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This is proof enough, not only that Jonson was in sympathy with the Anglican assailants of Puritan exorcism, but that he expected to find others of like opinion among those who listened to his play. And it was not unreasonable that he should expect this. It is clear enough that the powers of the Anglican church were behind Harsnett and that their influence gave his views weight.
Pick out and explain the curious allusions in the play, noticing that these may be classed as geographical, mythological, astrological, or referable to persons or customs of the time, or books of the day. Encyc. art. Harsnett, 'A Discovery of the Fraudulent Practices of John Darrel, in which is narrated how the Starkeys' children were possessed by a demon, and how the Puritan minister, Mr.
It meant a good deal that Harsnett took such a stand. Scot had been a voice crying in the wilderness. Harsnett was supported by the powers in church and state. He was, as has been seen, the chaplain of Bishop Bancroft, now from 1604 to become Archbishop of Canterbury.
See his Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures, 134-136; his Discovery also shows the use of Scot. Harsnett, Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures, 98, 123, 110. Read ibid., 131-140. Some one has remarked that witchcraft came into England with the Stuarts and went out with them.
In explanation of his attitude towards this order he wrote that The churches were so ransacked and destroyed in this way that Bishop Harsnett said he found the cathedral and the buildings about the close had been criminally neglected for years, so that they were in a decayed and almost ruinous condition. Such was the deliberate opinion which he expressed early in the seventeenth century.
Be that as it may, the court of high commission got hold of evidence enough to justify the privy council in authorizing a full publication of the testimony. Harsnett was deputed to write the account of the Catholic exorcists which was brought out in 1603 under the title of A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures.
For this résumé of the Protestant and the Anglican attitude toward exorcism I am indebted to Professor Burr. It is not impossible that Harsnett was acting as a mouth-piece for Bancroft.
They are exactly alike, page for page, except for the last four lines of the last page, where the wording differs. The pamphlet is clearly one written by John Denison as an abstract of an account by Jesse Bee. Harsnett, Discovery of the Fraudulent Practices of John Darrel, 266-269, tells how these two books were written.
Certainly it was accepted by Harsnett, who may be called the official reporter of the proceedings at Darrel's trial, as substantially true. The publication of the Discovery by Harsnett proved indeed to be only the beginning of a pamphlet controversy which Darrel and his supporters were but too willing to take up. Harsnett himself after his first onslaught did not re-enter the contest.
No small part of our story has been devoted to the writings of Scot, Gifford, Harsnett, and King James. It is impossible to understand the significance of the prosecutions without some acquaintance with the course of opinion on the subject.
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