The 19thC Cornish Church of England often had to exorcise the 'ghostly enemy'.

At a time when spirits were beieved freely to roam the country–side, the clergy of the Church of England were by no means exempt from personal dealings with their 'ghostly enemey'. Indeed, the fame of many an old Cornish parson was based on his reputed skill as an exorcist, some of them being by no means unwilling to favour the popular superstition in this respect. 'I could mention the names of several persons,' wrote Polwhele in 1826, 'whose influence over their flock was solely attributable to this circumstance.'

It appears that the 19thC Cornish clergy were shrewd in their place in society. Like the Cornish saints, who defy our normal way of thinking about saints, and some of the actions of the clergy you will read about here in tales of Cornish wreckers, some of these stories show these men to be their own men, and to follow their ways and not the ways we might have expected of them.