ormation that James prided himself on his cleverness.
Having succeeded in detecting certain frauds, he became an expert
detective. In one instance "he ordered it so that a proper courtier made
love to one of these bewitched maids"[33] and soon got her over her
troubles. In another case a woman "strangely affected" by the first
verse of John's Gospel failed to recognize it when read in Greek,[34]
proof positive that the omniscient Devil did not possess her.

Three instances of exposure of imposture were most notable, those of
Grace Sowerbutts, the boy at Leicester, and the "Boy of Bilston." The
first of these has already been sufficiently discussed in connection
with the Lancashire trials. The second had nothing remarkable about it.
A twelve or thirteen-year-old boy had fits which he said were caused by
spirits sent by several women whom he accused as witches. Nine women
were hanged, while six more were under arrest and would probably have
met the same end, had not the king in his northward progress, while
stopping at Leicester, detected the shamming.[35] Whether or no the boy
was punished we are not told. It is some satisfaction that the judges
were disgraced.[36]

The boy of Bilston was, if Webster may be believed,[37] the most famous,
if not the most successful, fraud of all. The case was heralded over the
entire realm and thousands came to see. The story is almost an exact
duplicate of earlier narratives of possession. A thirteen-year-old boy
of Bilston in Staffordshire, William Perry, began to have fits and to
accuse a Jane Clarke, whose presence invariably made him worse. He "cast
out of his mouth rags, thred, straw, crooked pins." These were but
single deceptions in a repertoire of varied tricks. Doubtless he had
been trained in his role by a Roman priest. At any rate the Catholics
tried exorcism upon him, but to no purpose. Perhaps some Puritans
experimented with cures which had like result.[38] The boy continued his
spasms and his charges against the witch and she was brought into court
at the July assizes. But Bishop Morton,[39] before whose chancellor the
boy had first been brought, was present, and the judges turned the boy
over to him for further investigation.[40] Then, with the help of his
secretary, he set about to test the boy, and readily exposed his
deception--in most curious fashion too. The boy, like one we have met
before, could not endure the first verse of John's Gospel, but failed to
recognize i