witchcraft was essential to the maintenance of a Christian character.1 Mr. Upham, too, allows "that the errors that led to the [witchcraft] delusion were not attacked from any quarter at any time during that generation, and have remained lurking in many minds, in greater or less degree, to our day."

What better soil could be found for the delusion of witchcraft to spring up upon than such a belief in the power and dominion of evil spirits over the human mind? The responsibility which the belief that was prevalent, both abroad and here, in reference to New England as the stronghold of the adversary of souls, imposed upon the colonists especial activity in resisting his influence; and they naturally wished to discharge their duty in this respect, "faithfully and manfully." "They were told," Upham says, " and they believed, that it had fallen to their lot, to be the champions of the cross of Christ against the power of the devil. They felt that they were fighting him in his last stronghold, and they were determined to tie him up forever." 3

"It was the blades and learned witlings of the coffeehouse who ridiculed the doctrine of satanic possession," whilst "Cotton Mather, his father, and all the religious men of that day went to their graves in full belief of its reality."4 And, at the same time, it should not be forgotten that the reason is to be found in the infidelity and the careless disregard of religion and good order in the one class, and a conscientious determination to crush out impiety and every evil work in the other.

Are Cotton Mather and the Clergy and Authorities of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay Sinners above all other Men in Matters pertaining to Witchcraft?

I have no inclination to apologize, contrary to justice, for the actors in "the saddest tragedy of early New England

1 North American Review, April, 1869, p. 396 sq.

2 Salem Witchcraft, Vol. ii. p. 457.

8 Salem Witchcraft, Vol. i. p. 400.

* See Calef, p. 10, and North American Review, April 1869, p. 397.

history"; but it seems to me that our fathers have received, and are constantly receiving, more opprobrium than justly belongs to them, as compared with the rest of the world. The majority of the community, I imagine, feel that the early settlers of Massachusetts Bay, with Cotton Mather at their head, leading them on, are not only sinners above other men, but almost the only men that had the hardness to take the life of their fellows for supposed complicity with evil spirits. It would scarcely be believed, by those who have not examined the matter, that no form of religion and no nation or age prior to the Salem witchcraft "can claim immunity from this superstition." Little is known of the two hundred thousand persons executed, and mostly burned, in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Who speaks of the thirty thousand who in England were the victims of this superstition? or of one thousand who were executed in Germany, annually, during the century from 1580 to 1680?1 Whilst all the details of the execution of the twenty victims at Salem are known and read of all men. Who ever notices the fact that, as Howell says, " in the compass of two years, near upon three hundred witches were arraigned, and the major part of them executed, in Essex and Suffolk Counties in England; and that more witches have been put to death in a single county in England, in a short space of time, than have ever suffered in New England altogether, from first to last"? "Scotland swarms with them now [in 1647] more than ever, and persons of good quality are executed daily." "In Scotland," too, "seven men were executed for witches, in 1697, upon the testimony of one girl about eleven years old." 3

2

In judging of the actors in the trials of witches in Salem village, and elsewhere in New England, do we not too often forget that at that time, in all countries, witchcraft was not only treated as a reality as much as any of the processes of

1 See S. G. Drake's Introduction to the Witchcraft Delusion, p. xxvii.

2 Familiar Letters of James Howell, Historiographer Royal (p. 427), quoted by Poole in North American Review, Vol. cviii. p. 343.

Hutchinson, Vol. ii chap. 1.

nature, but by the laws of all nations, Catholic and Protestant, it was regarded as a capital crime more heinous than any other? To let it pass unpunished was to have complicity with the devil, and to be guilty of treason to laws civil and divine.1

But my present object is not to discuss witchcraft in general, or New England witchcraft, at length. Still, some idea of the state of feeling of the time seemed necessary to an intelligent view of any particular actor in it. It is one thing to live in a community and an age where a belief in witchcraft was an essential requisite of Christian character, and the disbeliever in it ranked as a disbeliever in the Bible and its doctrines of angelic existences and a future life, and quite a different matter to live when the idea of satanical possessessions is the acme of all superstition, and as inconsistent with mental sanity as religion.

Moreover, if our fathers in general have received a greater than the just measure of reprobation, in comparison with others who have had to do with the punishment of witches, is it not even more apparent that Cotton Mather has received more than his share of censure, as compared with his compeers not only in old, but also in New, England?

delusion received the sanction of all the learned and distinguished English judges who flourished within the century (the seventeenth), from Sir Edmund Coke to Sir Matthew Hale." 2 Do we hear their names in the mouth of every school-boy, as the designation of the embodiment of superstitious credulity? Has not the latter, especially, though

1 Hutchinson says that there was no Colonial law in force at Salem against witchcraft at the time of the first execution at Salem, and that the whole action of the court was based upon that passed under James I., 1603, by which all who were convicted were to be consigned to the pains and penalties of death as felons. There was a law passed in the colony as early as 1641: "If any man or woman be a witch, that is hath, or consulted with, a familiar spirit, they shall be put to death," and this law the General Court which was in session at the time of the first execution made " a law of the province."-See Upham, ii. pp. 256, 258, and S. G. Drake's Introduction to the Witchcraft Delusion, p. 21 sq. 2 Upham, Salem Witchcraft, Vol. i. p. 400.

acknowledged as the leading authority in the trial of witches,1 been ever revered, even in New England," for his knowledge of law, and gravity and piety"?

Richard Baxter published his book on the "Certainty of the World of Spirits "; kept up a constant correspondence with the Mathers, urging them to faithfulness in their efforts to suppress witchcraft; published in England, with a Preface, often quoted from and encouraged the sale of, Cotton Mather's" Memorable Providences"; and pronounced those who did not receive it, with "its full and convincing evidence," as "obdurate Sadducees who will not believe." 2 And yet no one, for all this, is filled with hatred and scorn for the author of the "Saint's Rest," as unchristian or foolishly credulous. Such writers as Dr. Henry More, of Christ's College, Cambridge, Dr. Calamy, and others, wrote volumes to prove the reality, and instruct in the detection, of satanic possession; and yet their names are scarcely tarnished by these things that would, if his enemies could accomplish their ends, utterly blacken that of Cotton Mather.

It would seem, too, that New England and Cotton Mather owe their prominence in the dealing with witches over Pennsylvania and the good Quaker, William Penn, rather to a special providence in favor of, or a want of legal acumen in, the latter, than to any immunity from superstition. For Upham says: "William Penn presided, in his judicial character, at the trial of two Swedish women for witchcraft; the grand jury, acting under instruction from him, having found bills against them, they were saved not in consequence of any peculiar reluctance to proceed against them arising out of the nature of the alleged crime, but only from some technical defect in the indictment." Otherwise, as the annalist of Philadelphia suggests, "scenes similar to those subsequently occurring in Salem village might have darkened the history 1 He published his Trial of Witches in Suffolk, in 1664. See Hutchinson's History.

2 See his Letter to Increase Mather, quoted in Drake's Witchcraft Delusion. Introduction, p. 30, and Magnalia, Vol. ii. p. 403. See also Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. ii. p. 20, and Upham, Vol. i. p. 401.

of the Quakers, Swedes, Germans, and Dutch who dwelt in the City of Brotherly Love and the adjacent colonies." 1

What was Witchcraft?

Some idea of what is meant by the term "witchcraft," and the relation of the witch to Satan and to men, as held by the actors in it, and by people generally in the seventeenth century, should be taken into the account in judging of the culpability of those who took severe measures against it.2 A witch was a person who had made a formal compact with Satan to do his behests, to oppose all good, to aid him in his opposition to God, to Christ, to the church; whilst, on the other hand, the devil was to use his supernatural power in behalf of his disciple, and to communicate the same to him as he should show himself worthy.

The power of the two united was almost unlimited. The human element brought the satanic into connection with the life of men, and there was scarcely anything of evil or suffering that might not in this way be wrought out for mortal endurance. Knowledge, too, of the past, of the future, of the spiritual world, the ability (such as modern spiritualists claim) to bring back departed spirits, who could give an account of their experiences in another life, and seduce from the paths of virtue and allure to vice whomever they might wish, were a part of the power of this combined human and satanic agency.3

1 See Upham, Vol. i. p. 414.

2 See various definitions of it in Drake's Witchcraft Delusion. Introduction, p. 11 sq.

8 A passage in Mr. Brattle's Letter referred to below well characterizes the spirit of the time to rely upon the utterances of those supposed to be under the influence of unseen spiritual agents, and the desire of the Mathers to counteract this hurtful and dangerous tendency: He says, "A person from Boston, of no small note, carried up his child to Salem, near twenty miles, on purpose that he might consult the afflicted about his child; which accordingly he did, and the afflicted told him that his child was afflicted by Mrs. Cary and Mrs. Obinson. The man returned to Boston and went forthwith to the justices for a warrant to seize," etc. But he adds: "The Rev. I. M. (Increase Mather), of Boston, took occasion severely to reprove the said man; asking whether there was not a God in Boston, that he should go to the devil in Salem for advice; warning him very seriously against such naughty practices," etc.