“Ignorance of God and of ourselves is the great principle and cause of all our disquietments; and, this ariseth mostly not from want of light and instruction, but for want of consideration and application.”

John Owen-Puritan

Yesterday, we discussed the role that politics and land grabbing played in the accusations during the Salem Witch Trials. Yet, there were other factors that cannot be ignored. We understand the brevity of our assessment does not do the subject justice and will provide links at the end for those wanting to research the matter further.  In these resources, one will find that our assessment regarding motivation and cause in these trials is universally accepted and any disagreement tends to be focused on which of these issues, if any, were primary.

Historical synopsis:

As the saga unfolds, nine year old Betty Parris and Abigail Williams (Betty’s twelve year old cousin) were in the care of Tituba, a slave purportedly purchased by Samuel Parris in Barbados.  Tituba supposedly shared stories of the supernatural from her native land. (This story is now suspect).  Betty began to experience severe “epileptic fits”, hallucinations, outbursts, and sensations of being pinched.  A local doctor said there was no evident physical cause for these fits. Abigail and other young girls in the village began to demonstrate other strange symptoms.

These young girls began to accuse women, and later men, in Salem Village of being witches. At first their accusations centered on nonconformists such as a homeless woman and a widow lady who rarely attended church.  In the months that followed these troubled girls (who were likely enjoying the sudden attention) accused well established and admired members of the Puritan community.  One of the saddest accusations was against a little four-year-old girl, Dorcas Good, who confessed simply because she wanted to be reunited with her imprisoned mother.  Imagine this tiny child watching her mother being taken away from her and led off to be executed. It is said that Dorcas went insane.  Remember, we are talking about a Puritan society here.

The girls’ accusations increased, along with their varied symptoms such as sudden immobility, the ability to see into the spirit world, etc. Many of these subsequent strange symptoms make little sense in light of today’s medical understanding and can probably be chalked up to hysteria, fear of discovery of lies, parental manipulation (accusing familial political enemies or owners of land), etc.

One of the first magistrates to begin the imprisonments was John Hathorne. His grandson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, added a “w” to his name to distance himself from his infamous grandfather, demonstrating how quickly these trials were viewed as shameful events in Puritan society.

Much of the so-called “proof” regarding how to decide if someone was a witch came from the writings of Cotton Mather, who published Remarkable Providences in 1688, and attempted to revive the trial with his 1692 book Wonders of the Invisible World, and in general encouraged witch hunting zeal. Mather was educated at Harvard and was considered to be a highly credible minister. His father, Increase Mather, who was even more respected in Massachusetts, would eventually come to write and disagree with his son on some of these supposed “signs” of witchcraft.

Many were forced to admit they were witches. Tituba agreed to call herself a witch and then started pointing fingers as quickly as possible at other supposed witches. One poor man, Giles Corey, refused to admit he was a witch. He did not want his land to be confiscated by the state. So this elderly man (thought to be around 80 years old) was pressed to death. They placed Corey under some boards and continued to pile rocks on top of the boards as torture, hoping to get a confession. It is reported that Corey held out for two long days and died without confessing, demonstrating what a brave individual is capable of enduring.

Many silently opposed the Witch Trials, but they failed to protest for fear that they might be falsely accused and sent to the gallows.  One man who did speak out, John Proctor, was executed for witchcraft.  His wife was also found guilty of witchcraft, but was allowed to live until after her baby was born.  By that time, much of the hysteria had died down, and she was never executed.  To read the sad saga about what happened to the Proctor family and their property, go to this link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Proctor

Finally, doubt and reason began to take hold, and the trials were stopped although many languished in jail due to an inability to “pay” for their trials and politics due to land grabs. Very few of the magistrates, ministers, and accusers apologized for their disgusting lack of regard. Only one accuser, Ann Putnam, did so.

Superstition:

A superstition is a false notion or an irrational belief.  Superstition is a particularly sad state for Christians who base their faith on the One who called Himself the Truth. On Thursday, we will apply this to today’s church.

Cotton Mather and other ministers made up lists of signs and symptoms that could “prove” that someone was a witch. At this point, these ministers were “discovering” things on their own, and the blame for this “witch hunt” can be placed squarely on their shoulders for judgments that would be made during the trials. It’s extremely important to point out that these books were written by Puritan men, clearly demonstrating that men were just as capable of being deceived by Satan and that they can be considered equally gullible, to boot.  Of course, the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood would never admit to this.

What is so surprising are the “extra-Biblical beliefs” the Puritans added to the Bible. Their reformed background should have led them to the Biblical authority for their beliefs. There is nothing in the Bible that would point to some of the “proof” that a person is a witch.

Some of these beliefs and findings include (but are not limited to):

– A belief that people had to give permission to the devil to allow for a spiritual apparition to haunt and torment another person. That apparition then had the face of the one who gave Satan permission for the apparition.

– Witches had at least one extra “witches teat” from which to suckle one’s familiar (demon). These teats were, unlike real teats because they were insensitive spots. So, the examiners would pinch the extra teats (which were moles, nevi, etc). Unfortunately, moles and nevi usually have a low degree of sensitivity, so these moles were declared witches teats, and the person was declared to be a witch.  Talk about extra-Biblical!

– Witches could send fits and immobility into the bodies of their victims. When blindfolded, their hands could be made to touch afflicted individuals, the fits and other symptoms would return into the bodies of the witches, and the person would be cured. The teenage girls obliged this nonsense by moving and acting well when touched by an accused witch.

– Witches, upon appearing, would force an innocent person to sign the Devil’s book indicating that they belonged to the Devil.

Slaves:

Tituba was a slave. It is evident that the Puritans, in general, treated their slaves well. Yet, they were slaves, nonetheless.  There is a myriad of information on the reasons for their acceptance of this institution. These included a belief that they were God’s elect, and black people were not; that they were the “New Israel” and would use slavery to Christianize the heathen, and so forth. It is interesting to note that Cotton Mather was reportedly against the institution of slavery, yet owned slaves himself. However, some attribute the coming teachings of Jonathan Edwards of the First Great Awakening that would lead the Puritans to support the abolishment of slavery.

http://www.churchsociety.org/crossway/documents/Cway_104_AfricanSlavery.pdf

Theological Missteps

It never ceases to amaze me how people can use the Bible to justify almost anything. The Puritans believed in the reality of the spiritual world.  The Devil was thought to be behind everything that appeared to be bad. A child who fell sick for no “understandable” reason, was declared to be afflicted by the Devil.

Oddly enough, they seemed to negate the possibility of man’s own sin nature in their hunt for witches. The possibility that the children and other accusers were lying was not discussed in any credible fashion. Was it possible that they were afraid to admit their own sin nature and found comfort in blaming it all on Satan? Did they actually believe that the daughter of a minister would somehow be more truthful than an average member of the community? Hmmm, where have we seen this tendency before?

Puritans were devoted followers and studiers of the Scriptures. Did they ever question why there were no major “witch trials” in the Bible? Did they ever ask why God was not powerful enough to keep them safe from these supposed witches? What failing in their faith structure led to the belief that there were demons, etc., that could easily be blamed for every difficult  circumstance?

Ministers were the ones consulted to “explain” various phenomena if a doctor couldn’t figure things out. Since ministers were “men of God”, they somehow were capable of determining strange phenomena, and they did so with reckless abandon. How a “man of God” could use his position to come up with a theory of “witches teats” demonstrates the essential problem of gullibility on the part of all people, including pastors.

The Bible, while speaking against it, does not define what constitutes witchcraft, sorcery, mediums, astrology, diviners, etc. specifically, nor does it give exact specifications on how to “prove” one is a practitioner of the dark arts. Scripture also speaks strongly that followers of God can overcome the spirits of the evil one. The fear of witches harming Christian individuals in physical ways shows a lack of understanding of Scripture.

Finally, ministers often held political positions in that day as well. To exclude one’s minister from the typical failings such as greed, self-centeredness, arrogance, superstition, etc. that beset all of mankind is both dangerous and unbiblical. Nathaniel Hawthorne would eventually make that point in his marvelous writing The Scarlet Letter.

Interestingly, the Puritans believed in the priesthood of the believers and wanted all to be educated so that they could study Scripture for themselves. Yet, few Puritans were willing to challenge the theological errors in the position of the church leaders. Perhaps the Puritans were conformists in this area as well.

Ergot

In some of the Greek words from which the word “witchcraft” is derived, one finds the word “pharm” which essentially means “drug”. This translation could prove to be prophetic in the case of the Salem Witch Trials. I have described the poor farming land in the area of Salem. Wheat was not grown in this area for another 100 years. Instead, rye grew well in this area and was the basic grain staple. However, rye has an interesting fungus which would grow particularly well when rye was stored for long periods of time.

In 1976 Linda Caporael theorized in a prestigious journal known as Science that the initial symptoms exhibited by Betty Parris could be explained “by a disease called “convulsive ergotism” brought on by ingesting rye–eaten as a cereal and as a common ingredient of bread–infected with ergot.  (Ergot is caused by a fungus which invades developing kernels of rye grain, especially under warm and damp conditions such as existed at the time of the previous rye harvest in Salem. Convulsive ergotism causes violent fits, a crawling sensation on the skin, vomiting, choking, and–most interestingly–hallucinations.  The hallucinogenic drug LSD is a derivative of ergot.)”

 http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_ACCT.htm

 Since that time, further research has been done on this interesting angle and is now considered a highly probable cause of the symptoms of Parris and other people of that day. This does not explain the accusations and symptoms of some of the other children and adults, but much of that can be attributed to hysteria. It is possible that ergot started the ball rolling and other factors contributed to the extent of the hysteria.

It is obvious that the reasons for the Witch Trials are numerous and complex. I believe that, at the heart of this, was the issue of sin. This sin involved ministers putting words in God’s mouth, greed, poor leadership, and people fearing to stand up for the truth. On Thursday, we will develop this theme a bit further, bringing the Puritans into today’s churches.

If you’d like to learn more about the Salem Witch Trials, we strongly encourage you to watch these installments of a broadcast that aired on the History Channel.

Part One:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEv4FlmHbYY&feature=related

Part Two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFZxj6b9eYM&feature=related

Part Three:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04vIViGASdc&feature=related

Part Four:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2decKnoTm1I&feature=related

Part Five:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3es5mu6Uj5I&feature=related