The war between Papists and Protestants still went on, and the favourite
weapon with each was the old one of Possession, and its result--exorcism.
The patient in the present case was William Perry, a youth of twelve,
generally called the Boy of Bilston, whom Joan Cock bewitched for the
better showing forth the glory of God and the Church, and to the hurt of
her own soul and body. One day William Perry met old Joan as he returned
from school, and forbore to give her good time of the day, as a well-bred
youth should: whereat the old woman was angry, and called him "a foul
thing," saying "that it had been better for him if he had saluted her." At
which words the boy felt something prick him to his heart, and when he
came home fell into fits of the most demoniac kind. The parents seeing his
extremity went cap and knee to some Catholics in the neighbourhood, and
they, after long solicitation, proceeded to the exorcising. They poured
holy water and holy oil in goodly quantity upon him, and left supplies of
both to be used in their absence. The devil was sore afflicted by the
holy water and the holy oil, and made the boy cast up pins, and wool, and
knotted thread, and rosemary leaves, and walnut leaves, and feathers, and
"thrums." For there were three devils inside him, he said, and they had
uncommon power. On Corpus Christi day he brought up eleven pins, and a
knitting needle folded in divers folds; all after extreme fits and
heavings; and then the spirit told him not to listen to the exorcising
priest--which was a great compliment from the devil--and that the witch
had said she would make an end of him. When told to pray for the witch,
the boy and the devils were furious; but afterwards calmed down on the
exorciser getting extra power; and then the boy prayed his prayer and grew
better. Then he demanded that everything about him should be blessed, and
that all his family should be Catholics; but when any Puritans came in, he
said the devil assaulted him in the shape of a black bird. So it was a
vastly pretty little case of witness and conversion, and the Catholics
made the most of it. Joan must now be arrested; for the fits continued,
and the young gentleman was not to be pacified with anything short of the
witch's blood. When brought into his presence the boy had extreme fits,
crying out: "'Now she comes, now my Tormentor comes!' writhing and tearing
and twisting himself into such Shapes as bred at once Amazement and Pity
in the Spectators:" so the old woman was sent to Stafford gaol, but,
because this was a Popish matter, acquitted without long delay. Then the
Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, desirous of testing the matter, and
unwilling that the Catholics should take any glory to themselves for their
holy oils and their anointings which were said to have calmed the most
"sounding fits," took William Perry home to the Castle, and there had him
watched: and watched so well that certain dirty tricks not to be spoken of
here were found out, and the physiological part of the "miracle" set at
rest. But before this the Bishop tried the devils with Greek. For they
could not abide the first verse of the first chapter of St. John, and
always fell on the boy with fury when it was read; so, said the Bishop,
whose wits sectarian hatred had sharpened--one bigotry driving out
another--"Boy, it is either thou or the Devil that abhorrest those Words
of the Gospel: and if it be the Devil (he being so ancient a Scholar, as
of almost six Thousand Years' standing) knows, and understands all
Languages; so that he cannot but know when I recite the same sentence out
of the Greek Text: But if it be thyself then art thou an execrable Wretch,
who plays the Devil's part; wherefore look to thyself, for now thou art to
be put to Trial, and mark diligently, whether it be that same Scripture
which shall be read." Then was read the twelfth verse of the first
chapter, at which William, supposing it to be the abhorred first, fell
into his customary fits; but when, immediately after, the first verse was
read, he, supposing it was another, was not moved at all. By which means
this part of the fraud was discovered also; and when, moving his eyes and
staring about him wildly, he declared that he saw mice running round the
bed, no one gave any credit to his words. When the whole thing was blown
to the winds, and the Greek test had failed, and the dirty tricks had been
found out, the boy made a pretended confession, which was evidently no
more true than anything else had been. He said that one day as he was
coming home, an old man called Thomas, with gray hair and a cradle of
glasses on his shoulders, met him, and after asking him if he went to
school and how he liked it, told him that he could teach him a few tricks
which should prevent his going to school any more, and would instead lead
all people to pity and lament him, holding him to be bewitched. But it was
shrewdly suspected that the old man Thomas, with his gray hair and cradle
of glass, was but a pleasant phantasy of the imagination; and that the
real secret had lain with the Catholic priests, who, finding the boy apt
and handy, thought they could make good capital out of him for their
Church, and put him forth as a witness for its divine power and holy
office, seeing that it could dispossess the demoniac and drive away evil
spirits. Fortunately they reckoned without their host--the host of
"reformed" bigotry and hatred: for we need not congratulate ourselves on
any clearsightedness or common sense in the matter. Had the Boy of Bilston
been a sound Protestant, he would have been held as indubitably Possessed
by the Devil, and some poor wretch would have been found as a convenient
sacrifice to the stupidity of that devil.