Although best known for his spiritual guidance in the 17th-century Salem Witch Trials, Cotton Mather was a Renaissance man with vocations in science and government and a dynamic Puritan preacher in the New World.
Who Was Cotton Mather?
Cotton Mather's two grandfathers and his father were the earliest Puritan ministers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, elected to serve the Church of England. They worked to reform church practices and paved the way for Cotton Mather’s unique leadership as a preacher. Referred to as a Congregational minister, Cotton Mather continued his forefathers’ movement to form a “purified” version of the Anglican Church of England in the American colonies.
Cotton Mather’s spiritual orientation combined a belief in spirits and strong fear of the Devil. He wrote, “Wilderness is a temporary condition through which we are passing to the Promised Land.” Mather influenced many Puritans, who saw the vast American landscape as “the Devil’s playground.”
Mather not only played a crucial role in the Puritan strain that formed the Congregational denomination; later the same strain led to forming the Presbyterian and Baptist denominations in America.
10 Events in the Life of Cotton Mather
1. Cotton Mather was born on February 12, 1663, in Boston, the largest town in the newly settled Massachusetts Bay Colony.
2. Mather was the son of preacher Increase Mather and the grandson of John Cotton and Richard Mather. His grandfathers established Puritanism in the colonies within the constraints of the Church of England.
3. Mather entered Harvard College several months before his 12th birthday, easily meeting the entrance requirements. To this day, he is the youngest person ever accepted there. At Harvard, he earned his bachelor’s degree at 15 and his master’s degree at 18.
4. Mather began to stutter during his preteen years. He struggled with this speech disorder throughout his life and feared it would ruin his chance to become a preacher. Insecure and bullied, Cotton temporarily withdrew from Harvard and was educated at home.
5. At age 23, Mather married 16-year-old Abigail Phillips, daughter of an army colonel. Abigal and three of their children died during a measle epidemic when she was 32.
6. Mather was widowed twice, and only two of his 15 children lived longer than he did.
7. Mather was nearly arrested during the 1689 Boston Revolt when he led a resistance to the policies of Governor Edmund Andros in the Dominion of New England. The British governor tried to enforce British Navigation Acts, which canceled existing land titles, restricted town meetings, appointed a colonial militia, and promoted the Church of England. The colonists regained control of their territory after a struggle in which no one was injured.
8. Mather studied many scientific topics, from disease to plant hybridization. He also researched inoculation to curb the smallpox epidemic, which stirred up religious and medical controversy in Boston. His published research reports earned him a fellowship in the Royal Society of London.
9. Convinced of the real power of Satan, he attended the Salem Witch Trials and documented his observations and interpretations of the proceedings in his work, Wonders of the Invisible World. He warned judges to use caution with “spectral evidence,” signs of the Devil.
10. Mather died in Boston, his home for his entire life, on February 13, 1728, at age 65. After he passed on,
Top 10 Quotes by Cotton Mather
1. “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.” — Wonders of the Invisible World
2. “Ah, children, be afraid of going prayerless to bed, lest the Devil be your bedfellow.”
3. “Wrestle with the Lord. Receive no denial. Earnestly protest, Lord, I will not let thee go, except thou bless this poor child of mine, and make it your own!” — A Family Well Ordered
4. The schools of learning and religion are so corrupted, as (besides the unsupportable charge of education) most children, even the best, wittiest, and of the fairest hopes, are perverted, corrupted, and utterly overthrown, by the multitude of evil examples and licentious behaviors in these seminaries.” — Magnalia Christi Americana, Volume 1
5. “. . . yea that we never assemble without a Satan among us. . . That the Angels do sometimes come into our churches, to gain some advantage from our Ministry. . . that may our sermons tell unto the old wretch, ‘Know thou, that thy judgment is at hand.’” — On Witchcraft
6. “Have not many of us been devils one unto another for slanderings, for backbitings, for animosities? For this, among other causes, perhaps, God has permitted the devils to be worrying, as they now are, among us. But it is high time to leave off all devilism, when the Devil himself is falling upon us: And it is no time for us to be Censuring and Reviling one another, with a devilish wrath, when the wrath of the Devil is annoying of us.” — On Witchcraft
7. “But there is a civil, a moral, a federal liberty, which is the proper end and object of authority; it is a liberty for that only which is just and good; for this liberty you are to stand with the hazard of your very lives.” — Magnalia Christi Americana, Volume 1
8. “This liberty is maintained in a way of subjection to authority; and the authority set over you will in all administrations for your good be quietly submitted unto, by all but such as have a disposition to shake off the yoke, and lose their true liberty, by their murmuring at the honor and power of authority.” — Magnalia Christi Americana, Volume 1
9. “. . . think on the Italian proverb, “ To wait for one who does not come; to lye a bed not able to sleep; and to find it impossible to please those whom we serve; are three griefs enough to kill a man.” — Magnalia Christi Americana, Volume 1
10. “. . . do not lay more stress on pure spectral evidence than it will bear … It is very certain that the devils have sometimes represented the shapes of persons not only innocent, but also very virtuous. Though I believe that the just God then ordinarily provides a way for the speedy vindication of the persons thus abused.” — Letter to John Richard, judge in the Salem Witch Trials
10 Things You Should Know about Cotton Mather
1. When Mather was young, he sought to cleanse himself of sin through fasts and vigils, examining what he perceived to be his sinful conscience.
2. Mather prayed and meditated six times a day, interrupting the duties of his adult workday.
3. In Mather’s spiritual life, he experienced “direct illumination from God” and at other times felt attacked by demons that made him groan or swoon.
4. Mathers was a prolific writer, producing 444 printed works.
5. His historical account of God’s blessing the Puritans in New England, Magnalia Christi Americana (“The Glorious Works of Christ in America”), was an effort to join provincial America to mainstream English culture. It contains seven books on a wide variety of topics.
6. In his Curiosa Americana (1712–1724), a collection of scientific writing, Mather observed and published research findings that suggested flowering plants reproduce sexually with genetic dominance. This research laid a foundation for the scientific research of Linnea and Mendel.
7. Unlike many of his time, Mather promoted treating African-Americans well. In his book The Negro Christianized (1706), Mather insisted that slaveholders should treat their slaves humanely and instruct them in Christianity. He lived this instruction by inviting African-Americans in his congregation to his home and paying a schoolteacher to teach African-Americans how to read.
8. Mather preached at the trials of nine pirate captains, six of whom were executed.
9. In a Dr. Phil vein, Mather wrote Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion, which outlined proper Puritan conduct for women at four stages of their lives: as maidens, wives, mothers, and widows.
10. The Boston community admired Mather’s pastoral care of troubled teens. He also ministered to the teenage girls who were witnesses at the Salem Witch Trials and preached at some of their trials.
Why Should We now Cotton Mather Today?
Cotton Mather was a complicated man. He had the spiritual concerns of a minister, shepherding his congregation and family as a strict father. Yet, though immersed in the spiritual world of God and the Devil, he used empirical evidence to conduct scientific research and publish his findings. He was a prolific writer on subjects of scientific discovery as well as thoughts on the spirit world. He had countless original ideas in his huge collection of published works.
Though he assumed the Mather family tradition of becoming a minister and leader of the Puritans, he did not heed his father’s advice to stay away from the Salem Witch Trials. Cotton Mather also openly rebelled against Mother England’s rule of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was a many-faceted, brilliant man whose intellect, personality, and faith were dynamic and chaotic. One could say his dynamic and chaotic qualities matched the dynamic and chaotic early America he lived in.
Further Reading:
Cotton Mather, Scion of a Noble Heritage
Puritan John Owen Focused on Christ
The Life and Work of John Bunyan
Photo Credit: Graphic by G. Connor Salter. Public domain photo from 1728 portrait by Peter Pelham (via Wikimedia Commons).
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