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signified their full approbation; so that he was chosen and admitted. He afterwards united with his brethren in subscribing the "Book of Discipline."+

In the above respectable situation, Mr. Charke, by the favour of his learned patrons, was protected some years from the tyrannical oppressions of the times; and though a zealous nonconformist, he enjoyed his lecture at Lincoln'sinn till the year 1593. The period at length arrived when they could no longer screen him from the fury of the prelates; for in that year, it appears, he was silenced by Archbishop Whitgift. Notwithstanding the treatment he met with, he was greatly admired and commended, even by rigid conformists, on account of his distinguished learning and great moderation. After his suspension, pleading his cause before the archbishop, that he conducted himself peaceably, &c. his grace replied, "This is not enough. It is not sufficient, that you do not preach against the bishops: you do not preach for them."

Mr. Strype denominates him a man of eminent parts, and a chief leader among the puritans. Dr. Nowell styles him a person of great learning and godliness. The Oxford historian, speaking of the various books of Hooker's "Ecclesiastical Polity," observes, "That the three books, (meaning the three last,) which Hooker completed before his death, were, with the consent of his unlucky widow, seized upon in his study, soon after his decease, by William Charke, a noted puritan, and another minister that lived near Canterbury; who, making the silly woman believe that they were writings not fit to be seen, did either burn them in the place, or carry them away."** ." Admitting this statement to be correct, the whole, it seems, was done by the permission of that silly woman, the unlucky widow; and if Mr. Charke and his companion persuaded her that the papers were not fit to be seen, all this might be perfectly just and true. But our historian's sole authority is the letter of Dr. King, bishop of Chichester, dated November 13, 1664, above sixty years after the event; and he has made considerable additions to it.++ Mr. Charke was

* Strype's Annals, vol. iii. p. 55, 56. + Neal's Puritans, vol. i. p. 423.

MS. Chronology, vol. i. p. 313. (4.)

Minister's Reasons against Subscrip. part ii, p. 173. Edit. 1608.
Strype's Whitgift, p. 43.-Annals, vol. ii. p. 533.

Churton's Life of Nowell, p. 278, note.

** Wood's Athens Oxon. vol. i. p. 263.

✦✦ King's Letter, prefixed to the Life of Hooker. Edit.1665.

living towards the close of the year 1600; but when he died we have not been able to learn. He published several pieces against the papists.

JOHN DARRELL, A. B.-He was minister at Nottingham, but a person in some respects of very peculiar sentiments. He believed, that by fasting and prayer evil spirits might be cast out of persons possessed. Dr. Heylin, defaming his memory, says, that he set up the trade of lecturing at Nottingham, without any lawful calling; and, to advance his reputation, pretended to cast out devils. Mr. Strype, also, with a design to reproach the puritans as a body, observes, that when the open practices of the puritans for setting up their discipline did not prevail, some of their ministers had recourse to a more secret method, by doing something which looked little less than miraculous. They pretended, by fasting and prayer, to cast out devils; by which the multitude became so amazed, and were led so to venerate them, that they were the more readily inclined to submit to their opinions and ways. This was a practice borrowed from the papists, to make their priests revered, and to confirm the laity in their superstitions.+ From these base insinuations, we might be led to suppose, that some plot of considerable magnitude was laid by the puritans, to conjure the ignorant multitude into a belief of their discipline, and the practice of nonconformity: but all this vapour and smoke at once vanishes, and we only hear of the principles and practice of a solitary individual, in connexion with two or three others of less note, but of similar sentiments.

What we have to say is not intended as a defence of Mr. Darrell's peculiarities. He appears to have been a weak, but zealous and honest man; and, therefore, undeserving of the cruel usage which he received from Archbishop Whitgift and others. But because he was a puritan, and a sufferer for nonconformity, it will be proper to give an impartial statement of facts.

The learned historian observes, that, in the year 1586, Mr. Darrell professed to cast a devil out of one Katharine Wright, a young woman about seventeen years of age, living in Derbyshire. But the evil spirit afterwards returning into her, he cast out eight other devils, with which

* Heylin's Hist. of Pres. p. 348.

+ Strype's Whitgift, p. 492.

she pretended to have been possessed. Also, he wrote an account of these things at some length, and communicated copies of his performance to persons of distinction; and, among others, to the excellent and pious Lady Bowes: "hoping hereby," says our author, "to obtain applause, and to accomplish other ends." There is not, however, the least shadow of evidence, that Mr. Darrell sought after any human applause. This does not appear to have formed any part of his character, or at all to have entered into his designs. And what other ends he meant to accomplish, we are left to conjecture. If the historian here designed to insinuate, that he intended to promote puritanism, and overthrow the church of England, it may be confidently affirmed, that his prospects were not the most flattering.

In the year 1596, Mr. Darrell pretended to cast out many more devils. Among the persons who were on this account indebted to his piety, was one Thomas Darling, a boy about fourteen years of age, at Burton-upon-Trent. This occasioned a person of the town to publish an account of it, entitled "The Book of the Dispossession of the Boy of Burton." This greatly increased his popularity; and caused his fame to spread so much abroad, that he was sent for into Lancashire, and there cast out many other devils. Afterwards, upon his return to Nottingham, one of the ministers of the town, and several of its inhabitants, urged him to visit one William Somers, a boy who was so deeply afflicted with convulsive agonies, that they were thought to be preternatural. When Mr. Darrell had seen the boy, he concluded, with others, that he was certainly possessed, and, accordingly, recommended his friends to obtain the help of godly and learned ministers, with the view of promoting his recovery, but excused himself from being concerned; lest, as he observed, if the devil should be dispossessed, the common people should attribute to him some special gift of casting out devils. At length, however, by the urgent solicitation of the mayor of Nottingham, he complied; and having agreed with Mr. Aldridge and two other ministers, together with about one hundred and fifty christian friends, they set apart a day of fasting and prayer, to entreat the Lord to cast out Satan, and deliver the young man from his present torments. Having continued in their devotions for some time, the Lord is said to

* Strype's Annals, vol. iii. p. 432.

have been entreated, and to have cast out Satan, for which they blessed his holy name. This was in the year

1597.*

In a few days after this event, the mayor and several of the aldermen began to suspect that Somers was an impostor; and, to make him confess, they took him from his parents, and committed him to prison; where, by the threatenings of his keeper, he was led to acknowledge, that he had dissembled and counterfeited what he had done. Upon this confession, being carried before a commission appointed to examine him, he at first owned himself to be a counterfeit, then presently denied it; but being so exceedingly frightened, he fell into fits before the commissioners, which put an end to his examination. After some time, being still kept in custody, and further pressed by his keeper, he returned to his confessing, charging Mr. Darrell with having trained him up in the art for several years. Mr. Darrell was then summoned to appear before the commissioners, when sufficient witnesses were produced to prove that Somers had declared, in a most solemn manner, that he had not dissembled; upon which he was dismissed, and the commission was dissolved.

This affair becoming the subject of much conversation in the country, Mr. Darrell, in 1598, was cited before Archbishop Whitgift, and other high commissioners, at Lambeth. Upon his appearance, after a long examination, he was deprived of his ministry, and committed close prisoner to the Gatehouse, where he continued many years. Mr. George Moore, another puritan minister, for his connexion with him, was, at the same time, committed close prisoner to the Clink. The crime with which Mr. Darrell was charged, and for which he received the heavy sentence, was his having been accessary to a vile imposture."+

Indeed, Bishop Maddox highly commends the conduct of these ecclesiastical judges, in this unchristian censure.

* Dr. Heylin, contemptuously speaking of Mr. Darrell's pretensions, observes, "that whenever the conformable ministers visited these demoniacs, and used the form of prayer according to the established liturgy, the devil was as quiet as a lamb, there being nothing in those prayers to disturb his peace. But when Mr. Darrell and his nonconformist brethren approached, who used to fall upon him with whole volleys of raw and undigested prayers of their own devising, then were the wicked spirits extremely troubled and perplexed; so that the puritans, lest the papists should in any thing have the start of them, had also a kind of holy water, with which to frighten away the devil.”—Heylin's Miscel. Tracts, p. 156. + Strype's Whitgift, p. 492-494.

"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 he, " 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 to be sick, or ill at ease, but strait they were deemed to be possessed. It was high time," adds the learned prelate, 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 contentious 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 dissimulation, 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 were cast 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 pretended 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.

+ Clark's Lives annexed to Martyrologie, p. 32.

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