as the utterance of seditious words against the magistrates,
fraymakers, petty robbers, etc. Rogues are burned through the ears;
carriers of sheep out of the land, by the loss of their hands; such as
kill by poison are either boiled or scalded to death in lead or
seething water. Heretics are burned quick; harlots and their mates, by
carting, ducking, and doing of open penance in sheets in churches and
market steeds, are often put to rebuke. Howbeit, as this is counted
with some either as no punishment at all to speak of, or but little
regarded of the offenders, so I would with adultery and fornication to
have some sharper law. For what great smart is it to be turned out of
hot sheet into a cold, or after a little washing in the water to be
let loose again unto their former trades? Howbeit the dragging of some
of them over the Thames between Lambeth and Westminster at the tail of
a boat is a punishment that most terrifieth them which are condemned
thereto; but this is inflicted upon them by none other than the knight
marshall, and that within the compass of his jurisdiction and limits
only. Canutus was the first that gave authority to the clergy to
punish whoredom, who at that time found fault with the former laws as
being too severe in this behalf. For, before the time of the said
Canutus, the adulterer forfeited all his goods to the king and his
body to be at his pleasure; and the adulteress was to lose her eyes or
nose, or both if the case were more than common: whereby it appears of
what estimation marriage was amongst them, since the breakers of that
holy estate were so grievously rewarded. But afterward the clergy
d