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MATHER, COTTON (1663-1728)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 884 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MATHER, See also:COTTON (1663-1728) , See also:American Congregational clergyman and author, was See also:born in See also:Boston, See also:Massachusetts, on the 12th of See also:February 1663. He was the See also:grandson of See also:Richard Mather, and the eldest See also:child of Increase Mather (q.v.), and Maria, daughter of See also:John Cotton. After studying under the famous See also:Ezekiel Cheever (1614-1708), he entered Harvard See also:College at twelve, and graduated in 1678. While teaching (1678-1685), he began the study of See also:theology, but soon, on See also:account of an impediment in his speech, discontinued it and took up See also:medicine. Later, however, he conquered the difficulty and finished his preparation for the See also:ministry. He was elected assistant pastorin his See also:father's See also:church, the See also:North, or Second, Church of Boston, in 1681 and was ordained as his father's colleague in 1685. In 1688, when his father went to See also:England as See also:agent for the See also:colony, he was See also:left at twenty-five in See also:charge of the largest See also:congregation in New England, and he ministered to it for the See also:rest of his See also:life. He soon became one of the most influential men in the colonies. He had much to do with the See also:witchcraft persecution of his See also:day; in 1692 when the magistrates appealed to the Boston See also:clergy for See also:advice in regard to the witchcraft cases in See also:Salem he drafted their reply, upon which the prosecutions were based; in 1689 he had written Memorable Providences See also:Relating to Witchcraft and Possessions, and even his earlier diaries have many entries showing his belief in diabolical See also:possession and his fear and hatred of it. Thinking as he did that the New See also:World had been the undisturbed See also:realm of Satan before the settlements were made in Massachusetts, he considered it natural that the See also:Devil should make a See also:peculiar effort to bring moral destruction on these godly invaders. He used See also:prayer and See also:fasting to deliver himself from evil enchantment; and when he saw ecstatic and mystical visions promising him the See also:Lord's help and See also:great usefulness in the Lord's See also:work, he feared that these revelations might be of diabolic origin. He used his great See also:influence to bring the suspected persons to trial and See also:punishment.

He attended the trials, investigated many of the cases himself, and wrote sermons on witchcraft, the Memorable Providences and The Wonders of the Invisible World (1693), which increased the excitement of the See also:

people. Accordingly, when the persecutions ceased and the reaction set in, much of the blame was laid upon him; the influence of See also:Judge See also:Samuel See also:Sewall, after he had come to think his See also:part in the Salem delusion a great See also:mistake, was turned against the Mathers; and the liberal leaders of See also:Congregationalism in Boston, notably the Brattles, found this a vulnerable point in Cotton Mather's See also:armour and used their knowledge to much effect, notably by assisting See also:Robert Calef (d. c. 1723) in the preparation of More Wonders of the Invisible World (1700) a powerful See also:criticism of Cotton Mather's part in the delusion at Salem. Mather took some part as adviser in the Revolution of 1689 in Massachusetts. In 1690 he became a member of the See also:Corporation (probably the youngest ever chosen as See also:Fellow) of Harvard College, and in 1707 he was greatly disappointed at his failure to be chosen See also:president of that institution. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of See also:Glasgow in 1710, and in 1713 was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. Like his father he was deeply grieved by the liberal theology and Church polity of the new Brattle See also:Street Congregation, and conscientiously opposed its pastor See also:Benjamin See also:Colman, who had been irregularly ordained in England and by a Presbyterian See also:body; but with his father he took part in 1700 in services in Colman's church. Harvard College was now controlled by the Liberals of the Brattle Street Church, and as it See also:grew farther and farther away from Calvinism, Mather looked with increasing favour upon the college in See also:Connecticut; before See also:September 1701 he had See also:drawn up a " See also:scheme for a college," the See also:oldest document now in the Yale archives; and finally (See also:Jan. 1718) he wrote to a See also:London See also:merchant, Elihu Yale, and persuaded him to make a liberal See also:gift to the college, which was named in his See also:honour. During the smallpox epidemic of 1721 he attempted in vain to have treatment by inoculation employed, for the first See also:time in See also:America; and for this he was bitterly attacked on all sides, and his life was at one time in danger; but, nevertheless, he used the treatment on his son, who recovered, and he wrote An Account of the Method and further Success of Inoculating for the Small Pox in London (1721). In addition he advocated See also:temperance, See also:missions, See also:Bible See also:societies, and the See also:education of the See also:negro; favoured the establishing of See also:libraries for working men and of religious organizatiols for See also:young people, and organized societies for other branches of philanthropic work. His later years were clouded with many sorrows and disappointments; his relations with See also:Governor See also:Joseph See also:Dudley were unfriendly; he lost much of his former See also:prestige in the Church—his own congregation dwindled—and in the college; his See also:uncle John Cotton was expelled from his charge in the See also:Plymouth Church; his son Increase turned out a ne'er-do-well; four of his See also:children and his second wife died in See also:November 1713; his wife's See also:brothers and the husbands of his sisters were ungodly and violent men; his favourite daughter Katherine, who " understood Latin and read See also:Hebrew fluently," died in 1716; his third wife went mad in 1719; his See also:personal enemies circulated incredible scandals about him; and in 1724-1725 he saw a Liberal once more preferred to him as a new president of Harvard.

He died in Boston on the 13th of February 1728 and is buried in the Copps See also:

Hill See also:burial-ground, Boston. He was thrice married—to See also:Abigail See also:Phillips (d. 1702) in 1686, to Mrs See also:Elizabeth Hubbard (d. 1713) in 1703, and in 1715 to Mrs See also:Lydia See also:George (d. 1734). Of hf8 fifteen children only two survived him. Though self-conscious and vain, Cotton Mather had on the whole a See also:noble See also:character. He believed strongly in the See also:power of prayer and repeatedly had assurances that his prayers were heard; and when he was disappointed by non-fulfilment his grief and depression were terrible. His spiritual nature was high-strung and delicate; and this See also:condition was aggravated by his See also:constant study, his See also:long fasts and his frequent vigils—in one See also:year, according to his See also:diary, he kept sixty fasts and twenty vigils. In his later years his diaries have less and less of personal detail, and repeated entries prefaced by the letters " G.D." meaning See also:Good See also:Device, embodying precepts of kindliness and See also:practical See also:Christianity. He was remarkable for his godliness, his See also:enthusiasm for knowledge, and his prodigious memory. He became a skilled linguist, a widely read See also:scholar—though much of his learning was more curious than useful—a powerful preacher, a valued See also:citizen, and a voluminous writer, and did a vast See also:deal for the intellectual and spiritual quickening of New England.

He worked with might and See also:

main for the continuation of the old See also:theocracy, but before he died it had given way before an increasing Liberalism—even Yale was infected with the Episcopalianism that he hated. Among his four See also:hundred or more published See also:works, many of which are sermons, tracts and letters, the most notable is his Magnalia Christi Americana: or the Ecclesiastical See also:History of New England, from Its First Planting in the Year z62o unto the Year of Our Lord, 1698. Begun in 1693 and finished in 1697, this work was published in London, in 1702, in one See also:volume, and was republished in See also:Hartford in 1820 and in 1853–1855, in two volumes. It is in seven books and concerns itself mainly with the See also:settlement and religious history of New England. It is often inaccurate, and it abounds in far-fetched conceits and See also:odd and pedantic features. Its See also:style, though in the main rather unnatural and declamatory, is at its best spontaneous, dignified and rhythmical; the See also:book is valuable for occasional facts and for its picture of the times, and it did much to make Mather the most eminent American writer of his day. His other writings include A Poem Dedicated to the Memory of the See also:Reverend and Excellent Mr Urian Oakes (1682); The See also:Present See also:State of New England (169o); The Life of the Renowned John See also:Eliot (1691), later included in Book III. of the Magnalia; The See also:Short History of New England (1694) ; See also:Bonifacius, usually known as Essays To Do Good (Boston, 1710; Glasgow, 1825; Boston, 1845), one of his See also:principal books and one which had a shaping influence on the life of Benjamin See also:Franklin; Psalterium Americanum (1718), a See also:blank See also:verse See also:translation of the See also:Psalms from the See also:original Hebrew; The See also:Christian Philosopher: A Collection of the Best Discoveries in Nature, with Religious Improvements (1721); Parentator (1724), a memoir of his father; Ratio Disciplinae (1726), an account of the discipline in New England churches; Manuductio ad Ministerium: Directions for a See also:Candidate of the Ministry (1726), one of the most readable of his books. He also left a number of works in See also:manuscript, including diaries, a medical See also:treatise and a huge commentary on the Bible, entitled " Biblia Americana." See The Life of Cotton Mather (Boston, 1729), by his son, Samuel Mather; See also:William B. O. See also:Peabody, The Life of Cotton Mather. (1836) (in Jared See also:Sparks's " Library of Ame See also:jean See also:Biography," vol. vi.) ; See also:Enoch See also:Pond, The Mather See also:Family (Boston, 1844) ; John L. Sibley, See also:Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, vol. iii.

(See also:

Cambridge, 1885) ; See also:Barrett Wendell, Cotton Mather, the Puritan See also:Priest (New See also:York, 1891), a remarkably sympathetic study and particularly valuable for its insight into (and its See also:defence of) Mather's attitude toward witchcraft; See also:Abijah P. Marvin, The Life and Times of Cotton Mather (Boston, 1892) ; M. C. See also:Tyler, A History of American Literature during the Colonial See also:Period, vol. ii. (New York, 1878); and Barrett Wendell, A See also:Literary History of America (New York, 1900). Cotton Mather's Son, SAMUEL MATHER (1706-1785), alsoa clergyman, graduated at Harvard in 1723, was pastor of the North Church, Boston, from 1732 to 1742, when, owing to a dispute among his congregation over revivals, he resigned to take charge of a church established for him in North See also:Bennett Street. Among his works are The Life of Cotton Mather (1729) ; An See also:Apology for the Liberties of the Churches in New England (1738), and America Known to the Ancients (1773). (W. L.

End of Article: MATHER, COTTON (1663-1728)

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