Cotton Mather was a prominent minister in Boston,
Massachusetts, who became closely involved in the Salem witch trials. Although
he was not a trial judge, he worked in conjunction with his father, Increase
Mather , to root out witches who were doing the work of the devil in New
England. Cotton Mather thought that witches were not possessed by spirits, but
that they were agents of the devil. Modern historians have been mystified by
Cotton Mather: although he was one of the foremost American intellectuals and
scientists of the time, he was capable of deep superstition, even ignorance, in
religious matters. According to Mather, witches had been sent as divine
judgment against a sinful people. Therefore, witches—or sin—had to be destroyed
before the Puritans could fulfill their destiny as "a people of God"
in America ("once the Devil's territories").
In 1693 Mather wrote The Wonders of the
Invisible World, in which he defended the Salem trials in lofty
theological (religious) terms, with biblical references to support his view of
the Puritan mission in the New World. According to Mather, the devil was trying
"all sorts of methods to overturn this poor plantation, the Puritan
colony." Yet Mather saw this as a special challenge: once the Puritans
were rid of the witches in their midst (had trodden "all the vultures of
Hell" under their feet), God would bless them with eternal happiness ("halcyon
days").
From
Cotton Mather’s The Wonders of the Invisible World we find a vivid picture of the witch
trials. But as we go through his sermons
, we realize that Cotton Mather himself was not wholly convinced regarding the
evidences that were brought against the so-called witches. Although
Cotton's words describe, and to some degree justify the trials and deaths in
Salem that year, the book is anything but resolved with regards to Mather's
true feelings about the trials. Cotton writes of the trials of accused witches
such as Bridget Bishop saying there was "little occasion to prove
witchcraft, it being evident and notorious to all beholders".
Here follows the description of the witch trials
that we find in Cotton Mather’s The
Wonders of the Invisible World.
Bridget Bishop, one of the so-called
witches, was accused of bewitching of several persons in the Salem village.
There were several persons, who had long undergone many kinds of miseries and
generally ascribed unto an horrible Witchcraft. Nobody felt the necessity to
prove the witchcraft as it was already evident to all who were present there.
The people, who had been previously afflicted by Bridget Bishop, brought many
evidences of witchcraft against her. Several
inhabitants of Salem testified that the Shape of Bridget Bishop did oftentimes
very grievously pinch them, choke them, bite them, and afflict them; urging
them to write their names in a Book, which the said Specter called, Ours. One
of them did further testify, that it was the Shape of Bridget Bishop, with another,
which one Day took her from her Wheel, and carrying her to the River side, threatened
there to Drown her, if she did not Sign to the Book mentioned: which yet she
refused.
Other bewitched persons also
gave different testimonies before the Magistrates. They said that they had been
extremely tortured Bridget Bishop. According
to them, if she did cast her eyes on them, they were presently struck down. But
when she lay their hands on the fainted persons, they would immediately revive;
but not upon the touch of any ones else. Moreover, upon some special actions of
her Body, as the shaking of her head, or the turning of her eyes, they
presently and painfully fell into the like postures.
There was Testimony likewise brought in, that a
man striking once at the place, where a Bewitched person said, the Shape of
this Bishop stood, the Bewitched cried out, that he had Tore her Coat, in the
place then particularly specified; and the Womans Coat was found to be Torn in
that very place.
Another woman named Hobbs, who had confessed her being a Witch,
now testified that this Bishop tempted her to Sign the Book again, and to deny
what she had confessed. She affirmed that it was the Shape of Bishop, which
whipped her with Iron Rods, to compel her. And she affirmed that this Bishop
was at a General Meeting of the Witches, in a Field at Salem-Village, and there
partook of a Diabolical Sacrament in Bread and Wine.
John Cook, another victim, testified that about
five or six years ago, one morning, about Sun-Rise, he was in his chamber
assaulted by the shape of Bishop. In that morning Bishop looked on him, grinned
at him, and very much hurt him with a blow on the side of the head and that on
the same day, about Noon, the same shape walked in the room where he was, and
an apple strangely flew out of his hand, into the lap of his mother, six or
eight foot from him.
Samuel Gray, another victim
of Bishop, testified that about fourteen years ago he was disturbed by Bishop
during the nighttime. On a Night Bishop visited him and terrified his sleeping
child. John Bly and his wife, a couple of Salem
village, testified that he bought a sow of Edward Bishop, the Husband of the
prisoner; and was to pay the price agreed, unto another person. This Prisoner
being Angry that she was thus hindered from fingering the money, Quarreled with
Bly. Soon after which, the Sow was taken with strange Fits, Jumping, Leaping,
and knocking her head against the Fence; she seemed Blind and Deaf, and would
neither eat nor be sucked. Whereupon a neighbor said, she believed the Creature
was Over-Looked; and sundry other circumstances concurred, which made the
Deponents Believe that Bishop had Bewitched it.
Richard Coman , another victim, testified that
eight years ago, as he lay awake in his bed, with a Light Burning in the Room,
he was annoyed with the apparition of this Bishop, and of two more that were
strangers to him, who came and oppressed him so, that he could neither stir
himself, nor wake any one else, and that he was the night after molested again
in the like manner. He also said that Bishop took him by the Throat, and pulled
him almost out of the Bed.
In the similar fashion, many other victims
including Samuel Shattock, John Louder, William Stacy, John Bly and William Bly
who also testified Bishop’s witchcrafts and accused her as a witch. The
arguments put forward by the so-called victims seem to be fictitious and
groundless to the modern readers. But to
the puritans, who strongly believed in the existence of the witches, these
evidences were absolutely true.
