During the Salem Witch Trials three of the appointed judges were friends of Mather, as well as members of his own church. To John Richards, one of the three, Mather wrote a letter, urging the judges "to consider spectral evidence, giving it such weight as 'it will bear."
Included in this letter was his statement that he considered "the confessions of witches the best evidence of all." On this point, he should have also included, concerning the Salem Witch Trials, that confessions to practicing witchcraft that were extracted by torture should also be used as evidence.
Mather was so entirely convinced of the practice of witchcraft that at the execution of ex-minister George Burroughs for witchcraft he insisted that the man's hanging be continued when many in the watching crowd shouted for the execution to be stopped.
Mather was adamant that spectral evidence, the testimony of the bewitched that they could see visions of the ones tormenting them, should be used as evidence against accused witches.
Mather the Author
Cotton Mather authored 444 published works, 406 of these separate works still exist today. In Late Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions, he sanctioned the Salem Witch Trials persecutions. His Wonders of the Invisible World gives accounts of some of the Salem witchcraft cases.
Because of his writings dealing with science and his friendship with certain persons of note and position, Mather was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1713. He was highly effective in 1721 in promoting the inoculation against smallpox. He survived his father, Increase Mather, by little more than four years, dying at Boston on February 13, 1728.
Previous: Cotton Mather: A Believer in Witchcraft
Recommended Reading
Growing Up in Salem, Massachusetts: Rebelling Against Adult Rule
Sources:
Collier's Encyclopedia, Volume 15. Crowell-Collier Educational Corporation, 1968.
Hill, Frances. A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials. De Capo Press, 1995.
Hill, Frances. The Salem Witch Trials Reader. De Capo Press, 1995.
