John Searle's treatment of declarations in his (1976) classification of speech acts is examined. Some acts that are classified as declarations by that theorist, especially certain ones relating to religious rituals and literary usage, do not fit the definition of that class and should be reclassified, either in another one of Searle's classes (representatives) or in a new class (spells). The declarations and representatives classes are studied and compared, and the classification of spells is introduced. The spells class provides distinctions necessary to the understanding of some important issues in European history and to the analysis of certain literary works. The speech acts in question include uses of "confess, excommunicate, and forgive." (MSE)