Eric Keller
Amer. Church History
Mass Hysteria and the Salem Witch Craze
A Recipe for Disaster
INTRODUCTION
Salem Village, late 1691, four girls, Betty Parris, age nine, her cousin Abigail Williams, eleven, Ann Putnam, twelve and Elizabeth Hubbard, seventeen, regularly gathered at Betty's home. Curious about their future and what type of men they would eventually marry, they lent themselves to playing fortune-telling games. Of course such practices were forbidden in the Salem Village community. They knew that what they were doing was forbidden. Betty's father was the Rev. Samuel Parris of the local parish in Salem Village who often gave sermons on the necessities of Godly living. If Samuel Parris knew the girls were meeting under his own roof, the girls could have been severely punished for dabbling in such occultic practices. Yet, unaware of the activities in his own home, the experiments continued.
One of the girls' experiments was to take the white of an egg and drop it into a glass. They believed the egg white would take on a shape which may reveal to them something about their future. The divination practice was an of an old folklore and they may have learned a few other spells from Parris' Native American slave woman Tituba, who was understood to know the ways of magic simply for being of a “savage” race. During one fortune telling experiment, it frightened the girls to see the white of an egg appear to take shape of a coffin. Perhaps it was an omen of the sins they had been committing.
Betty, always considered to be the most sensitive one, afterwards began to display strange signs. She was unable to concentrate, became forgetful and sometimes threw fits of screaming. Abigail began to show strange symptoms as well. However, hers appeared worse as she sometimes fell into convulsions or got down on all fours barking like a dog. Soon after, the other two girls began to display symptoms. As word of their maladies spread, so did the number of girls in Salem Village that were showing similar signs.
There was suspicion of witchcraft and soon after an investigation was launched to find the source of the girls' torments. When asked who had done this to them, the girls accused Sarah Osborne and Sarah Goode, both older women in the community. The widow Sarah Osborne had a poor reputation among the community as she had allowed another man to live in her house and had not attended the meeting house in 14 months. Sarah Osborne was also considered to be an undesirable element of the community. Her husband was a laborer and whoever hired his services had the obligation of housing her and their children. The third woman accused of bewitching the girls was Samuel Parris' slave woman Tituba. When she was interrogated she reluctantly revealed the names of Sarah Goode and Sarah Osborne in a colorful story of witchcraft and the tormenting of the afflicted girls.
Salem Village had a crisis on its hands. The Devil was loose and claiming the souls of women and children. Although the two Sarah's proclaimed their innocence, each of the four girls continued to have visions of the women persecuting them. Soon after more women were indicted for being witches and the Salem Witch Craze of 1692 had begun...
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When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God.
-Deuteronomy 18:9-13
Mass Hysteria and the Salem Witch Craze:
A Recipe for Disaster
THE RECIPE
At first glance, it appears as if the bewitchment of the original victims of the events at Salem Village spurred what became the Salem witch trials of 1692. However, closer examination of this occurrence reveals an incident that was in the making for hundreds of years. It began with the European witch hunts in the 14th century extending to about the 1650's. There was the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the accompanying belief of the Puritans as the New Israel. Mix in the idea of covenant theology and the practice of visible saints plus add to that the fact that Satan was believed to be active north of Salem in the town of Boston. Finally, blend in a poison called ergot, the coerced confession of a slave named Tituba, and the use of spectral evidence as valid testimony. Each of these ingredients lent themselves to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The pot was full, it just needed to be stirred. It is my thesis that while there were many elements which lent themselves to the intensity of the Salem witch trials, mass hysteria was the force that stirred the pot of ingredients causing the tragedy of the Salem witch trials to boil over.
INGREDIENT 1: THE EUROPEAN WITCH TRIALS
As early as the 1400’s, the onslaught of possibly millions of people began the birth of the witch-hunts in Europe. So intense was the issue of heresy and witchcraft that some Popes called for the continuation of the witch-hunts. In 1437 and again in 1445, Pope Eugene IV “urged the inquisitors to be more relentless in their pursuit of ‘weather makers’.”1 Pope Innocent VII on December 7, 1484, inspired by the Scripture, Exodus 22:18, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” issued the BULL Summis Desiderantes encouraging the clergy of Germany to do anything possible to detect men and women who were suspected of making covenants with the devil. In 1486 the German inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, with Pope Innocent IV’s approval, prepared a manual titled The Hammer of Witches
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Mass Hysteria and the Salem Witch Craze:
A Recipe for Disaster
(Malleus maleficarum) which was intended as an expose of witchcraft and provided a procedure for detecting and punishing witches. By 1520 there were a dozen reprints. Even Protestants, including Calvin and the Lutherans supported the Pope, following in their zeal against witchcraft. In fact, John Wesley stated that, "the giving up of witchcraft is in effect the giving up of the Bible."2
People at an alarming rate were being accused of witchcraft. Some German cities saw as many as 600 executions annually. The main reason why the European witch trials produced so many victims was the fact that once a person was suspected of witchcraft or heresy, they were tortured until they confessed and gave names of other people involved in witchcraft as well. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of women were tortured into confessing themselves to be witches. According to The Story of the Inquisition:
"In the witch "trials" the victim must not only incriminate herself but her accomplices, or all whom she "knew" to be in partnership with the devil. She was bound to be tortured until she had given the names or descried the persons of those she had seen at the "witches' sabbaths." Then they would be tortured and the process repeated...soon the leading questions of the inquisitors would be answered as they wanted them answered".3
Finally, according to author Larry Gragg, the "most extensive prosecutions took place in French- and German- speaking regions between 1550 and 1650"4.
When the Puritans left for the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628, the witch hunts of Europe were drawing to a close. The witch hunts had made it abundantly clear to the Puritans that the Devil was always after their souls. The Puritans were fully aware of what the Devil was doing in their land. Surely there was the risk of demonic powers in the New World as well for it had just begun to be settled and was surrounded by savage races.
INGREDIENT 2: THE SPANISH ARMADA AND THE ELECT NATION
In the latter part of the 16th century, King Phillip planned a two pronged attack against Queen Elizabeth I and Protestant England in an effort to put an end to the rising power of Protestantism and maintain Spain as the world’s greatest power. In 1558, the year of destiny, Phillip sent the "Invincible Armada", a fleet of 125 ships and over 30,000 men into the English
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Mass Hysteria and the Salem Witch Craze:
A Recipe for Disaster
Channel where it would link up with the Duke of Parma in the Spanish Netherlands at Calais. The goal of this attack was to combine the forces of the Armada and the Duke of Parma, march on London, seize the Queen, and proceed to conquer the entire country. The Spanish Armada was the largest naval fleet in the history of mankind and defeat of the English seemed imminent. Unfortunately, Spain discovered that the English were better prepared for a war at sea.
Lord Howard and Francis Drake, commanders of the English fleet proved to be worthy adversaries of the Armada. Although they commanded a fleet of fewer ships, they were smaller and therefore more maneuverable than those of Spain and, as a result, were able to harass the Armada quite effectively. Having received heavy damage to some of their ships, the Armada anchored at Calais where the Duke of Parma failed to show. On July 28, 1588 the English saw an opportunity to attack the Spanish fleet as they waited in the harbor for their allies. They used fire-ships to scatter the Spanish ships, and in the process of the 8-hour struggle at the Battle of Gravelines, the English eliminated a significant portion of their enemy’s fleet.
The remaining Armada found itself pursued by the English as they attempted a return to Spain via the North of Scotland and Ireland. The English continued its chase for three days until they ran out of ammunition and returned home. Just when it seemed things couldn’t get any worse for the Armada, unexpected winds wrecked many of its ships off the coast of Scotland. The remaining ships, returned to Spain defeated and humiliated.
The failure of the Spanish Armada forever changed the way that Protestants viewed themselves. After all, they had defeated the most powerful and feared Catholic naval force in the world. It was apparent, in the minds of the English, that God was now on their side. What else could explain such a miraculous victory? It became apparent that God called the Protestants to be the new chosen people. England and the Protestants were now part of the “Elect Nation.”
Forty years later, when the Puritans first settled in Salem, they were convinced that they were a part of this Elect Nation. They had a new covenant with God. One which must be upheld if they were to survive in the New World. Breaking their covenant with the Lord surely meant suffering for the people.
INGREDIENT III: COVENANT THEOLOGY AND VISIBLE SAINTS
The Puritans who settled in Salem believed they were a part of the Elect Nation of God. As the Elect Nation, they thought of themselves as the New Israel. The Puritans maintained their status as the New Israel through the practice of the covenant theology. They believed that if they did what God wanted them to do, they would be blessed. However, if they disobeyed God, they would be punished. This covenant was displayed through the model of visible saints.
Covenant theology included the covenant of grace and the covenant of works. The covenant of grace defined how one became reconciled to God. All humans are sinners, and though all may confess to believe in Christ, not all humans will be saved. Reconciliation came to those whom God chose. No one would choose to seek reconciliation with God unless God first interceded and moved the person to seek salvation. The covenant of grace, "is a mutual agreement, made possible by Christ's intercession, in which God pledges to be a gracious father and to give eternal life and men in turn promise to accept these blessings by faith and glorify God forever" 5 If a person was called by God to be one of the Elect (those chosen by God to be saved) he or she would experience a desire to fulfil their obligation of their covenant
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Mass Hysteria and the Salem Witch Craze:
A Recipe for Disaster
with God through a covenant of works. The covenant of works is mankind's unalterable obligation to fulfill his part of God's covenant with His people. Although man is saved by grace, it is this same grace that will invoke within man the desire to fulfill his obligation. Therefore, the covenant of grace and the covenant of works are intertwined working together to maintain God and man's covenant with each other.
Regardless of a person’s behavior and willingness to follow God, no one could know for sure who was saved for God had called some to be Elect before he had even created the world and others He simply had not.6 Never mind the good deeds a person did in their lifetime. If they were not called by God to be one of the elect, they would never experience salvation. However, for those who had been called by God to be the Elect, nothing they could do would prevent them from receiving God’s grace. Despite, the fact that no one could know for sure whether or not they were of the Elect, each person had an obligation to maintain the colonies' covenant with God. This was done by living as a visible saint.
Living as a visible saint simply meant that one lived their life as if they knew they were part of God's Elect. If a Puritan believed that they were a part of God's covenant of grace, then they had a type of contractual agreement to fulfill their end of the bargain with the covenant of works. Living their lives as visible saints was a visual way of demonstrating their evidence that they had not broken their bond with God. Furthermore, if everybody lived as a visible saint, the colonies' blessings from God would be demonstrated through the success and orderliness of each community.
The threat of falling from God's covenant was true and feared. Although referred to as a covenant, this was considered a contractual agreement and it could be broken if the people did not live up to their obligations. God had fulfilled His obligation Christ. It was only the community that could break the contract. Therefore, anyone who posed a threat could face banishment or worse, death. One example of the perceived threat to the colonies’ covenant can be found in one woman, Anne Hutchinson, who challenged the practice of visible saints declaring that you can
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Mass Hysteria and the Salem Witch Craze:
A Recipe for Disaster
not know the spiritual condition of a man or woman by how they act in public. She was charged with antinomianism.7 and later banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 16388
INGREDIENT IV: COTTON MATHER
Cotton Mather was a first generation Puritan minister in the Salem community. He was called to Boston three and a half years before the events at Salem Village to treat the daughter of John Goodwin, a mason, who suspected his daughter was suffering from the spells of a witch.
The afflictions of Goodwin’s eldest daughter, Martha, began after she had accused a laundress of stealing family linens. After being questioned, the washerwoman’s mother, Goody Glover, “bestow’d very bad Language”9 on the Goodwin girl. Immediately, the 13 year old girl was seized by fits which soon after affected three other daughters of Goodwin. Glover, was tried and sentenced to die for bewitching the Goodwin children.
Mather, hoping to learn more about witchcraft and verify the credibility of her confession, visited Goody Glover in jail twice before she was hanged. She never denied the practice of witchcraft and even admitted to him that she had attended meetings with five others including “her Prince.”10 Glover did state that, “because others cooperated in the witchcraft her execution would not relieve the Goodwin children.”11 Her words rang true for, “After her hanging their torments multiplied. They barked like dogs, purred like cats, fluttered like geese”12. It is not known whether or not Mather shared Goody Glover’s claim with Goodwin or his daughter for the mere thought of other witches involved in their curses may have provoked their symptoms.
Cotton Mather desired to help the girls and continue to gather evidence in order to refute skeptics. He took the eldest Goodwin child to stay at his home with himself and his daughter Abigail. Martha continued to display signs of bewitching while at the Mather home. In the five to six weeks that she stayed with them, Mather was able to gather enough evidence for his first publication, Memorable Providence, Relating to Witchcrafts and Possession. It was publishedless than two years before the Salem Witch craze. The work was successful enough to be reprinted in London in 1691 and again in Edinburgh in 1697. Furthermore, in the time between the Goodwin case and the Salem trials (about 18 months), Mather focused a great deal of his sermons on witchcraft. Needless to say, “given the size of his congregation and the frequency of his preaching, he did much to keep alive in Massachusetts a sense of the malice of the Invisible World.”13 No doubt, Cotton Mather’s publication and preaching of his experience in Boston added to the intensity of the incident at Salem.