In
spite of all these marvels, the favour which the great man for a time
enjoyed was fleet and transient. He fell into poverty and died in great
misery, his downfall being brought about partly by his works but mainly by
his practices.
Associated with Lancashire demonology is the name of John Darrell, a
cleric, afterwards preacher at St. Mary's, Nottingham, who published a
narrative of the strange and grievous vexation of the devil of seven
persons in Lancashire. This remarkable case occurred at Clayworth in the
parish of Leigh, in the family of one Nicholas Starkie, whose house was
turned into a perfect bedlam. It is vain to follow the account of the
vagaries of the possessed, the howlings and barkings, the scratchings of
holes for the familiars to get to them, the charms and magic circles of
the impostor and exorcist Hartley, and the godly ministrations of the
accomplished author, who with two other preachers overcame the evil
spirits.
Unfortunately for him, Harsnett, Bishop of Chichester, and afterwards
Archbishop of York, doubted the marvellous powers of the pious author, Dr.
Darrell, and had the audacity to suggest that he made a trade of casting
out devils, and even went so far as to declare that Darrell and the
possessed had arranged the matter between them, and that Darrell had
instructed them how they were to act in order to appear possessed. The
author was subsequently condemned as an impostor by the Queen's
commissioners, deposed from his ministry, and condemned to a long term of
imprisonment with further punishment to follow.
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