Thursday, April 1, 2010

Memorable Providences by Cotton Mather

In this book, which Rev. Samuel Parris possessed during the time of the witchcraft trials in Salem, Cotton Mather gives the account of a bewitching in Boston. A woman named Glover is accused, confesses to, and hangs for being a witch and tormenting a family and its children. I'm interested in the particular interest Mather pays the particularities of the witchcraft--apparently exposing the children to any form of the Bible (whether written in English, Latin, Hebrew, or Greek) can cause the witch/devil to torment them. Also, the torments apparently stop at night. This book adds an interesting perspective to the events in Salem (which happen just three years after this book is published).

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