First, I want to apologize for getting this up late. It has been a hectic week for me, and I wasn’t able to get the .pdf printed, which slowed me down further… but anyway here goes…
As I read the lines written by Cotton Mather, I am struck by the ferocity and confidence in which he preaches for what he believes. The lines exhibited in this reading no doubt had to be read before the screenplay for “The Exorcist” or any other movie about exorcism was produced. The way the damned children were described was nothing short of all the horrific images that one saw in the movies (and for the most part people figure is clearly fake). But what is the solution to this “illness”; this “damnation: That cure is prayer. To quote Chris Rock:
""That's all we had when l was a kid: Robitussin. No matter what you got, Robitussin better handle it. –“Daddy, I got asthma.” –“Robitussin.” –“I got cancer.” –“Robitussin.” I broke my leg, Daddy poured Robitussin on it. “Yeah, boy, let that 'tussin get in there.” “Yeah, boy, let that 'tussin get on down to the bone. The 'tussin ought to straighten out the bone. It's good.” If you run out of 'tussin, put some water in the jar, shake it up, more 'tussin. “More 'tussin!” ""
Now I’m not implying that the puritans had Robitussin… but they did have prayer. Their entire medical and psychological field of study was based on the Bible and prayer. On .pdf document page 14 or in-text 102, Mather writes:
""Many superstitious proposals were made unto them, by persons that were I know not who, nor what, with Arguments fetch’t from I know not how much Necessity and Experience; but the distressed parents rejected all counsils, with a gracious Resolution, to oppose devils with no other weapons but Prayers and Tears,""
Now I do not claim to know a ton about the puritans beliefs on medicine, but it seems as though they are indeed waiting for God to heal their children if not medically then spiritually. It is this extreme faith that helps the puritans cope with these strange behaviors. It is also this faith that leads to the literal “witch-hunt” that surrounded Salem. Remember in this day and age there was no such thing as therapists or psychiatrists… only pastors. And there was only one cure… “Prayin’” and if you ran out of Prayin’… add some wine to it, shake it up, more prayin’. “More prayin!”
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I do have to admit I did read this with a very critical eye. I do believe Mather firmly believes that what he was recording was the truth, and if you read what he says and believe it literally, then yes, they were possessed. Witches certainly did torture the children, and there was nothing they could do about it, the poor souls. Of course they were also afflicted or tortured when their parents told them to do something, or when they were under a watchful eye. Yet, when it was later at night they could be rest and sleep the night through. So, with that being the case, I certainly do think it was more a case of some clever and obstinate kids who found a way to manipulate the system. The baby was never afflicted, nor the father. And, eventually, without reason, the torture stopped. Or, as I tend to believe, the game became more boring and harder to keep up. The girl who was "afflicted" seems to have been so after the success of the three kids, and conveniently names three people who were bewitching her. Is this a revenge plot? I will grant it is very elaborate, but at the same time, in a Puritan age with no other distractions, why would this be unreasonable? To me this seems more plausible than invisible nooses and chains dragging someone across the room.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Justin. I'm sure what really took place was a lot of what happened in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible." That was just a bunch of girls faking and lots of people suffered for it. It is quite an elaborate revenge plot, but really, was there that much to do at this time. And in such a religious society what better way to get revenge than accuse some one of either heresy or being possessed.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the original post goes, I can't really refute anything there either. At first I thought it a little ridiculous to quote Chris Rock when discussing Puritans but hell, that fit perfectly and it rings very true. If you're kids aren't acting quite right - pray, your crops aren't growing - pray, your wife can't prepare anything decent for dinner - pray, some one in the town is possessed by the devil - pray. Praying can heal any wounds. But what if there are no wounds in the first place, what if it's imaginary, there really are no children possessed by the devil? Well, then you assume the kids are still afflicted and there's some important reason God isn't answering your prayers. Obviously, God meant for it all to happen and it's not just superstition.
Pat I think that you’re right that all Puritans had to cure sickness was prayer, but what strikes me as odd is how passive this is. I feel like Puritans must have some weird home remedies that they tried to remove the hold the witches had on the children, and when that didn’t work they fell back onto their cure-all, prayer. I like to believe, and this is just wild speculation, Mather chose to omit the use of the remedies to make it seem like it was only possible to remove a witch is through the power of prayer.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Justin. I’m not so sure about the second case, where the girl is afflicted by witches and rides around on an invisible horse, but for the three children I thought “their affliction” was far less of a clever ruse than it was a tantrum. Mather says on 109 that “If one ordered them to rub a clean Table, they were able to do it without any disturbance; if to rub a dirty Table, presently they would with many Torments be made uncapable”. It seems that either the children or familiars did not enjoy doing chores.
I also read this with a critical eye. I think most people do without even knowing it. Whether you believe in witchcraft or any sort of ability or existence of a sixth sense, it seems a little outlandish that rubbing spit on a doll would make someone go into convulsions. In this day and age, we read with an eye towards exaplining things rationally, or in ways that satisfy/comfort us. This being said, I read this text in two ways.
ReplyDeleteThe first way is that these kids had some psychological problems, and their damaged psyche's manifested by convincing them that they were being tortured by demons. I mostly try to avoid defining events this way because it seems like a cop-out ("Oh it was all in their heads") but, to go off of what Pat talked about, prayer was the cure-all for the Puritans, which in turn would make the Devil/demons the cause-all. If the Puritans didn't understand something, they blamed it on the Devil. We all fear what we don't understand, and no one could understand the actions of these kids. The second way I read this is straight up acting. These kids were faking, a-la "The Crucible," case closed. That's not a very exciting way to read this, and in fact it kind of gets me pissed at these little prima donna's. Like they have nothing better to do that hatch a revenge plot to prey on the beliefs of the town?
I guess I also have to admit a third way to read this; they were possessed by something. But honestly I don't see how that's possible.
Lies, revenge and blames get people no where. That is where all this began. I think that just like in the Crucible the girls were caught doing something they knew was not allowed, so instead of getting them selves in trouble they blamed others of bewitching them and so forth. I recently read a book by Jodi Picoult called Salem Falls. It was a more modern say story of a Crucible. I thought to myself in many of the court cases today, and murder cases they always have someone to blame, lies to tell or for instance Son of Sam who blamed it on a dog. Lies once again only cause more problems for other and get you no where.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of complicated things being said when everything posted takes it to a different level. Prayer was serious to the Puritans. If anything went wrong someone wasn't praying hard enough, and even if something went right prayer was the first thing that came to mind. When it comes to the revenge aspect of things, I think that revenge might have a great deal to do with the witchcraft that was flying about. Yet when taken into perspective, why were the children possessed? These children didn't have a lot to do and were more likely than not the first of their families to be born in the colonies, so there was probably a great deal of pressure on them-to be the best and show the world who they are and that they can survive. The acts of witchcraft had to have been put into someone's head because children that were rarely exposed to horrible things would have conjured up something so severe.
ReplyDeletePlus who is to say that they were not really possessed by something and if the evil spirits just disappeared where did they go, I rarely if ever hear about someone being possessed by something, usually people that acting 'crazy or peculiar' are seen as off their rocker and put into an institution.