[2] On his return to England in 1585 Tyrrell became mixed up with the strange practices of Father Weston, SJ, Robert Dibdale, and others, in the alleged casting out of devils in the house of Lord Vaux at Hackney, and at Sir George Peckham's at Denham.
For a moment he maintained the genuineness of the alleged supernatural phenomena in which he had taken part, and expressed his grief when the knives, rusty nails, and other objects which he declared had been extracted from the cheeks or stomachs of the possessed women and had been found in his trunk, were taken away from him by the pursuivants.
He, however, presently opened communication with Burghley; and a few weeks later the arrest of his friend Ballard so alarmed him that, to secure his own safety and gain the favour of the Government, he made at several times (27, 30, 31 August, 2, 3 September) secret disclosures regarding the Babington conspirators, Mary Stuart, the Pope, and a number of his clerical brethren, mixing up with some genuine and valuable information much that was mere guesswork or absolute fiction.
[b] He also wrote a full and detailed confession, which came into the possession of Father Parsons, and was by him being prepared for the press, when Tyrrell, with no apparent reason, after a few months slipped back into England, and there fell or threw himself into the hands of his former masters.
He was thereupon violently interrupted, rescued with difficulty from the angry mob, hurried to Newgate, and thence to close confinement in the Counter, but not before he had contrived to scatter among the people copies of his intended discourse, which was triumphantly published in the same year by John Bridgewater.
It was printed with the title The recantation and abjuration of Anthony Tyrrell (some time priest of the English College in Rome, but now by the great mercy of God converted and become a true professor of His Word) pronounced by himself at Paul's Cross after the sermon made by Mr. Pownoll, preacher … At London 1588.
Here he remained for at least two months, but was probably soon afterwards released by means of his old patron, Justice Young, who, "moved by the pitiful request and suit of his [Tyrrell's] wife", and finding him "constant in God's true religion and desirous to continue his preaching", interceded on his behalf with Sir Robert Cecil.
Anthonie Tyrrell, Clerke, written with his owne hand and avouched upon his oath the 15 of June 1602, was printed in the following year, together with The copies of the severall examinations and confessions of the parties pretending to be possessed and dispossessed by Weston the jesuit and his adherents, in the Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures, published by Harsnett, then chaplain to the Bishop of London, and afterwards Archbishop of York.