Along with other notable Boston ministers, Cotton Mather had warned against the use of spectral evidence, and advised caution from the onset of the trials. Strangely, this account was a sharp contrast to Mather’s actual involvement in the events of 1692. As such, this text presented the witchcraft trials and actions of the magistrates as necessary, and even vital to the safety of the colony. It presented the cases of five of the nineteen individuals who were executed, described a previous witchcraft case which employed similar evidentiary methods, and described the dangerous threat that had descended upon New England in 1692. This was to be the official court sanctioned account of the witchcraft trials. At the behest of the newly appointed Royal Governor, 29-year-old Cotton Mather was given access to the original trial transcripts and court documents and speedily composed the monograph. This is primarily due to his work The Wonders of the Invisible World, published in the winter of 1692. Nevertheless, to this day he is frequently cast as a major participant, even the leader of the witch-hunt. Though famously associated with the Salem witch trials, Mather was only peripherally involved in the events of 1692. Reverend Cotton Mather was an influential Puritan minister in Boston, serving his community for 43 years.
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