(Fornicatio, from the fornices in Rome, where the lewd women prostituted themselves for money), is whoredom, or the act of incontinency, between single persons; for if either of the parties is married, it is adultery. Formerly court-lears had power to inquire of and punish fornication and adultery; in which courts the king had a fine assessed on the offenders, as appears by the book of Domesday.

In the year 1650, when the ruling powers found it for their interest to put on the semblance of a very extraordinary strictness and purity of morals, not only incest and wilful adultery were made capital crimes, but also the repeated act of keeping a brothel, or committing fornication, were (upon a second conviction) made felony without benefit of clergy. But, at the restoration,