In October of 1563, 18-year old Anne Mylner was herding cows near her home when she was suddenly enveloped by a white cloud that precipitated a months-long illness characterized by sleeplessness, loss of appetite, convulsions, and bodily swelling. Mylner's was the first of several cases during the reign of Elizabeth I of England that were interpreted as demon possession, a highly emotional experience in which an afflicted person displays behavior indicating a state of religious distress. To most Elizabethans, belief in Satan was as natural as belief in God, and Satan's affliction of mankind was clearly demonstrated in the physical and spiritual distress displayed by virtually every person at some point in his or her life. This book recounts 11 cases of Elizabethan demon possession, documenting the details of each case and providing the cultural context to explain why the diagnosis made sense at the time. Victims included children and adults, servants and masters, Catholics and Protestants, frauds and the genuinely ill. Edmund Kingesfielde's wife, possessed by a demon who caused her to hate her children and to contemplate suicide, was cured when her husband changed his irreverent tavern sign (depicting a devil) for a more seemly design. Alexander Nyndge, possessed by a Catholic demon that spoke with an Irish accent, was cured by his own brother through physical bondage and violence. Agnes Brigges and Rachel Pindar, whose afflictions included vomiting pins, feathers, and other trash, were revealed as frauds and forced to confess publicly, their parents being imprisoned for complicity in the fraud. All these cases attest to a powerful need to ascribe some moral significance to human suffering. Allowing the sufferer to externalize and ultimately evict the "demon" as the cause of his or her affliction bestowed some measure of hope--no mean feat in a world with such widespread human distress.

Sands (early modern English literature and history) recounts 11 cases of Elizabethan demonic possession, documenting details of each case and providing the cultural context to explain each diagnosis. All the cases attest to a powerful need to ascribe some moral significance to human suffering. Sands argues that allowing the sufferer to externalize and ultimately evict the demon as the cause of an affliction gave hope to the sufferer and the community.
Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

This engaging new book by Kathleen Sands explores the mysterious world of demons, devils, and witchcraft. In scholarly--yet highly readable--prose Sands not only persuades us that Satan skulked around his unsuspecting victims, but she places the sufferers of demon possession in the larger social context of post Reformation England.... This book is a must read for anyone interested in the impact of the invisible world on early modern England.Elaine Forman Crane, Department of History, Fordham University , author of Killed Strangely: the Death of Rebecca Cornell

Sands has produced a highly readable, engaging study of the phenomenon of demonic possession in late Tudor England....Recommended. General collections; lower and upper-division undergraduates.Choice

Sands (early modern English literature and history) recounts 11 cases of Elizabethan demonic possession, documenting details of each case and providing the cultural context to explain each diagnosis.Reference &Research Book News

"This engaging new book by Kathleen Sands explores the mysterious world of demons, devils, and witchcraft. In scholarly--yet highly readable--prose Sands not only persuades us that Satan skulked around his unsuspecting victims, but she places the sufferers of demon possession in the larger social context of post Reformation England.... This book is a must read for anyone interested in the impact of the invisible world on early modern England." - Elaine Forman Crane, Department of History, Fordham University , author of Killed Strangely: the Death of Rebecca Cornell

...In her enthralling and wide-ranging study that holds its own in anthropology, intellectual history, theology, and medicine, Dr. Sands makes Elizabethan demonic possession intelligible. She leaves the reader with a respect for the lives and circumstances of long-vanished Elizabethans, and empathy for their projection of distress and suffering as religious phenomena. [She] has afforded a glimpse into the lives of people distant in time and culture who handled their difficulties differently from us....Robert D. Hicks, Ph.D., Director, Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry Chemical Heritage Foundation

...Dr. Sands has pulled together information on the topic of demon possession in Elizabethan England that will please scholars with its level of research, its thoroughness in placing such cases in the context of this time in history, and above all, in its avoidance of the dry manner frequently employed in books composed with such a high level of information and research; this book is an absolute page-turner. Demon Possession in Elizabethan England presents a fascinating, scholarly look into a subject that continues to elicit discussion amongst religious institutions and the public at large even today.Melissa A. Zimmerman, Curator of Education Agecroft Hall &Gardens

Presents a vivid account of eleven cases diagnosed as demon possession in Elizabethan England, including the social, psychological, and theological assumptions that contributed to this phenomenon.

In October of 1563, 18-year old Anne Mylner was herding cows near her home when she was suddenly enveloped by a white cloud that precipitated a months-long illness characterized by sleeplessness, loss of appetite, convulsions, and bodily swelling. Mylner's was the first of several cases during the reign of Elizabeth I of England that were interpreted as demon possession, a highly emotional experience in which an afflicted person displays behavior indicating a state of religious distress. To most Elizabethans, belief in Satan was as natural as belief in God, and Satan's affliction of mankind was clearly demonstrated in the physical and spiritual distress displayed by virtually every person at some point in his or her life. This book recounts 11 cases of Elizabethan demon possession, documenting the details of each case and providing the cultural context to explain why the diagnosis made sense at the time.

Introduction

Anne Mylner

Edmund Kingsfield's Wife

Alexander Nyndge

Robert Briggs

Agnes Brigges and Rachel Pindar

Sarah Williams

Katherine Wright

Thomas Darling

The Starchy Seven

William Somers

Mary Glover

Conclusion