Cotton Mather, portrait by Peter Pelham; in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, (credit: Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.)
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
Cotton Mather |
For more information on Cotton Mather, visit Britannica.com.
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Cotton Mather |
Biography:
Cotton Mather |
Cotton Mather (1663-1728), Puritan clergyman, historian, and pioneering student of science, was an indefatigable man of letters. Of the third generation of a New England founding family, he is popularly associated with the Salem witchcraft trials.
Cotton Mather recorded the passing of an era. The Massachusetts Bay Colony had been a radical, Bible-based community of "saints," whose existence as an example to the rest of the world was to be safeguarded till Christ's second coming by the strictest tutelage of educated clergymen in all civil as well as ecclesiastical matters. In Mather's lifetime the separation of church and state and the development of the frontier and of a society absorbed in business and profits greatly increased popular apathy toward the church. The rise of democracy within the Colonies is seen in the disintegration of orthodox creeds and practices. American-born colonists felt estranged from Europe and its culture and turned to nature and to reason for the sources of their new identity. Rationalism and evangelism vied to replace orthodoxy.
Mather was both behind and ahead of his times. As an internationally known scholar and innovative scientist, he was ahead of his New England contemporaries. In his theories of child rearing his emphasis on indirection, persuasion, and rewards considerably anticipated the future. But on questions of ecclesiastical organization and in all matters relating to Harvard College, he adhered passionately to past example. He deplored New England's decline and eagerly anticipated a future day when all people would be brought to judgment and Christ's kingdom come.
Born in Boston on March 19, 1663, Cotton was the eldest son of Increase and Maria Mather and grandson of Richard Mather, the first minister of Dorchester, and of John Cotton, probably the most learned of first-generation American theologians. Increase Mather was minister to the Second Church in Boston, agent of the colony to England, and nonresident president of Harvard College from 1685 to 1701. He was the most productive man of letters of his generation. Cotton was a partner in all his father's endeavors.
Having made remarkable progress in Latin and Greek, Cotton was admitted to Harvard at the age of 12. He had begun studying Hebrew and showed great interest in philosophy and science. He read avidly. His father conferred Cotton's first degree at the age of 16. Cotton soon took up the study of medicine and, as a young man, attended meetings organized by Increase for scientific experimentation and discussion. At 19 he received his master's degree. He was made a fellow of Harvard College in 1690 and was involved in the affairs of the college throughout his life. One of his bitterest disappointments was that he was never asked to be its president.
Disappointment and bereavement marked Cotton Mather's life. In 1686 he married Abigail Philips; they had nine children. She died in 1702. In 1703 he married the widow Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard; they had six children. She died in 1713. His last wife, Mrs. Lydia George, whom he married in 1715, went insane. Of his fifteen children, only six lived to maturity and only two survived him. Three widowed sisters depended largely on him, and he was burdened by severe financial problems.
Overly jealous where family pride was concerned, Mather dealt rancorously with opposition. Anxiety and depression, no doubt, contributed to an already impulsive and dictatorial nature. But his was a complex temperament. He was deeply introspective. When very young he began to read Scripture daily and to develop habits of prayer. His efforts to do good works and to perfect Christian attitudes lasted a lifetime. Tireless on behalf of any worthwhile project, he was both pragmatic and susceptible to change. His early bitter denunciations of other sects later gave way to a spirit of tolerance. His will to overcome reversals can be seen in his triumph over stammering - a childhood affliction so severe that he doubted his fitness for the pulpit. By his own efforts he corrected his stammering and in 1685 was ordained at the Second Church. He served as assistant minister until his father's death in 1723, when Cotton became minister.
A Many-faceted Career
For a time the Mathers dominated the life of Massachusetts colony. When Increase went secretly to England in 1688 to plead for the restoration of the Massachusetts charter, Cotton was left not only with the spiritual leadership of the Second Church but with responsibility for heading the opposition at home to James II, specifically to his representative, Governor Edmund Andros. Cotton was a ringleader in the "Happy Revolution," as he called it, of 1689, which fortunately for the insurgents coincided with the deposition in England of James II. In 1692, after a period of provisional government by magistrates who had served under the old charter, Increase, unable to regain that charter, returned to Boston with a new charter and a new governor, Sir William Phips. Both the new charter and Governor Phips's policies proved unpopular, and from this time on the Mathers' power declined.
Witchcraft Trials at Salem
One of Sir William's first acts in office was the establishment of a court to try the suspected witches recently arrested at Salem. Mather had attempted to demonstrate the reality of spirits, particularly of the demonic, in his study Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions… (1689). Although he had urged vigorous prosecution of the devil's work, he suggested punishment milder than execution for convicted witches. Mather's approach was both theological and scientific. He separated himself from the trials per se and in fact warned the judges against "spectral evidences," but his advice went unheeded. In his Magnalia Christi Americana (1702) Mather declared his disapproval of the methods used in the trials. But while they were going on, he had registered no public protest.
Clearly, politics, as well as theology and science, determined the Mathers' role in the witchcraft controversy. At the judges' request, Cotton, apparently unwillingly, agreed to write an apologetical account of a few of the trials. Phips, after all, had been baptized by Cotton and was Increase's appointment. The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693) was followed in 1700 by a work sponsored by the Mathers' opponents, entitled More Wonders of the Invisible World. Compiled by Robert Calef, a man skeptical of and outraged by the witchcraft accusations, it contained, without Cotton's permission, his account, written in 1693, of his investigations of a girl he believed bewitched. Mather again had focused on supernatural phenomena; he had made no attempt to start a prosecution. But by 1700 popular feeling had risen against the Salem trials, and the Mathers were firmly identified both with the causes of the hysteria and with the political appointees who made the tragic judgments. Most 19th-century historians place full responsibility for the trials with Cotton Mather; Brooks Adams called the trials themselves the central moral issue of the 17th century. To modern scholars, however, both allegations seem to overstate the case.
Other Ecclesiastical Controversies
A combination of forces effected the wane of the Mathers' influence. A new breed of more liberal and catholic men gathered in the recently established Brattle Church, under the leadership of Benjamin Coleman. These, with others, secured the removal of Increase from the presidency of Harvard in 1701. The House of Representatives appointed Cotton president, but the electors of the college overruled their action and passed him by. Cotton then directed his attention to Yale. But when Yale's president, Timothy Cutler, resigned to join the Anglican Church in 1722, Cotton, apparently, refused the invitation to replace him. This was Cotton's last opportunity for high office.
During this period the Mathers saw the collapse of their scheme to bring more centralized control to individual congregations and to effect closer cooperation between Congregational and Presbyterian churches. Meanwhile in western Massachusetts age-old standards governing admission to membership in the Congregational Church were being eased by the powerful Northampton minister Solomon Stoddard. The Mathers directly challenged Stoddard but were unable to curb him. A series of revivals under Stoddard prepared the soil in the Connecticut valley for Stoddard's grandson, Jonathan Edwards, and for the coming of the Great Awakening.
Pioneer Scientist and Intellectual
Although the Mathers maintained standfast attitudes toward many cultural and ecclesiastical changes, they were in the intellectual vanguard of the Colonies. Cotton corresponded with men of learning around the world. In 1710 he was awarded a doctorate of divinity by the University of Glasgow. In 1713 he had the great honor of being elected to the Royal Society of London. He and Increase were among the first in the Colonies to advocate inoculation against smallpox and were threatened and maligned for so doing. Undismayed (even by a bomb thrown through the window of Cotton's house), the Mathers succeeded, with Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, in putting the project into effect.
Career as a Writer
Despite disfavor, Cotton's activities continued. He wrote in seven languages and also mastered the Iroquois Indian language. In his lifetime 382 of his works were published. These took many forms: history, sermons, biography, fables, books of practical piety, theological and scientific treatises, and verse. Often pedantic and heavily embellished with simile, metaphor, and learned reference, his writing could also achieve simplicity, straight-forwardness, and practicality. Mather saw instruction as the chief function of good writing and made sophisticated adaptations of style and mode to that end. He might instruct explicitly, as in the medical manual The Angel of Bethesda (1722), or by humorous indirection, as in his Political Fables (1692), written in the manner of 18th-century essayists.
In the Psalterium Americanum (1718) the versatile Mather turned his talents to translating the Psalms and adapting them to music. The unpublished Biblia Americana is an exhaustively annotated scholarly interpretation of the Bible. His Bonifacius, or Essays To Do Good (1718) makes practical prescriptions for personal piety. An immensely popular book, Benjamin Franklin called it the work that most influenced his youth. Suggestive of Franklin too is the popular science mode in such works as Mather's Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences (1684).
Probably Mather's greatest work was his Magnalia Christi Americana (1702). Primarily a history of New England, it is composed from many of Mather's other writings. The seven sections tell of the settlement of New England, the lives of its governors and ministers, and the story of Harvard College and of the Congregational Church and conclude with a treatment of "remarkable providences" and "various disturbances." The Magnalia provides a detailed and eloquent statement of the Puritan mind as it addressed itself to its historical mission in an hour of darkness, perhaps even of eclipse.
Strategies for keeping alive the reality of Christ's Judgment and of His future kingdom permeated all Mather's works. His biographies, one of Phips (1697) and another of Increase, Parentator (1724), were designed as exemplary lives of eminent men. The late work The Christian Philosopher (1721) attempts to wed the observations of the 18th-century naturalist with Christian faith in the order and purpose of the created world. Cotton was working with "modern" ideas, seeking to express them within the basic framework of Christian eschatology.
Cotton Mather outlived his father by only 5 years. Later American writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe, James Russell Lowell, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow all acknowledged their debt to him.
Further Reading
A valuable introduction to Mather and representative selections from his work are in Kenneth B. Murdock, ed., Selections from Cotton Mather (1926). The best biography is Barrett Wendell, Cotton Mather: The Puritan Priest (1891; rev. ed. 1963). Ralph and Louise Boas, Cotton Mather: Keeper of the Puritan Conscience (1928), is more popular. The New England background may be found in Perry Miller, The New England Mind: From Colony to Province (1953). Robert Middlekauff, The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728 (1971), is a study in biography and intellectual history that seeks to revise the affirmative view of Puritan history taken by Miller. Recommended for its general analysis of the literature of the colonial period is Kenneth B. Murdock, Literature and Theology in Colonial New England (1949).
US History Companion:
Mather, Increase, And Mather, Cotton |
(Increase: 1639-1723; Cotton: 1663-1728), prominent Puritan ministers and leaders. Increase Mather, son of Richard Mather, first pastor of the Dorchester Church, assumed his father's position of prominence in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and became an effective ambassador for the colony's interests at the courts of James II and William III when its original charter was being renegotiated. At first opposed to the Half-Way Covenant, which loosened the requirements for baptism, he reversed his position and in 1675 published an influential book, The First Principles of New England, asserting the founders' latitude on the question of who was entitled to be baptized. Author of more than one hundred works--sermons, political tracts, chronicles of the Indian wars, ecclesiastical treatises--Increase played a moderating role during the Salem witchcraft crisis, reflecting on the events in his Cases of Conscience concerning Evil Spirits (1692). In later years he was involved in the founding of Yale College, which he hoped would become the bastion of orthodoxy that Harvard had ceased to be.
Cotton Mather, an even more prolific writer and controversialist than his father, published nearly five hundred works, of which the most important is the Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), a massive history of New England under the aspect of divine providence. Though born to the Puritan purple (he was a grandson of John Cotton on his mother's side), Mather was in some respects more an Enlightenment figure than an orthodox Calvinist. He played an important role in disseminating scientific knowledge to the New England community (he wrote a treatise on medicine, The Angel of Bethesda, that remained unpublished in his lifetime), and, with Increase, he was at the forefront of the battle for acceptance of the smallpox vaccine. He also shared the pulpit of Boston's Old North Church with his father. The two fought against ecclesiastical innovation as New England was forced into toleration and some of the basic practices of the founders' generation (such as restricted communion and public profession of faith) came under attack. He remains best known, however, for his support of the witchcraft persecution, which he explained in his Wonders of the Invisible World (1693), a book that can be read--more sympathetically now than then--as a poignant assertion of New England's continuing centrality as the battleground between God and Satan.
Bibliography:
Michael G. Hall, The Last American Puritan: The Life of Increase Mather, 1639-1723 (1988); Robert Middlekauff, The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728 (1971); Kenneth Silverman, The Life and Times of Cotton Mather (1984).
Author:
Andrew Delbanco
See also Half-Way Covenant; New England Colonies; Puritanism; Religion; Salem Witch Trials.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Cotton Mather |
Bibliography
See biographies by B. Wendell (1891, repr. 1963), R. P. Boas and L. Boas (1928, repr. 1964), and K. Silverman (1985); studies by R. Middlekauff (1971) and J. P. Wood (1971); bibliography by T. J. Holmes (3 vol., 1940).
Works:
Works by Cotton Mather |
| 1682 | "Poem Dedicated to... Urian Oakes." Mather's first published work is a funeral elegy on the recently deceased clergyman and Harvard president, summarizing his virtues and the impact of his death on his family, friends, and the community. Mather, the son of Increase Mather, would produce a comparable poem, "Elegy on... Nathanael Collins," in 1685. |
| 1686 | "The Call of the Gospel." The first of Mather's published sermons is addressed to a condemned murderer who repented. The notoriety of the case helps establish Mather as one of the era's distinctive voices. |
| 1689 | Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions and The Declaration of the Gentlemen, Merchants, and Inhabitants of Boston. The first provides Mather's reflections on one of the accused in the Salem witchcraft trials, whom he took into his home for observation. The second is a manifesto against Governor Edmund Andros (1637-1714), which helps incite the uprising that contributes to the governor's dismissal. |
| 1691 | "Little Flocks Guarded Against Grievous Wolves: An Address Unto those Parts of New-England which are most Exposed unto Assaults, from the Modern Teachers of the misled Quakers." Mather warns his readers to be prepared to confront the Quakers with scripture. |
| 1692 | Political Fables. Three allegorical tales supporting the new charter for the New England colonies and the new governor, Sir William Phips, is circulated in manuscript and would be first published in 1868. |
| 1693 | The Wonders of the Visible World. Mather provides a narrative account of some of the Salem witchcraft trials along with his comments on demonic possession. It would prompt a satirical reply by Robert Calef (1648-1719), More Wonders of the Invisible World (1700), condemning the trials and Mather's part in them, which would provoke a response from Mather, Some Remarks Upon a Scandalous Book (1701). |
| 1699 | Decennium luctuosum. Mather chronicles Indian affairs from 1688 to 1698, which he presents as mainly a conflict between good and evil, with the Indians depicted as descendants of Satan and the enemies of God. |
| 1701 | Some Few Remarks Upon A Scandalous Book, against the Government and Ministry of New-England... by One Robert Calef. Mather responds to Calef's charge in More Wonders of the Invisible World (1700) that Mather was responsible for the witchcraft trials in Salem. |
| 1702 | Magnalia Christi Americana. Mather's most ambitious work, this history of the New England church aspires to the comprehensiveness of a Puritan epic, explaining theological points and justifying church actions. It incorporates many of Mather's previous religious writings and includes biographical portraits of governors and clergy, as well as a history of Harvard College and an account of several of its graduates. |
| 1703 | Meat Out of the Eater or, Funeral Discourses Occasioned By the Death of Several Relatives. This is a series of five sermons preached on the death of Mather's wife and his children. The title refers to the biblical Samson's riddle: "Out of the eater came forth meat, And out the strong came forth sweetness." |
| 1706 | The Negro Christianized. Although Mather kept slaves and believed that Christian law allowed slavery, he argues here for the humane treatment of slaves, stating that they are "Men, and not Beasts, that you have bought." He also argues against the notion that slaves should not be converted because it is unlawful for Christians to own other Christians. |
| 1707 | A Memorial of the Present Deplorable State of New-England. Published anonymously, Mather's pamphlet lists charges against Governor Dudley and calls for his dismissal. Mather would continue his attack in 1708 in The Deplorable State of New-England. |
| 1707 | Manly Christianity: A Brief Essay on the Signs of Growth and Strength in the most Lovely Christianity. Issued anonymously, the work was later published under Mather's name. It was intended to impart "Things which are of great Importance to be inculcated on our Christians." |
| 1708 | The Way of Truth, Laid out.... Mather's catechism for children is written in a style that is "rendered now a little more easy and proper for children of the smallest capacity." |
| 1710 | Man Eating the Food of Angels: The Gospel of the Manna to be Gathered in the Morning. The work demonstrates Mather's use of anecdotes to identify ideals and examples for young children to imitate. |
| 1710 | Bonifacius. This handbook on moral behavior, commonly known as Essays To Do Good, is one of Mather's most popular works. Benjamin Franklin would claim it directed his conduct through life and helped make him a useful citizen of the world; he would imitate the work in his Dogood Papers. |
| 1712 | Curiosa Americana. Mather collects his scientific letters to the Royal Society reporting on "all New and Rare Occurences of Nature, in these parts of the World." |
| 1718 | Psalterium Americanum: The Book of Psalms in a Translation Exactly Conformed unto the Original, but All in Blank Verse. Mather's major poetic contribution is this blank-verse translation with his analysis of poetry that demonstrates a considerable understanding of contemporary poetics. |
| 1721 | The Christian Philosopher. Mather's most important scientific work surveys the fields of astronomy, physics, meteorology, geology, geography, and biology, attempting to reconcile scriptural and natural truths. He claims that all that is wondrous and beautiful is created by God and that science is able to locate the deeper meaning in these things. |
| 1722 | The Angel of Bethesda, Visiting the Invalids of a Miserable World. Demonstrating Mather's sustained interest in science, this work discusses common illnesses and possible cures and is regarded as the first significant treatise on colonial medicine. Mather also publishes An Account... of the Inoculating the Small-Pox, defending the practice. |
| 1724 | Diary of Cotton Mather, 1681-1724. Although he would remain an active writer until his death, Mather ceases to keep a thorough diary after 1724. The complete diary, not published until 1911, is perhaps Mather's most important literary contribution, detailing crucial historical events colored with his introspection and personal insights. |
| 1724 | Parentator. Mather supplies the first biography of his famed Puritan father, Increase Mather. |
| 1726 | Manuductio ad ministerium. Mather writes a handbook addressed to his son, concerning the proper education for a minister. It includes Mather's insights on reading and writing and his definition of the proper writing style: "Vigour sensible in every Sentence." |
| 1727 | Agricola, or The Religious Husbandman. Mather uses aspects of nature to reveal spiritual truths. This important work employs Mather's characteristic method of "reading" the world allegorically. |
Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia:
Increase and Cotton Mather |
Father and son, two eminent divines of Boston, Massachusetts. The Mathers were among the first to respond to the wave of skepticism that assaulted Christianity at the end of the seventeenth century and emerged in the next century as Deism. Deism denied the possibility of human contact with what had traditionally been thought of as the supernatural. Both of the Mathers wrote books offering evidence of contact with the spiritual world as an apologetic for Christian faith.
Part of their understanding of the supernatural was supernatural evil. Witchcraft, which they equated with Satanism, was one major form taken by supernatural evil, and they saw evidence of witchcraft both among the Native Americans and members of the Boston urban community. This caused them to be seen as believers in the existence of widespread witchcraft throughout New England. Though counseling some degree of caution, especially in responding to the unsupported accounts of people claiming to be afflicted by a witch, they were early supporters of the inquiries at Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts, in 1692. In fact, Increase Mather had chosen the governor, Sir William Phips, who was partly responsible for the Salem Witchcraft trials. However, as the trials proceeded, Cotton Mather especially became one of the strong forces arguing against the litigation. His personal visit with the governor was of great effect in this endeavor.
In the years immediately after the trials, as the people of Massachusetts came to see the error of what had occurred, the Mathers were accused by some of the more skeptical voices in the community, such as Robert Calef, as the real cause of the colony's disgrace. Only in the twentieth century, with the massive reevaluation of the whole of the witchcraft phenomenon in New England, has the Mathers' reputation been somewhat put into a more balanced perspective.
Sources:
Calef, Robert. More Wonders of the Invisible World; or, The Wonders of the Invisible World Display'd in Five Parts. London, 1700.
Mather, Cotton. Memorable Provinces, Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions. Boston, 1689.
——. The Wonders of the Invisible World. Observations as Well Historical as Theological, upon the Nature, the Number, and the Operations of the Devil. Boston: Benjamin Harris, 1693.
Mather, Increase. Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Provinces. Boston, 1684.
History Dictionary:
Mather, Cotton |
A scholar and religious leader of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Mather, a prominent Massachusetts Puritan, urged the suppression of
Quotes By:
Cotton Mather |
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"Our opportunities to do good are our talents."
Artist:
Cotton Mather |
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Discography:
Cotton Mather |
Wikipedia:
Cotton Mather |
| Cotton Mather | |
|---|---|
Cotton Mather, circa 1700 |
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| Born | February 12, 1663 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.
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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:
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.
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:
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 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.
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
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 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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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 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).
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).
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]
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.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/27553427
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/tneg.2008.81.2.278?cookieSet=1
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