Mather, Increase (1639–1723), and his son Cotton (1663–1728)

Mather, Increase (1639–1723), and his son Cotton (1663–1728), Congregational ministers, writers, and leaders in church and society.Increase, the son of Richard Mather (1596–1669), felt himself be the heir of the founders of New England, colonies settled to demonstrate to the world the New England way in church and state. He conveyed this sense of mission to his son, who strove to live up to the ideals of his father and his grandfathers, Richard Mather and John Cotton (1584–1652), after whom he was named.

Though filled with conflict and struggle, the lives of both Increase and Cotton showed moral and intellectual growth. Increase, never satisfied with his achievements, strove throughout his life to manage his complicated psyche. A conservative in theology, he proved an innovator in politics; a devoted husband and father, he left his family for years to travel to England in defense of New England's interests; a lover of New England, he still yearned for old England. By any standard of his time his was a successful ministry: he preached for fifty years at Boston's North Church (or Second Church) and figured prominently in the political life of Massachusetts, sometimes virtually choosing its governors and magistrates. In 1688 he went to England to persuade the Crown to replace the Massachusetts charter it had revoked in 1684. A Royal charter was granted in 1697 and Increase's choice as governor, William Phips, was appointed.

When Increase and Phips reached Boston in 1692, the Salem witchcraft crisis was raging. Increase, like his son Cotton, believed in witches, as did almost everyone in the seventeenth century. Nevertheless, he acted to end the upheaval, working behind the scenes and in the open, convinced that the court trying the witches had acted improperly. His critique of the court's procedures, Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits, was published in London in 1693.

Increase Mather's influence slowly declined in the following years. He originally opposed both the Half‐Way Covenant (an ecclesiastical contrivance of 1662 that eased the terms of church membership) and the open communion instituted in Northampton by Solomon Stoddard (1643–1728/29), a long‐time opponent. In his eyes, such measures eroded the foundations of the churches. Nor was he pleased by the introduction early in the eighteenth century of ministerial associations and standing councils, an additional blow to the independence of every Puritan church and to New England's mission.

Cotton Mather's character and personality were even more complicated than his father's. His antagonist in the Salem witch hunt, the Boston merchant Robert Calef, accused him of having an “ambidexter” quality, a word intended to suggest that his attitudes were never quite what they seemed. In the Salem trials, for example, he praised the judges while criticizing their procedures.

Born in Boston, he graduated from Harvard in 1678, took an M.A. in 1681, was ordained at Boston's North Church in 1685, and in 1686 married Abigail Phillips—the first of three wives, with whom he had fifteen children.

This complicated man was a minister who shared the pulpit with his father, preaching to the poor as well as the mighty, and published 388 sermons, tracts, and books and left many others in manuscript, including the Biblia Americana, his immense Bible commentary. Unlike his father, Cotton never left New England, yet he led an active life: He played a significant role in the Glorious Revolution in Boston, which saw Governor Edmund Andros overthrown, and in the years immediately following he defended the new charter. He also defended the witchcraft trials in Wonders of the Invisible World (1693) and sought influence in the political world. But like his father, he saw his public influence decline. This was an immense disappointment, for he shared the vision of New England as an example to the world. Other disappointments included his failure to secure the presidency of Harvard after his father gave it up in 1701.

His preaching became more enthusiastical after 1700 as he attempted to convert the unregenerate and draw Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and others into a great Christian union. He studied nature—the stars in the heavens and New England's flora and fauna—and when smallpox broke out in Boston in 1721, he attempted to persuade local physicians to adopt inoculation, an early form of vaccination. Many of his efforts miscarried, but there were rewards too: His great historical work, The Magnalia Christi Americana, appeared in 1702; his submissions of scientific reports brought election to the Royal Society in 1713; and in 1726 Ratio Disciplinae, a formidable account of Congregational polity, appeared.

Both Mathers achieved much, and their lives tell much about the early history of America and Puritanism in England and America.
See also Colonial Era; Glorious Revolution in America; Protestantism; Religion.

Bibliography

Kenneth Ballard Murdock , Increase Mather, 1926.
Perry Miller , The New England Mind: From Colony to Province, 1953.
Robert Middlekauff , The Mathers, 1971.
David Levin , Cotton Mather, 1978.
Kenneth Silverman , The Life and Times of Cotton Mather, 1984.
Michael G. Hall , The Last American Puritan: The Life of Increase Mather, 1988.

Robert L. Middlekauff