Who is cotton mather

As it happened, three of the five judges appointed to the Court of Oyer and Terminer that would hear the Salem witchcraft trials were friends of Mather and members of his church. Mather wrote a letter to one of the three judges, John Richards, suggesting how they might approach evidentiary issues at the upcoming trials.

In particular, Mather urged the judges to consider spectral evidence, giving it such weight as "it will bear," and to consider the confessions of witches the best evidence of all. As the trials progressed, and growing numbers of person confessed to being witches, Mather became firmly convinced that "an Army of Devils is horribly broke in upon the place which is our center.

On August 19, Mather was in Salem to witness the execution of ex-minister George Burroughs for witchcraft. When, on Gallows Hill, Burroughs was able to recite the Lord's Prayer perfectly something that witches were thought incapable of doing and some in the crowd called for the execution to be stopped, Mather intervened, reminding those gathered that Burroughs had been duly convicted by a jury. It drew upon preexisting rivalries and disputes within the rapidly growing Massachusetts port town: between urban and rural residents; between wealthier commercial merchants and subsistence-oriented farmers; between Congregationalists and other religious denominations—Anglicans, Baptists, and Quakers; and between American Indians and Englishmen on the frontier.

He has wanted his Incarnate Legions to Persecute us, as the People of God have in the other Hemisphere been Persecuted: he has therefore drawn forth his more spiritual ones to make an attacque upon us. Read the document introduction and transcript and apply your knowledge of American history in order to answer these questions. A printer-friendly version is available here. History Resources.

He studied Hebrew and the sciences, and after receiving a degree at the age of 16, intended to pursue a career in medicine. His personal life was marked by recurring tragedies. He had three marriages. His first two wives died, his third went insane. He and his wives had a total of 15 children, but only six lived to be adults, and of those only two outlived Mather. It was a prestigious institution in the city, and Mather became its pastor. From the pulpit his words carried weight, and he thus had considerable political power in Massachusetts.

He was known to have opinions on just about any issues, and was not shy about expressing them. When the notorious trials of accused witches began in Salem in the winter of , Cotton Mather approved of them, and by some interpretations actively encouraged them.

Eventually, 19 people were executed and many more jailed. In Mather wrote a book, "Wonders of the Invisible World," which made the case for the supernatural, and seemed to be a justification for the events at Salem. Mather later recanted his views on the witch trials, eventually considering them to have been excessive and unjustified.

Mather had a deep interest in science since his childhood, and as books about discoveries by scientists in Europe reached America, he devoured them. He also corresponded with scientific authorities in Europe, and though positioned in the American colonies, he managed to stay up to date with the works of men such as Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle.

Over the course of his life, Mather wrote about scientific subjects including botany, astronomy, fossils, and medicine. He became an authority on common diseases, including scurvy, measles, fevers, and smallpox. One of the major contributions Cotton Mather made to science in early America was his support for the concept of vaccinations. He was attacked and threatened for advocating that the public receive vaccinations for smallpox a disease which had killed some of his children.

By , he was the foremost American authority on vaccinations. Mather possessed boundless energy as a writer, and over the course of his life he published hundreds of works, ranging from pamphlets to hefty books of scholarship. Perhaps his most significant written work was "Magnalia Christi Americana," published in , which chronicled the history of the Puritans in New England from to The book also serves as something of a history of the Massachusetts colony, and it became a cherished and widely read book in early America.

The copy owned by John Adams can be viewed online.