Puritan exorcism was the use of

exorcism Exorcism () is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons, jinns, or other malevolent spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be ...

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

ministers. The

demonology Demonology is the study of demons within religious belief and myth. Depending on context, it can refer to studies within theology, religious doctrine, or pseudoscience. In many faiths, it concerns the study of a hierarchy of demons. Demons may b ...

of Puritans was not unusual within the Early Modern demonology of

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

, but the use of ritual and prayer in exorcism was more distinctive. The

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

did not recognise the ritual of exorcism, while the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

commonly did so. Some radical Puritan ministers performed exorcisms; but some leading Puritan writers, such as William Perkins, opposed the ritual, while accepting the underlying theories, for example about

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...

. The term Protestant dispossession is also used, which allows for the differences from Catholic practice. There are a number of well-documented cases.

John Darrell John Darrell (born 1562 in or near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England, died after 1602) was an Anglican clergyman noted for his Puritan views and his practice as an exorcist, which led to imprisonment. Exorcist Darrell was a sizar of Queens' ...

had a career as an exorcist spanning about 15 years; others were Robert Balsom,

John Foxe John Foxe (1516/1517 – 18 April 1587), an English historian and martyrologist, was the author of '' Actes and Monuments'' (otherwise ''Foxe's Book of Martyrs''), telling of Christian martyrs throughout Western history, but particularly the su ...

, Edward Nyndge, and Richard Rothwell.

Cessationist view and its alternative

Orthodox for the Church of England, and more broadly for followers of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, was that the cessation of miracles after the apostolic times ruled out the resort to exorcism or casting out of devils. The ''

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

'' from 1552 made no mention of it. On the other hand, a general

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

pattern might be applied, of thoughtful investigation of an "affliction" attributed to God, prayer and

fasting Fasting is the abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (see " Breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after ...

, and a minister ultimately commanding a spirit to leave the afflicted person's body. This procedure was accepted by some who would reject completely Catholic priestly exorcism.

Use of fasting

Fasting became important in Puritanism exorcism, but was not present in earlier Elizabethan procedures.

exorcised Robert Briggs without fasting, and John Darrell initially did not use it. The exorcism in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

by its bishop

John Parkhurst John Parkhurst (c. 1512 – 2 February 1575) was an English Marian exile and from 1560 the Bishop of Norwich. Early life Born about 1512, he was son of George Parkhurst of Guildford, Surrey. He initially attended the Royal Grammar School, Guild ...

, in 1574, may have introduced a fast day in this context. It became a ''sine qua non'' of the Puritan approach to exorcism. When

Richard Bancroft Richard Bancroft (1544 – 2 November 1610) was an English churchman, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1604 to 1610 and "chief overseer" of the King James Bible. Life Bancroft was born in September 1544 at Farnworth, now part of Widnes, Che ...

as Bishop of London undertook to limit Puritanism, he had the cessationist view advanced against Darrell. In 1602 Puritan ministers who attempted an exorcism of Mary Glover were imprisoned. The new Canons of the Church of England of 1604 specified (Canon LXXII) that days of prayer and fasting for casting out of devils could be held only with the bishop's permission. The Canon did not put an end to Puritan belief in the efficacy of exorcism. On the other hand, it stamped out the public use of exorcism by clergy of the church, until the period of the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

Nonconformist Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to: Culture and society * Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior *Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity ** ...

s continued to use exorcism.

Notes

{{reflist Puritanism