Note 72 — Chapter VI · Diabolic Possession and Modern Spiritism

By vomiting pins and straws they had made many believe that they were bewitched, but the tricks were soon found out and they were compelled to public penance at S. Paul’s. There is a black letter pamphlet The discloysing of a late counterfeyted possession by the devyl in two maydens within the Citie of London [1574], which describes this case. See also Holinshed, Chronicles (ed. London, 1808), IV, 325, and Stow Annales, London, 1631, p. 678. But the fact that there are malingerers does not mean there are none sick.