The Trials of an Exorcist, 1597

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published It is the easiest thing, sir, to be done. As plain as fizzling: roll but wi’ your eyes, And foam at th’mouth. A little castle-soap Will do’t, to rub your lips: and then a nutshell, With tow and touchwood in it to spit fire. Did you ne’er read, sir, little Darrel’s tricks, With the boy o’Burton, and the seven in Lancashire, Sommers at Nottingham? All these do teach it. – Ben Jonson, The Devil Is an Ass It’s October 1597, and something is wrong with William Somers, a young man of around 19 or 20, living in Nottingham, England. We’re told he began to be strangely tormented in body and so continued for divers weeks to the great astonishment of the beholders and trouble of his friends. And he gave great signs that he was possessed by a wicked spirit… But the local mayor and aldermen had heard about a man who could help: the famed exorcist. This man was local to the area, although he’d gone off to be educated at Cam ... Read full article.