The Rev. Cotton Mather: The “Inspiration” for the Rev. Trask?

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Hey, gang,

I just finished reading Bill O’Reilly’s excellent book, “Killing The Witches,” covering the infamous witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 and 1693. Nineteen people (14 women and five men) were found guilty of witchcraft and executed by hanging, although one man, Giles Corey, was “pressed to death,” by having stones placed on his body until he eventually died from the accumulated weight of the stones on his body.

The Reverend Cotton Mather was a prominent Puritan minister in Boston, who championed the witch trials in Salem. Even though people were convicted of practicing witchcraft solely on the extremely dubious testimony of several young Salem girls, who claimed they had been “afflicted” by the accused witches, the Rev. Mather enthusiastically supported their claims of “spectral evidence,” where the accused had supposedly appeared to the young girls as an evil apparition, causing them to experience fits and convulsions.

There even was a young slave woman named Tituba from Barbados (shades of Angelique?), who was initially accused of being a witch herself, but who later accused other people of witchcraft in order to save her own life. Tituba was familiar with voodoo just like Angelique was from her days as a young girl on Barbados.

Bill O’Reilly points out that many of the people, who were a accused of witchcraft, may have been the victims of personal grudges on the part of the families of the young girls, who had initially fingered the alleged “witches.” Of course, there may have also been a financial motive for the accusations, what with the land and money of the convicted witches being seized by their accusers.

Bill O’Reilly also covers the actual exorcism of of a teenaged boy in Saint Louis in 1949 by William S. Bowdern, a Jesuit priest. This real life exorcism was the inspiration for the late William Peter Blatty’s best-selling novel, “The Exorcist.” It is a harrowing account of how Father Bowdern and his fellow priests were able to save this teenager from demonic possession. No doubt, Bathia Mapes would have been very impressed by the valiant efforts of those Catholic priests on behalf this young man, who went on to lead a happy and productive life.

I think “Killing The Witches” is a great read and DS fans will recognize the obvious parallels between the Reverend Trask and Angelique with their real-life Salem witch trial counterparts.

[Philippe Cordier]

Very interesting post, Bob! I noticed somewhere on the Internet a few days ago that Bill O'Reilly had recently written this book, "Killing the Witches," and it seemed rather surprising material. Having read quite a bit on the Salem witchcraft over the years, and given that I am not particularly inclined towards reading, listening to, or watching Bill O'Reilly, I let it go at that. But from what you write in your post, perhaps the book would be worthwhile. (I wonder what O'Reilly's interest in it was that he wrote a book about it?) The problem I've encountered with more academic approaches to the subject over the years is that historians and professors always have to come up with a new theory to explain the incident, something new that challenges everything previously thought on the topic, and often seemingly stretching their sources to come up with yet another revolutionizing thesis that in the end is less than satisfying. So perhaps a more journalistic overview should be welcomed.

I had never thought of the parallels you make with DS's treatment of witchcraft, especially in the 1795 storyline, but it makes perfect sense. The Reverend Trask's beliefs and actions do bear some resemblance to the Rev. Cotton Mather, though that had never occurred to me -- religious fanaticism in its full glory. And I think I dismissed any comparison of Angelique with Tituba because of the difference in race, and looked no further.

One of the most difficult things to explain in many of the witchcraft cases isn't the hysterical playacting of the girls (in the case of Salem) but manifestations of the afflicted such as disgorging pins, etc. etc.

Which brings me to the supposedly astonishing and hard to explain "possession" of "Roland Doe" in the Maryland - St. Louis exorcism case. Having read a lot on that case, too, it is almost convincing, until you read the truly investigative and groundbreaking journalism of Mark Opsasnick's "The Haunted Boy" in "Strange" Magzine in 1999 or 2000, which punched the first holes in the case (he was the first to track down who the boy really was, where he lived, and interviewed some of the boy's classmates of the time). But it really took the death of "Roland Doe" (not his real name) two or three years ago and some comments made by his common-law wife after his death published in The New York Post to reveal the truth. A couple of quotes (which anyone can probably copy and google to obtain the article): According to Hunkeler’s companion, the man himself never believed that he was the victim of satanic possession and he shunned religion.

"He said he wasn’t possessed, it was all concocted," said the companion. "He said, 'I was just a bad boy.' "

It's surprising that this prosaic expose has not made a dent in the popular online accounts and books that continue to appear. People want to believe in something extraordinary that defies all logical explanation.

Finally, all this reminds me how I discovered a couple of troubling things in the course of my geneaological research over many, many years. Given my own attraction to stories of the supernatural, witches, vampires, and the like, since childhood, it has been disconcerting to come across documentary evidence of ancestors who were more on the Trask side than that of the witches (though I can counter that with a great-grandfather's water divining ("water witching") and great-grandmother's interpreting signs in nature as supernatural (a black bird's landing on the gable of a house and her comment "someone in that house will die soon," as reported to me by a late aunt of mine). But the other discoveries include a soldier ancestor in the early 1600s duchy of Lorraine (which later became part of France) who testified against a woman accused of witchcraft whom he had discovered doing some strange practice in the woods), and a more recent discovery in a line of clergy ancestors (which I was unaware of previously) extending from Finland into Sweden, and in the church biography from the 1600s of this renowned Swedish clergyman it is mentioned how as ecclesiastic judge (the church was the state) he brought a notorious witch to trial (her recitation of a spell at the trial is in the record) and had her thrown in prison. The outcome of the case isn't given.