Revealing mistake: When Willow is dancing nude, right after Howie puts his hands on the wall, there is a shot of Willow slapping her butt, where she swings her head back and forth, and the face of the body double can be seen.
Continuity mistake: When Sergeant Howie is looking at what he believes to be the setting for the final sacrifice, the first torchbearer (the one wearing blue jeans) is simply standing in the wider shots, and has one knee raised in intermediate shot with a closer angle.
Continuity mistake: Lord Summerisle announces that it's time for the sacrifice to appease the gods of the earth. A horn is blown, and everyone turns towards it. In the shot from behind, everyone in front of Howie/Punch moved aside, but in the shot from the front, there's still a man with a flannel jacket and a badger mask.
Continuity mistake: Lord Summerisle is offering a tribute of ale to the god of the sea. Two villagers help him; in the close-up on them at the end of the wagon, the one on the left puts his hand on the barrel, but in the next shot his hand is on the cart.
Continuity mistake: When Christopher Lee in drag is leading the procession towards their mini-stonehenge, look at the dolmen the villagers go through; the shadows vary significantly direction in the space of a cut.
Continuity mistake: Howie had a whiskey and went upstairs to his room at the inn. As the innkeeper and his hot daughter conspire in front of his open door, the shadows on Edward Woodward's face change in close-up.
Continuity mistake: Sergeant Howie is giving chase to the man wearing the hobbyhorse costume. The guy stops at the end of an alley to be followed. In the next shot, he's standing in a different alley, with different pavement and background.
Continuity mistake: When Willow wakes the protagonist after the famed nude dance scene, Howie in close-up is holding his pyjamas jacket together, but in the side view his hand already slipped lower.
Continuity mistake: The protagonist tosses the dead hare between Lord Summerisle and Miss Rose. Christopher Lee sarcastically remarks that Willow loved March hares; Diane Cilento holds the goblet with her fingers horizontal, but at the next cut her index is up diagonally.
Audio problem: On his way to check out the school, the Sarge witnesses a group of kids involved in the Maypole song. During the song, a kid with a mouth harp is strumming it every single time he's in frame, but that included large parts when the instrument is in fact not part of the diegetic song.
Continuity mistake: The blood trickling from Sergeant Howie's mouth in the finale changes length, in particular when he is helpless in a full nelson - in close-up it's almost halved in size.
Continuity mistake: When Rowan begins to run away, she has a head start on Howie, but at the first cut he's still leading her with a hand on her back like he was doing when he had just released her.
Continuity mistake: Punch is forcefully put in line for the 'game'; there are two girls in front of him, but at the cut only one remains.
Continuity mistake: Three women begin to repeatedly prod with sticks Howie dressed as Punch. In the very first shot, the one before they break out from the group to rush him, the natural light is different, as shown by the different angle of the shadows.
Revealing mistake: Sergeant Howie spots the creepy candle and knocks it to the floor. He falls to the floor himself and extinguishes the flaming thumb, but reaches it through a visible editing job; some frames are missing.
Continuity mistake: Back at the post office/sweets shop, Howie witnesses a bizarre bit of 'traditional medicine' involving a frog. The animal is held in close-up in a different way than in the first shot - the position of the last 3 fingers changes. Moreover, despite the spoken lines overlapping between shots giving the impression of continuity, the candy jar appears out of thin air, since the woman had just barely put the frog away in the other box.
Continuity mistake: In the former churchyard, Sergeant Howie walks past a woman breastfeeding and holding an egg. He looks at two mostly empty crates of fruit; the one on the right rotates 90° between shots as he approaches it.
Continuity mistake: When Sergeant Howard checks out the school register, he follows the line pertaining Rowan with his finger. His finger has gone quite a way towards the center of the book, but in the reverse shot the hand is at the edge.
Continuity mistake: Howie chalks up on the blackboard the name of the missing girl, Rowan Morrison. He then notices the empty desk and walks towards it. Now look at the blackboard in the background; the writing changed - the shape of the Rs in "Morrison" being the most conspicuous difference.
Continuity mistake: Sergeant Howie is being quite critical about the food quality at the inn. Willow tells him that he can have "peaches and cream", and he replies "Aye, from a can I suppose." The beer fills his mug up to the top section of the handle. Brief cut to Britt Ekland, and in the next shot Howie's mug is half empty even if he didn't have time to drink - nor it is implied he moved at all, the position is the same.
Answer: He was a devout man of faith. They had to test his virtue, to tempt him to break the ten commandments or the seven deadly sins.