was owing not to local causes, but general The whole Colony was as deeply interested in the matter as Salem, and that it even occurred here was at the time thought to be very natural, as we shall show.

Cotton Mather states, what was undoubted

Some of those, too, who were accused of witchcraft in 1692, confessed that their object was to destroy the Church of God in the Colony, (see Hale's Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, page 38) and this confes-ly thought a good reason, why Satan should sion was only a confirmation of the gloomy belief in the plot, which Mather informs us of. When, moreover, we consider the enormity of such a plot, and this confession of it, we shall be at no loss to perceive why the witchcraft affair at Salem assumed such a fearful interest in New England; for not only was it now known that that plot was a verity, but it was also known where and by whom it was to be consummated. So we perceive that the witchcraft at Salem became at once of immense and all-exciting interest-was a blow aimed at the very heart of the whole Church of Christ in New England, and the first development of the infernal plan of Satan against the very existence of Christianity in the land. It was this belief which gave to our Salem Tragedy its awful and appalling interest and alarm; and unless this fact is adhered to, we lose the key which unlocks the mystery. To ascribe to Salem the origin of the witchcraft here is a mistake, while the fury with which it raged,

*Cotton Mather says, (and he is evidently sincere in the matter, however partial he may be,)-"Many of the persons thus represented (as witches) being examined, several of them have been convicted of a very damnable Witchcraft. Yea, more than Twenty have Confessed that they have Signed unto a Book, which the Devil showed them, and Engaged in his Hellish Design of Bewitching and Ruining our Land." See "Wonders of Invisible World"-Article, "Enchantments Encountered," page 6.

This quotation from Mather is important, as showing what was the belief of those in authority, as well as himself and others, as to the importance of the witchcraft plot at Salem. It must not be forgotten that Mather printed this by the special command of the Governor of the State, and by the sanction also of Stoughton, the Dep. Gov.

have chosen Salem as the place of attack, and we shall quote him in the matter. In describing some of the acts of witchcraft, he says, "We have also seen the Devil's First Batteries upon the town, where the First Church of our Lord in this Colony was gathered, producing those distractions which have almost ruined the town," (pages 51-2). By the emphasis which Mather lays upon the first attack upon the first church in the Colony, we can readily see why, in his estimation, as in that of others, most probably, Salem was the place of all others which the Devil hated the most, and with good reason; and why it was especially and most fittingly chosen as the point of attack. As Cotton Mather believed, those in authority* appear then to have believed, and so did multitudes of people in the Colony. No, the witchcraft tragedy in Salem dates back to a cause, far deeper than any mere local one. It was linked in with prior beliefs, with the supposed fulfilment even of sacred prophecy, with a particular plot of the Devil to ruin and subvert the Church of Christ in New England-was supported by confessions of those accused to that end-and as if to make the matter more ominous, it began in the family of a Minister of the GospelSatan thus showing the strength, the malignity, and the wisdom of his attack. Such, at least, seem to be the reflections of that day; which,

*Calef states that Sir William Phips, the Governor, was a parishioner of Cotton Mather, and it would appear that the former was much influenced during the witchcraft period by the counsel of his Pastoras he sought the advice of the clergy in relation to witchcraft, and Cotton Mather was very prominent as

We could quote further from Mather in support of an adviser, and is said even to have drawn up the this view, if necessary. advice on which the Gov. and his Council acted.

if it could not plainly foresee the thing, yet thought it knew how to explain it thoroughly and satisfactorily at the event; and doubtless was sincere in its attempt. The true history of the affair absolves Salem from bearing the whole burden, and lays it upon the general error and mistake of the Colony and of the most learned theologians in it.

the Church of Christ, and his purpose was to
overthrow it, and by and through its own mem-
bers. He came with his promises, which were
soul-bewildering, and with his book, for his
followers to sign, that none should be lost to
him; and that book was appropriately signed
in blood. He promised all manner of worldly
prosperity-the command of time and space-
vast spiritual power, by which all enemies -
could be put under foot, and tortured and pun-

and last of all, he brought with him the rites
and ceremonies of his church-set up in most
blasphemous imitation of the true church—and
with its meetings and baptisms and prayers and
sacraments of Hell. Over this church-of the
utmost conceivable blasphemy and wickedness

We are also to consider that the affair at Salem exceeded in all its proportions any and all other cases of witchcraft that had ever hap-ished, and turned even into obedient slaves; pened before in the Colony. Whatever other witchcrafts had occurred previous to this were rather of a personal character-were isolated, detached cases, in which at times inferior Spirits or Demons might be concerned, even at times trifling Demons, as in the case at Newbury, (of which we shall presently make mention). This he presided; and worst of all, there were case at Salem was of a far different and weight- found at some of its gatherings, which took ier character. As the witchcraft at Salem was place in Salem, professed members of Christ's (believed to be) the final great plot of Satan Church in S., acknowledging the Devil to be for the overthrow of the church in New Eng- their God, praying to him, eating his sacramental land, he came in person. It was Satan himself bread and drinking his bloody wine. This was who now appeared, and who led in person the the flower and consummation of witchcraft. grand attack. No subordinates were now to To torture poor souls with the arts of sorcery be trusted; no trifling spirits or demons were was an iniquity worthy of death; but what to play their pranks of malice or mischief. indignation and fate were due the professed disThese all gave way and retired before the pres- ciples of the Christian Church, who thus in ence of the great Arch-Fiend himself—who was silence and secrecy were betraying that church in solemn and terrible earnest, as his time was, to the Devil and their souls to cternal perdition if Scripture told true, to be short. Soon, full-who were bringing a ruin upon the land,the soon the adamantine chains might bind him, extent of which no imagination could even conand the bottomless pit receive him. This was ceive? Such persons would not fail to be torthe fear upon him. Filled too with inextin-mentors of others, who could defy and deny their guishable malice and rage against the Church of Christ which had invaded America, and thereby gained the land which had been so long his own, (for were not the heathen Indians his servants?) and hoping to overturn and extinguish that church or drive it from the soil, and so avoid the doom he feared-for not until the earth was the Lord's, could] his own days be numbered-he, the Arch-Fiend, filled too with all the subtlety of ages of unhallowed wisdom, and cruel with all the mercilessness of a soul to whom evil was good, was descending in all his rageupon the Colony. He came too upon

God and Saviour. Of all criminals these were
the most dangerous; and unforgiven of God,
why should they be spared of man? So ran
the current of that day; and the fact remains,
that of the twenty-eight condemned to death
above a third part (Calef, page 233) were mem-
bers of some of the churches in New England.
More than half of them were of good conver-
sation in general, and not one cleared. Nine-
teen were hanged and one pressed to death.
(Calef, page 233.)

We see from history and the inferences de-
ducible from it, how momentous was the

determination to destroy them, body and souland their sudden awaking to the belief that he was to accomplish it by witchcraft and through their own church members-their fears, when in ignorance of the means to be employed, turned to hatred of the deepest and darkest dye when that ignorance became knowledge, and the plot became known and could be guarded against. And this supposed knowledge burst upon the Colony at once, and all the smothered fears and indignation and wrath of the Puritans against their great adversary and his emissaries exploded, as does the outburst from the volcano. Up came the burning indignation and molten and glowing rage from the very core of the Colony, overwhelming all that was fair and beautiful and good in its fiery tide, and leaving to history a gloomy, desolate, blackened mount of fanaticism, seamed upon its sides with a lava, hardly cool enough yet to walk upon, and buried in cinders and ashes.

witchcraft affair at Salem, and how bewildering and exasperating the causes which lie at the bottom of it; and if that delusion be famous and most extraordinary, it is due not to any extraordinary frailty in our Salem people, but to a most extraordinary condition of the whole Colony, aggravated too by civil misfortunes; and that Salem was readily believed by about all, when the event came, to be the appropriate place for the first development of this infernal plot of Satan. Ought Salem to bear the whole burden? Was not this terrible trag. edy, in part at least, thrust upon her? And when we consider how sincerely that plot was believed in—how horrible beyond all imagination its character-how utterly depraved and wicked the aiders and abettors of it must have appeared to be-how necessary it was to extinguish it, that the church should be saved and the Devil be foiled-that the rest of the church be secured-that it might be prepared for the second coming of the Lord-we can readily see why the exposure of the plot at Salem should have lashed the religious portion of the Colony into a fury and madness, which must ever be memorable in our local and public annals. It was a whirlwind of fanaticism which swept the Colony; and all the more terrible, as its motive power was the ignorant interpretation of those great mysteries-the Proph-street was presented at Ipswich "for suspition ecies and the Revelations. It was the mystery of Iniquity which came upon it, and was mistaken for that of Godliness.

It may not be unprofitable, as it certainly is but justice to Salem, to ascertain what had been done about witchcraft in our own county, ere the outburst at Salem itself. For that purpose we shall give abstracts of certain cases taken from our County Records on file at the office of the Clerk of the Courts.

It appears that as early as 1652, John Brad

of haueing familiarity with the Devil." One or two of his stories proving false, he was sentenced to a fine of 20 shillings, "or else to be whipt." In November, 1669, Goodwife Burt (not of Salem) is accused, by no less than eight witnesses in our County Court, of divers acts of witchcraft, though no record of judgment remains against her.

In 1660-1 or thereabouts,Susannah Martin*

Surrounded, moreover, as our fathers were, with the Indians, who practised witchcraft, and whose wizards were so skillful and famous, we can readily perceive (with the Old Testament bias and leaning of the Puritans) how exciting to them was even the very subject itself. Fearful of its tendencies, with the history of the idolatries of old Israel before their eyes, anxious themselves not, as well as forbidden to err in such a way, and the evidence, or the bulk of it, in five cases, viz., fearing always a lapse from the path of right-Rev. George Boroughs, Bridget Bishop, Susanna believing that the Satan of old was still around Martin, Elizabeth How and Martha Carrier, besides them, hating them worse and with greater some information as to witchcraft matters under the reason than ever he did the Jews, and with a head of his Four "Curiosities." It is very probable

*The evidence against Susannah Martin is given in detail by Cotton Mather in his "Wonders of the Invisible World," (pages 114 to 127). Mather gives