Heresy<p><strong>The curiouse case of the demonic possession of Thomas Darling.</strong></p><p>In 1596, certain leaders were asked to investigate the demonic possession of 13-year-old Thomas Darling. Among these leaders was one Edward Wightman. Make a note of that as it will come up later. Another name to note is John Darrell. Darrell will be fairly central to our story.</p><p>Before we go any further, you should probably know that the Puritans did not believe that the reformation had gone far enough. They wished to flush out the last vestiges of Catholicism in the church. Also, being a witch was illegal.</p><blockquote><p>On 17 February, 1596 Thomas Darling began to have a series of fits which were to continue throughout the next five months. Earlier on this day he had come across an old woman in a wood wearing a grey gown with three warts upon her face. As he passed by her, he passed wind, to which she responded, ‘Gyp with a mischief, and fart with a bell. I will go to Heaven, and you will go to Hell.’ Suspicion for having bewitched Thomas fell on the sixty-year-old Alice Gooderidge who, like her mother Elizabeth Wright, had long been suspected of devilish practices. She was arrested and confined in Derby gaol on 14 April.</p><p>Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern England Contemporary Texts and their Cultural Contexts, pp. 150 – 191 [<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/demonic-possession-and-exorcism-in-early-modern-england/boy-of-burton-the-story-of-thomas-darling/0654A8F0CD628511D718575A052B4B30" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">link</a>]</p></blockquote><p>This is where our main characters enter. Many of our cast, here, are Puritans. This is important because factional infighting will soon join us.</p><p>Puritans taught that miracles were a thing of the past. The Catholics claimed only their priests could do miracles. The Anglicans (and other Protestant groups) claimed, “nuh-uh, we so can do it too.”</p><p>I’m sure this will not become a problem.</p><p>To carry our story forward, I’m just going to quote from another work:</p><blockquote><p>Darling was a passionate Puritan, a fact that is expressed throughout the account. During one fit, he accepts that the ordeal may take his life, and his only regret was his inability to become a preacher so that he may ‘thunder out the threatenings of God’s word against sin and all abominations, wherewith these days do abound.’</p><p><a href="https://repository.essex.ac.uk/2025/1/Lu.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Possession of Thomas Darling: Adumbrations of a Jungian Psychohistory, Kevin Lu</a></p></blockquote><p>It is Puritan exorcist, John Darrell, who is credited with diagnosing the names of the devils – Glassap and Radalphu – who were driven out through prayer and fasting. </p><p>Of course, nothing is so straightforward, and Darling faced repossession in the days that followed. Thus, doubt was cast over the work of Darrell and others involved. </p><p>No matter what happened next, someone was going to be cross about it. You see, many of the bigger gangs claimed the only power to fight devils. They could not all be correct. One S. Harsnett (who we will get to soon), said exorcist John Darrell was a big fat fake.</p><p>Thomas Darling resisted the reported repossession, claiming he was engaged in a series of spiritual wars. These wars featured demonic and angelic voices.</p><blockquote><p>As I know at this present for a certainty, that I have the spirit of God within me: so do I with the like certainty believe, that in my dialogues with Satan, when I [quoted] sundry places of scripture, to withstand the temptations he assaulted me with: I had the spirit of God in me, and by that spirit resisted Satan at those times, by [quoting] the scriptures to confound him.</p><p>S. Harsnett, A Discovery of the Fraudulent Practices of John Darrel, London, 1599, p 290.</p></blockquote><p>This was a big old problem, as Darling was claiming unmediated spiritual intervention with the aid of the established church. This was impossible to the established order and not exactly in line with Puritan teachings either. No matter who you asked, there was heresy all over the place.</p><p>This case led to some hot debate about which church, if any, had the power to cast out evil spirits. The Puritians claimed that the age of miracles had passed, which made the whole case problematic for them. The Roman Catholic church claimed sole authority, but the Anglicans (church of England) also claimed such authority. George More publicly suggested that if the Anglicans had such authority, then the Catholics were a false church.</p><p>Though the Puritians claimed that the age of miracles was past, they still wanted to claim ownership over exorcism via prayer, fasting, and reading the Bible. After all, if they could drive out devils, then God approved of the Puritans. The debate soon settles along faction lines as to who was right and who was a big fat fibber.</p><p>You might have thought this was the story suitable for a slocky horror movie, but no, this is a story of politics and power among a fragmenting Christian community. It would only be a matter of time until someone got so upset that someone else got killed.</p><p>Edward Wightman would later be the last person lit on fire for heresy in England. His participation in the Thomas Darling case is sometimes cited as an important step towards this fate. We will look at Wightman in a separate heresy post.</p><p>As for Thomas Darling, he continued to be a bit of a troublemaker maker but that is a story for another time.</p> <p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://heresy.isbrill.com/tag/alice-gooderidge/" target="_blank">#AliceGooderidge</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://heresy.isbrill.com/tag/cessationism/" target="_blank">#cessationism</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://heresy.isbrill.com/tag/demonic-possession/" target="_blank">#demonicPossession</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://heresy.isbrill.com/tag/edward-wightman/" target="_blank">#EdwardWightman</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://heresy.isbrill.com/tag/fart-with-a-bell/" target="_blank">#fartWithABell</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://heresy.isbrill.com/tag/more-right-than-thou/" target="_blank">#moreRightThanThou</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://heresy.isbrill.com/tag/puritans/" target="_blank">#Puritans</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://heresy.isbrill.com/tag/thomas-darling/" target="_blank">#ThomasDarling</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://heresy.isbrill.com/tag/unmediated-spiritual-intervention/" target="_blank">#unmediatedSpiritualIntervention</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://heresy.isbrill.com/tag/witches/" target="_blank">#witches</a> </p>