Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather (1663–1728) was a New England Puritan minister and prolific writer whose works shaped colonial religious life and debates over witchcraft, science, and medicine.

Increase Mather: A prominent New England Puritan minister, colonial official, and father of Cotton Mather. His father’s clerical authority and political influence helped shape Mather’s public life.
Salem witch trials: A series of witchcraft prosecutions in colonial Massachusetts in 1692 and 1693 that resulted in 20 executions. Mather became closely associated with the crisis through his writings about evidence and possession.
Puritanism: A movement within English Protestantism that sought to reform worship and church life according to scripture. Mather’s ministry and writing were grounded in New England Puritan theology.
Smallpox inoculation: A method of inducing immunity to smallpox by deliberately introducing material from a smallpox lesion. Mather promoted this preventive practice in Boston despite intense public opposition.
Robert Calef’s More Wonders of the Invisible World: Robert Calef’s 1700 book criticizing Cotton Mather’s views on witchcraft and the Salem prosecutions. Calef’s rebuttal helped secure a lasting public controversy over Mather’s role.
Samuel Parris: The Salem Village minister whose household was at the center of the 1692 witchcraft accusations. Parris’s parish became the setting for the crisis Mather later interpreted and defended.
Wonders of the Invisible World: Cotton Mather’s 1693 book defending the conduct of the Salem witch trials and interpreting them as evidence of diabolic activity. This is Mather’s most consequential published defense of the trials.
Congregationalism: A Protestant polity in which each local congregation governs its own church affairs. Congregational church structures defined the ministerial world in which Mather worked.
The Christian Philosopher: Cotton Mather’s 1721 work arguing that observations of nature could support Christian belief. The book shows how Mather joined natural philosophy to Protestant theology.
Salem witch trials in popular culture: The continuing representation of the 1692–1693 Salem witch trials in literature, theater, film, and public memory. Mather’s association with the trials continues to shape portrayals of his life.

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