Julia Pycinska-Taylor
Biography
I completed my undergraduate degree in Religions and Theology in TCD in 2012 and then returned to study the MPhil in Early Modern History.
Research
'The Demonisation of John Darrell: Confessional identity and the politics of possession in late Elizabethan England'
My research focuses on the case of John Darrell, a Puritan preacher tried in 1599 for fraudulently exorcising a boy. I will examine how his trial and the surrounding pamphlet war provide a key to our understanding of post-Reformation English identity and the efforts of the Church of England hierarchy to centralise power. I argue that, by discrediting Darrell as a fraud, the church hierarchy aimed to score a victory against Puritans while reclaiming hegemony over popular expressions of religiosity. Since no trial records survive I will examine the pamphlets that generated debate about the nature of possession, as well as contemporary plays that referenced the case, including those by Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. I will assess what exorcism meant for people in Elizabethan England and how the church sought to control this meaning.