A case of a possible poltergeist was described and illustrated in books by Joseph Glanvill entitled A Blow at Modern Sadducism and Saducismus Triumphatus. The term Sadducees, used in the 17th century to refer to heretics of various kinds, is derived from the Bible. Demonologists called those who did not believe in ghosts or perhaps even had doubts about devils by that name. It became a catch-all negative term for those with whom one disagreed. Glanvill applied this label to members of either branch of Christianity.5
Glanvill tells a number of tales about witches, devils, and also a possible ghost. The English magistrate and country squire, John Mompesson, reported that his home in the town of Tedworth, Wiltshire, along with his servants; wife; and worse still, his children, were beset by what may have been a demonic presence that caused them considerable fear and upset. Glanvill wondered whether this was a hoax. Were the events caused by
“Frontispiece Showing Various Paranormal Events Including Drummer of Ted-worth.” J. Glanvill, Saducismus Triumphatus. London, Printed for S. L. and are to be sold by Anth. Baskerville, 1689. (Private Collection.)
A devil, or were they possibly the work of a malevolent ghost wandering about among the living? Was it the sort of ghost left behind by someone who had died violently or suddenly in life and left to roam about the earth tormenting the living in its miserable afterlife because it found no peace? The children’s beds were shaking, items were being thrown about, and unpleasant noises were heard. There were bad sulfurous smells in the house. Even the children themselves were levitated. Perhaps it was time for Mompesson to send for a paranormal investigator, in this case a clergyman who also had a considerable interest in science. The clergyman believed that devils did exist; yet he also kept a skeptical mind and wanted to prove by science that such things happened. Or, if that failed, then he was prepared to state that his investigation showed that in this case, there was nothing supernatural going on. The man whom the magistrate sent for later become the King’s chaplain in ordinary.6 Glanvill does not specify that he was summoned by Mompesson, although it is logical as he would not have merely showed up uninvited to conduct an investigation. Surely this learned man could get to the bottom of the problem. He arrived, made a scientific study of the case, talked with the principals, and tried his best to debunk the events that they reported. He hoped to have his own personal experiences as well. In the end, he published his findings for others to read and compare to events they may have witnessed. He even published an illustration of the poltergeist.
The scenario sounds very like the script for many modern television “ghost investigators” reality programs; however, this investigation took place in the middle of the 17 th century. The King was Charles II of England and the clergyman-ghost hunter was Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680) who made his investigations between January 1662 and April 1663. The case became known to historians as the “Drummer of Tedworth.” Glanvill’s book, Saducismus Triumphatus (The Triumph of Saducism) became quite popular and went through five editions. Glanvill would finally conclude that these events had been produced through the agency of witchcraft practiced in spite against the magistrate by a drummer whom he had convicted of disturbing the peace. But this gets ahead of the story. Glanvill’s account of what had supposedly happened and what he was able to study first hand, through personal experiences, the modern ghost hunter would say, is lively and detailed. This book was written in part as a refutation of the opinions on the supernatural posited by Glanvill’s rival, John Webster. Webster was far more the skeptic. While Glanvill did at times evince beliefs in ghosts, devils and demons, he also put these beliefs to the test of empirical observation. Saducismus Triumphatus was illustrated with vignettes depicting various supernatural cases that Glanvill investigated and reported. One of these vignettes showed the infamous “drummer of Ted-worth.” The Drummer is a zoomorphic devil who appears in the sky above the home of Mr. Mompesson, playing a drum. The magistrate stands outside his home, looking on in amazement.
Mr. John Mompesson of Tedworth. . . commanded the vagrant to put off his drum and charged the constable to carry him before the next Justice of the Peace to be further examined and punisht. [sic] Over the objections of the drummer, Mompesson had the drum seized and eventually conveyed to his own home. It was a very great knocking at his door and the outsides of his house. . . . He opened the door where the great knocking was and then he heard the noise at another door. . . after this civil cessation, it returned in a ruder manner after this and followed and vexed the youngest children beating their bedsteds [sic] . . . it would lift the children up in the beds, follow them from one room to another.
Mompesson moved his children out of the room for a while. This did no good. Such was his predicament and why he sent for Joseph Glanvill to come in for an investigation.7
Glanvill had considerable doubts about the stories and suspected the children. If they were not causing the disturbances, then perhaps adults in the household were merely making up the stories. He proceeded to rely on personal observations and methods to debunk the stories.
At this time it used to haunt the children and that as soon as they were laid. They went to bed that night I was there. . . a maid-servant coming down from them told us it was come. . . . I heard a strange scratching as I went up the stairs and when we came into the room I perceived it was just behind the bolster of the children’s bed. . . . I saw their hands [the two little girls in the bed] out of the cloths and they could not contribute to the noise that was behind their heads. Glanvill felt behind the bolster, he looked through the bed clothes to see if anything were there to make the noise. He concluded, So that I was then verily perswaded [sic] and am so still that the noise was made by some daemon or spirit.8
Glanvill provided a number of first person accounts of the appearances of spirits and ghosts. This was the standard format for books on ghosts and apparitions. Authors presented cases that might deal with human ghosts of persons recently deceased, other sorts of spiritual apparitions like devils or angels, and even historical ghosts. There was always the question of whether these were real or were just the illusions of the Devil, or perhaps the products of human mental disease. Glanvill commented on his methol-ogy by noting that he had
No humor nor delight in telling stories, and do not publish these for the gratification of those that have; but I record them as arguments for the confirmation of a truth which hath indeed been attested by multitudes of like evidences in all places and times. But things remote or long past are either not believed or forgotten whereas these being fresh and near and attended with all the circumstances of credibility, it may be expected they should have the more success upon the obstinacy of unbelievers.9
Glanvill was inclined to believe in the reality of such things but did maintain an open mind in trying to prove their existence. Among the favorite subjects of the demonologists and witchcraft experts was the biblical story of Saul and the seer or “witch” of Endor (1 Samuel 2). Saul had her summon the ghost of Samuel for him. Some writers thought that this ghost was in fact just the Devil making an appearance and that the seer of Endor was a fraud. Glanvill states plainly in Section 21 of Part II of his book that these events really had taken place as described. Saul did indeed see the ghost of Samuel. “I confess it seems to me most probable that it was the true Samuel for the Scripture calls the apparition so five times.”10 In this, Glanvill disagreed with Martin Luther who believed that Samuel had not really appeared to Saul upon the command of the witch: “No, it was a spectre, an evil spirit, assuming his form. What proves this is that God by the laws of Moses had forbidden man to question the dead: consequently it must have been a demon which presented itself under the form of the man of God.”11
Joseph Glanvill had an adversary in the person of the Protestant clergyman and physician John Webster (1610-1682). The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft. Wherein is affirmed that there are many sorts of Deceivers and Impostors (1677) is like many other such works from this period. Webster agrees that some paranormal entities and events could happen, but he thinks that for the most part, these are the products of imagination or melancholy or worse still, the superstitions of the Roman Church. Webster defends Reginald Scot and attacks Joseph Glanvill directly:
If Mr. Scot hath done little but told odd talks and silly legends, Mr. Glanvil [sic] might very well have born with him; for I am sure his story of the Drummer [of Tedworth] and his other of witchcraft are as odd and silly as any can be told or read, and are as futilous [futile], incredible, ludicrous and ridiculous as any can be. And if the tales that Scot tells be odd and silly, they are the most of them taken from those pitiful lying Witchmongers, such as Delrio, Bodinus, Springerous, Remigius and the like.12
Chapters 15 and 16 specifically concern apparitions that might be mistaken for spirits or devils. Here Webster addresses various sorts of anomalies including witches who might transmute themselves into animal forms, satyrs, and mermaids. He does believe, as did his various colleagues in demonology, that angels or good apparitions could exist and that these were sent by God for the benefit of humanity. He also holds that poltergeists that he terms “Cacodemons” (noise-making demons) were, like most apparitions, “conceits or delusions.”13 The Drummer of Tedworth, investigated and debunked as a poltergeist by Joseph Glanvill, was thought by some to be a cacodemon.
In the works of Glanvill and Webster, we see the breakdown of older beliefs in some aspects of the supernatural as regards witchcraft and demonology. While both were Protestants—Reginald Scot was also a Protestant for that matter—these men had varying opinions. They had in common the fact that all of them had varying degrees of belief in the dark side, and that each attacked the Roman Church. Webster was skeptical but inconsistent. Glanvill was more credulous than Scot or Webster, yet even he had his doubts. Glanvill was not ready to deny the existence of evil spirits per se, as to do that would logically lead to a denial of all spirits. Because of this, he employed the scientific method in his investigations.
World History
