Abby, re: '...she'll be burnt and he'll be slain' I'm fairly sure I've heard MacColl suggest this had some force in law in Scotland at some point. Also I've a tape of a broadcast of his with a song "The [something] stool" where he talks talks about the power of the "kirk" over poor people's lives, although I'm not sure exactly when this was; the girl who, in MacColl's words, had "loved well rather than wisely" sings very approximately:

"so I must mount the [something] stool and ye must mount the pillar [something about this being the lot of the poor] because we have no silver"

G.