Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather, circa 1700
Born	February 12, 1663(1663-02-12) Boston, Massachusetts
Died	February 13, 1728 (aged 65)
Occupation	Minister

Cotton Mather (February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728; A.B. 1678, Harvard College; A.M. 1681, honorary doctorate 1710, University of Glasgow) was a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author and pamphleteer, who is often remembered for his connection to the Salem witch trials. He was the son of Increase Mather, and grandson of Richard Mather, both also prominent Puritan ministers.

Biography

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Richard Mather

John Cotton (1585–1652)

Mather was named after his maternal grandfather, John Cotton. He attended Boston Latin School, where his name was posthumously added to its Hall of Fame, and graduated from Harvard in 1678, at only 16 years of age. After completing his post-graduate work, he joined his father as assistant Pastor of Boston's original North Church (not to be confused with the Anglican/Episcopal Old North Church). In 1685 Mather assumed full responsibilities as Pastor at the Church.

Author of more than 450 books and pamphlets, Cotton Mather's ubiquitous literary works made him one of the most influential religious leaders in America. Mather set the nation's "moral tone," and sounded the call for second and third generation Puritans, whose parents had left England for the New England colonies of North America, to return to the theological roots of Puritanism.

The most important of these, Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), is composed of 7 distinct books, many of which depict biographical and historical narratives which later American writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Elizabeth Drew Stoddard, and Harriet Beecher Stowe would look to in describing the cultural significance of New England for later generations following the American Revolution. Mather's text thus was one of the more important documents in American history because it reflects a particular tradition of seeing and understanding the significance of place. Mather, as a Puritan thinker and social conservative, drew on the figurative language of the Bible to speak to present-day audiences. In particular, Mather's review of the American experiment sought to explain signs of his time and the types of individuals drawn to the colonies as predicting the success of the venture. From his religious training, Mather viewed the importance of texts for elaborating meaning and for bridging different moments of history (for instance, linking the Biblical stories of Noah and Abraham with the arrival of eminent leaders such as John Eliot, John Winthrop, and his own father Increase Mather).

The struggles of first, second and third-generation Puritans, both intellectual and physical, thus became elevated in the American way of thinking about its appointed place among other nations. The unease and self-deception that characterized that period of colonial history would be revisited in many forms at political and social moments of crisis (such as the Salem witch trials which coincided with frontier warfare and economic competition among Indians, French and other European settlers) and during lengthy periods of cultural definition (e.g., the American Renaissance of the late 18th and early 19th century literary, visual, and architectural movements which sought to capitalize on unique American identities).

A friend of a number of the judges charged with hearing the Salem witch trials, Mather admitted the use of "spectral evidence," (compare "The Devil in New England") but warned that, though it might serve as evidence to begin investigations, it should not be heard in court as evidence to decide a case. Despite this, he later wrote in defense of those conducting the trials, stating:

"If in the midst of the many Dissatisfaction among us, the publication of these Trials may promote such a pious Thankfulness unto God, for Justice being so far executed among us, I shall Re-joyce that God is Glorified..." (Wonders of the Invisible World).

Highly influential due to his prolific writing, Mather was a force to be reckoned with in secular, as well as in spiritual, matters. After the fall of James II of England in 1688, Mather was among the leaders of a successful revolt against James's Governor of the consolidated Dominion of New England, Sir Edmund Andros.

The Mather tomb in Copp's Hill Cemetery

Mather was influential in early American science as well. In 1716, as the result of observations of corn varieties, he conducted one of the first experiments with plant hybridization. This observation was memorialized in a letter to a friend:

"My friend planted a row of Indian corn that was colored red and blue; the rest of the field being planted with yellow, which is the most usual color. To the windward side this red and blue so infected three or four rows as to communicate the same color unto them; and part of ye fifth and some of ye sixth. But to the leeward side, no less than seven or eight rows had ye same color communicated unto them; and some small impressions were made on those that were yet further off."

Of Mather's three wives and fifteen children, only his last wife and two children survived him. Mather was buried on Copp's Hill near Old North Church.

Cotton Mather: It's Personal

Cotton Mather was not known for writing in a neutral, unbiased perspective. Many, if not all of his writings had bits and pieces of his own personal life in them or were written for personal reasons. According to literary historian Sacvan Bercovitch

"Few puritans more loudly decried the bosom serpent of egotism than did Cotton Mather; none more clearly exemplified it. Explicitly or implicitly, he projects himself everywhere in his writings. In the most direct compensatory sense, he does so by using literature as a means of personal redress. He tells us that he composed his discussions of the family to bless his own, his essays on the riches of Christ to repay his benefactors, his tracts on morality to convert his enemies, his funeral discourses to console himself for the loss of a child, wife, or friend" (106).

From Bercovitch's quote, it is obvious that Mather did take things personally and allowed his biases to seep through into his writings. A few examples of this are Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion and Wonders of the Invisible World where his abrasive feelings about women were revealed.

Mather's Influence on the Salem Witch Trials

Wonders of the Invisible World, describing the Salem Witch Trials, is one of Cotton Mather's most well known books and the witch trials themselves are what Mather is well known for. One of the main reasons that Mather wrote about the witch trials was that he believed it would "encourage a spiritual awakening in the face of widespread religious complacency" (Hovey 532). I am a loser

Mather's Relationship with his Father and the aftereffects in Mather's Works

Cotton Mather's relationship with his well-known father, Increase Mather, was often a strained and difficult one. Increase Mather was a pastor of the Old North Church and led an accomplished life that Cotton was determined to live up to. But despite Cotton Mather's efforts, he never became quite as well known and successful in politics as his father. He did, however, bypass his father's talents as a writer, writing over 400 books. One of the most public displays of their strained relationship appeared during the Salem Witch Trials. Despite the fact that Increase Mather did not support the trials, Cotton Mather documented them (Hovey 531-2).

Mather and his relationship with women

Mather had three wives and often wrote about them in his diaries in not so flattering ways, even attributing his third wife, Lydia, with a mental illness historians aren't even sure she had. Mather also faces backlash today for how he wrote about and described women in Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion and Wonders of the Invisible World. In Wonders of the Invisible World, Mather sided with the witch trial judges more so than he did with the accused women. He encouraged and supported the trials, which more often than not resulted in the deaths of the women accused.

In Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion, Mather wrote about how he thought women should act in the colonial times. He gave very specific requirements of what women had to do to be thought of as proper wives, which included reading the Bible and obeying her husband. And if the woman acted out of line or displeased her husband, she was expected to take beatings without complaint. According to Mather women weren't allowed to wear makeup or dress in fancy clothes. Their primary duty was to obey their husbands and make sure that their husbands were always satisfied.

Smallpox inoculation

A smallpox epidemic struck Boston in May 1721 and continued through the year.^[1]

The practice of smallpox inoculation (as opposed to the later practice of vaccination) had been known for some time. In 1706 a slave, Onesimus, had explained to Mather how he had been inoculated as a child in Africa. Mather, was fascinated by the idea. He encouraged physicians to try it, without success. Then, at Mather's urging, one doctor, Zabdiel Boylston, tried the procedure on his only son and two slaves–one grown and one a boy. All recovered in about a week.

In a bitter controversy, the New England Courant published writers who opposed inoculation. The stated reason for this editorial stance was that the Boston populace feared that inoculation spread, rather than prevented, the disease; however, some historians, notably H. W. Brands, have argued that this position was a result of editor-in-chief James Franklin's (Benjamin Franklin's brother) contrarian positions. Boylston and Mather encountered such bitter hostility, that the selectmen of the city forbade him to repeat the experiment.

The opposition insisted that inoculation was poisoning, and they urged the authorities to try Boylston for murder. So bitter was this opposition that Boylston's life was in danger; it was considered unsafe for him to be out of his house in the evening; a lighted grenade was even thrown into the house of Mather, who had favored the new practice and had sheltered another clergyman who had submitted himself to it.

After overcoming considerable difficulty and achieving notable success, Boylston traveled to London in 1724, published his results, and was elected to the Royal Society in 1726.

Cotton Mather and the Salem Witch Trials

New Englanders perceived themselves abnormally susceptible to the Devil’s influence in the 17th century. The idea that New Englanders now occupied the Devil’s land established this fear.^[2]:16 In their mind, it would only be natural for the Devil to fight back against the pious invaders. Cotton Mather shared this general concern, and combined with New England’s lack of piety, Mather feared divine retribution.^[3]:283 English writers, who shared Mather’s fears, cited evidence of divine actions to restore the flock.^[3]:283 In 1681, a conference of ministers met to discuss how to rectify the lack of faith. In an effort to combat the lack of piety, Cotton Mather considered it his duty to observe and record illustrious providences. Cotton Mather’s first action related to the Salem Witch Trials was the publication of his 1684 essay Illustrious Providences.^[3]:284 Mather, being an ecclesiastical man, believed in the spiritual side of the world and attempted to prove its existence with stories of sea rescues, strange apparitions, and witchcraft. Mather aimed to combat materialism in New England.^[4]:27

Such was the social climate of New England when the Goodwin children received a strange illness. Mather, seeing an opportunity to explore the spiritual world, attempted to treat the children with fasting and prayer.^[4]:24 After treating the children of the Goodwin family, Mather wrote Memorable Providences, a detailed account of the illness.^[2]:16 In January 1692, Abigail Williams and Betty Parris received a similar illness to the Goodwin children; and Mather emerged as an important figure in the Salem Witch trials.^[2]:16 Even though Mather never presided in the jury, he exhibited great influence over the witch trials. On May 31, 1692, Mather sent a letter “Return of the Several Ministers,” to the trial. This article advised the Judges to limit the use of Spectral evidence, and recommended the release of confessed criminals.^[2]:17

Mather as a negative influence on the trial

Critics of Cotton Mather assert that he caused the trials because of his 1688 publication Remarkable Providences, and attempted to revive the trial with his 1692 book Wonders of the Invisible World, and generally encouraged witch hunting zeal.^[3]:283 Others have stated, “His own reputation for veracity on the reality of witchcraft prayed, "for a good issue.”^[5]:85 Charles Upham mentions Mather called accused witch Martha Carrier a ‘rampant hag.’^[6]:211 The critical evidence of Mather’s zealous behavior comes later, during the trial execution of George Burroughs {Harvard Class of 1670}. Upham gives the Robert Calef account of the execution of Mr. Burroughs;

Mr. Burroughs was carried in a cart with others, through the streets of Salem, to execution. When he was upon the ladder, he made a speech for the clearing of his innocency, with such solemn and serious expressions as were to the admiration of all present. His prayer (which he concluded by repeating the Lord’s Prayer) was so well worded, and uttered with such composedness as such fervency of spirit, as was very affecting, and drew tears from many, so that if seemed to some that the spectators would hinder the execution. The accusers said the black man stood and dictated to him. As soon as he was turned off, Mr. Cotton Mather, being mounted upon a horse, addressed himself to the people, partly to declare that he (Mr. Burroughs) was no ordained minister, partly to possess the people of his guilt, saying that the devil often had been transformed into the angel of light…When he [Mr. Burroughs] was cut down, he was dragged by a halter to a hole, or grave, between the rocks, about two feet deep; his shirt and breeches being pulled off, and an old pair of trousers of one executed put on his lower parts: he was so put in, together with Willard and Carrier, that one of his hands, and his chin, and a foot of one of them, was left uncovered.^[6]:301

The second issue with Cotton Mather was his influence in construction of the court for the trials. Bancroft quotes Mather, “Intercession had been made by Cotton Mather for the advancement of William Stoughton, a man of cold affections, proud, self-willed and covetous of distinction.”^[5]:83 Later, referring to the placement of William Stoughton on the trial, which Bancroft noted was against the popular sentiment of the town.^[5]:83 Bancroft referred to a statement in Mather’s diary;

The time for a favor is come,” exulted Cotton Mather; “Yea, the set time is come. Instead of my being a made a sacrifice to wicked rulers, my father-in-law, with several related to me, and several brethren of my own church, are among the council. The Governor of the province is not my enemy, but one of my dearest friends.^[5]:84

Bancroft also noted that Mather considered witches “among the poor, and vile, and ragged beggars upon Earth”,^[5]:85 and Bancroft asserts that Mather considered the people against the witch trials to be 'witch advocates.'^[5]:85

Mather as a positive influence on the trial

Chadwick Hansen’s Witchcraft at Salem, published in 1969, defined Mather as a positive influence on the Salem Trials. Hansen considered Mather's handling of the Goodwin Children to be sane and temperate.^[4]:168 Hansen also noted that Mather was more concerned with helping the affected children than witch-hunting.^[4]:60 Mather treated the affected children through prayer and fasting. ^[4]:24 Mather also tried to convert accused witch Goodwife Glover after she was accused of practicing witchcraft on the Goodwin children.^[4]:24 Most interestingly, and out of character with the previous depictions of Mather, was Mather’s decision not to tell the community of the others whom Goodwife Clover claimed practiced witch craft.^[4]:23 One must wonder if Mather desired an opportunity to promote his church through the fear of witchcraft, why he did not use the opportunity presented by the Goodwin family. Lastly, Hansen claimed Mather acted as a moderating influence in the trials by opposing the death penalty for lesser criminals, such as Tituba and Dorcas Good.^[4]:123 Hansen also notes that the negative impressions of Cotton Mather stem from his defense of the trials in, Wonders of the Invisible World. Mather became the chief defender of the trial, which diminished accounts of his earlier actions as a moderate influence.^[4]:189

Some historians who have examined the life of Cotton Mather after Chadwick Hansen’s book share his view of Cotton Mather. For instance, Bernard Rosenthal noted that Mather often gets portrayed as the rabid witch hunter.^[7]:169 Rosenthal also described Mather’s guilt about his inability to restrain the judges during the trial.^[7]:202 Larry Gregg highlights Mather’s sympathy for the possessed, when Mather stated, “the devil have sometimes represented the shapes of persons not only innocent, but also the very virtuous.”^[8]:88 And John Demos considered Mather a moderating influence on the trial.^[9]:305

Post-trial

After the trial, Cotton Mather was unrepentant for his role. Of the principal actors in the trial, only Cotton Mather and William Stoughton never admitted guilt.^[5]:98 In fact, in the years after the trial Mather became an increasingly vehement defender of the trial. At the request of then Lieutenant-Governor William Stoughton, Mather wrote Wonders of the Invisible World in 1693.^[10]:67 The book contained a few of Mather’s sermons, the conditions of the colony and a description of witch trials in Europe.^[11]:335 Mather also contradicted his own advice in “Return of the Several Ministers,” by defending the use of spectral evidence.^[4]:209 Wonders of the Invisible World appeared at the same time as Increase Mather’s Case of Conscience, a book critical of the trial. ^[12]:455 Upon reading Wonders of the Invisible World, Increase Mather publicly burned the book in Harvard Yard.^[2]:22 Also, Boston merchant, Robert Calef began what became an eight year campaign of attacks on Cotton Mather. ^[12]:455 The last event in Cotton Mather's involvement with witchcraft was his attempt to cure Mercy Short and Margaret Rule.^[2]:202 Mather later wrote A Brand Pluck’d Out of the Burning and Another Brand Pluckt Out of the Burning about curing the women.

Major works

The Biblia Americana (1693-1728)

Bonifacius (1710)

The Christian Philosopher (1721)

Decennium Luctuosom: a History of the Long War (1699)

Magnalia Christi Americana (1702)

Manductio ad Ministerium (1726)

The Negro Christianized (1706)

Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion (1692)

Wonders of the Invisible World (1693)

Pillars of Salt (1699)

Magnalia Christi Americana

Magnalia Christi Americanais considered Mather's greatest work and was written in 1702, when he was 39. The book, which was done through several biographies of saints, describes the process of the New England settlement (Meyers 23-24). It was composed of seven total books. Despite being one of Mather's most well-known works, many have openly criticized it, labeling it as hard to follow and understand and poorly paced and organized. Random quotes in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew appear throughout. However, other critics have praised Mather's works, believing it to be one of the best efforts at properly documenting the establishment of America and growth of the people (Halttunen 311).

The Biblia Americana

When Cotton Mather died, he still an abundance of unfinished writings left behind, including one entitled The Biblia Americana. Mather believed that Biblia Americana was the best thing he had ever written, believing it to be his "masterwork" (Hovey 533).

Biblia Americana was Cotton Mather's thoughts and opinions on the Bible and how he interpreted it. Biblia Americana is incredibly large and Mather worked on it from 1693-1728 when he died. Mather tried to convince others that philosophy and science could work together with religion instead of against it. People did not have to choose one or the other and in Biblia Americana Mather looked at the Bible through a scientific perspective, the complete opposite of when he wrote The Christian Philosopher, in which he decided to approach science in a religious manner (Smolinksi 280-281).

The Christian Philosopher

In 1721 The Christian Philosopher was published. Written by Mather, it was the first systematic book on science published in America. Mather attempted to show how Newtonian science and religion were in harmony. It was in part based on Robert Boyle's The Christian Virtuoso (1690).[13]

Mather also took inspiration from Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, a philosophical novel by Abu Bakr Ibn Tufail (who he refers to as "Abubekar"), a 12th-century Islamic philosopher. Despite condemning the 'Mahometans' as infidels, he viewed the protagonist of the novel, Hayy, as a model for his ideal 'Christian philosopher' and 'monotheistic scientist'. Mather also viewed Hayy as a noble savage and applied this in the context of attempting to understand the Native American 'Indians' in order to convert them to Puritan Christianity.[14]

Pillars of Salt

The Puritan execution sermon--preached on the occasion of a public hanging, then quickly printed up in pamphlet form and sold for a few pence--was the earliest form of true-crime literature. Mather's first published sermon, which appeared in 1686, concerned the crime and punishment of James Morgan, a reprobate who, in a drunken rage, impaled a man with an iron spit. Thirteen years later, following the execution of a Boston woman named Sarah Threeneedles for killing her baby, Mather issued Pillars of Salt. This compilation of a dozen accounts (half of which, including the case of Morgan, had been previously published) stands as a landmark work, a Puritan precursor of the true-crime miscellanies that, stripped of all religious intent, would become a staple of the genre in subsequent centuries. In 2008, The Library of America reprinted the entirety of Pillars of Salt in its two-century retrospective of American True Crime.

References

Bibliography

• Christopher D. Felker, Reinventing Cotton Mather in the American Renaissance: Magnalia Christi Americana in Hawthorne, Stowe, and Stoddard (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1993), ISBN 1-55553-187-3
• Richard F. Lovelace, The American Pietism of Cotton Mather: Origins of American Evangelicalism, (Grand Rapids, Mich.: American University Press, 1979), ISBN 0-8028-1750-5
• Robert Middlekauff, The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728, ISBN 0-520-21930-9
• E. Jennifer Monaghan, "Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America", ISBN 978-1-55849-581-4
• Kenneth Silverman, The Life and Times of Cotton Mather, ISBN 1-56649-206-8
• Reiner Smolinski, The Threefold Paradise of Cotton Mather: An Edition of 'Triparadisus'. (Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1995), ISBN 0-8203-1519-2 online
• Reiner Smolinski, "Authority and Interpretation: Cotton Mather's Response to the European Spinozists," in, Shaping the Stuart World, 1603-1714: The Atlantic Connection. Eds. Arthur Williamson and Allan MacInnes. Leyden: Brill, 2006: 175-203
• Reiner Smolinski, "How to Go to Heaven, or How Heaven Goes: Natural Science and Interpretation in Cotton Mather's Biblia Americana (1690-1728)," in, The New England Quarterly 81.2 (June 2008): 278-329"
• Barrett Wendell, Cotton Mather, the Puritan priest, New York, Dodd, Mead and company, 1891.
• Bercovitch, Sacvan. "Cotton Mather." Major Writers of Early American Literature Ed. Everett Emerson. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1972.
• Halttunen, Karen. "Cotton Mather and the Meaning of Suffering in the Magnalia Christi Americana Journal of American Studies 12.3 (1978) 311-329. JSTOR Longwood University Library, Farmville, VA

http://www.jstor.org/stable/27553427

• Hovey, Kenneth Alan. "Cotton Mather: 1663-1728." Heath Anthology of American Literature: Vol A Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009. 531-533.
• Meyers, Karen. Colonialism and the Revolutionary Period (Beginning-1800): American Literature in its Historical, Cultural, and Social Contexts. DWJ Books LLC: New York, 2006.
• Smolinski, Reiner. "How to Go to Heaven, or How to Heaven Goes? Natural Science and Interpretation in Cotton Mather's Biblia Americana (1693-1728)" The New England Quarterly 81.2 (2008) 278-329. 03 November 2009. MIT Press Journals Longwood University Library, Farmville, VA

http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/tneg.2008.81.2.278?cookieSet=1

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cotton Mather

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Cotton Mather

• Cotton Mather's writings
• Mather's influential commentary on the "collegiate way of living"
• The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693 edition) in PDF format
• Cotton Mather's "~Resolved~" is A Puritan Father's Lesson Plan.