woman to death and indicted another for
witchcraft, the Lord Warden interfered with a question as to their
power.[46] The town, after some correspondence, gave way and both women
were pardoned. This was, however, the only instance of disputed
jurisdiction. The local powers in King's Lynn hanged a witch without
interference,[47] and the vicar-general of the Bishop of Durham
proceeded against a "common charmer"[48] with impunity, as of course he
had every right to do.

There is, in fact, a shred of evidence to show that the memory of
ecclesiastical jurisdiction had not been lost. In the North Riding of
Yorkshire the quarter sessions sentenced Ralph Milner for "sorcerie,
witchcraft, inchantment and telling of fortunes" to confess his fault at
divine service, "that he hath heighlie offended God and deluded men, and
is heartily sorie."[49] There is nothing, of course, in the statute to
authorize this form of punishment, and it is only accounted for as a
reversion to the original ecclesiastical penalty for a crime that seemed
to belong in church courts.

What we call nowadays mob law had not yet made its appearance--that is,
in connection with witchcraft. We shall see plenty of it when we come to
the early part of the eighteenth century. But there was in 1613 one
significant instance of independence of any jurisdiction, secular or
ecclesiastical. In the famous case at Bedford, Master Enger, whom we
have met before, had been "damnified" in his property to the round sum
of L200. He was at length persuaded that Mother Sutton was to blame.
Without any authority whatsoever he brought her forcibly to his house
and caused her to be scratched.[50] Not only so, but he threw the woman
and her daughter, tied and bound, into his mill-pond to prove their
guilt.[51] In the mean time the wretched creatures had been stripped of
their clothes and examined for marks, under whose oversight we are not
told, but Master Enger was responsible. He should have suffered for all
this, but there is no record of his having done so. On the contrary he
carried the prosecution of the women to a successful issue and saw them
both hanged.

We now turn to the question of the distribution of witchcraft in the
realm during James's reign. From the incidental references already
given, it will be evident that the trials were distributed over a wide
area. In number executed, Lancashire led with ten, Leicester had nine,
Northampton five or more, Middlesex four,[5