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Demon Possession in Anglo-Saxon and Early Modern England: Continuity and Evolution in Social Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2012

Richard Raiswell  and
Peter Dendle
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Journal of British Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , October 2008 , pp. 738 - 767
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Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 2008

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References

1 Anon., Vita Cuthberti, in Two Lives of Saint Cuthbert, ed. Bertram Colgrave (New York, 1969), 4.15. All translations are those of the authors.

2 “Examinat[i]o … Attorn[atus] gen[er]alis quer[ens] v[e]r[su]s Tho[mas] Saunders et Kathere[n] Malpas senior def[endan]tes,” The National Archives (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), Star Chamber (STAC) 8 32/13, fol. 1v.

3 We use “possession” to denote the experience of an individual; possession is the general explanatory category against which the behavior of an individual is evaluated in order to constitute a diagnosis.

4 For instance, Rosenberg, Charles E., “Introduction; Framing Disease: Illness, Society, and History,” in Framing Disease: Studies in Cultural History, ed. Rosenberg, Charles E. and Golden, Janet (New Brunswick, NJ, 1992), xiii–xixGoogle Scholar.

5 The most important of these is Sharpe, James, Bewitching of Anne Gunter (New York, 2001)Google Scholar. But see also Raiswell, Richard, “Faking It: A Case of Counterfeit Possession in the Reign of James I,” Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme 23, no. 3 (Summer 1999): 29–48Google Scholar.

6 Grattan, J. H. G. and Singer, Charles, Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine (Oxford, 1952), 152Google Scholar. The identification of stiðe is unclear. It might be nettle. “On-flyer” is perhaps some infectious disease.

7 Ibid., 174.

8 Ibid., 136.

9 Capernaum demoniac: Luke 4:35; rebukes fever: Luke 4:39; rebukes wind: Mark 4:39. Graham Twelftree notes that Luke here seems to be embellishing Mark's narrative, which has no such direct rebuke: “He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.” Mark 1:13; Twelftree, Graham, Jesus the Exorcist (Peabody, MA, 1993), 138Google Scholar; see also Klutz, Todd, The Exorcism Stories in Luke-Acts: A Sociostylistic Reading (Cambridge, 2004), 75–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 For these, see Finucane, Ronald, Miracles and Pilgrims: Popular Beliefs in Medieval England (1977; repr., London, 1995)Google Scholar.

11 Isidore, Etymologies 8.11 (in Jacques-Paul Migne, ed., Patrologia Latina [Paris, 1850], 82, col. 316A).

12 Ælfric's Lives of Saints, vol. 1, ed. Walter Skeat (London, 1881), 158, 476.

13 Anon., Vita Cuthberti, 2.8.

14 Ibid.

15 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969), 3.11.

16 Ibid.

17 Ripon, Stephen of, Vita Wilfridi, ed. Bertram Colgrave (Cambridge, 1927), chap. 39Google Scholar.

18 Crowland, Felix of, Vita Guthlaci, in Felix's Life of Saint Guthlac, ed. Colgrave, Bertram (Cambridge, 1956), chap. 41Google Scholar.

19 Anon., Vita Cuthberti, 4.15.

20 Ibid.

21 For Luke 8:30: Bede, In Lucae Evangelium expositio, in Migne, Patrologia Latina, 92, col. 438B.

22 Anon., Vita Cuthberti, 4.15.

23 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, 3.11.

24 Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People: A Historical Commentary (Oxford, 1988), xxx, 104Google Scholar.

25 See Blair, John, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society (Oxford, 2005), esp. 10–34Google Scholar.

26 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, 4.27.

27 Bede, Epistola ad Ecgbertum Episcopum, in Venerabilis Baedae Opera Historica, vol. 1, ed. Charles Plummer (Oxford, 1896), 140.

28 Bede, In Lucae Evangelium expositio, 92, col. 438B.

29 Bede, Vita Cuthberti, chap. 15, in Colgrave, Two Lives.

30 Boniface, Letter 73, in Die Briefe des Heiligen Bonifatius und Lullus, ed. Michael Tangl, in Monumenta Germaniae historica, Epistolae Selectae 1 (Berlin, 1955), 153.

31 Jolly, Karen L., Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Charms in Context (Chapel Hill, NC, 1996), 39Google Scholar.

32 See Meaney, Audrey L., “‘And we forbeodað eornostlice ælcne hæðenscipe’: Wulfstan and Late Anglo-Saxon and North ‘Heathenism,’” in Wulfstan, Archbishop of York: The Proceedings of the Second Alcuin Conference, ed. Townend, Matthew (Turnhout, 2004), 461–500CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33 Alfred, Introduction, sec. 30, in Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. 1, ed. F. Liebermann (1903; repr., Aalen, 1960), 38.

34 That is, wiccan oððe wigleras. See Anthony Davies, “Witches in Anglo-Saxon England: Five Case Histories,” in Superstition and Popular Medicine in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. D. G. Scragg (Manchester, 1989), 41–56, at 41.

35 Old English Penitential, in Die Altenglische Version des Halitgar’schen Bussbuches, ed. Josef Raith (1933; repr., Darmstadt, 1964), 4.16.

36 Old English Penitential, 4.14; Maxims II, in The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems, vol. 6 of The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, ed. Elliott van Kirk Dobbie (New York, 1942), lines 43–45.

37 Audrey L. Meaney, “Ælfric and Idolatry,” Journal of Religious History 13 (1984): 119–35, 123.

38 Ibid., 135.

39 Thomas Oswald Cockayne, Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, vol. 2 (London, 1865), 307.

40 Thus, Jolly notes that “the gap between liturgical books and medical books was so small that they belong together as a single, larger group of manuals for health and well-being, along with penitentials” (Popular Religion, 114).

41 Cockayne, Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft, 2:348.

42 Ibid., 345–51.

43 Original text in Peter Clemoes, Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: The First Series Text, Early English Text Society, Supplementary Series no. 17 (Oxford, 1997), 450. Ælfric's source here is actually Caesarius of Arles’ sermons (esp. 50 and 54).

44 Gifford, George, Dialogue concerning Witches and Witchcraftes (London, 1593), sig. F3vGoogle Scholar.

45 Deacon, John and Walker, John, Dialogicall Discourses of Spirits and Divels (London, 1601), 199–200Google Scholar.

46 Johnstone, Nathan, The Devil and Demonism in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2006), 27–106CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

47 Ibid., 102–6.

48 See, for instance, Walker, D. P., Unclean Spirits: Possession and Exorcism in France and England in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries (Philadelphia, 1981), 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 Quintilian, Institutio oratoria, ed. H. E. Butler (London, 1966–69), VIII, iii, 70.

50 For a particularly egregious example, albeit a hostile one, of how this process worked in practice, see Samuel Harsnett's description of the redaction of Anon., The most wonderfull and true storie, of a certaine Witch named Alse Gooderige (London, 1597), in S[amuel] H[arsnett], A Discovery of the Fraudulent Practises of John Darrel (London, 1599), 266–69. Likewise, A true and most Dreadfull discourse of a woman possessed with the Devill (London, [1584]) and Most Fearefull and Strange Newes from the Bishippricke of Durham (London, 1641). The latter pamphlet reproduces all the salient details of the narrative of the former, although it changes the name of the demoniac from Margaret Cooper to Margaret Hooper and shifts the action from Somerset to Durham. Although the latter pamphlet claims to be news and lists the names of six credible witnesses prepared to attest to the veracity of the events therein recounted, the narrative is clearly set in the wonder-prodigy tradition, for it advises the reader, “Let not this which is here declared seeme a fained fable unto thee, but assure thy selfe that all such things are sent as warnings for our wickednesse, and to put us in mind of the Seate of our salvation” (sig. A2). In this sense, it is clear that the historicity of the account is less important than the lessons it purports to teach.

51 Harsnett reproduces the confessions of William Sommers, Thomas Darling, and Katherine Wright, along with the testimony of various witnesses who claimed to see these demoniacs enact their fits and trances, in H[arsnett], Discovery, 80–82, 83–86, 294–96, 297–98. His Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (London, 1603) concludes with an extended appendix in which he reproduces the confessions of many of the people involved in the apparent possession of a number of youths in Denham in 1585. These he “set downe word for word as they were taken upon oath before her Maiesties Commission for causes Ecclesiaticall.” See Harsnett, Declaration, 172, 173–284. Where possible, Harsnett's opponents did the same. See Anon., A Breife Narration of the possession, dispossession, and, repossession of William Sommers (London, 1598), sigs. Ciii–Dii. The reproduction of documents was a standard feature of ecclesiastical history, dating back to Eusebius in the fourth century. To Harsnett and his peers, it was a rhetorical strategy used most recently and to great effect by John Foxe in his Acts and Monuments (London, 1563).

52 See Jonson, Ben, Volpone; or, The Foxe (London, 1607), 5.10; cf. his The Devell is an Asse (London, 1641), 5.8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

53 Jonson, Volpone, 5.10.

54 Jonson, Devell, 5.8.

55 For a detailed analysis of the extrascriptural symptoms of various sixteenth-century demoniacs, see Raiswell, “Faking It,” 32–34; and Almond, Philip, Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2004), 26–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 More, George, A True Discourse concerning the Certaine Possession and Dispossessio[n] of 7 Persons (London, 1600), 42–47Google Scholar.

57 See H[arsnett], Discovery, 33.

58 Anon., Breife Narration, sigs. Biii–Biiiv.

59 A particularly telling example of this concerns the possession of Helen Fairfax, who claimed to have seen a vision of God in the course of one of her fits. At this, her family tried to convince her that what she had seen was actually an illusion of the devil. Accordingly, when the same vision recurred four days later, horns obligingly sprouted from the figure's head. Fairfax, E., Daemonologia, ed. Grainge, W. (Harrogate, 1882), 62–64Google Scholar. As Johnstone argues in the context of the experiential demonism of the godly, the notion of a personal communication from God was far more problematic than special attention from the devil. Johnstone, Devil and Demonism, 140.

60 Gifford, Dialogue, sig. G4.

61 Deacon and Walker, Dialogicall Discourses, sigs. A2, A8v.

62 H[arsnett], Discovery, 119.

63 Ibid., 97. Sommers was clearly literate. See ibid., 81, 82, 87.

64 Ibid., 97.

65 “To the kinges moste excellent Ma[jes]ty,” TNA: PRO, STAC 8 4/10, fol. 75. Among the other books seems to have been an account of the youths reputedly possessed at Denham in 1585. See “INTERROGATORIES to be ministered unto Brian Gunter,” TNA: PRO, STAC 8 4/10, fol. 75. Sharpe notes that Brian Gunter also obtained a copy of one of the many accounts of Darrel's activities. Sharpe, Anne Gunter, 7, 62.

66 Sharpe, James, Witchcraft in Early Modern England (Harlow, 2001), 41–42Google Scholar.

67 The distinctions are Scot’s. See Scot, Reginald, The Discoverie of witchcraft (London, 1584), 472Google Scholar.

68 See Bernard, Richard, A Guide to Grand Jury Men (London, 1627), 53Google Scholar.

69 See Boy of Bilson (London, 1622), 31.

70 Disclosing of a Late Counterfeyted Possession (London, 1574), sig. B1v.

71 Harsnett, Declaration, 224.

72 Ibid., 154.

73 John Darrel provides a full list of these in his A Detection of that Sinnful, Shamful, Lying, and Ridiculous Discours, of Samuel Harshnet (London, 1600), 109–10.

74 H[arsnett], Discovery, 102, 141–42.

75 “The ioynt and severall annsweres of Thomas Saunders [and] Katherine Malpas thelder,” TNA: PRO, STAC 8 32/13, fol. 16.

76 Ibid. Cf. “Examinat[i]o … Attornat[us],” STAC 8 32/13, fol. 12 and “The severall answeres of Elizabeth Sanders,” STAC 8 32/13, fol. 17. See also Raiswell, “Faking It,” 42–45.

77 The most wonderfull and true storie, 5.

78 Ibid., 6.

79 The most strange and admirable discoverie of the three Witches of Warboys (London, 1593), sigs. E2–E2v.

80 See Gifford, George, Discourse of the subtill Practices of Devilles by Witches (London, 1587)Google Scholar, sigs. G4–G4v; cf. Alan Macfarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England (New York, 1970), 168–76.

81 Triall of Maist[er] Dorrell (London, 1599), 92.

82 Anon., A Tryal of Witches at the Assizes held at Bury St. Edmunds (London, 1682), 16.

83 Macfarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England, 174.

84 See, e.g., Gifford, Dialogue, 20–21.

85 See The most wonderfull and true storie, 4, 7.

86 Sharpe, Anne Gunter, 48, 52, 192. See also “The severall Annsweres of Brian Gunter gent[leman] one of the defend[an]tes to the Informat[i]on of Sir Edward Coke knight the kinges Ma[jes]tes Atturney gen[er]all,” TNA: PRO, STAC 8 4/10, fol. 74.

87 Gifford, Dialogue, sig. A4v.

88 Ibid.

89 Bernard, Guide to Grand Jury Men, 39.

90 See Witches of Warboys, sig. N4v .

91 Ibid., sigs. H1v–H2.

92 Ibid., sig. N4.

93 Ibid., sig. I4v.

94 Ibid., sig. N4.

95 Ibid., sig. O4.

96 See More, True Discourse, 21.

97 Ibid., 22.

98 The idea of dispossession through prayer and fasting is based upon Matthew 17:21 and Mark 9:39.

99 Triall of Maist[er] Dorrell, 84.

100 This procedure was still employed as late as 1665 in the trial of Amy Duny. Duny's trial also saw the pins voided by the demoniacs presented as evidence despite the fact that it was actually the act of voiding them that was a sign of possession. Tryal of Witches, 13, 21.

101 See Walker, Unclean Spirits; and M. MacDonald, Witchcraft and Hysteria in Elizabethan London (London, 1991), vii–lxiv.

102 Walker, Unclean Spirits, esp. 4–5, 43–73.

103 This observation is detailed more completely in Peter Dendle, Demon Possession in Anglo-Saxon England (forthcoming).

104 Brown, Peter, “Sorcery, Demons, and the Rise of Christianity from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages,” in Witchcraft, Confessions and Accusations, ed. Douglas, Mary (London, 1970), 17–45Google Scholar, esp. 33.