DOOMSDAY: COTTON MATHER'S RENDEZVOUS WITH 1697

By: Michael C. Metzger      

In the late 1600s one of Massachusetts most prominent churches; Boston’s Old North church was headed by a man by the name of Cotton Mather. This man played a pivotal role in early colonial America, which is often unexplored. He fueled fears of the Devil being on earth, which had a grave affect on Puritan society especially in Salem Massachusetts during 1692.

            Cotton Mather was born on February 12, 1663. At age twelve, he easily passed the entrance requirements at Harvard University. At age eighteen, he would receive his M.A. degree from the president of the college, his father Increase Mather. In 1685, he was formally ordained and began preaching at his father’s church, Boston’s Old North. He was a man who knew his bible well; during his lifetime he would publish more than four hundred works.[1] A great many of these works dealt with the bible and Puritan traditions and practices.

            During the first half of Mather’s, life there were many important events, which he would piece together later, to form an earth-shattering conclusion, which would have great effect on the witchcraft hysteria of 1692 in Salem Massachusetts. One of the first events occurred in 1663, this year bore witness to a tremendous earthquake. Today it is estimated to have had a magnitude of nearly seven and is the largest historic earthquake on record in the New England region.[2] The aftershocks of this quake would be felt for three days. This quake was powerful enough to precipitate many drownings and lost ships.[3] Mather was a young child at the time of the quake, no doubt though he was told by the Boston elders, of the day when the earth trembled uncontrollably. Boston also would face a famine in the years following the quake, so much so that English ships sailed north to trade with the French colonies for goods such as “brandy, [and] sugar cane … taking in exchange pelts and grain, which have been a great boon [benefit] during the recent year of famine in Boston.”[4] This statement is from the journal of an agent of the Acadia Trading Company, who sailed the St. John River in the late 1690s. Famine often breeds diseases which was the case in Boston, there were outbreaks of several epidemics, including scarlet fever.[5] 

In 1682 another natural event, which would shape Mather’s opinions about the world, occurred. A large celestial body would streak across the sky. Today we know of the body as Halley’s Comet, which appeared over North America in 1682. Mather would write a sermon after the appearance of this comment entitled “Heavens Alarm and the Later Sign.”[6] 

Mather witnessed, two major wars in the 1600s, the first being King Philips War in 1675. This war would pit the Puritans of New England against the Wampanoag Tribe of Southern New England. This tribe destroyed twelve puritan towns; however they would eventually be defeated by lack of food and ammunition.[7] Almost fifteen years later, another war would transpire, King William’s War, which started in 1689. This time the Puritans faced off against their neighbors from the north, the French, in what would become the first of many wars to determine North American domination. There was but one victory for the English during this conflict, and there were several raids by the French and Indians upon colonial America, one stuck against Falmouth (later Portland, Maine) in July 1690.[8] Perhaps it was out of these wars, or maybe even sooner that colonial inhabitants started to correlate the Indians with the Devil. Reverend William Hubbard described two Wabanaki Sachems as “not without some shew of a Kind of Religion, which no doubt they have learned from the Prince of Darkness.”[9] Hubbard would later label the enemy commanders of King Philip’s War as a “Minster of Satan.”[10]  

These events during the first half of Mather’s life were no doubt a large part of his daily routine. Dealing with the victims of the famine, the families who had sent love ones off to war, or even witnessing the comment, which passed through Boston's sky. So much tragedy and terrible events in such as short period of time, Mather being a veracious theologian retuned to his bible in search of answers. He reached a conclusion that was shocking, he theorized that the world was coming to an end, in fact he went as far as to predict that it would end in 1697, though it was never recorded when or how he arrived at such a conclusion.[11] What can though be seen is why.

In the days of Puritan Society, God and his worshiping in church was at the center of a Puritan’s life. The church dictated the dark and somber Puritan dress, members of this society were expected to live by a strict moral code, and they believed all sins, from sleeping in church to stealing food should be punished and would be punished by God. Men and women were forcibly separated in church; attendance at these long services was compulsory by law.[12] These sermons preached of a God, much unlike our kind and loving God of today, the God of the 1600s was wrathful and to be feared. The bible too, was looked at in a much different manner. Today many who read the bible view the writings as allegorical stories. In the colonial America of the 1600s the bible was viewed as the direct word of God, and therefore the writings inside were seen as historical accounts of events, which had actually occurred. Such a literal reading created this staunch society where the Devil as well as God had a role in the everyday life of the Puritans.

The only work in the bible, which is not in the Puritan sense historical, is the New Testament's “The Revelation of St. John the Divine.” This is the final and only book of the New Testament, which is prophetical in nature. Due to the Puritans interpreting the bible literally as a historical text, it can therefore be presumed with great certainly that this work would have been seen as events that would occur in the future. This book contains the vision, which the author named John had about the end of days or the end of the world. This work describes the exact steps and signals, which shall bring about the end of the world. It is an event in which Satan will according to the text attempt to set up a kingdom through the aid of a seven-headed beast commonly referred to as the Antichrist. Satan and Christ will battle, each having numerous man armies. Christ will win, which will usher in a period where the Devil shall be thrown into hell for a thousand years, and a period of heaven on earth shall begin. This vision is revealed to John when he is brought to heaven, where he sees this future unfold. It is here where he encounters a scroll with seven seals. As each one of these seals is removed from the scroll, a new force descends upon the earth to begin the end of days. After the first seal is removed, he writes, “… I looked and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.”[13] The next seal brought forth another horseman who rode a red horse; “[i]ts rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.”[14] The third seal brought forth another horseman, this one rode a black horse, “[he] was holding a pair of scales in his hand … then I heard a voice … ‘[a] quart of wheat for a day’s wages' ...”[15] The fourth seal brought forth the last of the horseman this one was astride a white horse, “[i]ts rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.”[16] Another seal, the sixth brings forth “… a great earthquake … and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.”[17]

This book would cause Mather’s supposition that the world was coming to an end. Through the events of the fist half of his life he would see the devastation and disaster as the prophecy in the Book of Revelation (The Revelation of St. John the Divine) coming true. He saw the earthquake of 1663 and the comet of 1682 as signs of the sixth seal’s manifestation. The terrible plagues and diseases of the period could have been the work of the forth houseman, death. The famine, which stuck Boston, could have been viewed as the third horseman’s wrath. The English colonists fighting the French could have been seen as nation turning against nation, which was brought on by the second horseman. The Indians who were seen at the time as savages hungry for Puritan land due to their raids on Puritan habitations could have been interpreted as the first horseman who was bent on conquest.

Though these events do not fit perfectly into the bibles construct calling for the end of the world, it would have been difficult for Mather to apply these events in the bible perfectly. This was due to The Book of Revelation being the only book which deals with the future. This type of biblical prediction application, had no precedent, there were no other books for Mather to look back upon whose prophecies came true. Therefore, Mather’s supposition about the end of the world would have been acceptable for most likely he was granted a bit of leeway; after all, he was predicting the end of the world, which was mostly likely a very freighting conclusion for any God fearing Puritan.

How though does the events, which would unfold some twenty miles north of Boston in the tiny community of Salem Massachusetts in 1692, fit into the Mather’s prediction of the end of days? This connection becomes clear when one looks at how witchcraft was defined in the 1600s. In Puritan times everyone in their everyday lives faced the struggle between good and evil, Satan would therefore select they believed the easiest targets to carry out his work, women, children, or the insane. It was believed that if a Puritan were to sign their name into the Devil’s black book he was then permitted to take the shape or image of the bewitched as an entity invisible to the un-bewitched eye, able to torment victims as he pleased.[18] Those who followed Satan by signing in his black book were considered witches, which was one of the greatest crimes a person could commit, punishable by death.[19] 

This outbreak of witchcraft in 1692 in Salem must have been very frightening. Upwards of some one hundred fifty locals in the Salem area were accused. Mather would later attempt to explain this outbreak of witchcraft in one of his many books:

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 … thus Irritated [the Devil] immediately

try’d all sorts of Methods to overturn this Plantation…[20]

Mather continues and goes on to discus the roots of the outbreak:

We have been advised by some Credible Christians yet alive, that a

malefactor accused of Witchcraft as well as murder, and Executed in this

place more than Forty Years ago, did then give Notice of, An Horrible

Plot against the County by witchcraft, … a foundation then laid … which

if … not discovered would probably Blow up, and pull down all the Churches

in the Country. And we have now with Horror seen the Discover of

such Witchcraft! An Army of Devils is horribly broke in upon [this] place...[21]

There in lies the connection between the hysteria and Mather’s apocalyptic predictions, Mather viewed the witches as the Devil’s army, which according to the Book of Revelation was to fight Christ. On August 4, 1692, Mather delivered a sermon warning that the last judgment was at hand, he went as far as to portray himself, Chief Justice Stoughton of the Witchcraft Court of oyer and terminer and Governor Phips as leading the final charge against the Devil’s legions.[22] 

            Mather saw this as an opportunity to defeat the Devil, and perhaps though he never wrote or spoke of it, may have even saw his action as bringing about the heaven on earth, which the bible speaks of upon the defeat of Satan, who’s army was being assembled in Salem. What this meant for the witchcraft hysteria is immeasurable. Mather would zealously pressure the witches due to his belief regarding the manifestation of the Devil. One of Mather’s largest influences starts as a stroke of fate. Three of the five judges appointed to the witchcraft court were friends of Mather and members of his church, mostly likely these men would hear Mather’s sermons, which may have biased them to believe the Devil was assembling his army before the trials had ever started. Besides his preaching Mather would go a step further and would write a letter to one of the judges, John Richards, urging the judges to consider spectral evidence, giving it such weight, as “it will bear,” and to consider the confessions of witches the most telling evidence of all. No one knows for sure how influential this letter was; nonetheless, the court would allow spectral evidence. Today this type of evidence would be best categorized as hearsay, and would not be allowed in a court of law. In the 1600s, spectral evidence was deemed legal, this evidence was testimony that an accused person’s spirit or spectral shape appeared to the witness in a dream, while at that time the accused person’s body was elsewhere.[23] Confessions would also play a very large role in the hysteria. One of the most telling confessions is that of Margaret Jacobs who confessed to witchcraft and then accused her grandfather George Jacobs of witchcraft. George Jacobs was tried and executed thanks in large part to Margaret’s confession.  

            Mather again would play an immensely important part during the crossroads of the hysteria. On August 19, 1692 five condemned witches were atop Gallows Hill in Salem awaiting their execution. Though it is not know the exact order in which the five were executed, when it came to be George Burroughs (Salem Village’s second minister from 1680 to 1683[24]) turn something shocking occurred. On the date of his execution, Mather was present, astride a horse. It is interesting to note that in the bible’s Book of Revelation Christ when he goes to battle the Devil’s legions he was also astride a horse. John writes, “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war.”[25] With the noose around his neck Burroughs did, something a witch was not supposed to be able to do, that being the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. Mather faced a crossroads does he intervene because this man cannot be a witch, or does he let the persecution continue? No one can be certain why he proceeded the way he did, however his belief that he was leading the charge to defeat the Devil may provide some insight to what he did. Mather turned to the stunned crowd, which had gathered to witness the executions, and he explained that the devil had helped Burroughs recite the prayer, by apparently transformed himself into Burroughs shape and then transformed himself “into an angel of light.”[26] This quelled any suspicion that Burroughs was innocent for he along with five others were hanged that day. This was the turning point of the hysteria; eight more victims were hanged on September 22, 1692. Indeed Mather’s statement that day suppressed an event, which could have lead to the end of these executions, with eight dead, instead the hysteria would continue and seven more would be hanged as well as one man who was pressed to death.

            When looking back on Mather and the events of 1692, it is easy to take what transpired out of its historical era, and judge both Mather and the trials using our morals and principals of today. This though is not a sound practice; Mather believed he was witnessing the end of the world, that the witches of Salem were the Devil’s legion, and that he was leading the last crusade against them. Nonetheless, the combination of the Mather, the bible’s Book of Revelation and the witchcraft hysteria in Salem, was a dangerous and deadly combination. Mather used his position of power to make sure the hysteria would unfold and continue the way that he wanted. In the years following the hysteria, 1697 would pass, and the world would not end, in turn neither would Mather’s influence nor predictions. He would continue as Old North Church’s minister and would predict the end of days again for 1716 and once again for 1736.[27]

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        Selected Bibliography:

Baker, Emerson W. and Kences, James. "Maine, Indian Land Speculation, and the Essex County Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692." Maine History, volume 40, number 3, Fall 2001 (pp. 159-189).

Bowerman, Brad. “My First Earthquake,” 20 April 2002,                 

    <http://members.aol.com/bowermanb/myquake.html> (19 December 2004).

Brown, David C., A Guide to the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692. Worcester, Massachusetts: 

    Commonwealth Editions, 2000: 12-13.

“Cotton Mather, An American on Patmos,”15 November 1999,       

    <http://www.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/brimstone/index.html> (1 January 2005).

“Explorers and Settlers of North America,” 2004, 

    <http://oz.plymouth.edu/~lts/wilderness/explorers.html> (25 December 2004). 

“Fire and Ice: Puritan and Reformed Writings,” 2004, 

    <http://www.puritansermons.com/bio/biomathe.htm>  (1 January 2005).

“King Philip’s War: The Causes,” 14 July 1998, < http://www.pilgrimhall.org/philipwar.htm> 

    (1 January 2005).

“King William’s War (1689-1697),” 2002, < http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h840.html>              

    (1 January 2005).

“Lade to Nova Scotia.” Colonial America. 2003.

    <http://www.reeseco.com/cat230/230d.htm> (31 December 2004).

Laundry, Peter. “The English Takeover: 1690-1712,” in Book 1 Arcadia 1. of History of Nova Scotia, 

    June 1998, Part 2. <http://www.blupete.com/Hist/Nova ScotiaBk1/Part2/Ch05fn.htm#fn6> (31 December 2004).

Linder, Douglas. “Cotton Mather.” In Salem Witchcraft Trials 1692, June 2002. (1 January 2005)

Mather, Cotton. “The Devil in New England.” In The Wonders of the Invisible World, 1692. 

    <http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/mather/devil.htm> (29 Dec. 2004).

Story, William L.,  The Stories of Courage and Defiance. Peabody, Massachusetts: Willart 

    Publishing, 2001: 25, 30-31.

Sutter, Tim, “Salem Witchcraft,” 2003, < http://www.salemwitchtrials.com/salemwitchcraft.html> (1 

    January 2005).

Swift et al. “Salem Witch Trials: The World Behind the Hysteria,” 2003, 

    <http://school.discovery.com/schooladventures/salemwitchtrials/> (17 July 2004).

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Metzger, Michael C. Doomsday: Cotton Mather’s Rendezvous with 1697. 16 January 2005. <http://www.hocuspocustours.com/> Date that you access this page.

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