Extraordinarily Thick-Headed

I'm currently reading Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, by Charles Mackay, first published in 1841. I've been trying to finish it for quite some time now. I last put it down for so long that I should probably read the first several hundred pages again. At the moment I'm finishing up a chapter about the witch mania in Europe and thought I'd share the following excerpt from the story he tells of a particular trial that took place in Sweden during the year 1669. I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

One of them, the parson of the district, stated, in the course of the inquiry, that on a particular night, which he mentioned, he had been afflicted with a headache so agonising, that he could not account for it otherwise than by supposing he was bewitched. In fact, he thought a score of witches must have been dancing on the crown of his head. This announcement excited great horror among the pious dames of the auditory, who loudly expressed their wonder that the devil should have power to hurt so good a man. One poor witch, who lay in the very jaws of death, confessed that she knew too well the cause of the minister's headache. The devil had sent her with a sledge-hammer and a large nail to drive into the good man's skull. She had hammered at it for some time, but the skull was so enormously thick, that she made no impression upon it. Every hand was held up in astonishment. The pious minister blessed God that his skull was so solid, and he became renowned for his thick head all the days of his life. Whether the witch intended a joke does not appear, but she was looked upon as a criminal more than usually atrocious. (pages 569-70, original emphasis)

I take it the accused witch had nothing to lose. She may as well have the last laugh. And it comes as no surprise to me that the deluded parson would take such pride in the crown of his ignorance. The joke must have flown right over his extraordinarily thick head.