pular mind to be extirpated, or even greatly affected, by a
dogmatic declaration. The masses went on believing as they always had
believed, and as their fathers had believed before them, in spite of the
Reformers, and to their no little discontent. Pilkington, Bishop of
Durham, in a letter to Archbishop Parker, dated 1564, complains that,
"among other things that be amiss here in your great cares, ye shall
understand that in Blackburn there is a fantastical (and as some say,
lunatic) young man, which says that he has spoken with one of his
neighbours that died four year since, or more. Divers times he says he
has seen him, and talked with him, and took with him the curate, the
schoolmaster, and other neighbours, who all affirm that they see him.
_These things be so common here_ that none in authority will gainsay it,
but rather believe and confirm it, that everybody believes it. If I had
known how to examine with authority, I would have done it."[1] Here is a
little glimpse at the practical troubles of a well-intentioned bishop of
the sixteenth century that is surely worth preserving.

[Footnote 1: Parker Correspondence, 222. Parker Society.]

57. There were thus two opposite schools of belief in this matter of the
supposed spirits of the departed:--the conservative, which held to the
old doctrine of ghosts; and the reforming, which denied the possibility
of ghosts, and held to the theory of devils. In the midst of this
disagreement of doctors it was difficult for a plain man to come to a
definite conclusion upon the question; and, in consequence, all who were
not content with quiet dogmatism were in a state of utter uncertainty
upon a point not entirely without importance in practical life as well
as in theory. This was probably the position in which the majority of
thoughtful men found themselves; and it is accurately reflected in three
of Shakspere's plays, which, for other and weightier reasons, are
grouped together in the same chronological division--"Julius Caesar,"
"Macbeth," and "Hamlet." In the first-mentioned play, Brutus, who
afterwards confesses his belief that the apparition he saw at Sardis was
the ghost of Caesar,[1] when in the actual presence of the spirit,
says--

"Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil?"[2]

The same doubt flashes across the mind of Macbeth on the second entrance
of Banquo's ghost--which is probably intended to be a devil appearing at
the instigation of the witches--when