was extended to
prefer charges. But the community was becoming a bit incredulous and
failed to respond. All but two of the accused women were released.

The witch-discoverer, who in the meantime had been chosen preacher at
St. Mary's in Nottingham, made two serious mistakes. He allowed
accusations to be preferred against Alice Freeman, sister of an
alderman,[22] and he let Somers be taken out of his hands. By the
contrivance of some citizens who doubted the possession, Somers was
placed in the house of correction, on a trumped-up charge that he had
bewitched a Mr. Sterland to death.[23] Removed from the clergyman's
influence, he made confession that his possessions were pretended.[24]
Darrel, he declared, had taught him how to pretend. The matter had now
gained wide notoriety and was taken up by the Anglican church. The
archdeacon of Derby reported the affair to his superiors, and the
Archbishop of York appointed a commission to examine into the case.[25]
Whether from alarm or because he had anew come under Darrel's influence,
Somers refused to confess before the commission and again acted out his
fits with such success that the commission seems to have been convinced
of the reality of his possession.[26] This was a notable victory for the
exorcist.

But Chief-Justice Anderson of the court of common pleas was now
commencing the assizes at Nottingham and was sitting in judgment on the
case of Alice Freeman. Anderson was a man of intense convictions. He
believed in the reality of witchcraft and had earlier sent at least one
witch to the gallows[27] and one to prison.[28] But he was a man who
hated Puritanism with all his heart, and would at once have suspected
Puritan exorcism. Whether because the arch-instigator against Alice
Freeman was a Puritan, or because the evidence adduced against her was
flimsy, or because Somers, again summoned to court, acknowledged his
fraud,[29] or for all these reasons, Anderson not only dismissed the
case,[30] but he wrote a letter about it to the Archbishop of
Canterbury. Archbishop Whitgift called Darrel and More before the court
of high commission, where the Bishop of London, two of the Lord
Chief-Justices, the master of requests, and other eminent officials
heard the case. It seems fairly certain that Bancroft, the Bishop of
London, really took control of this examination and that he acted quite
as much the part of a prosecutor as that of a judge. One of Darrel's
friends complained bi