Cotton Mather

COTTON MATHER

(1663-1728)

Grandfathers =
Richard Mather
first minister of Dorchester, Mass.
John Cotton
most learned of first-generation American theologians
specialist in the study of faith & religion
Father =
Increase Mather
SCB minister
MBColony agent to England
Harvard president 1685-1701
expectations = high
childhood stammer (beat by 17, 1st sermon)
life-long nervous conditions
manic-depressive, ecstasy (elect) & despair (damned)
vain, aggressive
genius
Harvard
attended at 12, foreign languages (Hebrew), sciences
graduated at 16 3 yrs. later
Master’s degree by 19
prolific writer
400 works by death
in 7 languages (+ learned Iroquois)
genres –
history, sermons, biography
fables, books of practical faith, religious essays
scientific essays, poetry
Second Church of Boston
Congregationalists
each church = independent of any national church
succeeded his father
1685-1728
preacher
1st sermon 1680
ordained 1685
assistant minister 1685-1723, father’s death  he = chief minister
theologian
science & medicine
small pox inoculation
member of London’s Royal Society
historian
especially of 1st Generation
in his time, Puritan community = fading away
gives his work an urgency
“invaded churches”
a call to the old order of church authority
“The Old New England Way”
vs. secularism, materialism
paradox:
belief in supernatural, devil, witchcraft
modern scientific interests & methods
small pox inoculations –
inoculated his own son, against public opinion
w/help of Dr. Boylston (Boylston Street!)
(+)
good works:
organized groups to build churches, supported schools for slave children,
established funds for poor clergy
Bonifacius, or Essays to Do Good (1671) – instructs others to do humanitarian acts
(-)
disappointment & tragedy-
lost 2 wives
3rd wife goes insane
13 of 15 kids dies before he does
bitterness over not getting Harvard U. presidency, as his father
marriage:
1686: married Abigail Philips, 9 children
1702: Abigail died
1703: married widow Elizabeth Hubbard; 6 children
1713: Elizabeth died
1715: married widowed Lydia George; she went insane
15 children: only 6 lived to adulthood, only 2 outlived him
financial burdens:
15 children
crazy wife
3 widowed sisters who depended largely on CM
scapegoat-
for the worst in Puritan culture
Salem Witch Trials
he got blamed
though never involved directly
friends w/judges
& wrote to them about “spectral evidence”
convinced mob to continue execution of former minister who’d recited Lord’s Prayer
but should have spoken out against them
later in life
changed his views on “spectre evidence” & witchcraft/supernatural in general
devil in Salem
present
his final campaign to undermine/destroy God’s people, Christian community
(“God’s people in the devil’s wilderness”)
witchcraft, materialism, secularism
Magnolia Christi Americana
“a history of the wonderful works of Christ in America”
rambling
self-indulgent at times
his most impressive work (of 400!)
7 books
defense of Puritan beliefs
ecclesiastical history of new England
New England churches
Harvard University
“saints” biographies – early Puritans
God’s people in wilderness
transformed wilderness into garden
(reversal of Fall of Man: Garden into wilderness)
experimental forms
Indian captivity narratives (which were popular)
conduct books (manners)
dominant in America & England over century
moral chastisement
guidance for commoners
helping ordinary people imitate the manners & values of the elite
& thus rise in the world
(Ben Franklin)

*OLD ORDER = PASSING*

transition to new cultural, social order
Mather represents that transition
that struggle to accept the transition
the denial at the end of the one, start of the next
from Puritan
strict religious leadership
MBC
bible-based community
exemplar for the world (city on hill)
to more secular
democratic leadership
separation of Church & State
from Church & Bible
to nature, reason & business
change in society
security & prosperity
fewer of the earlier hardships (starvation, poverty, Indians)
geographical spread, dispersal, diffusion
 complacency
 less need for strict religious leadership/governance
Wm. Bradford was right!!!!

fromWonders of the Invisible World

1692
[a people of God in the devil’s territories]
Americas, New England = Devil’s territories
devil = angered
by the presence of God’s people there
by their success there
their success = his promise to Christ in the woods (40 days, be ruler of the world)
devil: sows weeds where God sowed seeds (sowing weeds after seeds)
Bradford
Iroquois creation brothers
devil’s last attack –
to persecute
witchcraft
at the heart of their community (Plymouth? Salem?)
1st defeated, partially
spread to other communities
21 innocent people confessed to witchcraft
confounded his reason
“all the rules of understanding human affairs are at an end”
innocent, good, decent people
all confess in a similar fashion – must be the devil
devil can attack “the minds of men”
(shades of 9/11)
Salem Witch Trials-
brief account -- anecdote, 1 case to illustrate the others
“not as advocate
but as historian”
[the trial of Martha Carrier]
At the court of Oyer & Terminer held by adjournment at Salem, 8-2-1692
12 parts
defendant, plea, witness testimony, memorandum
she bit, pricked, pinched, choked
twist necks almost full round
boils, sores
killed cattle, cows
turned her children into witches too – Richard
the evil eye – w/just a look
they got better once she was arrested
spectre evidence-
originally, CM supported this
later, he distanced himself away from it
image of the person – “or her shape”
poisoned
affected in & on way to church
other confessed witches claimed she was present at witches meetings in the woods w/Devil
some claimed she persuaded them into it
“in open court”
1 “had her hands unaccountably tied together w/a wheel-band”
“it was done by a specter”
Memorandum:
she was promised by Devil to become Queen of the Hebrews

fromMagnolia Christi Americana

1702
“a history of the wonderful works of Christ in America”
his vigilance, labor, industry, diligence
Bradford = the 2nd Galeazzo Caraccioli
16th c. Neapolitan noble who left all to follow Calvin in Geneva
Bloody Mary & Protestant persecutions
QE1 & Act of Uniformity
Reformation
not in all places, small cities
plight of the Pilgrims
Scrooby Separatists
persecuted
flee to Netherlands
left homeland
their lands
their friends
to a strange/unfamiliar place
foreign language
poverty
not use farming, what they’ve been raised on
**(heavy on the PATHOS)**
hunted & haunted by persecution
guards at ports
anecdote –
men at sea
women ashore
approaching squad of troops
women = arrested, bounced from JOP to JOP
men = caught in tempest for 2 weeks
good women weren’t out there
“all things for good”
pray for God’s help – saved – reunited
faith in crisis
CM, 1st Man
WILLIAM BRADFORD:
biography
PROTESTANT:
read the bible
discuss w/others
pray
1:1 relationship w/God
that’s what turned WB on to religion
that’s how he spent his time
“keep close unto the written Word of God”
scriptural authority – Bible = #1
scoffed at by neighbors
angered his 2 uncles raising him
Yorkshire churches
“had been deformed by the apostacy of the succeeding times”
“& what little progress the Reformation had yet made in many parts of Christendom towards its recovery”
 so WB spent his time reading, discussing, praying
betrayed, arrested, let go Holland
narced on, arrested, let go
apprentice for 2 yrs. w/Frenchman
sold English estate
$$$
BUT God = displeased
after 10 yrs.  New England
WIFE: “accidentally falling overboard” (NOT suicide)
governor of Plymouth Plantation
Super Man –
ordinary people would have sunk under the pressure
persecutions in England
challenges in Holland & NE
pressures in NE as governor
BUT
piety, wisdom, courage, perseverance
patience & perseverance --- total faith in GOD
anecdotes:
of his justice, prudence (Christmas Day loafers)
of his starvation time
of his well-tempered spirit (the storm of outsiders, English minister)
of his self-denial (patent for Plymouth Plantation shared w/freemen)
God “recompenses”
$$
family
languages – multilingual, polyglot
Dutch, French, Greek, Latin
Hebrew = #1  bible = #1, closest to God’s Word
studies
languages
history
philosophy
theology
 to refute the heretics
sick
rapture of PAUL (talks to God)
dies next day
69
WB = MOSES
Moses of the New World
leading the Pilgrims in the wilderness
lesson = leaders need to be like Moses
MEN = SHEEP:
PLATO’s description of a ruler, governor –
“shepherd & provider of the human flock”
“Men are but flocks”
WB saw their need & ruled & fed
contrast to SPANISH (de las Casas) who abused the Natives as sheep for slavery

LESSONS

stick to your guns, even when everyone around derides you
1:1 relationship w/God
read, study, pray
total faith in God
patience & perseverance
wisdom, cool-headed
history as allegory (as WB himself did)
God repays when you give
study
theology – to refute heresies
not just theology, but other things too
leaders need to be like Moses, like WB

STYLE:

history as allegory
instructive
moral, spiritual, behavioral lessons
simple style
anecdotes – representative examples for the many
Puritans = people of God, doing God’s work, city of God
World = devil, materialism, secularism
Puritan beliefs
study the Bible
Bible = #1 authority
COE = corrupt, “apostacy”
read, study, discuss, pray
1:1 relationship w/God
pathos: makes it seem that the Pilgrims had it soooo rough, martyrs them
trying to reach the new generation
trying to set up 1st Generation as HEROES
guilt trip: look what they sacrificed for you
3rd Generation idolizing the 1st Generation
at the end of an era
fin de siècle
s