Associated with Lancashire demonology is the name of John Darrell, a
cleric, afterwards preacher at St. Mary's, Nottingham, who published a
narrative of the strange and grievous vexation of the devil of seven
persons in Lancashire. This remarkable case occurred at Clayworth in the
parish of Leigh, in the family of one Nicholas Starkie, whose house was
turned into a perfect bedlam. It is vain to follow the account of the
vagaries of the possessed, the howlings and barkings, the scratchings of
holes for the familiars to get to them, the charms and magic circles of
the impostor and exorcist Hartley, and the godly ministrations of the
accomplished author, who with two other preachers overcame the evil
spirits.

Unfortunately for him, Harsnett, Bishop of Chichester, and afterwards
Archbishop of York, doubted the marvellous powers of the pious author, Dr.
Darrell, and had the audacity to suggest that he made a trade of casting
out devils, and even went so far as to declare that Darrell and the
possessed had arranged the matter between them, and that Darrell had
instructed them how they were to act in order to appear possessed. The
author was subsequently condemned as an impostor by the Queen's
commissioners, deposed from his ministry, and condemned to a long term of
imprisonment with further punishment to follow. The base conduct and
pretences of Darrell and others obliged the clergy to enact the following
canon (No. 73): "That no minister or ministers, without license and
direction of the bishop, under his hand and seal obtained, attempt, upon
any pretence whatsoever, either of possession or obsession, by fasting and
prayer, to cast 'out any devil or devils, under pain of the imputation of
imposture, or cozenage, and deposition from the ministry." This penalty at
the present day not many of the clergy are in danger of incurring.