nformist clergymen
were seeking a rich harvest from the miracles they should work.
Self-glorification was their aim. He made fun of the several divines
engaged in the affair, and accused them of trickery and presumption in
their conduct of the case.[14]

Of course Taylor was answered, and with a bitterness equal to his own.
Thomas Jollie replied in _A Vindication of the Surey Demoniack_. "I will
not foul my Paper," wrote the mild Jollie, "and offend my reader with
those scurrilous and ridiculous Passages in this Page. O, the
Eructations of an exulcerated Heart! How desperately wicked is the Heart
of Man!"[15]

We shall not go into the details of the controversy, which really
degenerated into a sectarian squabble.[16] The only discussion of the
subject that approached fairness was by an anonymous writer,[17] who
professed himself impartial and of a different religious persuasion from
Jollie. To be sure, he was a man who believed in possession by spirits.
It may be questioned, too, whether his assumption of fair dealing
towards the Church of England was altogether justified. But, at any
rate, his work was free from invective and displayed moderation. He felt
that the Dissenting clergymen were probably somewhat deluded. But they
had acted, he believed, under good motives in attempting to help one who
had appealed to them. Some of them were not only "serious good Men," but
men well known in the nation. This, indeed, was true. The Dissenters had
laid themselves open to attack, and doubtless some of them saw and
regretted their mistake. At least, it seems not without significance
that neither Oliver Heywood nor Richard Frankland nor any other of the
Dissenters was sure enough of his ground to support Jollie in the
controversy into which he had been led.[18]

We have gone into some detail about the Dugdale affair because of its
importance in its time, and because it was so essentially characteristic
of the last era of the struggle over the power of the Devil. There were
cases of possession not only in Lancashire but in Somersetshire and in
and around London. Not without a struggle was His Satanic Majesty
surrendering his hold.

We turn from this controversy to follow the decisions of those eminent
judges who were nullifying the statute against witches. We have already
mentioned three names, those of Holt, Powell, and Parker. This is not
because they were the only jurists who were giving verdicts of
acquittal--we know that