The Witch Cake That Cursed Salem

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Does anyone like to bake cakes? What was the last cake you made? What was the last cake you baked? Was it popular? Did everyone like it? Did your family love it? Did they ask for more? How did everyone love the last cake you baked? Did you take it to a family gathering, a church potluck? Did everyone tell you how wonderful the cake was? Well, I am pretty sure I could probably take a guess that the cake you made did not curse an entire town and did not contribute well to the witch trials. In this episode, I'm going to tell you the.

0:55 Story of the witch cake. That kind of sparked the Salem witch trials, the witch cake that cursed a town. And I'm going to tell you that story right after I say good afternoon everyone. It is Tuesday, March the twenty fifth, twenty twenty five. It is currently five seven pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas, now researching everything I already know about the Salem witch Trials, researching. Things I did not know.

1:36 The one fascinating thing I continue to discover is no matter how much I know, no matter how much I think I know, no matter how many times I've been to Salem itself, no matter how many books I've read on it, I continue to just find, oh this, or what about this, or what about this? And I've been trying to follow somewhat of a chronological order I really have, right, I've been trying to go, all right, here's the first girls who were accused. Maybe maybe focus on someone they made an accusation against, then go to the next girl and the next girl. Well, I was kind of doing that today. I was going, Okay, we need to move to the next girl. And I know who the next girl is. In fact, I know who the next two are typically linked together. And because there once again are going to be connected to, well, the minister who's going to be accused of being a witch and being killed, right, so they're going to be attached to that story, I'm like, okay, well, we're going to have to tell a little bit of that story again because these two girls play it kind of a central role in it, and and they they really kind of make the accusations against the reverend the pastor even more severe than the others had. So so I'm like, okay, I can I can work this? How am I going to retell? I started trying to, you know, I remember, I'm trying to do this as a narrative, so I'm trying to put it together as a narrative.

2:55 And then all of a sudden, I remember the name of one of the girls, and I'm like, wait, she's related. Oh no, I I didn't tell the story of the cake. The cake, So I want you to sit back. We're going to go back to Salem, go back to the Salem witch trials. Well, I really to tell this story the Salem really well yeah, and it's very early on. We'll put it all in some kind of chronological order, so you're ready to hear the story of the cake that in some ways cursed the entire town, maybe some would say spark the trials themselves.

3:36 Are you ready? Here we go. Before there were judges, before there were hangings, before there were names whispered and terra across Salem village, there was a cake. Not a cake for celebration, but a tool of old folk magic, a charm meant to reveal a witch. It wasn't made in secret. It wasn't the work of a supposed sorceress. It was baked under the direction of a Puritan woman, her name Mary Sibley, and it was done in the home of the village's minister.

4:21 I want you to hear this again. The cake was not made in secret, it wasn't the work of a sorceress. It was baked under the direction of a Puritan woman, Mary Sibley, and the. Home of the village's minister. This is the story how an act of desperation, an act of fear, an act of faith misplaced, helped spark the deadliest witch hunt in American history. Mary Sibley lived in Salem Village in sixteen ninety two. She was the wife of Samuel Sibley, a member of the village church.

5:02 And Mary Sibley was the aunt of a teenage girl named Mary Walcott. Do not forget the name Mary Walcott, because she's going to become critical in the story of the Salem witch trials. She's going to play again a. Very instrumental part in the accusation being made against the former minister, and well his ultimate death. She will become Some will say she's one of the most prolific accusers. I don't know if I could say Mary Walcott was the most prolific, but she definitely plays a central role in the accusations. So just remember Mary Walcott. She's related to Mary Sibley, right, And so when I was putting this all together, I was I was, for you know, putting together all the story of Mary Walcott. And as soon as I saw him, like, wait a minute, Mary Walcott, she's related to Mary Sibley, And I'm.

5:57 Like, oh, We've got to go back and tell. The story of Mary's sibly You see, Mary was no outsider. She was known, she was respected, and she was trusted. And when fear crept into the Paris household, when strange affliction struck the minister's daughter and niece, Mary took it upon herself to act. All right, So this puts it very early in everything that's happening, because we go back to January sixteen ninety two. January sixteen ninety two, Everyone needs to remember that date. If you're going to know the history of Salem, you got to know January sixteen ninety two, because this is when everything really starts. This is where now, of course, we could go back to Boston years before and everything that happens there, but as far as Salem itself January sixteen ninety two, because it's the household of Reverend Samuel Parris is thrown into chaos.

6:55 Why is the Reverence home thrown into chaos? Everyone knows the story, We've already told it here numerous times. His nine year old daughter Betty, eleven year old niece Abigail Williams. They begin to convulse, they begin to cry out, they contort their bodies, and they. Complain of invisible attacks. A local physician, doctor William Griggs, declared the cause to be the evil hand and other words witchcraft. Now we've told that story. The girls starts showing all of these symptoms. We talked about possibly why, what they could be influenced by, what can motivate them, We talked about all of that. We explored that in great detail. How the doctor shows up and like, no, this is witchcraft, right, So now what are we going to do?

7:41 What's going to happen? The village is frightened. They're scared to death because I mean, wait, if the pastor's daughter and niece can be afflicted, who is safe all right. So now we have fear, we have a little paranoia, we have maybe a little suspicion. No one knows what to do. No one knows what to do. But Mary Sibley remembered an old English charm, a bit of folk wisdom passed down for generations. So what does Mary Sibley do? She goes to Tishuba. Remember Tishuba. She's the servant in the Paris household, right, she's the enslaved woman.

8:21 I believe her husband's name was John Indian. And she told them to bake a cake. To bake a cake. Now, the ingredients are very simple, rye mill and the urine of the afflicted girls. Hey, I want you to bake a cake. Here are the ingredients, rye meal and the urine of the afflicted girls. The idea was that if a witch had cursed the girls, traces of that curse would be presented in their bodily fluids. If it was fed to a dog believed to be the witch's familiar, the dog would react, revealing the witch's identity. This is the plan they come up with. The girls are being afflicted.

9:21 We have to do something. We need to back of cake, all right, what do we need rye mil what else do we need? The urine of the afflicted girls? I mean, I know this sounds like utterly insane. That's why I keep telling everyone the Salem witch Trial is one of the most fascinating parts of American history. I don't know why everyone isn't fascinated by it. I mean, you just you start opening the book to the history of Salem, and it's just like you could just spend your life studying what happened. During the Salem witch trials. And of course, remember a witch is familiar, right. You're a witch and you can have a bird or something that you're familiar, right, So in this particular case, if it's fed to a dog believed to be the witch's familiar, the dog would react and the dog would ultimately reveal who.

10:07 The witch is. So guess what. They baked the cake. They did it tishubub baked the cake, the dog ate it. What happened? What do you think happened? Well, come back next week and no, no, I'm just joking. What do you think happened? Come on, what do you think happened? They make the cake, they put it down, the dog runs over. I don't know if the dog immediately ate it, if the dog was hesitant, or the dog was just starving. I don't know what happened there, but the dog eats it. And what happened. Absolutely nothing. Nothing happened, No witch was revealed. But something else had now been set in motion, something powerful, something irreversible.

11:08 Because the Reverend Paris learned what had been done, a ritual had been performed in his own home, and to say he was angry would be an understatement. He was furious, not just because it was superstitious, but because it was, in his mind, a sin that they had turned away from God. This was a call to Satan for help against Satan. And just two days later, we're two days away from the anniversary. We're two days away from the anniversary, March the twenty seventh, sixteen ninety two. Today is March the twenty fifth, twenty twenty five. Were two days away from this anniversary. So I mean, if you want to celebrate the anniversary by baking a cake, I guess. I mean I would suggest you don't bake the cake the way they did. But if you want to bake a cake to remember this, you really, I mean, it is a very important lesson, because this is what happens.

12:11 Here is just crazy. So two days later, March the twenty seventh, sixteen ninety two, the Reverend Paris. Steps into the pulpit. And he's going to speak directly to the congregation. His sermon, many would say, becomes one of the most ominous moments in Salem's descent into hysteria. Now what happens many times is people will talk about this sermon that was preached on March the twenty seventh, sixteen ninety two. In fact, I probably had read part of the sermon, or maybe whatever is available of the sermon. I think the entire thing is available. I read the sermon, but I did not quite understand its connection to the witch cake.

12:59 I at first I. Didn't know, because so many times when you're studying any historical event, it's hard sometimes to keep it in a chronological order, right. It's very difficult as you're trying to put it together. So I probably for I don't know how long. Probably for years, I looked at the sermon, and in fact I was going to uh, In fact, I had a at one point I was going to look at all of the key sermons that kind of lead up to the Salem witch trials, and this would have been one of those sermons. But the only problem is I would not have. Connected it to the to what's known as the witch cake. I wouldn't have connected it to the witch cake at this point, at that point in time. Now I can, so, do you want to hear kind of I'm going to kind of do a a kind of a narrative form of the sermon, not the whole thing, but kind a kind of a retelling of the sermon. So Reverend Paris, he steps into the pulpit. He says, John chapter six, verse seventy, Have not I chosen you twelve and one.

14:06 Of you is a devil? That's the way it's printed in some places. John chapter six, verse seventy, Have not I chosen you twelve and one of you. Is a devil? Let me check something really quick. Let me check something, because. I don't believe that that scripture. That scripture is not right. I don't believe hang on, no, it is right. Okay. I wanted to make I wanted to make I wanted to be one hundred percent sure and accurate. I did not want in any way, shape or form to give people wrong information. So yes, he steps into the pulpit March the twenty seventh, sixteen ninety two. Trust me, there was some tension in the room.

14:54 He stands up. He says, John chapter six, verse seventy, Have not I chosen you twelve? And one of you is a devil. Let these words awaken your hearts. Even among the disciples there was one who appeared faithful. Yet served the enemy. So it is in our church, among us, one of you is a devil. Let none forget what was done, and an effort to discover which is a work of darkness was performed. A cake was made, a charm was used, a tool of the devil was called upon, and only did only then did the calamities increase. We do not fight Satan with Satan. This is no innocent era. This is a grievous, grievous sin. But the key at that point, this basically sets the idea anybody could be in league with the devil. Anybody could anybody in this church, anybody in town. Now the paranoia has kicked out. Now fear is really going to spread.

16:14 Now that's an. Oversimplification of what was said, but just for times sake that gives you kind of a basic idea. Now, two days before that sermon, Mary Sibley had already gone to Reverend Paris. She confessed, and now she was to stand before the church congregation to make it right. She began, Brethren, I come before God and before you with a sorrowful heart. When I saw the suffering of the children, I turned not to the Lord but to superstition. I told Tishabad to bake the cake. I believe it might reveal the witch.

16:57 I believed it might help. But now I see I was wrong. I sinned against God, I sinned against this Church, and I beg for your forgiveness. Now, to the Puritans, the use of any magical practice, whether good or evil, was a gateway to satan. Even trying to expose a witch through magical means was itself considered witchcraft. So the first act of supernatural intervention in the Salem witch Trials wasn't done by a witch, was done by. A Puritan themselves.

17:39 A Puritan really does the first supposed act of witchcraft in the Salem witch Trials. You talk about irony. In fact, the irony is impossible to ignore. Their own actions may have invited the very panic they feared, and in condemning Mary Sibley, Reverend Paris set the tone for what could be come, a season of relentless fear and spiritual paranoia. A cake, Let's make a cake. We gotta figure out who the witch is, all right, what do wean? We gotta get the you're in of the girls. We gotta feed it to the dog. And then next thing you know, there's a sermon one of you is a devil.

18:25 Then there's a confession. But that's not gonna fix everything. Obviously, we know history. It doesn't fix anything, because well, people gotta start dying. Not long after that, after her confession, Mary sibly faded into the public eye. She was not excommunicated, she was not prosecuted, but her name would remain forever tied to the beginning of the Salem hysteria. Her niece, however, Mary Walcott, would go on to be one of the most concer assistant accusers in the trials. Whether influenced by her aunt's early actions are driven by other fears, she would help send several people to their deaths. Mary Sibley lived quietly afterward. She gave no further testimony but history would remember her not for murder, not for malice, but for a cake, a small, desperate act that helped crack the.

19:36 Door open to terror. The witch Cake of sixteen ninety two may seem strange to us now. In fact, it may seems quaint, absurd, But to the people of Salem it was more than a superstition. It was a betrayal of their deepest beliefs, a sign that even those within the church could be tempted to fight the devil using the devil's tools. Mary Sibley thought she was helping, but she started a fire, a fire that would not be put out until twenty people were dead. So let's consider, just to kind of wrap this up, the impact of the sermon one of You is a Devil and the witch cake incident first, just give you some basic lessons here. It set the theological tone for the entire crisis. The theological tone was set Reverend Samuel Paris sermon on March through twenty seven, sixteen ninety two, preached just days after Mary Sibley's confession and the baking of the witch cake, laid the spiritual foundation for what followed. Drawing from John six point seventy Have I not chosen you twelve? And one of you is a devil? Paris and introduced a dangerous and psychological potent idea even the most trusted, godly or familiar among

21:08 us could be a servant of the devil. This idea fractured the community trust. It encouraged introspection laced with fear, sanctioned suspicion without evidence. If even one. Of Christ twelve could be a devil, then surely a neighbor, a servant, a church member, or even a minister could be two. That logic became spiritual justification for accusation without proof, guilt by association, and the collapse of rational evidence. It was no longer enough to live righteously. The truly dangerous people were those who looked righteous. That it was no longer enough to live righteously. The truly dangerous people were those who looked righteous but were secretly aligned with the devil.

21:56 And this becomes the weird part in Salem. This becomes really crazy in Salem, because ultimately, in Salem. You're damned if you do. You're damned if you don't. Because if you if you were a questionable character, let's say you didn't go to church, or you skip church, or you were known for this, or you were a beggar, you were poor, or maybe you were a servant, or what if you were viewed as suspicious because you didn't have the right character, the right color of skin, from the right country, whatever the case may be, you could be accused. But guess what also in Salem, if you appeared to be righteous. Oh wait, then that's Satan appearing as an angel of light.

22:38 That's see. So if you looked to be godly, you were suspicious. If you didn't look to be godly, you were suspicious. So therefore you could be a minister and be killed, or you could be a beggar and be killed. It didn't matter, because now any one of you could be a devil, because one of you is a devil. Because it took John chapter six, verse seven, and of course made it prescriptive, of course, because that's what Christians do with the Bible. So it set the theological tone for the entire crisis. Number two, the witch cake became kind of a symbol of desperation and irony. The witch cake incident reveals one of the deepest ironies in the Salem witch trials. The first act of magic in the crisis came not from a witch, but from a god fearing puritan.

23:24 Isn't that crazy? Hey, we're gonna kill people for witchcraft? But the first one who really did any witchcraft was a godly puritan. Hope, but we're gonna go kill those people? Are the threat? Don't worry about us? No, no worthy. And then the next thing, you know, oh, well we could be the threat, and then well then everyone could be the threat. But isn't that just kind of ironic? It wasn't It wasn't a witch. It was a godly puritan who did the first act of witchcraft. Mary Sibley, likely acting out of compassion and fear, tried to use. Folk magic to help. But her use of an unorthodox practice became in theiological proof that Satan was already at work in Salem, And it also becomes see Salem is Satan is already here.

24:06 He's already at work. It escalated the panic, it furthered the suspicion, and invited a chain reaction of fear based religious response, including the sermon and the growing acceptance of spectral evidence. This teaches us that even well intentional actions can have devastating consequences when driven by fear instead of truth. Number three, the confession reinforced public guilt, not private healing. Mary Sibley's confession was public. It was emotional, It was humiliating, it was humbling. She owned her mistake, she pleaded for forgiveness. She was not excommunicated. However, it wasn't a moment of closure.

24:49 It was a moment that cemented the belief that real sin had occurred, and that Satan had infiltrated Salem village. He was there, he had. Infiltrated Her confession didn't calm the waters, It stirred them. It signaled that someone in the village had invited the devil in. And if she could be so, could so unknowingly then and if she could do so unknowingly, like invite the devil in unknowingly because she did this, if she could do that unknowingly, then well, who. Else might be guilty? Who else could be. Doing it possibly unknowingly, or wait, even worse, who could be doing it knowingly? The sermon and the witch cake incident legitimate, legitimized the idea that Satan could be working secretly through friends, family, and even the faithful. So between the witch cake and the sermon, now it becomes you basically have made it now legitimate that Satan was working, and he was working secretly through friends, family, and even people in the church. Mary Sibley's act was a spiritual breach that convinced many the devil had already basically shown up and had taken residence within Salem Village Parish. Use of scripture to weaponize suspicion became a model of how other ministers and magistrates approached the trials. The idea that

26:24 godliness could be a disguise directly enabled the accusations against people like Rebecca Nurse. Well, wait a minute, and George Burrows. There was the minister who is ultimately going to be hung and killed. Please note this. This kind of sets up the idea that godliness is a disguise. Godliness is a disguise. See, you're going to go after those who don't have godliness, but you're also going to go after godliness. So whether you're ungodly or whether you're godly, you're doomed, you're damned, you're in trouble. And remember we already talked about George Burrows. We will have to talk about Rebecca Nurse at some point.

27:09 We will. So when fear, I think, just some additional things to consider. Fear corrupts discernment. When fear replaces truth. Even sincere people can make destructive decisions. Mary Sibley meant to help, but fear her led her to superstition, which helped justify our theology of panic and suspicion. Fear corrupts discernment once people become afraid, once people become scared, And that's why this is the easiest way to manipulate people. Pastors can manipulate people like this. Politicians manipulate people. Tell everyone you should be scared of this. This is a threat. This is a threat to your kids. It's a threat to your family, it's a threat to your church. Tell everyone it's a threat to your country. Now, once you give everyone worked up and fearful, Now you point them to an enemy.

28:03 You point them to the person responsible that group. That group, it's the transgender, it's an immigrant, it's the Now you give everyone the and now you will dehumanize them, and then you will attack and do what you can to remove and destroy the people. Even if that the threat is nowhere what anyone is. The threat has been so sensationalized, so much hyperabole is involved. But once, once you can give people a little bit of fear and point them to an enemy, well, the results are always disastrous. It's always horrific because when people, once people get a little bit of fear, man, their discernment goes out the window. I will argue, their morality will go out the window.

28:46 Weaponizing righteousness is dangerous. Paris Sermon shows how scripture can be distorted when used to provoke fear. Religious authority, when used to call out hidden evil without a discernible evidence, creates paranoia, not purity. Number three, public confession doesn't always produce healing. Mary Sibley's confession was honest, but the culture it fed into wasn't seeking grace, It was seeking judgment. Her moment of repentance became a part of a larger system of blame. You talk about backfiring, and small acts can have wide ripples. The witch Cake was a small act, one cake, one ritual, one moment of desperation, But that act and the public theological reaction to it catalyzed a season of terror. Were well, and there was no stopping it until well twenty people are dead. Were reminded that even the most ordinary action, when taken in times of fear, can have extraordinary and unintended consequences. Remember, it doesn't take a gallows or a hangman's news use to ruin a life.

30:03 Sometimes it only takes a whisper. And a cake. That's the story. Of the witch cake that was instrumental and cursing Salem and twenty people died. Now you can you can. Argue how much impact it had or didn't have. Most most people believe that it had a profound impact. Ultimately, everything that happened because where it occurred. It happened in the pastor's house. He finds out, he goes after it, he preaches that sermon, she confesses. So now it's.

30:43 Completely public, it's out there. The whole world knows, and it's just it just the damn broke. And then the next thing, you know, this person' sa this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this, and then people start dying, people start being in prisons, people start their land starts to be you. Know, seized. That's the story of the witch Cake. Thursday is the anniversary of the sermon. Bake a cake, think about the impact of the sermon to Salem witch trials.

31:29 Just I, so many lessons we need to learn from it, so many lessons we need to learn from it. Thanks for listening, God bless