From the Wonders of the Invisible World (1693) by Cotton Mather
From The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693)
Reprinted in American Literature: A Prentice
Hall Anthology, Volume 1 in 1991
Cotton Mather (see biography and primary source entry with Ezekial Cheever) 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 (see primary source entry), 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 supporthis 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").
Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World helped fuel the witchcraft hysteria.Things to Remember When Reading the Wonders of the Invisible World:
- Unlike his father (Increase Mather), in the beginning Cotton Mather rejected the concept of spectral evidence (proof of possession by spirits); instead, he regarded Salem as a battleground between the forces of good and evil.
- Like all Puritans, Mather believed that God had dispatched him on a special mission to the New World: his role was to root out evil and establish the "kingdom of God."
From the Wonders of the Invisible World
The New-Englanders are a people of God settled in those, which were once the Devil's territories; and it may easily be supposed that the Devil was exceedingly disturbed, when he perceived such a people here accomplishing the promise of old made unto our blessed Jesus, That He should have the utmost parts of the earth for his possession. There was not a greater uproar among Ephesians, when the Gospel was first brought among them, than there was among the powers of the air (after whom those Ephesians walked) when first the silver trumpets of the Gospel here made the joyful sound. The Devil thus irritated immediately tried all sorts of methods to overturn this poor plantation: and so much of the church, as was fled into this wilderness, immediately found the serpent cast out of his mouth a flood for the carrying of it away. I believe that never were more satanical devices used for the unsettling of any people under the sun, than what have been employed for the extirpation of the vine which God has here planted, casting out the heathen, and preparing a room before it, and causing it to take deep root, and fill the land, so that it sent its boughs unto the Atlantic Sea eastward, and its branches unto the Connecticut River westward, and the hills were covered with the shadow thereof. But, all those attempts of Hell, have hitherto been abortive, many an Ebeneezer has been erected unto the praise of God, by his poor people here; and having obtained help from God, we continue to this day. Wherefore the Devil is now making one attempt more upon us; an attempt more difficult, more surprising, more
snarl'd with unintelligible circumstances than any that we have hitherto encountered; an attempt so critical, that if we get well through, we shall soon enjoy halcyon days with all the vultures of Hell trodden under our feet. He has wanted his incarnate legions to persecute us, as the people of God have in the other hemispheres been persecuted: he has therefore drawn forth his more spiritual ones to make an attack upon us.
What Happened Next . . .
By September 1693 many intellectuals and ministers started to question the use of spectral evidence in the witch trials. The belief that accused witches were possessed by the devil, rather than acting freely as a follower of the devil, started to take hold. Once people started to feel that the accused were really victims, the basis for the trials started to crumble. Mather, who had originally been against the use of spectral evidence but had pushed for the prosecution of some of the accused solely on that charge, worked to distance himself from the shame of the outcome of more than a year of trials and executions.
In 1700 Robert Calef published More Wonders of the Invisible World, a book mostly devoted to mocking Mather's book (see biography and primary source entries). Although Mather defended his views on witchcraft for the rest of his life, he was mostly ignored. He is still considered to be at fault for a great deal of the witchcraft hysteria.
Did You Know . . .
- Although Cotton Mather was an extremely intelligent and well-educated man, he was passed over for the presidency of Harvard all his professional life. Bitter and angry for the slight, Mather assisted in the founding of Yale University, which to this day is one of Harvard's greatest rivals.
Jesus: Jesus of Nazareth, founder of Christianity
Ephesians: people of Ephesus, in present-day Turkey, to whom Saint Paul preached
Gospel: the word of the Christian God
extirpation: the destruction of
heathen: an uncivilized or irreligious person
Ebeneezer: stone set up by Samuel in the Bible to commemorate victory over the Philistines
incarnate: in bodily form
persecute: to cause to suffer because of belief
Edited by Emory Elliott and others
For Further Study
Demos, John Putnam. Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Discovery Online—A Village Possessed: A True Story of Witchcraft. http://www.discovery.com/stories/histor y/witches/witches.html (Accessed July 7, 2000).
Elliot, Emory, and others, eds. American Literature: A Prentice Hall Anthology, Volume 1. Englewood Cliffs, New jersey: Prentice Hall, 1991.
Hansen, Chadwick. Witchcraft at Salem. New York: George Braziller, 1969.
Hill, Frances. A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Doubleday, 1995.
Rice, Earle, Jr. The Salem Witch Trials. San Diego, California: Lucent Books, 1997.
Starkey, Marion L. The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Doubleday, 1989.
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