8/12/2019 1994 Issue 7 - His Story - God's Providence, The Salem Witch Trials - Counsel of Chalcedon

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The Salem Witch Trials

The one incident that has forever

marked the Puritans

as

incurably

devilish is, ironically, their opposition

to the devil in Salem. The

Salem

witch

trials have become the epitome of

Puritanism -- typical and symbolic of

all that the Puritans were and did. Let

me be quick to

say

that this incident

was, in many ways, deplorable (as will

be shown below). Godly men of that

day and this have condemned it for the

injustices allowed and excesses

condoned. But

it

does serve again to

illustrate the bias of unbelieving

historians against Christianity in this

country. This incident has become

inseparably joined with Puritanism

if

you say puritan they say witch

nials ). Strangely, one seldom hears

of the witch-hunting frenzy that

gripped Europe long before (andafter)

this incident in Massachusetts. The

contrast between the

tWo

incidents is

quite revealing:

The entire Salem episode lasted

less than a year (1692). There was no

witch-hunting frenzy prior to 1692

Conly 12 people wete ever tried for

witchcraft). By contrast, the witch

hunting which occurred in Europe

lasted oyer

two

hundred years.

The Salem

hysteria

of 1692 did

not see hundreds burned at the stake

as

is often imagined. Only 23 people

died as a direct result of the trials.

Three died in prison, one was crushed

to death during questioning, and

nineteen were hung (no one was

burned). Contrast this with the

thousands who were burned at the

stake in Europe for witchcraft during

the Inquisition alone. For

example,

between the years 1516 and 1517 in

Geneva,

over 500

persons

were

burned

for witchcraft. Over a thousand

individuals were executed in the

district of Como, Spain, in the year

1524 (and for several years

afterWards

the average number of victifIls

exceeded a hundred).

One

inquisitor

named Remingius took credit fot

having convicted and burned 900

accusedwitches. In France during the

year 1520,

fires for

the execution of

witches blazed in almost every town.

Danaeus, in his

Dialogues

oj

Witches

says the burnings were so numerous

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COUNSEL

of

Chalcedon

t

September, 1994

that it is impossible to know the

number of people killed. (Charles

Mackay, xtraordinary Popular

Delusions

and

the Madness oj Crowds p.

482)

Inall, only around 100 peoplewere

ever accused ofwitchcraft in Salem, of

whom

50 (by

some counts) confessed

their guilt.

Some

of these confessions

were

coerced and others

may have

been motivated by self-interest,

as

confessors

were

not tried or executed.

Still,

the fact remains, that

many were

in

fact

guilty of occult practices.

(Kirk

House,

The Salem

Witch Trials ,

Journal oj Christian Reconstruction

winter, 1978-79, vol.

V.,

no. 2).

This,

however,

is hardiy the picture

in the minds of most people when you

mention

Salem.

Anti Puritan biases

control the

views of

the

Salem

incident.

There

are

a number of observations

that help us gain a more accurate

perspective

on

what occurred.

1. There was a large amount of

occult experimentation at this time.

Cotton Mather notes that many began

to dabble in occult practices out of

curiosity:

It is

to

be confessed and bewailed,

that rnanyinhabitantsof

New

England,

and young people especially, had been

led

away

with little sorceries, wherein

they 'did secretly those things that

were not right against the Lord their

God;' Wretched books had stolen

into the land, wherein fools were

instructed how to become able

fottune-tellers: and by these books,

the minds of many had been so

poisoned, that they studied this finer

witchcraft; uutil 'tis wen

i

some of

them were not betrayed into what is

grosser, and more sensible and capital.

Although

these

diabolical divinations

are more ordinarilycommitted perhaps

all

over the whole world, than they

are

in the country

of New

England, yet,

that being a country devoted unto the

worship and service of the Lord]esus

8/12/2019 1994 Issue 7 - His Story - God's Providence, The Salem Witch Trials - Counsel of Chalcedon

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Christ above the rest of the world, he

signalized his vengeance against these

wickednesses, with such extraordinary

dispensations as have not been often

seen

in

other places. (Cotton Mather,

MagnaJ a Christi Amel1cana, vol.

I, p.

205)

Mather and others were convinced

the whole affair was God's judgment

on the people of New England for their

sorceries, discontent, unbelief and

slighting of the Savior.

2. There were

a

number of

seemingly inexplicable events which

took place. The

Puritans

were

convinced that much of this was the

result of demonic activity. Many

reponed being haunted by spectres

(visible apparitions taking the fonn of

well-known citizens). Others were

affticted with fits which included

bizarre behavior and speaking with

other voices. Mather records some of

the things that were reported:

The afflicted

wretches

were

horribly distorted and convulsed; they

were pinched black and blue: pins

would be run every where in their

flesh; they would

be

scalded until they

had

blisters raised on them; and a

thousand otherthings before hundreds

of

witnesses were done unto them,

evidently preternatural . . .

Also,

it

is well known, that these

wicked spectres did proceed so

fur

as

to steal several quantities of money

from divers people, part of which

individual moneywas dropt sometimes

out of the air, before sufficient

spectators, into

the

hands of the

afflicted, which the spectres were

urging them to subscribe their covenant

with death

Yet more: the miserable have

complained bitterly of burning rags

run into their forceably distended

mouths; and though nobody could see

any such cloths, or indeed any

fires in

the chambers, yet presently the scalds

were seen plainly by everybody on the

mouths of the complainers, and not

only the smell, but the smoke of the

burning sensibly filled the chambers.

(Mather, op. cit., pp.

206,207)

Whether these repoltS were accurate

or, as is more likely the case, greatly

exaggerated, they served to heighten

the

anxiety

of

all,

transforming

otherwise cautious

and

reasonable

people into true funatics. The repons

produced an

environment where

anything out of the ordinary or a bit

unusual was seen as demonic activity.

The emotional state of the people

(coupled with their lack of theological

discernment) unquestionably made

things to appear worse than they were.

3.

There were excesses allowed

and errors

committed during

the

tria ls. It is probably correct to say that

few

if any of those accused received a

fair trial. The faults of the trials can be

traced

to a

number of

false

assumptions:

First, that Satan, when allowed by

God to afftict another, does so through

the instrumentality of other humans.

This led

to

the assumption that when

children or others were afflicted, a

warlock or witch must be involved.

Natural causes of the fits or other

incidents

were

not

suffiCiently

considered.

Second, that demons could not

assume the fonn ofinnocent people. It

was assumed that

i f the spectre of a

person was seen, that one must be in

league with the devil.

Third, that spectral evidence was

legitimate. That is,

if

one accused

another of being a witch or warlock

based upon seeing his or her spectre,

that

testimony was admitted

and

weighed against the accused (even

though the spectre was only visible

to the accuser). Obviously,

to

admit

such evidence is

to

admit evidence

which cannot be confinned or denied.

Founh, if the accused caused the

accusers to

go

into fits when

he

or

she looked at them, the accused was

assumed to be in covenant with the

devil. Often during the trials those

testifying

fell

into fits

when

the

one

accused of witchcraft glanced

at

them.

The judges were greatly affected

by

this:

The judges questioning also reveals

their attitude. Prisoners werenot asked

whether they tonnented

the

afflicted,

but

why

and how

they

did

so. Mrs.

Nathaniel Cary was ordered

to

stand

with

her

arms outstretched, to prevent

her from inflicting sympathetic harm.

When Cary

asked

permission to

support his wife, he was told that ifshe

had

strength to torment the afflicted,

she had strength to stand

by

herself.

(House,

Journal

o

hristian

Rec01Istruction, vol.

V.,

no.

2,

p.

139)

Guilt or innocence notwithstanding,

the accused did

not

have a fair hearing

under these circumstances.

As

House

points out, Indeed, a legally sworn

complaint

. . .

almost inevitably meant

indictment, and, in time,

imprisonment. (Ibid.)

It became evident to many that the

trials were producing excesses. The

ministers

in

the area were the first

to

realize the problems, They [the clergy

of New England] now saw,

that

the

more the afflicted were harkened unto,

the more the

number

of the accused

increased; until at last many scores

were cried out upon,

and

among them,

some who, by the unblameableness -

yea,

and

serviceableness -- of their

whole conversation,

had

obtained the

just reputation of good people among

all that were acquainted with them.

The character of the afflicted likewise

added unto the common distaste; for

though some of them too were good

people, yet others of hem, and

such

of

them as were most flippant at accusing,

had

a far other character. (Mather,

Magnalia,

vol.

I. p 210)

To

be

concluded next issue.

September, 1994 THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon 23