Page "Cotton Mather" Paragraph 68

Some historians who have examined the life of Cotton Mather after Chadwick Hansen ’ s book also seem to yearn for a positive view of Cotton Mather.

Bernard Rosenthal laments that Mather is so often portrayed as the rabid witch hunter.

Rosenthal suggests that Mather might have had guilty feelings — feigned or not — for choosing not to restrain the judges during the trial, though he was in the best position to do so.

Larry Gragg highlights Mather ’ s cloudy thinking and confusion between sympathy for the possessed, and the boundlessness of spectral evidence when Mather stated, “ the devil have sometimes represented the shapes of persons not only innocent, but also the very virtuous .” And writing in the early 1980s, John Demos seemed to consider Mather a moderating influence on the trials.