March 6, 2025

Salem Witch Trials: Cotton Mather

Salem Witch Trials: Cotton Mather

A look at an important person in the history of the Salem Witch Trials.

Spreaker Apple Podcasts Spotify PocketCasts Amazon Music Overcast Audible Castro iHeartRadio Castbox Podchaser TuneIn Deezer Pandora RadioPublic Podcast Addict RSS Feed YouTube Fountain PlayerFM Goodpods Podverse Podyssey Breaker Podurama Audacy JioSaavn
Spreaker podcast player icon Spreaker Spreaker Apple Podcasts podcast player icon Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts Spotify podcast player icon Spotify Spotify PocketCasts podcast player icon PocketCasts PocketCasts Amazon Music podcast player icon Amazon Music Amazon Music Overcast podcast player icon Overcast Overcast Audible podcast player icon Audible Audible Castro podcast player icon Castro Castro iHeartRadio podcast player icon iHeartRadio iHeartRadio Castbox podcast player icon Castbox Castbox Podchaser podcast player icon Podchaser Podchaser TuneIn podcast player icon TuneIn TuneIn Deezer podcast player icon Deezer Deezer Pandora podcast player icon Pandora Pandora RadioPublic podcast player icon RadioPublic RadioPublic Podcast Addict podcast player icon Podcast Addict Podcast Addict RSS Feed podcast player icon RSS Feed RSS Feed YouTube podcast player icon YouTube YouTube Fountain podcast player icon Fountain Fountain PlayerFM podcast player icon PlayerFM PlayerFM Goodpods podcast player icon Goodpods Goodpods Podverse podcast player icon Podverse Podverse Podyssey podcast player icon Podyssey Podyssey Breaker podcast player icon Breaker Breaker Podurama podcast player icon Podurama Podurama Audacy podcast player icon Audacy Audacy JioSaavn podcast player icon JioSaavn JioSaavn

A look at an important person in the history of the Salem Witch Trials.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:02.200 --> 00:00:05.960
Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is

2
00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:13.480
the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good evening everyone.

3
00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:17.679
I'm going to begin this episode with a very important question.

4
00:00:19.399 --> 00:00:27.960
Hero of the faith or a villain in a horrible story.

5
00:00:28.679 --> 00:00:33.960
Hero of the faith or villain and a horrible story.

6
00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:36.759
Now you'd be saying, I need to know who you're

7
00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:39.600
talking about before I can answer if this person is

8
00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:41.799
a hero of the faith or a villain and a

9
00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:44.600
horrible story. So tell me and then I'll give you

10
00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:47.200
an answer. Well, I'm not going to tell you until

11
00:00:47.320 --> 00:00:51.840
first I say good evening everyone. It is Thursday, March

12
00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:56.200
the sixth, twenty twenty five. It is currently nine forty

13
00:00:56.200 --> 00:00:59.159
seven pm Central Time, and I am coming to you

14
00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:06.519
live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now,

15
00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:10.359
the individual that I am asking you about, even though

16
00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:12.799
I haven't given you the name yet, the individual I

17
00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:14.680
want to know if you think they are a hero

18
00:01:14.760 --> 00:01:17.519
of the faith or a villain and a horrible story.

19
00:01:17.560 --> 00:01:24.400
That individual is Cotton Mather. Cotton Mather, Right, Cotton, you

20
00:01:24.439 --> 00:01:27.480
know how to spell that Cott N Mather m A

21
00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:31.599
t h e R. Cotton Mather. If you've never heard

22
00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:35.280
of the name, well, then most likely you're not familiar

23
00:01:35.319 --> 00:01:38.799
with a lot of the Puritan writers and those very

24
00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:43.879
influential Puritans back at a specific time in American history.

25
00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:48.040
If you're familiar with the Puritans, you probably know Cotton Mather.

26
00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:52.239
You probably have heard him mentioned in sermons to some level.

27
00:01:52.879 --> 00:01:56.079
Most Christians, I will say the majority of Christians would

28
00:01:56.120 --> 00:01:59.120
probably say, well, either they don't know him, or they're

29
00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:04.519
going to be Cotton Math was great, he's wonderful. He's misunderstood,

30
00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:08.639
he's been falsely accused, he's been made to be a

31
00:02:08.719 --> 00:02:10.800
villain when it really wouldn't be a villain, and they

32
00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:14.639
will come to his defense. If you need any evidence

33
00:02:14.680 --> 00:02:17.240
of this, you can start looking around on the sermons,

34
00:02:17.719 --> 00:02:20.919
the sermons. What's the name of the new app. It's

35
00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:22.759
not the Sermon's two point oh app. It's not the

36
00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:25.960
sermons three point oh app, Sermons by Sermon Audio app

37
00:02:26.039 --> 00:02:28.080
or right the sermon Audio app. If you'll look on

38
00:02:28.120 --> 00:02:31.280
the sermon Audio app or the sermon Audio website, do

39
00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:34.159
a search for Cotton Mather, you're going to see a

40
00:02:34.280 --> 00:02:37.439
lot of messages. Well, I don't know about a lot.

41
00:02:37.560 --> 00:02:39.879
You're gonna see some, but you're going to be able

42
00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:44.639
to tell just from the title almost immediately that they

43
00:02:44.680 --> 00:02:47.800
are taking up and defending Cotton Mather. Now at some

44
00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:52.199
point we will be reviewing many of those, if not

45
00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:54.479
all of them, over maybe the rest of the year,

46
00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:56.960
and talking about it because it will lead us to

47
00:02:57.080 --> 00:03:00.360
talking not only about Cotton Mather himself, but out what

48
00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:04.159
this entire series is about, what we have been looking at,

49
00:03:04.199 --> 00:03:08.319
what have we been talking about, is the Salem witch Trials.

50
00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:12.039
And I will argue you cannot understand the Salem witch

51
00:03:12.039 --> 00:03:15.960
Trials until you understand Cotton Mather. So that's who we're

52
00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:18.319
going to be talking about. I think this may take

53
00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:21.759
more than one episode. It may take two episodes to

54
00:03:21.960 --> 00:03:25.520
do everything I want to do. And just to remind you,

55
00:03:26.039 --> 00:03:28.919
because I've been doing things a little differently, I'm going

56
00:03:28.919 --> 00:03:32.199
to be once again doing this more as a narrative.

57
00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:34.800
I'm going to be doing this as a narrative, not

58
00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:38.879
so much my typical teaching style, which would be Cotton Mather.

59
00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:41.919
Cotton Mather was born on this state, and like almost

60
00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:46.039
giving you like a you know, an outline, bullet points,

61
00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:52.479
write this down, memorize this, asking review questions that way,

62
00:03:52.520 --> 00:03:55.759
I typically typically would teach, but I'm going to do

63
00:03:55.800 --> 00:03:58.360
this more as a narrative. Now. What I did is

64
00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:00.879
I kind of put together, Okay, I want this, I

65
00:04:00.919 --> 00:04:02.840
want this, I want this and this. I'm going to

66
00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:06.080
break these down into segments. And then I basically gave

67
00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:10.599
it all to AI and said, Okay, help me organize this,

68
00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:14.800
and as a narrative script, help me organize this, and

69
00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:17.319
then AI would give me one and then be like,

70
00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:19.160
what revisions do we want to make? And I'd be like,

71
00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:22.439
let's do this. So AI helped formulate a lot of this,

72
00:04:22.839 --> 00:04:25.120
but I did a lot of I did the research

73
00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:27.279
and just once again just to make this very clear,

74
00:04:27.319 --> 00:04:29.879
whenever we talk about Cotton Mather or talk about anything

75
00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:33.639
related to the Salem witch Trials, by no means of

76
00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:37.480
my claiming I'm a complete expert, because I am not.

77
00:04:38.279 --> 00:04:41.959
But I will say this in my defense. I have

78
00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:46.720
been studying the Salem witch Trials for years and years,

79
00:04:47.319 --> 00:04:50.879
and I have been to Salem multiple times and I

80
00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:54.720
will be going back to Salem again. And every time

81
00:04:54.759 --> 00:04:57.839
I go to Salem, I'm there trying to learn everything

82
00:04:57.959 --> 00:05:01.759
I possibly can about the Salem Witch Trials. I want

83
00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:05.199
to see everything in Salem. I want to visit everything,

84
00:05:05.639 --> 00:05:08.639
see everything. I want to just walk around and soak

85
00:05:08.759 --> 00:05:13.959
in the atmosphere of Salem. As I have said numerous times,

86
00:05:14.040 --> 00:05:17.720
I have this just connection to Salem. There's just something

87
00:05:17.879 --> 00:05:20.680
about it. I could just walk around, I could just

88
00:05:20.759 --> 00:05:24.360
sit somewhere in that city and just I don't know,

89
00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:29.040
just my imagination just goes crazy with Salem and everything

90
00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:33.000
that happened there. There's lots of things in history that

91
00:05:33.720 --> 00:05:37.879
I've been fascinated by, and I just kind of get

92
00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:40.959
pulled into it and I just can just escape into

93
00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:43.480
what happened. I can almost like relive it in my mind.

94
00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:48.560
And for some reason, Salem, the city itself, but Salem

95
00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:51.319
and the witch trials, the witch trials that took place

96
00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:57.399
in Salem, absolutely just captivates my imagination, my mind. And

97
00:05:57.480 --> 00:06:00.720
I think one of the reason it does, and we've

98
00:06:00.759 --> 00:06:03.639
already talked about this in this series, is because I

99
00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:07.560
just see that it has very important lessons for me

100
00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:11.519
as a Christian, for the Church, for Christians all across

101
00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:14.480
the world. I think Salem screams at us some very

102
00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:17.879
important lessons. That's why the first episode I did was

103
00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:21.120
about the lessons we can learn from Salem, and I'm

104
00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:23.600
going to try to, you know, once again, try to

105
00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:26.120
bring out very important things that we need to know.

106
00:06:26.439 --> 00:06:29.519
But here's the question. As I started off with hero

107
00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:36.680
of the faith or the villain and a horrible, horrific story,

108
00:06:37.240 --> 00:06:40.360
I want you to decide for yourself. I'm going to

109
00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:42.639
try to be as fair and accurate as I can

110
00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:46.600
be with all of the research I have done, also

111
00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:51.279
utilizing artificial intelligence to fact check and challenge me to

112
00:06:51.319 --> 00:06:54.800
try to make sure. And at the same time, the

113
00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:58.279
one of the reasons I feel really motivated to do

114
00:06:58.360 --> 00:07:01.839
this is because on the Sermon Sermon Audio app and

115
00:07:01.879 --> 00:07:05.439
the Sermon Audio website, there's all these other messages basically

116
00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:09.120
defending Cotton Mather, almost treating him as a hero, and

117
00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:12.879
I just don't understand how anyone can see him as here.

118
00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:15.839
So I have a not do I just not have

119
00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:21.439
an opposite perspective. I'm very bothered at the other perspective.

120
00:07:21.439 --> 00:07:24.079
But that's okay. They can have it, and you, the listener,

121
00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:28.439
can decite. So are you ready? I think and I

122
00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:32.399
think it's fair that one could say that Cotton Mather

123
00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:40.519
is the architect a fear. One could say Cotton Mather

124
00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:46.720
put together the blueprint for the Salem Witch Trials. I

125
00:07:46.759 --> 00:07:52.240
think that would be possibly accurate. Some could say Cotton

126
00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:58.759
Mather is the man who shaped the Salem Witch Trials.

127
00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:02.680
Some could go on to say that Cotton mathers not

128
00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:06.160
only the architect of fear, not only the one who

129
00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:08.759
gave the blueprint for the Salem Witch Trials, not only

130
00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:11.519
the man who shaped the Salem Witch Trials, but he

131
00:08:11.720 --> 00:08:15.639
also is the man who shaped the fear that would

132
00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:20.720
endure way past the Salem Witch Trials. And in many ways,

133
00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:23.959
some of the concepts and ideas are still found in

134
00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:27.439
the minds of many Christians. And I think it's based

135
00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:31.839
off a lot of well wrong way of thinking. And

136
00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:35.000
we're going to look at all of it, all right,

137
00:08:35.080 --> 00:08:39.399
So are you ready. Let's go back three hundred and

138
00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:43.840
thirty three years ago. All right, three hundred and thirty

139
00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:46.639
three years ago. And many many people say the Salem

140
00:08:46.679 --> 00:08:50.840
Witch Trials really began on March the first. Many believe

141
00:08:50.919 --> 00:08:53.240
that that's kind of like the anniversary date. We could

142
00:08:53.279 --> 00:08:55.399
get into it really started in January, when is when

143
00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:58.519
all the hysteria, but the trial itself, we can get

144
00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:00.799
into all of that discussion we've already talked about, but

145
00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:06.679
let's just remind ourselves that the Salem witch Trials are

146
00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:11.159
one of the darkest chapters in American history. I believe

147
00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:14.279
that that's not hyperbole. I believe that's accurate. The Salem

148
00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:17.320
witch Trials are one of the darkest chapters in American history.

149
00:09:18.320 --> 00:09:25.159
But behind the hysteria, behind the accusations, behind the fear,

150
00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:35.279
stood a man whose words and teachings shaped it all.

151
00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:38.320
I want you to really think about that. Behind the

152
00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:42.080
hysteria of the Salem witch Trials and all the witch

153
00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:46.279
fear that was going on at the time, behind all

154
00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:50.360
of the accusations being thrown at people, behind all the

155
00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:53.639
fear that was driving it, there really stood one man.

156
00:09:53.919 --> 00:09:57.399
And that man it was his words, it was his

157
00:09:57.639 --> 00:10:04.879
teachings that shaped at all. His name was Cotton Mather.

158
00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:10.840
Now he may have never sat as a judge in Salem,

159
00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:14.039
and that is true. He never sat as a judge

160
00:10:14.039 --> 00:10:16.399
in Salem, and a lot of people like to use that, well,

161
00:10:16.519 --> 00:10:18.919
Cotton Mather, he wasn't one of the judges in Salem.

162
00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:22.120
Why are we blaming him? Why are you Whenever people

163
00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:25.360
say anything like that to me, it demonstrates a great

164
00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:30.159
ignorance about everything that occurred in Salem. It seems to

165
00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:33.159
me that it's almost like, well, Cotton Mather was the Puritan. Oh,

166
00:10:33.240 --> 00:10:36.279
I love the Puritans. He's on my team. Well, I'm

167
00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:39.879
just going to justify him. And I cannot stress this enough.

168
00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:44.200
Whenever you study church history, Oh, nobody's gonna like this.

169
00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:47.279
But I believe this is a foundational point, like if

170
00:10:47.320 --> 00:10:51.399
I was teaching a church history class in Seminary Bible College,

171
00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:54.120
and I definitely say it whenever I've taught church history

172
00:10:54.120 --> 00:10:56.919
in church. Whenever you study church history, you don't look

173
00:10:56.960 --> 00:10:59.559
back in church history and try to say, well, these

174
00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:03.240
guys are on our team, so they're the heroes of

175
00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:06.559
the story, and those guys are not on our theological team,

176
00:11:06.679 --> 00:11:10.000
and they're the villains. You don't classify people based on

177
00:11:10.039 --> 00:11:13.519
which theological team they are on. You classify them as

178
00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:16.559
human beings who are sinners and they did this, and

179
00:11:16.600 --> 00:11:18.840
they did this, and they did that. You let the

180
00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:22.519
facts speak whatever they may be, the good, the bad,

181
00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:24.879
the ugly. You don't try to and you don't try

182
00:11:24.919 --> 00:11:26.879
to always because what we love to do is go back,

183
00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:29.240
maybe even to the early Church fathers and go oh, look,

184
00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:33.759
look Augustine said this. See say, look he was on

185
00:11:33.799 --> 00:11:36.840
our team. It's never that simple. And that is a

186
00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:40.120
bad way to do church history. All right. So when

187
00:11:40.200 --> 00:11:45.879
it comes to Cotton Mather, we cannot deny, we cannot

188
00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:49.960
deny that his words and his teaching shaped everything that

189
00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:53.440
happened in Salem. And just by pointing out the historical

190
00:11:53.480 --> 00:11:55.679
fact that he never sat as a judge in Salem,

191
00:11:55.960 --> 00:11:59.919
you can't say, well, that proved that makes him innocent. No, this,

192
00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:01.799
this is the very thing you need to remember when

193
00:12:01.799 --> 00:12:07.519
it comes to Cotton Mather. His influence was everywhere. It

194
00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:10.960
was in Boston, it was in Salem, it was all

195
00:12:11.080 --> 00:12:16.960
over that area. See, when it comes to Cotton Mather,

196
00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:20.759
he preached about the war between God and the devil.

197
00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:30.320
He documented cases of supposed demonic possession, he defended the

198
00:12:30.440 --> 00:12:37.039
executions of the accused, and when the trial ended, he

199
00:12:37.320 --> 00:12:45.799
never truly admitted fault. Now, ladies and gentlemen, if you

200
00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:49.000
have influenced, if you've given the blueprint for the Salem

201
00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:51.200
witch trials, and then the Salem witch trials come to

202
00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:53.360
an end, I think you should be the very first person.

203
00:12:53.440 --> 00:12:56.039
Oh wait, wait, guys, if I influenced this in any way,

204
00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:59.200
shape or form. No, I was at fault and that

205
00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:02.240
everything that I've been here in Salem was wrong. This

206
00:13:02.440 --> 00:13:06.120
was horrible, This was a tragedy. But no, no, he

207
00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:09.039
never did that. Now you can see maybe in some

208
00:13:09.080 --> 00:13:12.240
of his teaching he kind of moved away from some

209
00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:15.080
of the stuff that led to Salem, but he never

210
00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:19.960
renounced it. He never apologized. He never No, he never did,

211
00:13:20.039 --> 00:13:23.279
And right there, to me does not put him in

212
00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:26.120
the hero of the faith category. It may put him

213
00:13:26.200 --> 00:13:30.159
much closer to the villain and a horrible, horrible, horrible story,

214
00:13:30.200 --> 00:13:32.720
because anyone who had anything to do with the Salem

215
00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:40.519
Witch Trials should have been apologizing. Now today, this evening, tonight,

216
00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:45.360
this morning, whatever time it may be, I'm going to

217
00:13:45.399 --> 00:13:50.080
attempt to look at this man, Cotton Mather, And even

218
00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:55.080
though he didn't light the fire, I believe he gave

219
00:13:55.159 --> 00:13:59.039
it the fuel it needed to burn. He may not

220
00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:00.919
have been the one who lit the fire that we

221
00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:03.799
called the Salem Witch Trials, but he definitely gave it

222
00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:07.080
the fuel. He was pouring fuel all over it, and

223
00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:09.639
he he in fact, in some way, in some ways

224
00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:12.919
you can think of Cotton Mather, not by his physical presence,

225
00:14:12.919 --> 00:14:16.480
but by his words, by his teaching, he basically covered

226
00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:22.080
that entire area from Boston to Salem and basically in Gasoline.

227
00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:24.440
And all it needed was someone to strike a match.

228
00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:28.600
So I'm going to I am going to do my

229
00:14:28.759 --> 00:14:31.240
very best to tell you the story of Cotton Mather,

230
00:14:32.360 --> 00:14:36.879
the man who helped shape the Salem witch Trials and

231
00:14:36.919 --> 00:14:42.919
the Puritan obsession with the Devil. And I think it's

232
00:14:42.919 --> 00:14:44.960
fair to say the Puritans were obsessed with the Devil

233
00:14:45.080 --> 00:14:47.840
at least at this specific point in time. And it

234
00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:50.000
and and and again, it's not just Salem. You have

235
00:14:50.039 --> 00:14:52.519
to put Boston involved in all of this. Do not

236
00:14:52.679 --> 00:14:57.080
forget Boston. I mean Boston. What was going on. What

237
00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:00.159
happened in Boston happened before you even get to what

238
00:15:00.159 --> 00:15:08.279
happened in the Salem witch Trials. So let's consider Cotton

239
00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:14.120
Mather as a child of Puritan power. That's the first

240
00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:16.799
thing we're gonna look at. Cotton Mather, a child of

241
00:15:16.879 --> 00:15:21.720
Puritan power. Before he was the most feared preacher in

242
00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:25.320
New England, or let me to be more maybe historically accurate,

243
00:15:25.480 --> 00:15:29.039
before he was considered by some to be the most

244
00:15:29.080 --> 00:15:33.960
feared preacher in New England. Before his books justified the

245
00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:38.960
execution of witches. Cotton Mather was simply the son of

246
00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:44.159
a very powerful man. Cotton Mather was born in sixteen

247
00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:50.519
sixty three in Boston. His father's name, it's Cotton. That's

248
00:15:50.519 --> 00:15:53.360
already an interesting name, right, Cotton. That's I think that's

249
00:15:53.360 --> 00:15:57.159
a pretty interesting first name, right, Okay, So it's always

250
00:15:57.279 --> 00:15:59.639
it's always easy to remember Cotton Mather because of the

251
00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:02.600
first and his father's name is even easier to remember

252
00:16:02.679 --> 00:16:07.200
because his father's name was Increase, Increase Mather. So Cotton

253
00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:10.480
Mather was born in sixteen sixty three in Boston. Just

254
00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:15.759
keep that in mind. In Boston, Boston, really, I mean, yeah, well,

255
00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:18.360
we could talk a lot here about Boston, but we

256
00:16:18.440 --> 00:16:22.039
will not. Sixteen sixty three in Boston. His father's name

257
00:16:22.159 --> 00:16:25.759
was Increase Mather, and he was one of the most

258
00:16:25.879 --> 00:16:31.240
prominent Puritan ministers in the colony. Now, Cotton Mather's mother,

259
00:16:31.480 --> 00:16:36.519
her name was Maria, right, she came from another famous

260
00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:42.240
Puritan family. From birth, Cotton Mather was destined for religious greatness,

261
00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:47.120
or at least that's what he was told. It seems that,

262
00:16:47.159 --> 00:16:49.600
at least according to some that his parents were like,

263
00:16:49.639 --> 00:16:54.080
you're you're destined for religious greatness. That's your destiny. That's

264
00:16:54.080 --> 00:16:56.639
what you're going to be, that's what you're going to do. Right,

265
00:16:56.799 --> 00:17:00.399
And it makes sense. Right. I mean, if his father

266
00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:04.279
is the most prominent Puritan minister, his mother comes from

267
00:17:04.279 --> 00:17:09.160
another famous Puritan family, they have a son that you

268
00:17:09.160 --> 00:17:11.960
can see whether there may be, Hey, you're you're gonna

269
00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:13.640
be a man of the Word. You're gonna be a

270
00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:16.680
man of God. You're gonna you're gonna do great things

271
00:17:16.759 --> 00:17:19.799
for the for the for the Word of God, for God,

272
00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:27.000
for God's glory, for the Puritan ideas in theology. Now,

273
00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:33.200
his father, Increased Mather, was a leader in the Massachusetts

274
00:17:33.240 --> 00:17:40.400
Bay Colony. He shaped religious doctrine, He advised the government,

275
00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:44.359
and he saw New England as God's chosen land under

276
00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:50.799
constant attack by Satan, and Cotton Mather absorbed every single word.

277
00:17:50.880 --> 00:17:53.200
I really want to stress this. So Cotton Mather is

278
00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:56.000
being raised in a family that is saying, hey, look,

279
00:17:56.599 --> 00:17:59.839
this is very Look around. This is God's chosen land. Cotton.

280
00:18:00.119 --> 00:18:03.519
Look around, Cotton, let's take a walk. This is God's

281
00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:09.519
chosen land. But Cotton, this is important. I know you're young,

282
00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:18.519
but it's under attack. By Satan. Cotton. Look, you see,

283
00:18:18.680 --> 00:18:21.640
this is God's chosen lambit, but Satan is attacking it.

284
00:18:22.279 --> 00:18:26.720
Satan is out to get it. And young Cotton, well,

285
00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:31.440
he absorbed every single word. You can understand. Now, this

286
00:18:31.480 --> 00:18:33.720
gives you at least some insight maybe to the way

287
00:18:33.839 --> 00:18:37.319
his thinking is going to be shaped. Now by the

288
00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:45.799
age of twelve, Cotton was already attending Harvard College. He

289
00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:51.839
graduated at just fifteen years of age. By most accounts,

290
00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:55.599
he was incredibly intelligent. But by most accounts he was

291
00:18:55.640 --> 00:19:01.079
also very ambitious. He didn't just want to serve the

292
00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:05.599
Puritan cause. He wanted to lead it. He didn't want

293
00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:07.559
to just be a part of it. He wanted to

294
00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:11.720
lead the cause. He wanted to lead this movement of Puritanism.

295
00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:15.200
He wanted to be at the forefront. I'm not saying

296
00:19:15.240 --> 00:19:18.799
that's bad. I'm not saying that's good. I'm just saying

297
00:19:19.079 --> 00:19:22.440
what we seem to know from what we can read

298
00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:28.680
and discover about him. Now, by the time he turns

299
00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:31.720
to the age of twenty or somewhere early in his twenties,

300
00:19:31.799 --> 00:19:34.119
we not have an exact date. We do know this,

301
00:19:34.559 --> 00:19:37.920
he was already preaching fire and brimstone we already know

302
00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:41.400
that by this point he's already preaching fire in brimstone,

303
00:19:41.640 --> 00:19:44.720
he's going all in. So by the time he was

304
00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:47.440
in his early twenties, I think that's fair to say,

305
00:19:47.480 --> 00:19:49.400
by the time he was in his early twenties, he

306
00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:54.240
was already preaching fire and brimstone, sermons about sin, about

307
00:19:54.240 --> 00:19:58.839
the devil, and the spiritual war raging all about them.

308
00:19:58.839 --> 00:20:01.720
And it makes sense. This is the way he was raised, right,

309
00:20:01.880 --> 00:20:03.599
and now he's in his early twenties, the way he

310
00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:06.920
was raised, the theology he's been raised with. Now he's

311
00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:09.839
there and you can you can say it was fire

312
00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:13.279
and brimstone, but he definitely is going to talk about sin.

313
00:20:13.559 --> 00:20:15.759
He's definitely going to talk about the devil, and he's

314
00:20:15.799 --> 00:20:18.160
going to talk about the spiritual war that is raging

315
00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:20.240
all around them. Why because he was brought up to

316
00:20:20.279 --> 00:20:23.640
believe that this is God's chosen land and the devil

317
00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:29.839
is attacking it. But it's not going to be those

318
00:20:29.880 --> 00:20:33.200
sermons that's going to make Cotton Mather famous. No, it's

319
00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:37.839
not going to be those sermons. His fame is not

320
00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:40.440
going to be attached to the sermons he wrote. His

321
00:20:40.680 --> 00:20:44.799
fame is going to be connected to well witchcraft, because

322
00:20:44.839 --> 00:20:48.440
Cotton Mather and the concept of witchcraft are destined to

323
00:20:48.440 --> 00:20:51.160
have a head on collision. You can say, if a

324
00:20:51.240 --> 00:20:55.640
train leaves Boston traveling at this speed and if Cotton

325
00:20:55.720 --> 00:20:59.440
Mather or you can say, if witchcraft leaves Boston traveling

326
00:20:59.480 --> 00:21:01.680
at this sad speed and Cotton Mather is coming from

327
00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:03.640
a different direction, how long is it gonna take before

328
00:21:03.640 --> 00:21:05.319
they have a head on collision? Were they're gonna have

329
00:21:05.319 --> 00:21:07.200
a head on collision, but in a rear and kind

330
00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:08.640
of a if you really want to put this in

331
00:21:08.680 --> 00:21:11.359
a factual way, it wasn't that the witchcraft was coming

332
00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:14.079
from Salem towards Boston and Cotton Mather was going from

333
00:21:14.119 --> 00:21:17.480
Boston to Salem. Basically, Cotton Mather and Witchcraft is all

334
00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:19.440
in Boston. How long is it going to be before

335
00:21:19.480 --> 00:21:21.240
they head to Salem? All Right? That's kind of the

336
00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:23.079
way you almost have to describe this if you want

337
00:21:23.079 --> 00:21:27.680
to be historically accurate. But for Cotton Mather, it's gonna

338
00:21:27.680 --> 00:21:31.240
be how long before him and witchcraft come together? Because

339
00:21:31.319 --> 00:21:40.880
that's that's gonna be the thing that's going to making famous. Now,

340
00:21:40.920 --> 00:21:43.000
before we get to the witchcraft, before we get to

341
00:21:43.039 --> 00:21:46.039
this head on collision between Cotton Mather and witchcraft. We

342
00:21:46.200 --> 00:21:51.519
have to kind of understand his theology. So we're going

343
00:21:51.519 --> 00:21:55.079
to consider Cotton Mather's teaching on the devil, his teaching

344
00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:58.480
on witchcraft, his teaching on spiritual warfare, and we're gonna

345
00:21:58.519 --> 00:22:00.599
we're gonna put this all together in a way that

346
00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:03.559
will be able for you to remember, because I think

347
00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:06.079
it's very key. It's key. Look, if you're going to

348
00:22:06.200 --> 00:22:09.400
understand Salem, you got to understand some of this. So

349
00:22:09.519 --> 00:22:14.519
to understand why Cotton Mather fought so relentlessly against witches,

350
00:22:15.319 --> 00:22:21.759
we have to understand what he believed about them and

351
00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:26.480
to Mather. To Cotton Mather, witches aren't just criminals. Now,

352
00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:28.880
that's very important to understand. For Cotton Mather, a witch

353
00:22:29.079 --> 00:22:33.960
is a criminal. A witch is a criminal in his mind,

354
00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:38.519
not just someone who believes something different than the Puritans.

355
00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:43.759
They are criminals because this is where you have the

356
00:22:44.039 --> 00:22:48.000
merging of kind of Christianity and the state. All right,

357
00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:51.839
And always remember, whenever you have I say this all

358
00:22:51.880 --> 00:22:56.759
the time, whenever Christianity and the state merge, people die.

359
00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:01.039
It's inevitable. Whenever religion of any kind merges with the

360
00:23:01.079 --> 00:23:04.519
civil authorities. People are going to die. Why because that religion,

361
00:23:04.519 --> 00:23:11.839
whichever religion gains power Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Puritanism, it doesn't matter.

362
00:23:12.279 --> 00:23:14.880
It doesn't matter who takes it doesn't matter who takes

363
00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:18.480
a charge Lutherans, it doesn't matter whatce they merge with

364
00:23:18.599 --> 00:23:22.400
the state. Now they can say. The religion can say, well,

365
00:23:22.480 --> 00:23:27.400
that sin is a crime. Now believing this is a crime.

366
00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:30.519
Believing this is a crime, Celebrating this is a crime.

367
00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:33.720
So now the religion can say what is not only

368
00:23:33.799 --> 00:23:35.680
what is a sin? They can say this is wrong,

369
00:23:35.720 --> 00:23:37.519
and this is wrong, this is wrong. And then the

370
00:23:37.559 --> 00:23:41.599
state can come along and then punish using the civil authority,

371
00:23:41.960 --> 00:23:45.519
using the police, judge, judicial system, whatever, and they can

372
00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:49.279
imprison and then they can execute whomever religion deems to

373
00:23:49.319 --> 00:23:52.160
be the sinners and the bad people. Now you may say, well,

374
00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:54.839
oh we can bring morality back. Now you bring a

375
00:23:54.920 --> 00:23:58.359
religion back, and whenever that religion is on your side,

376
00:23:58.359 --> 00:24:00.680
you get to live. When that religion is no longer

377
00:24:00.720 --> 00:24:04.200
on your side, you get to die. That's why I

378
00:24:04.200 --> 00:24:06.559
do not I want the separation of church and state.

379
00:24:06.799 --> 00:24:09.279
I want them so far apart that they can't even

380
00:24:09.400 --> 00:24:12.359
see each other, because Church history proves it over and

381
00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:14.400
over as soon as they come together. So what was

382
00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:20.000
happening in Puritan America at this time? This that came together?

383
00:24:20.359 --> 00:24:23.440
So hey, hey, hey, witches are bad. The Bible says

384
00:24:23.480 --> 00:24:25.880
witches are bad. Now let's use the civil government to

385
00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:30.160
go after them and kill them and criminalize criminalize them.

386
00:24:30.359 --> 00:24:33.519
Hey we don't like Christmas, let's ban Christmas. And we

387
00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:35.319
can go on and on and on on the things

388
00:24:35.319 --> 00:24:37.680
that were happening in that area. But that that, that's

389
00:24:37.799 --> 00:24:46.039
just an important lesson. So for for Cotton Mather or witches, well,

390
00:24:46.119 --> 00:24:49.559
they were there were criminals. But not only were they criminals,

391
00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.680
they were Satan's soldiers and an ongoing invisible war. So

392
00:24:54.720 --> 00:24:57.599
if you could identify someone as a witch, you were

393
00:24:57.640 --> 00:25:01.519
not just identifying a criminal, you were identifying one of

394
00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:07.319
Satan's foot soldiers. So, hey, that person's a witch, they're

395
00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:10.680
a criminal, and they are a foot soldier for Satan.

396
00:25:12.759 --> 00:25:20.960
That's pretty serious right now. To the Puritans, New England

397
00:25:21.039 --> 00:25:24.880
was more than just a colony. It was a battleground,

398
00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:28.839
a place where God's chosen people. So not only was

399
00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:32.000
the land chosen, they are So now, where are the

400
00:25:32.119 --> 00:25:38.359
chosen people. This is the chosen land. But the land

401
00:25:38.400 --> 00:25:44.160
had one time belonged to pagan natives and in their minds,

402
00:25:44.519 --> 00:25:47.960
the devil himself. So this is God's chosen land. But

403
00:25:48.119 --> 00:25:51.279
see when we got here, who are these natives here?

404
00:25:51.319 --> 00:25:55.160
Who are these native tribes? They're Pagans, They're they're basically

405
00:25:55.359 --> 00:25:57.960
well foot soldiers of the devil. Right, So now you

406
00:25:57.960 --> 00:26:01.440
can you can dehumanize them based Well, then while these

407
00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:04.480
you know, the native tribes are going to start dying

408
00:26:04.519 --> 00:26:06.319
and oh, you're going to take the land. Okay, we

409
00:26:06.359 --> 00:26:08.359
can get into a lot of discussions here, but this

410
00:26:08.440 --> 00:26:12.240
sets up a really interesting way of thinking in that area. Right.

411
00:26:12.599 --> 00:26:17.880
So basically, if you're not, you know, one of the Puritans,

412
00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:21.039
if you are a slave, then you probably came from

413
00:26:21.039 --> 00:26:24.400
some land you if you were, if you're not from

414
00:26:24.440 --> 00:26:27.880
that particular region, if you're not the right let's dare

415
00:26:27.960 --> 00:26:31.799
we say, if you're not the right ethnic origin, well,

416
00:26:31.839 --> 00:26:34.599
you're gonna be viewed with suspicion because you probably came

417
00:26:34.599 --> 00:26:37.759
from a pagan land. You're a pagan, you could be

418
00:26:38.519 --> 00:26:42.279
a foot soldier of the devil. And so that's that's

419
00:26:42.319 --> 00:26:44.519
going to be very a part of this We're the

420
00:26:44.720 --> 00:26:48.359
We're God's chosen, not any of you. You're you're all

421
00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:52.319
a suspect, you're all dangerous, you are possibly evil, but

422
00:26:52.400 --> 00:26:59.960
we we we were the good guys and all of this. Now,

423
00:27:00.359 --> 00:27:03.559
was one of the loudest voices preaching this war. So

424
00:27:03.880 --> 00:27:06.200
probably I think it's fair to say he was maybe

425
00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:10.279
the loudest, maybe not just one, he was maybe the

426
00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:14.079
loudest voice at the time preaching this war that was

427
00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:19.000
occurring between Satan's foot soldiers and well, the good Puritans.

428
00:27:21.119 --> 00:27:23.799
He saw the witches or anyone accused of being a witch,

429
00:27:23.880 --> 00:27:26.880
basically as a direct agent of Satan, and warned that

430
00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:32.920
the devil had a four part strategy to destroy Puritan society.

431
00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:38.400
There was a four point strategy, a four part strategy

432
00:27:38.480 --> 00:27:41.279
to destroy Puritan society, and you needed to know these

433
00:27:41.319 --> 00:27:44.880
four points. Let's kind of work through these in kind

434
00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:48.400
of a more general way. I'm not getting into the

435
00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:51.000
I'm not getting into the necessarily the weeds here. I'm

436
00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:53.799
trying to give you kind of an overview, So just

437
00:27:53.880 --> 00:27:56.279
make sure you understand how I'm trying to break this down.

438
00:27:59.279 --> 00:28:03.119
So for for Cotton Mather, all right, he carries all

439
00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:05.559
of these ideas, and he's like, Okay, here's this strategy,

440
00:28:05.559 --> 00:28:08.039
and this is the first thing everyone needs to remember.

441
00:28:09.079 --> 00:28:18.799
The Devil's army targets the weakest first. So here's the devil,

442
00:28:19.240 --> 00:28:23.759
and he's going to target weak people, those who are weak.

443
00:28:24.039 --> 00:28:28.160
And who are the weak people? According to Cotton Mather,

444
00:28:30.039 --> 00:28:33.319
who are the weak people? Well, the weak people are women,

445
00:28:34.720 --> 00:28:40.279
children and the poor. Oh, you have to remember this.

446
00:28:41.400 --> 00:28:43.920
You have to remember this, all right. If you know

447
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:47.160
what happened in Salem, you have to remember this because

448
00:28:47.839 --> 00:28:51.200
he's I told you, he's the architect, not only a fear,

449
00:28:51.319 --> 00:28:54.400
He's the one who writes the blueprint. So Cotton Mather

450
00:28:54.440 --> 00:28:57.319
tells everyone, look Satan's going to come for the week first,

451
00:28:57.319 --> 00:29:02.279
and who are the weak? Women? Are? Children? You are?

452
00:29:02.519 --> 00:29:08.640
And if you're poor, you are poor women? Children. Now

453
00:29:08.839 --> 00:29:11.799
this is going to play in really two different ways, right,

454
00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:15.559
because if you go to the Salem witch trials and

455
00:29:15.599 --> 00:29:17.920
you go to not only what happens in the Salem,

456
00:29:17.960 --> 00:29:20.799
what happens in Boston, which we'll talk about in greater detail,

457
00:29:20.799 --> 00:29:24.079
that Cotton Mather was involved in what happens, Well, if

458
00:29:24.119 --> 00:29:28.680
someone if someone's gonna start being tormented, and like, oh,

459
00:29:29.079 --> 00:29:31.519
a witch is doing this to me. I'm being tormented

460
00:29:31.519 --> 00:29:33.880
by a witch. They're causing me to have convulsions and

461
00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:38.240
they're talking, getting me to bark, or meiw like a cat,

462
00:29:38.440 --> 00:29:41.480
or fall on the floor or have like an epileptic

463
00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:45.279
seizure or whatever. They were claiming how they were being tormented. However,

464
00:29:45.279 --> 00:29:48.640
they're being tormented. Typically the people being tormented would be

465
00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:52.279
one of those people who are considered weak, which would

466
00:29:52.279 --> 00:29:58.359
be women now usually children or actually women or children,

467
00:29:58.920 --> 00:30:02.839
or the poor in many cases. In many cases, those

468
00:30:02.880 --> 00:30:07.359
who were being afflicted would be classified in what this

469
00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:10.720
group as the weak in many cases. Right, so if

470
00:30:10.759 --> 00:30:13.000
you're being afflicted and you fall into one of the

471
00:30:13.039 --> 00:30:16.079
categories that are weak, then you're more believable. Well, of

472
00:30:16.160 --> 00:30:19.519
course they're being attacked. Of course they're being tormented. They're

473
00:30:19.559 --> 00:30:22.599
in the weak category. They're either a woman or the

474
00:30:23.440 --> 00:30:28.039
children play a major role in this classification, the children

475
00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:32.039
or the poor. But then it play this is used.

476
00:30:32.400 --> 00:30:35.680
This is so weird because it's almost contradictory. So if

477
00:30:35.720 --> 00:30:38.200
you are afflicted and you fit into this category, you're

478
00:30:38.200 --> 00:30:39.920
going to be believed because you're one of the week.

479
00:30:40.160 --> 00:30:44.039
But if those being afflicted are going to accuse someone

480
00:30:44.359 --> 00:30:48.960
as being the witch. You accuse someone in these same categories,

481
00:30:49.119 --> 00:30:53.000
you accuse a woman. Now, they didn't really accuse other children,

482
00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:55.599
but they would accuse women, or they would accuse those

483
00:30:55.640 --> 00:30:58.960
who are poor. In fact, and Salem when the first

484
00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:02.839
accusations go, well, the first people afflicted are children. They

485
00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:05.680
are weak, so that's why they're being afflicted. Satan goes

486
00:31:05.720 --> 00:31:09.279
after the week, and who is Satan using. He's using

487
00:31:09.599 --> 00:31:14.920
those who are weak, poor women. They're women and they

488
00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:19.880
are poor, or they are a slave who's not from

489
00:31:20.319 --> 00:31:24.200
this area, brought from Barbados, right, So it all fits

490
00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:27.000
into their kind of overall way of thinking about people

491
00:31:27.039 --> 00:31:30.839
in the way they classify them. Again, slaves from other nations,

492
00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:34.400
other countries who are not like the Puritans are almost

493
00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:37.519
immediately going to be viewed with suspicion and viewed as

494
00:31:37.559 --> 00:31:41.000
basically being a pagan and being used by the devil.

495
00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:44.039
If it's a woman, well she's weak, so clearly she

496
00:31:44.079 --> 00:31:46.440
can be used by a devil. And if she's poor,

497
00:31:47.200 --> 00:31:50.279
a slave would be poor or be a beggar in town,

498
00:31:50.519 --> 00:31:52.200
which was one of the women who were accused of

499
00:31:52.200 --> 00:31:54.559
being a witch, one of the first ones. Then this fits.

500
00:31:54.880 --> 00:31:58.119
So if you are think of how this this is

501
00:31:58.119 --> 00:32:00.240
one of those situations where they can use who is

502
00:32:00.279 --> 00:32:03.599
the same thing to go in two contradictory ways. Satan

503
00:32:03.680 --> 00:32:05.839
goes after the week. So that's the number. That's the

504
00:32:05.880 --> 00:32:10.000
first strategy that Satan has to take down Puritan society.

505
00:32:10.119 --> 00:32:11.680
He's going to go after the week. And who are

506
00:32:11.720 --> 00:32:14.400
the weak people? All right? All the weak people stand

507
00:32:14.480 --> 00:32:17.599
up in church? Are you a woman? Week? Are you

508
00:32:17.680 --> 00:32:21.799
a child? Week? Are you poor? Week? All three of

509
00:32:21.839 --> 00:32:24.880
you are week. So if you start flopping around saying

510
00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:28.160
who which is attacking me? Do you fit this category? Well,

511
00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:30.799
that makes sense. You're weak. That's why Satan's going after you. Wait,

512
00:32:30.920 --> 00:32:34.119
who did it to you? Well? They did it? Oh wait,

513
00:32:34.160 --> 00:32:36.319
that makes sense. They're part of the weak group, so

514
00:32:36.599 --> 00:32:40.960
because they're a woman or they're poor. So this is

515
00:32:41.119 --> 00:32:44.240
very key and this becomes a blueprint of exactly how

516
00:32:44.279 --> 00:32:48.920
everything goes out. Mather believed that Satan's first victims were

517
00:32:49.039 --> 00:32:54.119
usually just my page just skipped around here. Mather believed

518
00:32:54.119 --> 00:32:58.119
that Matther believed that Satan's first victims were usually women, children,

519
00:32:58.200 --> 00:33:01.319
and the poor. He taught that the devil preyed on

520
00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:06.200
the week, those who lacked strong faith, all right, So

521
00:33:06.839 --> 00:33:09.160
he taught that the devil prayed on the week those

522
00:33:09.160 --> 00:33:11.720
who lacked strong faith. But note, day's kind of messed up.

523
00:33:12.079 --> 00:33:14.240
So who has a lack of strong faith? Where you're

524
00:33:14.279 --> 00:33:16.200
kind of now saying women, children and the poor have

525
00:33:16.240 --> 00:33:19.359
a lack of strong faith. Was it always that clean cut?

526
00:33:19.400 --> 00:33:22.000
I'm not saying it was always that clean cut, but

527
00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:24.559
this is kind of the way it sets up. Now,

528
00:33:24.599 --> 00:33:27.839
this is no, it's no coincidence then that the first

529
00:33:27.880 --> 00:33:33.000
accused in Boston and Glover and in Salem were women

530
00:33:33.079 --> 00:33:36.799
on the fringe of society. So the woman accused in Boston,

531
00:33:37.119 --> 00:33:41.440
she fits. She's a woman, she's a she's an outcast,

532
00:33:41.480 --> 00:33:45.640
she comes from a different country. They go after her.

533
00:33:45.960 --> 00:33:49.000
Guess what happens in Salem. The first people accused are

534
00:33:49.079 --> 00:33:51.799
women who are outcasts or at least one from another

535
00:33:51.799 --> 00:33:55.960
country because she's a slave. I mean, you can't the

536
00:33:56.960 --> 00:34:03.319
I mean Cotton Mather is giving the blueprint here. So

537
00:34:03.400 --> 00:34:06.119
the first way, the first part of the strategy of

538
00:34:06.200 --> 00:34:09.039
Satan to destroy the Puritans was number one. The devil

539
00:34:09.079 --> 00:34:11.440
will target the weakest first, So you have to be

540
00:34:11.559 --> 00:34:13.800
on the lookout for the weakest, the weakest will be

541
00:34:13.800 --> 00:34:17.039
afflicted or the weakest will be doing the affliction because

542
00:34:17.079 --> 00:34:20.119
they're both being either tormented by Satan or used by Satan.

543
00:34:20.239 --> 00:34:23.159
And the reason he's tormenting you or the reason he's

544
00:34:23.599 --> 00:34:28.960
using you is because you're weak. Number two, the devil

545
00:34:29.039 --> 00:34:39.760
works in secret. Mather worn that witches could literally be anyone.

546
00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:45.239
It could be your spouse, It could be your parent,

547
00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:52.559
could be your child, could be your friend, could be

548
00:34:52.639 --> 00:34:59.519
your neighbor, could be anyone in your family. It could

549
00:34:59.559 --> 00:35:04.920
be the person sitting right across from you in church.

550
00:35:05.360 --> 00:35:07.599
It could be the person in the pew in front

551
00:35:07.639 --> 00:35:10.119
of you. It could be the person in the pew

552
00:35:10.199 --> 00:35:17.239
behind you. It could even be your minister. Anyone could

553
00:35:17.320 --> 00:35:21.079
be a witch. Now you can see the paranoia this

554
00:35:21.119 --> 00:35:26.840
is going to begin to create a witch. This is

555
00:35:26.840 --> 00:35:32.440
from Cotton Mather. A witch will not announce themselves. Instead,

556
00:35:32.840 --> 00:35:36.639
they will blend in. Witches are not going to announce.

557
00:35:36.639 --> 00:35:38.320
You're not going to know they're a witch because they're

558
00:35:38.320 --> 00:35:42.840
going to pretend to be a good Christian while secretly

559
00:35:42.880 --> 00:35:48.719
performing rituals, speaking in strange tongues, and signing Satan's book.

560
00:35:48.800 --> 00:35:50.840
Now we'll have to get more into that signing of

561
00:35:50.880 --> 00:35:55.559
Satan's book. When I visited Salem, I think the last time,

562
00:35:56.039 --> 00:36:00.159
there was an interesting discussion presentation on this Satan, this

563
00:36:00.239 --> 00:36:04.519
book that you signed, and there was lots of interesting

564
00:36:04.679 --> 00:36:08.840
stories about the time, especially amongst the children, the young.

565
00:36:08.960 --> 00:36:13.119
The young people really had this thing about signing Satan's book.

566
00:36:13.239 --> 00:36:15.119
And so maybe we need to do a little bore,

567
00:36:15.639 --> 00:36:19.440
a little bit more exploring of that concept, and we'll

568
00:36:19.440 --> 00:36:22.320
talk about it. But just note, so number one, it's

569
00:36:22.360 --> 00:36:25.000
gonna go after the week, it's gonna go. So you're

570
00:36:25.039 --> 00:36:27.199
already gonna set up who needs to be the people

571
00:36:27.239 --> 00:36:29.280
who are afflicted one of the week? Who needs to

572
00:36:29.280 --> 00:36:31.599
be the people doing the afflicting one of the week.

573
00:36:31.920 --> 00:36:34.719
So how does it play out in the In almost

574
00:36:34.760 --> 00:36:39.039
every case, children are making the accusations. They're the ones

575
00:36:39.079 --> 00:36:41.840
being tormented because they're weak, And who do they accuse

576
00:36:42.920 --> 00:36:45.760
those who are weak? It's like now, after a while,

577
00:36:45.840 --> 00:36:48.920
they just start they just start accusing anybody and everybody.

578
00:36:48.960 --> 00:36:52.320
But at the very very beginning, they follow this blueprint

579
00:36:53.039 --> 00:36:55.880
to the letter to the letter, and the second the

580
00:36:55.920 --> 00:36:58.599
devil works in secret, it could be anyone. And so

581
00:36:58.719 --> 00:37:04.559
what starts happening. Everyone starts getting accused everyone this person.

582
00:37:04.559 --> 00:37:07.559
I think over two hundred. I think over two hundred

583
00:37:07.599 --> 00:37:10.719
people get accused. If I remember, I'm going from memory.

584
00:37:10.760 --> 00:37:16.920
There a lot of people were imprisoned. Crazy stuff was

585
00:37:16.960 --> 00:37:24.679
going on. Number three. Okay, now Satan is going to

586
00:37:24.760 --> 00:37:29.280
use a specific way to attack people, right, and he's

587
00:37:29.320 --> 00:37:32.159
going to attack people in this way. And this is

588
00:37:32.199 --> 00:37:36.159
how it happens, all right, that the witches could send

589
00:37:36.239 --> 00:37:40.559
their spirits to attack others in dreams or visions or

590
00:37:40.559 --> 00:37:44.480
in different ways. So the third thing that he says

591
00:37:44.599 --> 00:37:46.960
Satan is doing his part of his strategy is that

592
00:37:47.000 --> 00:37:49.360
he's going to use witches to attack. But the witch

593
00:37:49.400 --> 00:37:52.519
could be somewhere else. The witch could be For example,

594
00:37:52.559 --> 00:37:55.880
the witch could be in Maine, just mining their own business,

595
00:37:56.199 --> 00:37:58.599
living their life. You could be in Salem and all

596
00:37:58.599 --> 00:38:02.000
of a sudden, Oh attacked, I'm being itaed. Oh fall

597
00:38:02.079 --> 00:38:07.239
on the floor. Oh they're burning me. They're doing this

598
00:38:07.280 --> 00:38:10.239
horrible thing. What's going on? Who did it? So and so?

599
00:38:10.440 --> 00:38:12.159
And they're like where is so and so? Well, so

600
00:38:12.199 --> 00:38:14.159
and so is in Maine. Well they couldn't have done it.

601
00:38:14.239 --> 00:38:16.440
Oh no, no, no, no, no. Cut in Mather's Like,

602
00:38:16.800 --> 00:38:20.119
you guys don't understand that's exactly how a witch works.

603
00:38:20.320 --> 00:38:22.719
A witch doesn't have to be physically present. They can

604
00:38:22.800 --> 00:38:26.039
send their spirit. They can be hundreds of miles away,

605
00:38:26.280 --> 00:38:29.159
and they can send their spirit after you at any time.

606
00:38:29.440 --> 00:38:35.599
And this was known as spectral evidence. So how was

607
00:38:35.639 --> 00:38:40.039
Satan going to destroy Puritan society? Number one? His army

608
00:38:40.119 --> 00:38:45.320
was going to attack the weakest first. Who are the weak, women, children,

609
00:38:45.400 --> 00:38:48.440
and poor people. The Devil's going to do it in secret.

610
00:38:48.639 --> 00:38:51.880
So what does that mean? Anyone, anywhere, anytime could be

611
00:38:51.920 --> 00:38:55.360
a witch. Anybody everyone is suspect. Everyone could be out

612
00:38:55.400 --> 00:38:59.119
to get you. There are Satan's Satan's foot soldiers could

613
00:38:59.119 --> 00:39:03.280
be literally sitting next to you in church. Number three. Hey,

614
00:39:03.599 --> 00:39:06.039
the witch doesn't actually have to be around you. You

615
00:39:06.079 --> 00:39:08.559
don't even have to I don't even have to be

616
00:39:08.599 --> 00:39:11.440
in the same state. I don't even have to be

617
00:39:11.480 --> 00:39:14.320
in the same city. Oh, they can attack you. You

618
00:39:14.840 --> 00:39:18.719
identify them. And this is called spectral evidence. And Cotton

619
00:39:18.719 --> 00:39:26.199
Mather was the one who promotes this craziness, quoting this

620
00:39:26.400 --> 00:39:29.440
was called this is what Cotton Mather says. This is

621
00:39:29.480 --> 00:39:33.639
called spectral evidence, and it plays a massive Well, okay, well,

622
00:39:33.679 --> 00:39:36.800
he says it's called spectral evidence, I will then add,

623
00:39:37.039 --> 00:39:41.400
and it played a massive role in the Salem witch trials.

624
00:39:42.320 --> 00:39:45.039
You see, if someone claimed they saw a person's spirit

625
00:39:45.199 --> 00:39:49.079
tormenting them in a vision, it was enough to convict

626
00:39:49.119 --> 00:39:54.519
someone of being a witch, even if there was no

627
00:39:55.360 --> 00:40:05.000
physical proof. Oh, physical proof needed. So Mather's support of

628
00:40:05.039 --> 00:40:08.079
spectral evidence became one of the most controversial parts of

629
00:40:08.119 --> 00:40:11.599
the Salem Trials, something even other Puritans would later reject

630
00:40:11.760 --> 00:40:15.480
later on, they'd be like, Hey, this spectral evidence stuff,

631
00:40:15.559 --> 00:40:19.519
we gotta stop, no more using it. Cotton Mather, though,

632
00:40:19.880 --> 00:40:21.920
was the one using it. So is he a hero

633
00:40:22.039 --> 00:40:25.559
of the faith. When you're promoting spectral evidence, allowing people

634
00:40:25.599 --> 00:40:30.559
then to be arrested, tried, and executed based off something

635
00:40:30.599 --> 00:40:33.159
like spectral evidence, you're not a hero of the faith,

636
00:40:33.239 --> 00:40:38.559
ladies and gentlemen, You're a villain and a horrible, horrific story.

637
00:40:40.760 --> 00:40:43.119
But there was a fourth part of this plan, all right,

638
00:40:43.159 --> 00:40:48.039
So let's go through these again. The devil. The Devil's

639
00:40:48.119 --> 00:40:50.840
army targets the weakest. First. Second, the devil works in

640
00:40:50.920 --> 00:40:54.519
secret Number three, The devil uses witches who can then

641
00:40:54.559 --> 00:40:57.199
attack you by sending their spirit to you without being

642
00:40:57.199 --> 00:41:04.119
physically present. This is known as spectral evidence. Right number four.

643
00:41:04.440 --> 00:41:08.840
The devil uses objects and spells to corrupt. Mather taught

644
00:41:08.840 --> 00:41:12.039
that witch is left behind physical signs of their power,

645
00:41:12.400 --> 00:41:17.760
things like puppets use for cursing, written spells, or marks

646
00:41:17.760 --> 00:41:22.079
on their skin. So the devil uses objects. Oh, look

647
00:41:22.119 --> 00:41:24.480
they have that object. Ooh, they have that object. So

648
00:41:25.079 --> 00:41:27.639
you got to be on the lookout for objects. Oh oh,

649
00:41:27.679 --> 00:41:30.079
and he will leave marks, so you got to be.

650
00:41:30.519 --> 00:41:33.920
So Satan is using objects to help destroy Puritan society.

651
00:41:33.960 --> 00:41:36.519
So now everyone's worried about objects. But one of those

652
00:41:36.599 --> 00:41:38.920
objects are things you would be. So you're looking at

653
00:41:38.960 --> 00:41:42.280
what anybody owns. Oh they have a doll, Oh they

654
00:41:42.280 --> 00:41:44.440
have this, they have that, Oh that they're a witch.

655
00:41:44.599 --> 00:41:49.639
But oh, it gets even worse. Oh, this gets even worse.

656
00:41:49.639 --> 00:41:53.960
So you're ready marks on the skin. During the Salem Trials,

657
00:41:54.039 --> 00:41:57.639
Puritans would search for these witch marks, a spot on

658
00:41:57.679 --> 00:42:01.559
the body, which where a witch supposedly fed. They're demonic familiar.

659
00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:04.199
So now if you have a spot on your body,

660
00:42:05.639 --> 00:42:11.719
oh you're a witch. Now. Satan is using all these

661
00:42:11.760 --> 00:42:16.280
devices to help bring down Puritan society, all these objects.

662
00:42:16.559 --> 00:42:19.280
But because they leave objects, they also leaves the mark

663
00:42:19.320 --> 00:42:22.280
and leaving the mark now can be utilized to identify

664
00:42:22.320 --> 00:42:27.039
who's a witch. So Satan really has this four ways

665
00:42:27.079 --> 00:42:32.199
of going after everybody, a targeting the weakest, works in secret.

666
00:42:32.920 --> 00:42:35.599
The witches now have this ability to attack you using

667
00:42:35.639 --> 00:42:39.960
their spirit, no matter from great distances, and well they

668
00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:42.280
can use they can use objects. So you've got to

669
00:42:42.280 --> 00:42:44.559
be looking at Wait, is that object? Oh I think

670
00:42:44.559 --> 00:42:47.280
that's that's attached to witchcraft? Oh? I think that object

671
00:42:47.400 --> 00:42:49.840
is Oh I think that's attached to witchcraft. And that

672
00:42:49.920 --> 00:42:53.480
kind of thinking still plays a major role in the

673
00:42:53.519 --> 00:42:56.320
minds of many Christians. It's basically a lot of superstition

674
00:42:56.400 --> 00:43:01.880
thrown in here. Right, So let's now take a step back.

675
00:43:03.320 --> 00:43:09.239
Everything that happened in Salem. It feels like, this is

676
00:43:09.280 --> 00:43:13.480
my feeling, was following the blueprint. Dare I say, was

677
00:43:13.519 --> 00:43:23.360
following the exact script. Who were the first afflicted children? Week?

678
00:43:24.760 --> 00:43:31.320
Who were the first accused women? Week? A poor beggar week,

679
00:43:32.400 --> 00:43:38.039
an enslaved woman from Barbados week, an elderly widow who

680
00:43:38.039 --> 00:43:42.400
wouldn't play the Puritan reindeer games week? All right, so

681
00:43:42.639 --> 00:43:48.840
that follows it perfectly. What evidence was used? Spectral attacks

682
00:43:48.840 --> 00:43:54.599
and supernatural testimony? The script. Who shaped all of these

683
00:43:54.639 --> 00:43:58.880
ideas Cotton Mather. Oh, but let's not accuse him. We

684
00:43:58.920 --> 00:44:02.079
can accuse good o'cott because he's the hero in the story.

685
00:44:02.199 --> 00:44:11.440
Ladies and gentlemen, he's not the hero in the story.

686
00:44:12.559 --> 00:44:19.039
Mather didn't create the Salem witch Trials, but his teaching

687
00:44:20.280 --> 00:44:28.159
gave them their theological foundation. And when the trials began,

688
00:44:29.679 --> 00:44:36.599
his words, his theology, his doctrine was already in the

689
00:44:36.639 --> 00:44:43.440
minds of the judges. Definitely the first minister that's very

690
00:44:43.599 --> 00:44:47.000
involved in all of this, that minister's mind, and of

691
00:44:47.039 --> 00:44:57.039
course the people of Salem. Now Cotton Mather's path to

692
00:44:57.079 --> 00:45:02.239
becoming the leading voice on witchcraft and new we en. Actually,

693
00:45:02.320 --> 00:45:03.679
I think if we want to try to find a

694
00:45:03.800 --> 00:45:06.320
beginning point now, we could actually go back to when

695
00:45:06.320 --> 00:45:09.079
he was in his twenties he starts preaching those sermons.

696
00:45:09.280 --> 00:45:12.280
But if you really want to see where how Cotton

697
00:45:12.320 --> 00:45:14.920
Mather and witchcraft, remember we talked about that had on collision.

698
00:45:14.960 --> 00:45:18.280
That's coming right, that had on collision. Because Cotton Mather

699
00:45:18.400 --> 00:45:22.679
doesn't become famous for his sermons, it's his involvement witchcraft. Well,

700
00:45:22.679 --> 00:45:24.960
if we really want to find his involvement with witchcraft,

701
00:45:25.039 --> 00:45:26.679
I think, and we've already talked about this, but we're

702
00:45:26.719 --> 00:45:28.239
going to talk about it again here because I think

703
00:45:28.239 --> 00:45:32.079
it's important. Before he becomes a leading voice on witchcraft,

704
00:45:32.360 --> 00:45:34.639
we have to go back to the year sixteen eighty

705
00:45:34.679 --> 00:45:41.480
eight with a case that predated Salem by four years.

706
00:45:42.480 --> 00:45:46.320
That we've talked about this case, right, and you can

707
00:45:46.320 --> 00:45:48.960
go look at my episode the prequel to Salem, because

708
00:45:49.360 --> 00:45:54.239
this case is the prequel. This case really solidifies the script,

709
00:45:54.400 --> 00:45:57.760
It really solidifies everything about it. And I already talked

710
00:45:57.760 --> 00:46:00.599
about it before. It's just amazing the similar. But we

711
00:46:00.599 --> 00:46:02.559
need to at least remind ourselves because we want to

712
00:46:02.639 --> 00:46:05.719
keep things in some form of chronological order here. So

713
00:46:05.760 --> 00:46:09.159
it all starts, or it started with the Goodwin children

714
00:46:09.280 --> 00:46:14.559
in Boston. They were afflicted by strange fits, screaming, convulsing,

715
00:46:15.119 --> 00:46:18.960
falling into trances. A doctor examined them but found no

716
00:46:19.119 --> 00:46:24.119
physical cause. And when Puritans couldn't explain something, the answer

717
00:46:24.760 --> 00:46:29.559
was always the same. If we can't explain it, it's

718
00:46:29.559 --> 00:46:36.039
the devil. If we can't explain it, it's witchcraft. The

719
00:46:36.159 --> 00:46:40.760
blame in this particular case fell on Anne Goodie Glover,

720
00:46:41.519 --> 00:46:46.079
an Irish Catholic woman who had been deported to Barbados

721
00:46:46.239 --> 00:46:50.840
before coming to Boston. Ah, look at this, she's Irish Catholic.

722
00:46:50.920 --> 00:46:55.880
Oh boy, she's a woman weak Irish Catholic. Week. She's

723
00:46:55.880 --> 00:47:02.519
from Barbados week. She spoke mostly the Irish week, with

724
00:47:02.599 --> 00:47:06.079
only broken English week, and she was seen as an

725
00:47:06.079 --> 00:47:08.920
outsider week week week week week week. Okay, so this,

726
00:47:09.239 --> 00:47:14.280
this already sets up that template. Now, under pressure, she

727
00:47:14.360 --> 00:47:17.960
struggled to recite the Lord's Prayer in English, something Puritans

728
00:47:17.960 --> 00:47:21.679
believed a witch could not do. That was enough. She

729
00:47:21.880 --> 00:47:26.960
was convicted and hanged in Boston on November sixteenth, sixteen

730
00:47:27.079 --> 00:47:30.400
eighty eight. That is an oversimplification of everything that happened

731
00:47:30.400 --> 00:47:33.079
in that case, all of its similarities with what happens

732
00:47:33.079 --> 00:47:36.760
in Salem. Please go listen to my previous episode and

733
00:47:36.800 --> 00:47:41.119
you can get a greater detail about what occurred. But

734
00:47:41.199 --> 00:47:46.400
kiss who was there watching it all unfold? Cotton Mather.

735
00:47:48.440 --> 00:47:52.920
He wasn't just watching it. He was studying. And not

736
00:47:52.960 --> 00:48:02.719
only was he studying, he was writing. He took He

737
00:48:02.840 --> 00:48:07.280
took what he had just seen and he turned it

738
00:48:07.400 --> 00:48:12.599
into a book that would define witch hunting for years

739
00:48:13.280 --> 00:48:19.159
to come. That case, in sixteen eighty eight, Cotton mathers,

740
00:48:19.559 --> 00:48:22.599
he's all there, and he watches it, and he writes it.

741
00:48:22.639 --> 00:48:25.079
He turns it into a book, and it becomes the manual.

742
00:48:25.239 --> 00:48:27.559
It becomes the manual for witch hunting. In fact, I

743
00:48:27.639 --> 00:48:31.320
think it becomes the manual for exactly what happened in Salem.

744
00:48:31.440 --> 00:48:33.840
So don't tell me. Well, oh well, Cotton Mather was.

745
00:48:34.199 --> 00:48:37.199
He wasn't a judge in Salem, so how dare you

746
00:48:37.239 --> 00:48:39.800
accuse him? He only wrote the blueprint. He wrote the

747
00:48:40.480 --> 00:48:47.760
script for what happened. So now we need to look

748
00:48:47.800 --> 00:48:55.039
at Memorable Providences and the blueprint for Salem. One year

749
00:48:55.400 --> 00:48:58.920
after the execution of Goodie Glover, Cotton Mather published a

750
00:48:58.960 --> 00:49:05.000
book called Memorable Providences relating to Witchcraft and Possessions. Now,

751
00:49:05.039 --> 00:49:08.280
in this book, he didn't just document the Goodwin case.

752
00:49:08.719 --> 00:49:13.000
He laid out a guide on how to identify and

753
00:49:13.039 --> 00:49:15.800
how to prosecute witches. He didn't just say, hey, this

754
00:49:15.840 --> 00:49:17.880
is what happened. Oh no, no, no, no, He's like,

755
00:49:18.079 --> 00:49:21.000
this is what happened. We're under attack, so what do

756
00:49:21.039 --> 00:49:22.920
we need to do. We got to identify and we

757
00:49:22.960 --> 00:49:28.239
got to prosecute witches. The book spread through New England

758
00:49:28.800 --> 00:49:34.199
and one of the men who read it. One of

759
00:49:34.239 --> 00:49:37.440
the men who had it in his home, had it

760
00:49:37.519 --> 00:49:43.280
in his library, was none other than Reverend Samuel Parris,

761
00:49:44.119 --> 00:49:49.320
who lived in Boston during that trial. Right, he lived

762
00:49:49.320 --> 00:49:52.599
there in the during the trial and execution of Goody Glover.

763
00:49:52.880 --> 00:49:56.400
He was there. But he comes to Salem with Cotton

764
00:49:56.440 --> 00:50:03.480
Mather's book, and guess what, His daughter, Betty his niece

765
00:50:04.079 --> 00:50:08.840
Abigail are the very first two people in Salem who

766
00:50:09.000 --> 00:50:14.079
start exhibiting the same symptoms as the Goodwin children. They

767
00:50:14.280 --> 00:50:21.480
follow the same symptoms that's literally in the book in

768
00:50:21.559 --> 00:50:25.320
their house. Okay, most likely they've heard their father preach

769
00:50:25.360 --> 00:50:28.599
about or talk about. And because this pastor had brought

770
00:50:28.599 --> 00:50:31.599
the book from Boston or got it at some point,

771
00:50:31.679 --> 00:50:33.960
we just know he had it. We know he had it.

772
00:50:37.280 --> 00:50:40.360
So what do you think he assumed when he sees

773
00:50:40.519 --> 00:50:43.960
Paris and when he sees Betty and he sees Abigail

774
00:50:44.239 --> 00:50:47.159
having the same symptoms as what's in that book. It's

775
00:50:47.159 --> 00:50:51.000
in that book written by Cotton Mather. Well, he had

776
00:50:51.519 --> 00:50:56.320
the guidebook sitting in his study. Cotton Mather gave Salem

777
00:50:56.320 --> 00:50:59.400
a script, and they're going to follow it to the

778
00:50:59.519 --> 00:51:04.920
very lets. They almost deserve it, Guys, you're following this,

779
00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:14.840
You're doing so good. So now we can look at

780
00:51:14.880 --> 00:51:20.000
Cotton Mather's teaching on spiritual warfare, the Devil and the witchcraft,

781
00:51:20.079 --> 00:51:23.559
because this is the blueprint for Salem. See, Cotton Mather

782
00:51:23.679 --> 00:51:26.000
didn't just believe in the devil. He believed the devil

783
00:51:26.079 --> 00:51:30.320
was already here, walking among them, working in secret, whispering

784
00:51:30.599 --> 00:51:36.519
to his followers. To Mather, New England wasn't just a colony,

785
00:51:36.760 --> 00:51:40.599
it was a battlefield, just like his father taught him.

786
00:51:42.159 --> 00:51:45.599
Mathers strongly believed that Satan and his witches could send

787
00:51:45.679 --> 00:51:48.639
their spirits to attack people in their sleep or envisions.

788
00:51:50.559 --> 00:51:55.360
These ghostly assaults, known as spectral evidence, were invisible to

789
00:51:55.480 --> 00:51:59.159
all but the victim. Nobody else could see it. So

790
00:51:59.239 --> 00:52:01.480
for example, you can be in the room your child

791
00:52:01.480 --> 00:52:03.840
could be falling on the floor going through a horrible

792
00:52:03.960 --> 00:52:08.760
what's happening? So and so is attacking me. I don't

793
00:52:08.800 --> 00:52:12.480
see anything. It's their spirit that's attacking me. So you

794
00:52:13.400 --> 00:52:17.440
could just fall over, oh huh, and it's just blame anybody.

795
00:52:17.480 --> 00:52:20.360
Like I mean, I have a seizure disorder. I could

796
00:52:20.360 --> 00:52:22.159
fall on the floor, have a seizure, wake up and

797
00:52:22.199 --> 00:52:24.440
say so and so attacked me, and then you could

798
00:52:24.480 --> 00:52:26.360
go get arrested and be accused of being a witch,

799
00:52:26.639 --> 00:52:28.719
even though you were nowhere near me, and the only

800
00:52:28.760 --> 00:52:33.280
person who could see it was the victim. Now let's

801
00:52:33.280 --> 00:52:36.719
take a step back once again. Let's think about what

802
00:52:36.760 --> 00:52:42.039
happened in Salem. Who was the first accused, A poor beggar,

803
00:52:42.199 --> 00:52:45.280
an enslaved woman, an elderly woman who accused them young

804
00:52:45.320 --> 00:52:49.039
girls considered weak and vulnerable to Satan's influence. What evidence

805
00:52:49.159 --> 00:52:53.440
was used? Spectral visions, puppets and supernatural testimony? How did

806
00:52:53.440 --> 00:52:57.239
the Puritans? How did the Puritan leaders react? They believe

807
00:52:57.559 --> 00:53:07.079
every single word of the accusers. This wasn't just a coincidence.

808
00:53:08.559 --> 00:53:13.480
The trials followed Cotton Mathers teaching almost exactly his words,

809
00:53:13.719 --> 00:53:17.719
his belief, his sermons. They created the blueprint for Salem.

810
00:53:17.760 --> 00:53:21.760
I cannot stress that enough. He had the specific teachings

811
00:53:21.960 --> 00:53:25.079
about this like plan to bring down Puritan society, but

812
00:53:25.360 --> 00:53:28.639
just in a general sense, he sets it all up.

813
00:53:28.719 --> 00:53:32.320
I know, I know, I repeat it a little bit

814
00:53:32.320 --> 00:53:34.239
of that, but I want you to see that you

815
00:53:34.400 --> 00:53:36.480
and the reason I have to repeat it is because

816
00:53:36.599 --> 00:53:46.760
everyone's like Cotton mather didn't do anything. He set the blueprint.

817
00:53:49.199 --> 00:53:57.880
So what happened. Now, there's more to what Cotton Mather does,

818
00:53:58.440 --> 00:54:02.119
all right, and I'm going to save that for its

819
00:54:02.159 --> 00:54:05.159
own episode, okay, because I'm gonna skip part of this

820
00:54:05.320 --> 00:54:09.000
right because during the trials, when a man's going to

821
00:54:09.039 --> 00:54:14.280
be executed, Cotton Mather shows up, all right, everyone wants

822
00:54:14.280 --> 00:54:16.280
to act like he has nothing to do. He's literally

823
00:54:16.320 --> 00:54:18.519
there when a man's about to be executed. And when

824
00:54:18.559 --> 00:54:22.119
they the people decide let's let's not let's not execute

825
00:54:22.159 --> 00:54:24.440
this person. We think we got this wrong, Cotton Mather

826
00:54:24.559 --> 00:54:28.360
is the one that's like, I'm not gonna I'm not

827
00:54:28.400 --> 00:54:31.280
gonna give you his argument, and well, it's just it's

828
00:54:31.280 --> 00:54:33.719
a horrible thing that Cotton Mather does. I'm not gonna

829
00:54:33.719 --> 00:54:35.440
go into that right now because I'm gonna save that

830
00:54:35.480 --> 00:54:37.800
for its own separate thing. I just want you to see,

831
00:54:37.920 --> 00:54:41.119
you cannot separate Cotton Mather from Salem. Everybody wants to

832
00:54:41.159 --> 00:54:43.480
separate you know. You can't say he's the one giving

833
00:54:43.519 --> 00:54:45.679
you the blueprint. He's the one giving you the teaching

834
00:54:45.719 --> 00:54:49.239
for And it plays out identical to what Cotton Mather said.

835
00:54:49.400 --> 00:54:54.440
And his book is in the minister's library and it's

836
00:54:54.480 --> 00:54:58.400
that minister's daughters who make the first accusations, who start

837
00:54:58.480 --> 00:55:01.039
showing the first symptoms. Just how depends to follow. I

838
00:55:01.079 --> 00:55:07.079
don't know, page for page book that's in their house. Now,

839
00:55:07.159 --> 00:55:11.880
the world moved on from Salem. The Massachusetts courts banned

840
00:55:12.079 --> 00:55:17.199
spectral evidence, the Puritan grip on the colony weakened, and

841
00:55:17.320 --> 00:55:23.440
some judges and officials even apologized for their roles. I mean,

842
00:55:23.639 --> 00:55:27.960
I'm glad, well, I kind of apologize. But Cotton Mather,

843
00:55:28.719 --> 00:55:34.199
he never fully backed down. His legacy wasn't just in books.

844
00:55:35.360 --> 00:55:40.960
It was in fear. Fear of outsiders, fear of strangers,

845
00:55:41.480 --> 00:55:46.280
fear of strange customs, fear that at any moment the

846
00:55:46.320 --> 00:55:52.559
devil could be working through someone you loved. That fear

847
00:55:53.360 --> 00:55:56.519
didn't really end in Salem. In fact, it's alive and

848
00:55:56.519 --> 00:56:05.079
well in twenty twenty five. Maybe that's why three hundred

849
00:56:05.079 --> 00:56:19.079
and thirty three years later, we're still talking about him. Now,

850
00:56:19.119 --> 00:56:24.320
next time we'll talk about we'll talk about Cotton Mather

851
00:56:26.239 --> 00:56:32.960
and the execution of the minister who became a witch.

852
00:56:36.360 --> 00:56:45.119
Thanks for listening, everyone, have a great night. We have

853
00:56:45.199 --> 00:56:48.920
to learn from history. I know it's a cliche, because

854
00:56:48.920 --> 00:56:52.599
if we don't. We're doomed to repeat it. God bless