John Darrell (born 1562 in or near
Mansfield
Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market town ...
,
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The tradit ...
, England, died after 1602) was an Anglican clergyman noted for his
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
views and his practice as an
exorcist
In some religions, an exorcist (from the Greek „ἐξορκιστής“) is a person who is believed to be able to cast out the devil or performs the ridding of demons or other supernatural beings who are alleged to have possessed a person, ...
, which led to imprisonment.
Exorcist
Darrell was a
sizar
At Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is an undergraduate who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in return for doing a defined j ...
of
Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light sid ...
. In 1586 he exorcised a girl in Derbyshire, and published an account of his work. In 1596–1597 he conducted further exorcisms, mainly at
St Mary's Church, Nottingham
The Church of St Mary the Virgin is the oldest parish churchDomesday Book: A Complete Translation (Penguin Classics) of Nottingham, in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest church after the Cathedral in the city of Nottingham. The church ...
, where he was appointed curate by
Robert Aldridge, but also in
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
, where with others he exorcised demons from seven members of the household of Nicholas Starkey in
Tyldesley
Tyldesley () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it is north of Chat Moss near the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, southeast of Wig ...
on 17 and 18 March 1597,
and in
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked Counties of England, county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwicks ...
. Many were sceptical about these cases, especially when Darrell claimed he knew of 13 witches in the town.
Prosecution
Because of the intense public interest and the fierce arguments in Nottingham,
John Whitgift
John Whitgift (c. 1530 – 29 February 1604) was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death. Noted for his hospitality, he was somewhat ostentatious in his habits, sometimes visiting Canterbury and other towns attended by a retinue of 8 ...
,
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Jus ...
, ordered an investigation. As a result, Darrell was accused of fraudulent exorcism. The prosecutor was
Samuel Harsnett
Samuel Harsnett (or Harsnet) (June 1561 – May 1631), born Samuel Halsnoth, was an English writer on religion and Archbishop of York from 1629.
Early life
Born in St Botolph's parish, Colchester, Essex, the son of William Halsnoth, a baker, ...
, who was to end his career as
Archbishop of York
The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...
. Harsnett's views about Darrell were published in ''A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures'' in 1603.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
read it, and ''
King Lear
''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare.
It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane an ...
'' contains the names of devils, like Flibbertigibbet and Smulkin, taken from Darrell's book. Darrell himself maintained that there was no fraud in his activities. What he wanted to prove was that Puritans were as capable as Roman Catholics in the matter of dispossessing evil spirits.
Darrell was deprived of holy orders and sent to prison, but released in 1599.
See also
*
Puritan exorcism
References
Further reading
*
Benjamin Brook, ''The lives of the Puritans: containing a biographical account of those divines who distinguished themselves in the cause of religious liberty, from the reformation under Queen Elizabeth, to the Act of uniformity in 1662, Volume 2'', J. Black, 1813, pp. 117–122.
[Brook, B. (Benjamin). (1813)]
The lives of the Puritans
containing a biographical account of those divines who distinguished themselves in the cause of religious liberty, from the reformation under Queen Elizabeth, to the Act of uniformity in 1662. London: Printed for J. Black.
*Marion Gibson, ''Possession, Puritanism and Print: Darrell, Harsnett, Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Exorcism Controversy'', London: Pickering and Chatto, 2006,
*Peter Lake and Michael C. Questier, ''Conformity and orthodoxy in the English church 1560-1660'', Boydell & Brewer, 2000, , chap.2
*
Diane Purkiss, ''The witch in history: early modern and twentieth-century representations'', Routledge, 1996, , p. 189
*Corinne Holt Sawyer (1962)
''The case of John Darrell. Minister and Exorcist'' University of Florida Press.
*J. A. Sharpe, ''The bewitching of Anne Gunter: a horrible and true story of deception, witchcraft, murder, and the King of England'', Taylor & Francis, 2000, , p. 148
*
Keith Thomas, ''Religion and the Decline of Magic'' (Penguin Books: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1973
971
Year 971 ( CMLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* Battle of Dorostolon: A Byzantine expeditionary army (possibly 30–40,000 men) ...
, pp. 576–580 and passim
*Brendan C. Walsh, ''The English Exorcist: John Darrell and the Shaping of Early Modern English Protestant Demonology'', New York; NY: Routledge, 2021,
1562 births
Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge
Year of death missing
16th-century English Puritan ministers
British exorcists
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