The supernatural was a part of everyday life in seventeenth-century New England due to the colonists having strong conservative religious convictions. This made it quite easy to take the existence of demons and witches for granted. Many believed that Satan was present on a daily basis, a concept that had first appeared during the fifteenth century in Europe and that the settlers brought with them during their journey to the New World.


Joseph Glanvill (1636 – 1680) was an English writer whose posthumously published work was titled Sadducismus Triumphatus, or, Full and plain evidence concerning witches and apparitions in two part:  the first treating of their possibility, the second of their real existence (1681).  This work was a collection of folklore about witches, some of which Glanvill had written and published as early as 1666.  In his writings, Glanvill attempted to establish that witches and ghosts existed and that demons were alive on earth.

In 1693, Cotton Mather (1663 – 1728) published Wonders of the Invisible World which he wrote to explain and justify the role with he had played in the Salem Witch Trials. A reading of Wonders of the Invisible World makes it quite clear that Sadducismus Triumphatus was a very influential work to Cotton Mather.

Mather was born into a family of renowned Puritan ministers. His grandfather, the Rev. Richard Mather, was the minister of the North Church of Dorchester, Massachusetts.

His grandfather, Rev. John Cotton, gave a farewell address to John Winthrop as he sailed from England to the New World to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Finally, his father, the Rev. Increase Mather, was the Pastor of the Second Church of Boston from 1664 until his death in 1723.  In addition, Increase served at what was then called Harvard College, as the Actin President from 1685 to 1686, then Rector until 1692 at which time he was named President and served in this position until 1701.

Cotton graduated from Harvard College in 1680 and joined his father as an associate at the Second Church of Boston in 1685 where he remained until his death in 1728.  Cotton also tried to follow his father as President of Harvard and after being rebuffed by the College’s board he helped to form Yale University. In 1718, at the request of the ‘Collegiate School’ which was just being formed in New Haven, Cotton wrote a letter to Elihu Yale who had become extremely wealthy through the East India Company. He suggested that Yale donate to this new college and that if he did so that it “might wear the name of Yale College.” Yale sent a significant amount of textiles that were- sold for 562 pounds – enough to construct the Collegiate School building that was renamed as Yale College.

Cotton was also a prolific writer, authoring over 400 articles and books. Further, Cotton was quite opinionated and inserted himself into the middle of many public events during his life.  As one would surmise, Increase and Cotton were both extremely influential Reverends at the time of the Salem Witch Trials. However, their positions were not always united on this issue.

Mather believed that witches were implements that Satan used in his attempt to rid the earth of the Puritans. He supported the witch trials as a mechanism to assure God’s will. However, Increase did not support the executions handed down from the witch trials and was very troubled about this entire situation. In 1693, Increase published Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil which played a major role in helping to end executions for witchcraft.

George Burroughs had been a minister in Salem Village from 1680 until 1683. He was the sole Puritan minister to be executed for witchcraft.  Cotton attended his execution.  Burroughs recited the Lord’s Prayer while standing on the gallows. It was believed by many that a witch would not be able to recite this prayer, so many in attendance wanted to spare Burroughs’ life. However, Cotton swayed the crowd against Burroughs, and he was hanged.

After the execution had been halted, and the children began to recant their allegations against the so-called witches, Cotton began to publicly minimize his role in the witch trials and maybe even question whether the supernatural existed.