Word: witchcrafts
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...single day in September, eight men and women were hanged. Contrary to the legends which surround the trials, no witch was ever burned in Massachusetts. The only deviation from the hanging procedure same in the case of an 81-year-old man, Giles Cory. Arraigned on witchcraft charges before the Salem court, Cory steadfastly refused to answer any of the judges questions, even disregarding their demand that he plead guilty or not guilty. The magistrate made short shrift of the old man, however; he was pressed to death with huge stones for his stubborn silence...
...Increase Mather's conscience worked slowly, it at least worked surely. All through the summer, with the witchcraft mania reaching new heights, his doubts began to grow. The earliest sign of his increasing distrust of the trial procedures came in the middle of June when, with several other ministers, he responded to a request for advice from the judges. The group of ministers suggested that the courts evaluate carefully the so-called "spectral evidence"--that given by the afflicted girls of Salem; no one was quite ready yet to dispute directly the testimony of the girls, but their conduct...
...Devil and no one doubted the existence of witches. Does not the Bible say: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."? And had not one of the most learned men of the day, the eminent Cotton Mather, recently published a voluminous work on the evidences of witchcraft...
...colony to which Mather now returned was in a turmoil over the great witch-hunt, which continued unabated; still no voice of authority had been raised against the trials. It would be pleasant to report that Increase Mather immediately flamed with indignation at the witchcraft craze, but the issue hardly seemed to rouse him at first. His long-neglected duties at Harvard absorbed his attention and he apparently saw no reason to question the verdicts of the duly-constituted authorities of the colony, men for the most part trained and educated at Harvard College...
...Mather rose before the Cambridge ministers and read a long and scholarly paper, later published under the awesome title of Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits. At last his views had crystallized and he was determined to speak out. While still professing to believe in the possibility of witchcraft, Mather explicitly denounced the use of spectral evidence. And while emphasizing his great respect for the court, he cast doubt on many of the other tests the trial judges had accepted as proof. In an eloquent and memorable passage, Mather said: "It is better that ten suspected witches should escape than...