Today in Salem: The prominent minister Cotton Mather sends a manuscript to Chief Justice William Stoughton. The people were just short of an angry mob at the last hanging, and the tide has turned against the trials. They’re furious at the thought of innocent people dying because it was the Devil – not them – using their specters. In fact, the public is so angry that it might be too late to reform the court. It could destroy the judicial system altogether, or even lead to violence against the judges.
The ministers agree in part. All summer they’ve said that spectral evidence alone isn’t enough to find someone guilty and sentence them to death. Of course, those who’ve been hanged so far were guilty without question. Still, it’s possible that many innocent people have been swept up in the fervor and eventually will die, only because their specters have been seen doing evil. So the question remains: What if those specters are actually the Devil in disguise?
Mather knows that a guilty verdict requires three kinds of evidence: spectral, real-world evil, and recognition from confessed witches. But he isn’t sure that the citizenry knows that. Maybe it will calm things down if Mather writes about how careful the judges are being.
Earlier this summer he’d asked Chief Justice Stoughton about his idea. Did he agree with Mather’s representation? Would he write an endorsement? Stoughton does agree, in general. But he’s never wavered from one key point: that the Devil can disguise himself as an innocent person’s specter only if that person has given their permission. Unfortunately Mather thought the Chief Justice had changed his mind and didn’t follow up on it. Now the manuscript rests in Stoughton’s hands.
Tomorrow in Salem: ContagionSep 3: Contagion