The Exorcism of John Darrell
The most well-known and widely-discussed cases of possession in England occurred in the last fifteen years of the 17th century and involved a Church of England minister of Puritan leanings named John Darrell. The chapter gives an account of the possession of the thirteen-year-old Thomas Darling, and this account is structured around the experience of voices. On his return home from a wood where he had got lost, Darling had begun to experience agues and distempered visions of green cats. Responding to suggestions that his malady might not be physical but demonic, Darling concocted a preposterous story about having met in the woods an old woman named Alice Gooderidge, who comes under local suspicion of being a witch. Thomas claims that Alice cursed him, because he accidentally broke wind in her presence.
Keywords: possession, England, John Darrell, voice, Thomas Darling, Alice Gooderidge, witch
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .