120 LIVES OF THE PURITANS.' " Any one," says he, " who considers the state of the town of Nottingham, will applaud the proceedings of the high commission." Then, in the words of Mr. Strype, he gives an account of the state of the town, as if Mr. Darrell had prompted the people to quarrel one with another ; or, as if his deprivation and severe imprisonment were likely to allay the difference. "By this time," says be, 44 it came to pass, that the people of Nottingham were become violent against one . another, and the whole town divided as they stood affected. The pulpits rang of nothing but devils and witches ; and men, women, and children, were so affrighted, that they durst not stir out in the night ; nor so much as a servant, almost, go into his master's cellar about his business, without company. Few happened tobe sick, or ill at ease, but strait they were deemed to be possessed. It was high time," adds the learned prelate, 44 to put a stop to this practice of dispossessing, whether the authors were knaves, .or enthusiasts, or both. "* And could neither the Bishop of Worcester, nor yet the high commissioners at Lambeth, think of a more equitable method of punishing the con- tentious inhabitants of Nottingham, than by inflicting so heavy a sentence upon Mr. Darrell ? But Mr. Darrell was a puritan ; therefore, right or wrong, he must needs be punished. Somers and Darling were also brought before the high commission. During their examinations, though the former returned to his accusation of Mr. Darrell, declaring that he himself had, in what he had done, been guilty of dis- simulation, the latter stood firm ; and, notwithstanding the entreaties, threatenings, and fair promises of the archbishop and others, he could not be prevailed upon to accuse him, but maintained to the last, that the evil spirit had been cast out of him. It does not appear, however, that either of them werecast into prison.+ The prosecution of Mr. Darrell led to a new controversy, when Mr. Harsnet, chaplain to Bishop Bancroft, and afterwards Archbishop of York, published a work, entitled, " A Discovery of the fraudulent practices of John Darrell, Batchelor of Arts, in his proceedings concerning the_pre- tended possession and dispossession of William Somers of Nottingham : of Thomas Darling, the boy of Burton at Caldwall and of Katherine Wright at Mansfield and Whittington : and of his dealings with one Mary Couper Vindication of the Church, p. 360. t Clark's Lives annexed to Martyrologie, p. 32.
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