Cotton Mather, the minister of Boston's Old North church, was a true believer in witchcraft and played an integral role of the witchcraft trials of the late 1600's, and even today remains one of the strongest clerical figures of the early New England Puritan society. Mather, born in 1663, spoke several languages including Latin and Greek and obtained a degree from Harvard when he was sixteen. Son of Increase and Maria Mather. His main ambition in life was to become president of Harvard just as his father had done. Mather was first married in 1686 to Abigail Phillips, and then later in life to Elizabeth Clark Hubbard and Lydia George, and with them he had a total of fifteen children.
Mather was a well respected member of the puritan community, and that made it easy for him to persuade many into believing his writings when he spoke out against witches and defended the courts. He attempted to persuade people into thinking that the court had made the correct ruling, but he never actually attended a trial. Despite the fact that Cotton Mather was usually defended the courts, he felt that they were giving excessive punishment. He thought that witches that have been convicted should have been healed through prayer and fasting, instead of condemning them to death. .
Three of the five judges appointed to the court that would hear the Salem witchcraft trials were friends of Mather and members of his church. Mather wrote a letter to one of the three judges, John Richards, suggesting how they might approach evidentiary issues at the upcoming trials. In particular, Mather urged the judges to consider spectral evidence (which was unfavorable to the accused), and to consider the confessions of witches the best evidence of all. As the trials progressed, and a growing number of people confessed to being witches, Mather became completely convinced that "an Army of Devils is horribly broke in upon the place which is our center.
