The witch trials of Salem
Cotton Mather's involvement
1692-1693
Tessa Kok
Supervisor: Prof. Ruud Janssens
Second reader: Dr. Eduard van de Bilt
30 June 2014
Table of contents
Introduction 3
1.
Witchcraft in Salem Village: occurrences, explanations, and context 112.
Cotton Mather's personal legacy 233.
Contemporaries 36Conclusion 49
Introduction
At the height of the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, a congressman warned that the impeachment process could turn legislators into “a set of Cotton Mathers, engaging in witch hunts, setting extraordinarily high standards for other people, though not always for themselves.”1 Cotton Mather is often blamed for the hysterical witch scare that occurred in
Salem in the 1690s. He is seen as an instigator, and as biasing in favor of the arrest of suspected witches. But why and how did this image of him arise? Were his actions really telling enough to be used in the manner they were during the Watergate scandal? What can be said about witchcraft in general, and the role a priest might play in them?
The Salem witch persecutions of 1692 are pondered over in writing very frequently. While the number of people executed was much more limited than is often believed – about twenty – it is the scare and hysteria that spread like wildfire in a community that was as conservative and controlling as Puritan New England was, that impresses people. The actual events started near Salem, Massachusetts, in February of 1692, when both the daughter and niece of local minister Samuel Parris started showing signs of seizures and fits. Many other girls followed their example. This soon led to a major witchcraft scare. At least twenty-five people died – nineteen of whom were executed by hanging, one was tortured to death, and at least five died in jail due to harsh conditions. Over 160 people were accused of witchcraft, most were jailed, and many deprived of property and legal rights. At least half of the people who were accused, confessed to witchcraft – mainly to save themselves from trial. Hundreds upon hundreds of people were involved in the trials one way or another, for instance as neighbors, relatives, jurors, ministers, judges and magistrates. After the Salem trials ended, not a single person has been convicted of witchcraft in New England. During the Salem trials, more people were accused and executed than in all the previous witchcraft trials in New England.2
A couple of major seventeenth century Puritan figures dictated the course of the events. This thesis will focus on Cotton Mather, who was one of the most influential Puritan ministers of the time. He was very interested in the craft and actions of Satan. This won him a powerful audience during the trials. A couple of years before they started, in 1689, he had already written Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions, which was “A Faithful 1 Marc Mappen, Witches & Historians. Interpretations of Salem (Huntington: Robert E. Krieger
Publishing Company, 1980) 83.
2 “Overview of the Salem Witch Trials”, Salem Witch Trials. Documentary Archive and Transcription
Project. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States.
Account of many Wonderful and Surprising Things, that have befallen several Bewitched and Possessed Persons in New-England: Particularly, A Narrative of the marvellous Trouble and Releef Experienced by a pious Family in Boston, very lately and sadly molested with Evil Spirits.” It describes a family in Boston that had suffered from a “possession.” He even took the eldest child of the family into his home to study the case closer. Mather used these experiences to prove that New England was wrapped up in a battle with Satan. His positions towards the trials have been contemplated both by his contemporaries and by historians. After the final executions in 1693, Mather wrote The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England. He defended his role in the trials, and condemned witchcraft as an evil magical power. He viewed it as Satan's tool to overpower the Puritan colony – prosecution of witches was then a way to receive blessings from God to the colony. This book rewrote the trial records of five selected cases. It was an important representation of his opinion.3
In this thesis I will research Cotton Mather's viewpoints and his role in the Salem trials. A large part of the witch scare and the resulting trials came forth out of the general religious doctrine of the Puritans. The Puritan doctrine was laid out by historian Perry Miller in his New England Mind series of 1939 and 1953. Piety, humility, religious devotion, and discipline are keywords when it comes to understanding their way of life. Miller laid the foundation of scholarship on the Puritans and he is often seen as one of the founders of the modern field of American studies. His work is viewed as the paradigm for historical writing on early New England. Therefore, New England Mind is also very important for my research, as it provides the necessary framework to understand Puritan life and ideas. In the second part of the series, From Colony to Province, Miller paid attention to Cotton Mather. He described The Wonders of the Invisible World as “utter confusion”, and according to him, Mather deeply regretted his actions during the trials later in his life. Apparently, at that point he wished he had put more effort into stopping the judges from making the decisions they made.4 As an authority on the
field, Miller's notes should always be considered.
While the eighteenth century was surprisingly quiet on this topic, the nineteenth century produced several leading works that focused specifically on the Salem witch trials. The most 3 “Salem Witch Trials: Cotton Mather”, Salem Witch Trials. Documentary Archive and Transcription
Project. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States.
http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/overview.html (accessed January 21, 2014).
important of these are Salem Witchcraft, written by Charles Upham in 1867, and Witchcraft in Salem Village, written by Winfield Nevins in 1892. Both these authors put major research into their work. Upham, who had been both a member of the Senate and of the House of Representatives of the state of Massachusetts, recreated every little detail he was able to find in the records and uses them to renarrate the story, with which he also goes into Salem's economic and legislative problems. In 1869, Upham also wrote Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather: A Reply, in which he investigates Cotton Mather's role more deeply. In the introduction, he states: “In the first place, I venture to say that it can admit of no doubt that Increase Mather and his son Cotton Mather did more than any other persons to aggravate the tendency of that age to the result reached in the Witchcraft Delusion of 1692.”5 According to Upham, father and
son Mather then went on to “promote the prevalence of a passion for the marvelous and monstrous, and what was deemed preternatural, infernal, and diabolical, throughout the whole mass of the people, in England as well as America.”6 Upham immediately seems to steer in the
direction that Cotton Mather's role in the trials was suspicious. In my research, I will take a more open route by also analyzing both court records and Mather's own sermons. Winfield Nevins' Witchcraft in the Salem Village is a series of essays on various aspects of the events. The most important of these deals with the legal side of them, which is of course also extremely important when forming a statement about the part Cotton Mather played in this whole episode.
It is also important to consult more recent scholarship. While Perry Miller is an important figure when it comes to Puritan doctrine, another very important twentieth century works that deals specifically with the Salem witch trials is The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Inquiry into the Salem Witch Trials, written by Marion Starkey in 1949. This is both a record and an analysis of the trials, which reviews the existing records in the light of the findings of psychology at the time, especially that of the Freudian school. This was a novelty at the time – it is the first psychological study written about the Salem affair. This sheds a different light on the trials. Starkey also mentions Cotton Mather extensively. This is a noteworthy book and the research is innovatory, but it still written over half a century ago – around the time Miller wrote the second part of his New England Mind series.7 Fortunately, more recently historians have
also conducted research on this topic. Another very important book dealing with the trials of 5 Charles Upham, Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather: A Reply (Morrisania, NY, 1869) 1.
6 Ibid., 2.
7 Marion Starkey, The Devil in Massachusetts. A Modern Inquiry into the Salem Witch Trials (New York:
Salem is Salem Possessed, written by Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum in 1974. This book explores the pre-existing social and economic divisions within the Salem Village community, as an entry point to understand the accusations of witchcraft in 1692. It is about the lives of the men and women who helped spin the web of the trials and witch scare and who ended up being entangled in it. It is a very useful book both for the background and the larger story of the trials, as for smaller facts. I have relied on it greatly in this thesis.
In 1993, Bernard Rosenthal wrote Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692, in which he examines primary sources and investigates the motives people had to participate in the witch hunt – to turn in their neighbors, for instance. This book also examines the myths that came forth out of the trials and that still are prevalent today. In 2008 Rosenthal also wrote an article in cooperation with Margo Burns: Examination of the Records of the Salem Witch Trials, which is, as the title suggests, a closer examination of the existing records of the trials. A useful article, as it both summarizes and criticizes the records. In 1997, Elizabeth Reis wrote Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England. This book is a combination of a historical study and a work of gender studies. It examines the Salem trials, but specifically women's role in them. “Why was it that far more women than men were accused and convicted of witchcraft? What was it about New England Puritanism that linked women more closely to the devil?”8 This book takes a stance on witchcraft, gender, and Puritanism. An interesting twist
to the existing Salem debate, that could provide a fresh viewpoint.
Al large amount of scholarship has been written on the Puritans. Perry Miller started it, and the others followed suit – they all followed his example and cited him frequently. These works are all important in order to fully understand the Puritan background of the trials of Salem. On the specific topic of the witch trials, there is also a large number of books and articles that can be found. These all base their arguments upon the same primary sources, but they all shed a different light on the events, which makes them impossible to ignore when conducting research on this topic. While the amount of scholarship is impressive, the amount of easily available primary sources is possibly even larger. Court records, sermons, and personal letters are all readily accessible on the Internet, which makes them easy to use. Therefore, I will try to base the bulk of my research on them. Another batch of primary sources that can be used, are books written by contemporaries. John Hale, Robert Calef, and Cotton Mather himself all wrote one or more books about their views on and experiences with the trials. The large 8 Elizabeth Reis, Damned Women. Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England (Ithaca: Cornell
amount of both secondary and primary sources makes it necessary to narrow the research topic down to a large extent – it is already narrowed down to a specific event in a specific place in a specific time, but this is not enough. The controversy in historiography about Cotton Mather's part in the trials made me decide to focus my research on him.
In Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather: A Reply (1869) Charles Upham stated that Cotton Mather and his father Increase Mather played an important role in instigating the witch scare in 1692. They stimulated the clergy to “collect and circulate all sorts of marvelous and supposed preternatural occurences.”9 They were fully aware of the influence they had on the
clergy, Upham stated, and therefore knew their actions would have great effect. It can be said that they were for a large part responsible for the extraordinary outbreak and fanaticism that occurred in Salem. The Mathers were extremely interested in witchcraft, and spent many years researching the phenomenon. They collected and circulated a large amount of material. In some cases, they would also take their investigations a bit too far. Every strange little occurrence or unusual type of behavior would immediately be attributed to the devil. This stimulated the development of fear in the area. Upham states:
No wonder that the country was full of the terrors and horrors of diabolical imaginations, when the devil was kept before the minds of men, by what they constantly read and heard, from their religious teachers! In the Sermons of that day, he was the all-absorbing topic of learning and eloquence. In some of Cotton Mather's, the name, Devil, or its synonyms, is mentioned ten times as often as that of the benign and blessed God. No wonder that alleged witchcrafts were numerous!10
Thus, according to Upham, Cotton Mather played an important role in instigating the fear of witchcraft in Massachusetts, and possibly in the entire country. His extensive work on witchcraft and his tendency to blame everything on the devil worked as a self-fullfilling prophecy – it led to major fear and excessive accustions of witchcraft. His role during the actual trials was also questionable. While he never recommended the use of spectral evidence (which is evidence based upon dreams and visions) during trials, he also never truly recommended against its use. And, according to Upham, there were also several cases in which Mather stated he viewed certain types of spectral evidence as “very palpable”, after which he stated “hold them, for you 9 Upham, Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather, 3.
have catched a witch”.11 Thus, Upham stated that Mather did not only instigate a large part of
the witch fear in Massachusetts, he also held a very controversial position during the trials. Winfield Nevins, who wrote Witchcraft in Salem Village in 1692 (1892), did not agree with Upham about Mather's position. According to him, his place has been misunderstood and misinterpreted. He and his father were conservative in all matters that related to the witchcraft prosecutions after they began. Cotton Mather has been accused repeatedly of “getting up the delusion at Salem Village, with being the chief agent of the mischief, and helping it on throughout that dark summer.”12 On the contrary, he was not present at a single trial, and was
at only one execution. According to Nevins, Mather advised the judges and the council to exercise proceed with caution, and not to convict base only spectral evidence. Often, it has been said that he advised testing the accused by having them repeat the Lord's prayer – which he did. But while he did so, he actually forbade the judges to use it as evidence to convict. The question is not whether Mather believed in witchcraft – he did, just like almost everybody in Puritan New England. It is also a fact that he wrote about the subject very extensively. But, according to Nevins, it is his position that can be questioned – whether he did play such an enormous, powerful role during the trials, and how much he cared to influence the judges.13 It
was Nevins's position that this was not as suspicious as Upham states it to have been.
According to Marion Starkey in The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Inquiry in to the Salem Witch Trials (1949), Mather actually followed the cases and trials from a distance and did not get involved too much. Only three times had he taken action, one of these had been his giving of advice to the judges, which cautioned them against relying too much on spectral evidence. Before that he had also unofficially written to Judge John Richard to warn him against spectral evidences but also against uncritical acceptance of such confessions because they might come from “a delirious brain or a discontented heart.” He also denounced torture as a way of getting confessions. However, his speech after the execution of Reverend George Burroughs was questionable. Burroughs was the only minister who would ever be executed for witchcraft, and his trial was problematic. He was convicted for witchcraft because he managed to lift weights that were deemed impossible without help from the supernatural. However, there was no further “evidence” found and while Burroughs was waiting to be hanged, he recited the Lord's prayer – which was considered by many, including Cotton Mather as stated above – 11 Ibid., 21.
12 Winfield Nevins, Witchcraft in Salem Village in 1692 (Boston: North Shore Publishing Company, 1892)
impossible for a witch to do. Yet, after the execution Mather delivered a speech in which he stated that Burroughs was tried in a court of law, and that the trial was carried through lawfully. This speech was so convincing that it led to the execution of four more witches.Thus, according to Starkey, Mather was not very much involved in the trials. He did give some advice to the judges, but this was only a couple of times and only to advise against the use of spectral evidence and to condemn torture. However, the Burroughs case was an example of questionable behavior.14
In Bernard Rosenthal's Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692 (1993), Rosenthal states that in general, the clergy did more to restrain the witch trials than to promote them. However, Increase and Cotton Mather seemed to have been an exception to this rule. He also discusses the case of George Burroughs. According to Rosenthal, the Mathers were very involved in this case, because Burroughs had a tendency to deviate from orthodox religious practices.15 Thus, Rosenthal states that while the general clergy did not try to get involved in
the trials, and when they did, they would rather try to stop them than promote them, this did not go for the Mathers. They played a different role – one that stirs controversy in historiography on the Salem trials. Increase and Cotton Mather have been acting suspicious several times, but they were still important ministers. It is beyond doubt that Cotton Mather was extremely interested in witchcraft. He wrote several books on the subject, for which he did a tremendous amount of research. It could be said that this actually played a role in provoking fear of witches in Salem. The extended knowledge on the subject led to an excessive interpretation of witchcraft – every tiny unexplainable event would be seen as caused by witches or the devil. This would make Mather an instigator of witch fear, whether it was on purpose or not. The debate continues on his actual role during the trials. Upham argues Mather behaved conservatively during the trials, and his only suspicious act was the fact that he did not argue actively against the use of spectral evidence, and in some cases he even concluded someone was a witch solely through spectral evidence. Nevins agrees with this, he even defends Mather further by stating that he did advise the judges not to use spectral evidence. This is a problematic controversy, that should be researched further through primary sources.
Marion Starkey states Cotton Mather denounced torture, and she also argues that he did argue against the use of spectral evidence. Furthermore, according to her Mather actually did 14 Starkey, The Devil in Massachusetts. 244-245
15 Bernard Rosenthal, Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1993) review by: Richard Weisman, The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, vol. 52, no. 1 (Jan. 1995) 181-184.
not get involved in the trials that much – his actions can be limited to only three times. However, she does argue that he acted very suspiciously at the George Burroughs case. His speech defends this questionable trial, and even led to more executions. Bernard Rosenthal agrees that both Cotton and Increase Mather's behavior around this case was leery – they got involved to an inappropriate extent, which was not the standard for the clergy at the time. Clergy prefered to keep a distance, and rather tried to restrain the witch trials than promote them. Yet, Cotton Mather received an extremely bad reputation, being cast as an instigator of witch scare and the trials. It is this paradox that I will research in this thesis. What was Cotton Mather's position, and what were his actions? Did he behave like the other clergy, or were his actions questionable? What was his position in the work he wrote about witchcraft? And how and why did he receive the reputation that he did? The research is mainly based on primary sources, the books of the age, because they will create the most reliable seventeenth century picture. My goal is to objectify Mather's part, not to take a side – which some scholars have tended to do in this debate. According to Perry Miller, at the end of his life Cotton Mather regretted not having put more effort into stopping the judges. Thus, that would mean that he himself found his role questionable as well. Upham, Nevins, Starkey and Rosenthal all disagreed slightly on Cotton Mather's part. This thesis will research this controversy.
1. Witchcraft in Salem Village: occurrences, explanations, and context
Once a witch signs the book and covenants with hell (the special heinousness of this crime was the fact that it, like regeneration, took the form of a covenant), Satan delegates to him a devil who, taking on the likeness of the witch, executes his behests, such chores as pinching his enemies, blinding them, burning their houses or wrecking their ships. Perry Miller, The New England Mind. From Colony to Province, 193-194 In 1692, the trials of Salem started, when both the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris started suffering inexplicable fits. When pressed to identify who had caused their mischief, the girls named two local outcasts and one slave. Promptly, they were interrogated and imprisoned. Reports of witchcraft spread, and new afflictions were reported both in Salem and elsewhere in New England. By early summer, dozens of men and women were taken into custody. Some of them confessed to witchcraft, while others merely voiced uncertainty at surreal proceedings. This chapter will give an introduction to the witch trials of Salem, what had started them, what the main background of witchcraft was, and what the main controversies were that surrounded the trials.16
Belief in devils and witches is world wide and ancient. New England was definitely not the first nor the last area of the world to be afflicted by it. Even in the modern world, it is still quite prevalent. According to a national Gallup poll taken in 1980, 34% of American adults believe in the devil as a personal being who directs evil forces. The Salem case represents a late, transatlantic instance of a much larger witch scare in Europe. The events of Salem followed a pattern that was classic in European outbreaks of witchcraft since at least the sixteenth century. For instance, in almost every case the accuser and accused knew each other intimately, often as neighbors. The accuser had suffered some strange illness, accident, or other personal misfortune for which no natural explanation could be found. He or she usually did remember, however, having offended a neighbor and accused him or her of having produced the illness or accident by way of revenge. The victim's symptoms were also stereotypical: convulsions, speech difficulties, the sticking with or throwing up of pins and nails, appearances of cats, dogs, or other animals. Both in America and in Europe, finally, cases of witchcraft were clearly community events. No matter what actions the ministers or clergymen undertook, the 16 Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed. The Social Origins of Witchcraft (Cambridge:
responsibility for prosecution and hanging rested on neighborhood people. They snooped on, accused, and gave evidence against each other.
Through contacts with Europe and the Caribbean, stories and books on the subject of fortune telling made its way to New England. Late in 1691, all over New England young people were being “led away with little sorceries,” as historians Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum put it. They began to cast spells and practice conjuration with elements such as sieves and keys, nails, peas, and horseshoes. These practices became particularly popular in Salem Village, where it were mainly young girls who were anxious to find out about their future. An atmosphere of obscurity arose, and strange things happened to those involved. By February 1692, the grownups noticed something was happening to their children: “odd postures;” “foolish, ridiculous speeches;” “distempers;” “fits.” Visits from physicians confirmed the suspicion that the condition was not medical, but supernatural. It was also a legal problem, because those who suffered from witchcraft were not the victims of a disease, but of a crime. But instead of turning to the civil authorities, Reverend Parris took counsel with several nearby ministers. They advised him to “sit still and wait upon the Providence of God, to see what time might discover.”17
However, rumors had already spread through Salem Village and not everybody was satisfied with Parris's passive approach. For instance, the story about the slaves Tituba and John Indian was brought into the world – they were said to have baked a “witch cake.” More and more girls suffered from the same symptoms of odd postures, distempers, and others, and eventually legal action was taken. On February 29, 1692, warrants went out for the arrest of three Village women whom the girls, under the pressure of intense adult questioning, had finally named as their tormenters. Among them was the slave Tituba. The next day, two members of the upper house of the provincial legislature who lived in the vicinity of Salem, Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne, traveled to the town to conduct a public examination of the three women in the Village meetinghouse. Only Tituba confessed, describing her actions in great detail – she even gave a description of the devil as “a thing all over hairy, all the face hairy, and a long nose.”18 In spite of the other two women's denial, all three of them were sent
to jail in Boston.19
If the situation had followed the pattern of previous witch accusations in the area – for 17 Ibid.
instance, the case of the Goodwin family in 1688 – the affair would have been over now that the three women were arrested. But that was not the case. The afflicted girls' bizarre behavior continued. The village strove to handle this situation by itself, in its own way. Samuel Parris held ritual “private fasts” in his own home, and on March 11 he invited several neighboring ministers for a day of prayer. These actions were attempts to scare off evil spirits. However, the girls' behavior did not stop – it got worse. This even happened when the ministers were present in the very room that the girls were in. In order to take matters into hand, a couple days later Reverend Deodat Lawson, a former minister of the village, came over from Boston to observe the situation and to do what he could to help. On March 20, Lawson delivered an earnest anti-witchcraft sermon in the Salem meetinghouse. According to Perry Miller, this sermon did nothing to allay the panic, nor was it a malicious burning: it was a bout of wisdom. He covered the standard points: afflictions come upon a people from God (or by His permission) because of their sins; the only relief is prayer and repentance, to be manifested by confession of the provoking acts; meanwhile, the duty of civil magistrates, in the interest of the people's welfare, is to suppress disorders and punish criminals without mercy, especially those who refuse to repent and confess. Lawson approached the situation in the way preachers usually treated military disasters or epidemics. He also realized that ruthless prosecution of witches might tempt people, who had been agonized by a series of standard village quarrels, to imagine that “the specters of any or all their neighbors were let loose” - therefore to be convinced that every neighbor was a witch. So even in this early stage, Lawson advised caution: “the Devil may represent good and decent citizens as afflictors of others; therefore, to accuse any without sufficient grounds will have pernicious influence, will bring in confusion and an abundance of evil.”20
Several strange events occurred before, during and after that sermon, and more and more adults and children suffered fits and showed signs of possession.21 A fourth person was
arrested, a village woman named Martha Cory, and Boyer and Nissenbaum described her examination as following:
On the Monday following Lawson's sermon, the fourth person to be arrested, Martha Cory of Salem Village, was examined by Hathorne and Corwin before a throng of several hundred in the Village meetinghouse. As she was led into the room, the afflicted 20 Miller, From Colony to Province, 192-193.
girls, sitting together at the front, cried out in “extreme agony”; when she wrung her hands, they screamed that they were being pinched; when she bit her lips, they declared that they could feel teeth biting their own flesh. In the general hubbub, a Village woman named Bethshaa Pope flung first her muff and then her shoe at Martha, striking her on the head.22
Martha Cory was sent to jail. The outbreaks, however, did not disappear or even decrease. The number of arrests strongly increased and began to get out of hand. An example of this was four-year-old Dorcas Good, who was held in heavy irons in Boston prison for nine months. The situation was turning into a crisis. Prisons were overflowing and overly exhausting demands were being placed upon magistrates, jailers, sheriffs, and constables. Even former Salem minister George Burroughs was arrested after he was accused of being a wizard.23
The legal system, by which the accused had been arrested, examined, and imprisoned, created a number of serious problems. The worst problem was that while a large number of suspected witches and wizards had been arrested and sent to jail, there had not been any trials yet. Trials could not take place, because Massachusetts did not have a legally established government. In 1684, its original form of government had been abolished by the English authorities. In 1689 the administration that the King had replaced it with, was overthrown. Between 1689 and 1691, the colonists had lobbied tirelessly at the royal court for a restoration of the government they had had before 1684. Early in 1692, word came that a new governor, Sir William Phips, would arrive soon, bringing with him a new charter. But until Phips arrived, it was illegal to proceed with formal prosecution of the accused witches. Therefore, the only thing the authorities could legally do with the suspects was to jail them without a trial. Phips arrived on May 14, 1692, and his response was swift and bold. Within a few days he had constituted six members of his advisory council as a special Court of Oyer and Terminer to “hear and determine” the enormous collection of witchcraft cases. On June 2, the Court of Oyer and Terminer held the first trial in Salem, which immediately led to a death sentence. On June 10, Bridget Bishop – a woman from Salem who had been in prison since April 18 – was hanged. The second time the court sat was on June 29, and by then it was able to try five women in one day. All of these led to a death sentence as well. These events marked the start of the witch
trials of Salem.24
The origins of witchcraft
Witchcraft in New England was a small phenomenon of a much larger witch scare in Europe. Therefore, in order to properly understand Salem, it is necessary to have some knowledge of the history of the belief in witchery in the Old World. Witch hunts in Europe started much earlier, during the late Middle Ages – roughly the late fifteenth century. Before that, the execution of witches occurred, but it was a much more infrequent event. People believed in witchcraft, but it was not considered a major social problem. However, in 1484 Pope Innocent VIII published a bill against witchcraft, which marked the beginning of a new era in the history of superstition. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were scarred by witchcraft delusion. It was the time in which the Roman Catholic Church was engaged in a fight with heresy, and obnoxious individuals suspected of heresy could sometimes be destroyed by an accusation of witchcraft when there were no other ways of reaching them. The universal superstition and belief in witches was now used by a militant and merciless ecclesiastical organization. The diabolical crime of witchcraft was to be exterminated forever. People were hunted down, accused and executed by the thousands. Puritan religion originated from the Catholic religion, therefore some general ideas about Hell and the Devil were very comparable. The Puritans were also wary of outsiders, and they were very protective of their community. The witch scare in Massachusetts started at the end of the period of witch scare in Europe.25
In 1902, American author John Fiske wrote an essay that can be considered a brief survey of the phenomenon. It is a very traditional interpretation of witchcraft, and it has been challenged by many scholars. I will address the criticism later, but Fiske's interpretation is very useful in order to grasp the ideas that existed about witchcraft. Fiske argued that the unquestioning belief in witchcraft had been shared by the entire human race, both civilized and uncivilized, from prehistoric ages to the end of the seventeenth century. According to him, it was the one thing even the most undeveloped people believed in: “There are tribes of men with minds so little developed that travelers have doubted the existence of religious ideas among them; but none have been found so low as not to have some notion of witchcraft.”26 All people
assumed connection between disease or death and some malevolent personal agency. Only 24 Ibid., 7-8.
25 Mappen, Witches & Historians. 6.
“civilized” minds could understand the concepts of natural disease and natural death: to the less civilized, all death was regarded as murder, either by a supernatural power by another human seeking vengeance. Disease was explained in the same way – one of the main tasks for medicine-men and priests of less civilized tribes of the past was the detection and punishment of witches. Therefore, among all superstitions, the belief in witchcraft had always been accepted without a doubt.27
What was it then, that caused people after the seventeenth century to not only disregard their belief in witches, but also to stop thinking about it altogether? According to Fiske, it was the enormous development of physical science that took off with Newton and Descartes. People became familiar with the conception of natural law, which discredited the old superstitions.28 Seventeen years after Fiske wrote his essay, Princeton professor of history
Lawrence Stone wrote a new interpretation of witchcraft, which went against many of Fiske's arguments. For instance, he did not think that the decline of witch accusations in the late seventeenth century was solely due to scientific developments. The lay and clerical elite played an important part in it, as they were the first to lose faith in the system of beliefs upon which the persecutions were founded. Belief in magic, witches, and black witchcraft survived in the general populations until recent times – it probably never completely died out in the West. It was therefore too simplistic to state that scientific developments caused everybody to quit believing in witches. In causing the elite to lose its faith in witchcraft, the change in scientific attitudes was, furthermore, more important than actual scientific discoveries. For instance, the new demand for experimental proof – the idea that “there is no certain knowledge without demonstration” slowly eroded belief in all kinds of magical explanations for events. This occurred just at the time when lawyers were more demanding of actual evidence, and tightening the rules for what was considered good evidence. With new scientific developments, man's attitude also changed: there was now a belief that the human condition could be improved, both by social actions and by technological discoveries. It was a new religious attitude of self-help, an acceptance of the idea that God helps those who help themselves, and that supernatural intervention in the workings of nature was very rare.29 While Fiske was not
wrong to argue that scientific development played an important role in the decline of witch scare, it was much more the change of attitude that came with it than the actual discoveries 27 Ibid.
28 Ibid.
that were being made, that made people change their minds about witchcraft.
Stone also disagreed with Fiske about the origins of belief in witchcraft. According to Stone, in the sixteenth century belief in witchcraft reached a higher level of consciousness than it had during the Middle Ages. One reason was that the Reformation caused a large increase in belief in the powers of the Devil. The early Protestants disregarded all claims that God could be persuaded into interfering – for the good - in the mechanics of nature, but simultaneously, they also strengthened the claims that the Devil was responsible for all the forces of evil in the world. They thus rejected the Church's white magic, and offered an explanation for black magic. Belief in supernatural forces was therefore reinforced by Protestant doctrine, which soon also made its way to Counter-Reformation beliefs. The pressure of social and economic change, furthermore, broke down the old values of the intimate peasant communities and put great stress on the villages. This created a more widespread network and diminished the old familiar feeling of the village, causing constant friction between people.30 A similar force was also at
work in late seventeenth century New England, where the arrival of the triangle trade increased globalization, introducing new people and new luxuries to the area, which henceforth greatly transformed the area.
When combining Fiske's traditional interpretation and Stones new interpretation, it can be concluded that the roots of witchcraft scares were both deep and varied. Belief in witchcraft was incredibly common in the pre-scientific age, since many phenomena simply could not be explained, nor was any evidence or proof expected. Witchcraft was something everybody believed in to a certain extent, but it did not lead to major social issues until several forces were at work, starting in the early sixteenth century. The forces of the Reformation, and social and economic transformations were enough to push society into that stage of hysteria – where neighbors and friends accused each other of having cast their spell. Seventeenth century New England dealt with similar issues. Constant pressure from the Crown of England caused stress and friction, as did the inevitable changes that occurred in society over time. The generational conflict Perry Miller wrote about in New England Mind was strongly tied to the stress the community of Puritan New England was put under – I will discuss this in the next chapter. Puritan religion was also very Satan focused, blaming unexplainable events on the Devil. While the witch scare of Massachusetts was a late, much smaller occurrence of the enormous witch scare in Europe, when looking at the background of Europe's scare, it becomes obvious that the 30 Ibid.
two are connected and similar. Of course, the Puritans of New England had only lived in the New World for a couple of generations, so they will have shared many general ideas and beliefs with their European counterparts. The forces that were at work behind the European witch hunts are essential in order to understand the background of Salem. The unquestioning belief in magic and the Devil as an entity responsible for all forces of evil in the world was present both in Salem and in Europe. The pressure of social and economic change, causing the familiar feeling of the village to disappear, which led to the uncomfortable insecurity of the unknown, was a development that was set in motion in both the New and the Old World. Of course, there are also differences. The magnitude of the European witch hunts cannot be compared in size to those of Salem. Twenty people were executed in Salem, whereas this was the case for thousands in Europe. Another difference is that while in Europe, witches were burned at the stake, this never happened in Salem – the Puritans hanged their suspects.
Witch accusations always followed a distinct pattern, which was very similar in Europe and in New England. There are a couple different types that can be identified. The most important pattern is the one where the accuser had committed some breach of the social conventions in their behavior towards the accused. This could, for instance, be the refusal of giving alms or lend money. The accused had then mentioned some expression of malevolence – usually a curse – and then the accuser had been struck by misfortune. This caused the victim to accuse the suspect of casting their spell upon them, and thus being a witch. Another pattern was that of the hysteric, usually a woman, who went into serious fits and spoke with voices, accusing somebody to have bewitched her. This was very common in Salem – a good example is the group of girls discussed in the beginning of this chapter. According to Lawrence Stone, in Salem one could speak of a local epidemic of hysteria, superimposed on a general belief in magic. Hysteria is extremely catching, he argues, which could cause entire communities to be shattered by an epidemic of witchcraft hysteria – even causing the authorities to be temporarily blind to the weak evidence. These two patterns could also be combined, where a person would be struck by hysteria after having done wrong to an acquaintance. This was what generally happened in Salem.31
In Europe, a third pattern that sometimes also occurred: that of the dedicated ideological witch-finder, who was armed with the Malleus Maleficarum or some similar
inquisitorial handbook, and roamed the countryside, terrorizing entire neighborhoods. These people caused very dire situations, such as the 1645 mass prosecution of fifty witches in the Manningtree area of Essex, which was launched by two witch-finders. These people were merely exploiting pre-existing fears, hatreds and delusions within communities, in order to enjoy a highly sensational case. They were rare though, and this obscure phenomenon never made it to New England.32
The trials
During the Salem trials, dozens of people were heard and tried. Well-known stories are those of Rebecca Nurse, Martha and Giles Corey, and Reverend George Burroughs. It would be way too extensive to discuss all these in this introductory chapter, but it is useful to draw a general picture of what the court cases looked like. The charter that Governor Phips brought with him when he arrived in Massachusetts enabled the General Court to create judicatories and courts of record or other courts. The Governor was to appoint judges. It took two to three weeks until the members of the General Court were elected, during which it was not yet possible to hold trials. It was necessary that this happened as soon as possible though, both because this was demanded by the accused as their rights, and because the jails were overcrowded. Phips issued a commission for a court of Oyer and Terminer, and appointed commissioners. William Stoughton, the deputy governor, was chosen first and always commanded as chief justice. Because of previous political affiliations, Stoughton was a bit unpopular with the people. He was also not educated in law, but in theology. It is believed that he owed his appoint to his close friendship with the Mathers. It is very telling for the position of the Mathers and other ministers that they put a word in for their friends to be on the commission for the court of Oyer and Terminer.33
The other commissioners were Nathaniel Saltonstall of Haverhill, Major Bartholomew Gedney, John Hathorn of Salem, Jonathan Corwin of Salem, Major John Richards, Wait Winthrop, Peter Sargent and Samuel Sewall. These men were at the top of the social scale, and were considered the ablest in the colony. While none of them were actually educated in law, they probably knew at least as much, if not more, about the law of witchcraft as any American lawyer at the time. They had extensive knowledge because of their minister background, and had conducted a lot of research on the topic. During the cases, they generally had the same 32 Ibid.
views as the legal scholars or lawyers in England had had, and they were governed by the rules laid down by the English courts. The cases were also tried in accordance with English precedents. During the trials, the “victims” were there, giving a testimony of their sufferings. Witnesses were also present, and heard. A verdict was then spoken, which often resulted in execution by hanging.34
The difficulty with trying witches was the fact that the wrongdoings on which the accusations rested were not physicallyperpetrated by the witches at all, but by unidentifiable spirits who could at times assume their shape. The crime lay in the initial “contract” by which a person permitted to the devil to assume his or her human form, or in enabling the devil to perform particular acts of mischief. However, these very private and secret transactions were exceptionally difficult to prove because they took place, in fact, in the mind of the witch. According to Boyer and Nissenbaum, the examination records of 1692 consist of a remarkable testament to the magistrates' efforts to find proof that would conform to the established rules of courtroom evidence. By that, what was meant was evidence that was empirically verifiable and logically relevant. The simplest form of evidence, and also the most desirable, was a straight confession. The records show the examiners almost frantically trying to draw a confession from people whose guilt they did not doubt, but also recognized they did not yet have a legal case. A confession was particularly valid when it contained confirming details, for which the magistrates sought for ruthlessly – those were usually the things that form the popular images of witchcraft: broomsticks, certain rituals, signatures in blood. In a society where witchcraft was accepted as a definite fact, those little details meant a lot.35
Also accepted as evidence was the “trustworthy” testimony to some supernatural dimension of the accused. Six persons, for instance, testified that Reverend George Burroughs had performed superhuman strengths such as lifting a heavy gun at arm's length with a single finger thrust into the barrel. Another man said that Burroughs could read his mind. There were also certain compensating supernatural weaknesses that were believed to characterize a witch. For example, the inability to recite prayers with perfect accuracy, which the accused were often asked to do in court. Sarah Good could only “mutter... over some part of a psalm” and appeared reluctant to “mention the word God.” Furthermore, abnormal physical appendages were also seen as a supernatural attribute. They were believed to have some relation to the devil, and therefore the accused were subjected to exhaustive and conscientious bodily examinations by 34 Ibid., 72-82.
physicians or midwives in order to find this specific form of evidence.36
A big point of controversy in this matter was the case of spectral, or specter, evidence. Spectral evidence is evidence that is based on visions or dreams. For instance, when a person would have a dream or vision of his neighbor casting a spell on him, then that would be considered valid evidence in a trial that this neighbor was a witch. These statements can be placed in the category of “trustworthy” testimony to some supernatural dimension of the accused. Cotton Mather was a fierce opponent of this, as were many other ministers and other important figures in the colonies. I will discuss the matter of spectral evidence further in the next chapters, as it was an important part of Cotton Mather and his contemporaries' views. When the trials continued, spectral evidence eventually lost its force and was then finally completely rejected. That left nothing to substantiate the charges, because almost all of the convictions had been secured largely on spectral evidence. Winfield Nevins state that “under the rules of law as now fully established none of the evidence upon which convictions were found would be admitted. Spectral and kindred evidence could not be allowed, and without it not one of the accused could have been convicted.”37 It was also going against exactly what Deodat
Lawson had warned for in March of 1692: do not go around in a headless way, accusing random people without having sufficient proof.
Perry Miller also discusses the use of spectral evidence, claiming it was the main reason people grew more doubtful about the trials when more of them passed. According to Miller, the Court of Oyer and Terminer was relying far too much on it. It was not consistent with the commonly used common-law principle that an act had to have been seen by at least two witnesses. The court at Salem, however, was convinced that no innocent person could, under the providence of God, be represented by a specter – thus, those who were manifested had to be guilty. It was obvious that the accused would not confess, because “having become the Devil's children, they could confess only with his permission.” Cotton Mather called this “the philosophical schemes of witchcraft”, before explicitly warning against the use of spectral evidence. Mather also stated: “It is very certain that the divells have sometimes represented the shapes of persons not only innocent, but also very virtuous.” Miller argues that if the court had listened to Mather, there would have been no executions.38
36 Ibid., 12-13
37 Nevins, The Witches of Salem, 92. 38 Miller, From Colony to Province, 193-194.
Conclusion
The witch trials of Salem were an echo of the enormous witch scare that occurred in Europe after the Middle Ages. Belief in witches was very common in both Europe and the New World, where due to lack of science many natural phenomena could not be explained. In a society where experimental proof is not as highly regarded as religious theory, the finger is quickly pointed at Satan, demons and witches. Inter-generational conflicts and stress of a transforming world – farmers to a more globalized trade network such as the triangle trade with Africa and the Caribbean, the transformation of a young colony – easily catalyzed these fears into a panic that got out of hand.
The witch scares in Europe were mainly a Catholic event, while those in Puritan New England were, of course, Puritan ones. However, the similarity between the two is striking. This could be because both religions shared similar beliefs in demons and Satan. Also, John Fiske stated that most cultures have, at some point, believed in witchcraft. Salem and Europe followed much of the same patterns. Accusers and accused always knew each other, and the accused had always done mischief to the accuser. Often, the accuser was afflicted by some form of fit, or hysteria. Even though the evidence was flimsy, most people were accused of being a witch ended up being executed. One difference was that in Europe, witches were burned, in Salem the authorities preferred death by hanging. Some form of evidence was, on both continents, necessary in order to proceed to conviction, but this was often spectral: a vision, or a dream, in which the victim witnessed the accused of doing something that would certainly make him or her a witch. This was a major point of controversy during, and after, the trials. It did not fly with the basic common-law principles at all, and it caused many people to have doubts about the entire situation, eventually ending the trials. Many scholars, among whom Perry Miller, argue that without the use of spectral evidence, there would have been no executions. Cotton Mather was one of the main opponents. In the next chapter, I will cover his personal history and his life, as well as some of his major works on witchcraft. I will also discuss his opposition to the use of spectral evidence further.
2. Cotton Mather's personal legacy
I am far from insensible, that at this extraordinary Time of the Devils coming down in great wrath upon us, there are too many Tongues and Hearts thereby
set on fire of Hell. Cotton Mather, Wonders of the Invisible World, 379 Cotton Mather was born on February 12, 1663 in Boston to a preacher family. His father, Increase Mather, was a major figure in the early history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony: a Puritan minister who would go on to become President of Harvard College. The entire Mather family played important roles in the founding of the colony and several of them had been among the strongest leaders of the founding generations. Both his father and his two grandfathers, Richard Mather and John Cotton, were important Puritan ministers. The history of seventeenth century Massachusetts has therefore been of major concern and influence in Cotton Mather's childhood, being informed of every wave the colony went through.39 This
chapter will touch on his personal history starting at childhood, as well as deal with the legacy he left behind. Cotton Mather's personal history has had a major impact on his life, and therefore inevitably also on his work. That means it is very important to consider this before trying to form conclusions based on his writings. This chapter will also question Mather's specific position as a priest during the trials. How unique were his actions, and how significant is it that he preached about demons, devils and witches? How about general belief in those phenomena? This chapter will attempt to answer those questions.
Cotton Mather grew up during a transforming period for New England. In 1662, the Act of Uniformity was implemented by the Parliament of England. This act prescribed the form public prayers should have, the way sacraments should be administrated, and in general it stated all rites of the Established Church of England should be carried out the way they were described in the Book of Common Prayers. Another important aspect of this act was the requirement of episcopal ordination for all ministers. This was reintroduced after the Puritans had gotten rid of many aspects of the Church during the Civil War. In practice, the Act of Uniformity enabled the royal government of England to resume persecution of nonconforming clergymen. The Crown's later insistence on tolerance in New England had a liberalizing influence on this matter, but the 39 David Levin, Cotton Mather. The Young Life of the Lord's Remembrancer, 1663-1703 (Cambridge:
Puritan leaders in Massachusetts genuinely feared the royal government as an aggressive enemy. Fear was spreading through the colony for losing the virtual independence she had enjoyed during three decades of ineffective or indifferent administration in London. Although King Charles II confirmed the original charter, he expressed a new interest in colonial legislation, commerce, and justice. In England, a former governor of Massachusetts was decapitated, and the chopped off head of another former Massachusetts leader was displayed on the London Bridge. Charles commanded Massachusetts not to execute any more Quakers (five of them had been hanged there between 1658 and 1661), and he insisted that Anglicans in Massachusetts would be allowed to not only worship but also to vote. During the first year of Cotton Mather's life, Massachusetts was marked by the struggle to express the colony's wishes to the Crown through two distinguished agents – who returned from their mission with only small success – and by rumors abroad of renewed persecutions and a new emigration from England. General fear of the threat from England existed until 1665.40
While Cotton Mather was too young to understand these issues at the time, the threat was present throughout his childhood and youth. Until the original charter was revoked in 1684, the mysterious danger from London formed a presence in Boston that was as real for the Puritans as the power of the Lord and Devil. Providence and Satan formed very real fears for the people of seventeenth century Massachusetts. It was present in every struggle they were confronted with, and when a Puritan leader strove to maintain the ways of his community, he also believed he was defending it against Satan.41 With the endeavors Massachusetts was
confronted with during the early years of Cotton Mather's life, fear of Satan was ever more present. This paved the way for his involvement in the events leading up to and during the trials of Salem.
Harvard College
Cotton Mather enrolled at Harvard College in the summer of 1674, at the age of eleven. He was the youngest student in his academic generation, and almost certainly the youngest in the forty-year history of the college. At the time, it was still an – by twenty-first century standards – extraordinarily small colleges. The entire undergraduate enrollment will not have been larger than twenty-one students. The entire faculty consisted of the President and two tutors, Samuel Sewall and Peter Thacher, who were themselves studying for advanced degrees. Urian Oakes, 40 Ibid., 4-5.
Paster of the church in Cambridge and Fellow of the Harvard Corporation also did some lecturing. There was only one building for students, which served as dormitory, library, and lecture hall. Besides that, there was the unused Indian College – serving as a reminder of the unrealized hopes of converting and training a large number of Native Americans for missionary work – and the President's House. Mather significantly stood out at Harvard due to his young age. The second-youngest student was fifteen, and Mather was thrown into a dormitory life of adolescents and young men ranging in age from fifteen to twenty-one. However, he did have some reason to feel at home. His impressive heritage was no exception, as an imposing genealogy of ministers was rule rather than exception among his peers. He was joined by his cousin John Cotton (both were named after their grandfather John Cotton), John Danforth (son of a powerful minister and grandson of John Wilson), Edward Payson (grandson of John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians) and others.42
During Mathers first year at the college, he faced some controversies. In the summer of 1672, President Leonard Hoar was inaugurated. Preceding him, under the leadership of Charles Chauncy, the college had been declining so significantly that the Harvard Overseers had written letters to Hoar and to several eminent friends of the colony in England, asking for their aid. They were hoping for money and books, but even more pressingly for leadership. Chauncy was old and frail, and some fresh new blood was needed. Hoar, coming from England, provided that. He had great plans for the college, which included a botanical garden, a chemical laboratory and a large amount of books from London which New England's scholars were not familiar with. However, under Hoar's leadership the college sank even lower and more rapidly than before. He enforced severe standards, and “could not smile tolerantly on young men who wasted their time”, as historian David Levin put it. Hoar's position greatly aggravated hostility from both students and tutors. In Cotton Mather's own account of the controversy, he wrote that Hoar made powerful enemies in the neighborhood, and the young men in the college took advantage of that to ruin his reputation. Student rebellion flared up, and Hoar imposed strict rules. Dancing, drinking and especially hazing were strictly forbidden. Cotton Mather found himself in a very precarious situation, because besides being the youngest student at the college, his father Increase Mather was Hoar's most vigorous defender. He arrived at Harvard with an understandably respectful attitude towards Hoar and a desire to please. It was a tough transition going from beloved first-born son to the smallest boy in college, and the conflict 42 Levin, Cotton Mather, 23-25.
between college rules and student customs, the warfare between Hoar and the most powerful students and teaching fellows, and knowledge of Increase Mather's desire to see Hoar prevail, made the situation incredibly complex, especially for an eleven-year-old. He was often threatened by older students, and accused that he had told his father of their misconduct. Eventually, on July 16, 1674, Increase Mather took Cotton home to Boston. He did not enroll again until nearly a year later.43
This controversy situation at Harvard was, however, not very telling about Cotton Mather's behavior. It does describe the difficulties he was confronted with at such a young age, which is telling for the way he behaved later in his life. He experienced what it was like being an outsider early in his life, which later might have been an extra motivator to fight for issues he deemed important. Mather did not withdraw from the college, he graduated with his class in 1678 and after the summer of 1675 the record indicates no further trouble between him and the other students. Above all, these events indicate the importance and influences of his father in Cotton Mather's young life. In 1687, Increase Mather successfully roused opposition against the Declaration of Indulgence, which prohibited the discrimination of Catholics in Massachusetts. However, this led to his near arrest for treason, and he traveled to London to petition the King. Increase's absence finally liberated Cotton. He was left alone with the responsibilities of his large congregation, conducted church affairs and became an important figure. Cotton was also deeply involved in the town's responses to political, military, and religious dangers. It was during this time that the crisis occurred that would touch him on a deeply personal level and that would have a great impact on the rest of his life. This crisis was the case of witchcraft that started in midsummer of 1688, when the four children of John Goodwin were being afflicted with “strange fits”, more extreme than epileptic or “cataleptic” seizures. Cotton Mather would write and publish two books about these events, which would cause to ruin his reputation for nearly three centuries.44 This chapter will be concerned with the
arguments of these books, and with their presumed implications. Written work
In 1689, Mather wrote Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions,
and in 1693 he wrote The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England. Memorable Providences describes his 43 Ibid., 27-32.
experiences with the Goodwin family. Four children from this family suffered from several fits and suspicious behavior, as described above. The eldest child, thirteen-year-old Martha, had insulted the family's laundrywoman when she asked her about some missing linen. The laundrywoman's mother was an Irish widow called Glover, who was “an ignorant and a scandalous old Woman in the Neighbourhood”.45 Her late husband “had sometimes complained
of her, that she was undoubtedly a Witch, and that whenever his Head was laid, she would quickly arrive unto the punishments due to such an one.”46 According to Mather, Goodwife
Glover had cursed Martha Goodwin in an attempt to defend her daughter. Soon, three of the other five Goodwin children were “infected”, and all four of them suffered from strange symptoms, such as deafness, blindness, “dumb behavior”, having their tongues drawn down their throats, and odd clapping of the jaw, shoulder-blades, elbows, and several other joints. Mather studied this phenomenon intensively, and this book describes every single detail. He even took Martha temporarily into his home in order to create an ever more accurate and detailed picture. Memorable Providences mainly deals with Mather's experiences with the Goodwin family and his forthcoming ideas about witchcraft. It can be seen as a good introduction to his next book, The Wonders of the Invisible World. According to Bernard Rosenthal, this book “has been instrumental in offering the popular view of Cotton Mather as a rabid witch-hunter.”47 This book will be the main concern of this chapter.
The Wonders of the Invisible World was written during the height of the Salem witch trials. It rewrites the trial records of five selected cases. Mather also spends large parts on his explanation of the reason why New England was affected by these issues, as well as of how witchcraft actually took place. Many things are explained through the Puritan doctrine, and a typical Puritan view of life can be seen in Mather's arguing. The book defends his role, but Mather does claim to present an unbiased view of the events in Salem. The main point of this book is the idea that the Devil created a plot against New England, a plot that consisted of a network of witches that are to punish the people and pull down the churches, by “WITCHCRAFT and a Foundation of WITCHCRAFT.”48 According to Mather “an army of Devils is horribly broke in
upon the place which is the center.”49 He argues that the reason the Devil created this plot, was
the fact that the people of New England settled in an area that had previously been a “Territory 45 Cotton Mather, Memorable Providences. Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions (1689), Section III. 46 Ibid.
47 Rosenthal, Salem Story, 146.
48 Mather, Wonders of the Invisible World, 389. 49 Ibid., 389.
of the Devil”. The Devil did not like this, especially since the Puritans were people who “accomplished the Promise of old made unto our Blessed Jesus”.50 Harvard professor Barrett
Wendell explained this as following in 1891. In the eyes of the Puritans, the American continent – where they settled in accordance with no laws but those of the Scripture – had been Satan's special territory until their settlement. He had ruled there for centuries, unmolested by the opposing power of the Gospel. Anybody who had any doubts to this should only look at the degradation of his miserable subjects, the Indians, to be convinced. The arrival of the Puritans was a direct invasion of his territories. Satan fought it in every way he could – material and spiritual. The physical hardships the Puritans were faced with during the early years of their settlement were largely of his doings, for instance. The same assumption was taken on for phenomena that would generally be recognized as natural: more than once Cotton Mather remarked the fact that the steeples of churches were more often struck by lightening than other structures as a diabolical, and thus caused by Satan, effect. From the very early days of settlement Satan had also often waged his war in a more subtle way: by appearing in person and seducing harmless subjects to his service.51 About this, Wendell states:
Whoever yielded to him was rewarded by the possession of supernatural power, which was secretly exterted for all manner of malicious purposes; these were the witches: whoever withstood him was tortured in mind and body almost beyond the power of men to bear; these were the bewitched. There was no phase of the Devil's warfare so insidious, so impalpable, so dangerous, as this: in the very heart of the churches, in the pulpits themselves, witches might lurk.52
Cotton Mather's childhood was drenched with religion and Puritan values, as he grew up in such a famous minister family. As Wendell explained, the witch outbreak was the ultimate Puritan fear. It was an attack from within, as the danger came from within the community and “in the very heart of the churches, in the pulpits themselves, witches might lurk”. Mather stated:
Never were more Satanical devices used for the Unsettling of any People under the Sun, that what have been employed for the 50 Ibid., 388.
51 Barrett Wendell, Cotton Mather. The Puritan Priest (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1891)
