Author: Increase Mather

Increase Mather (1639–1723) was a pivotal figure in the early history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, widely recognized for his contributions not only to the colony”s religious life but also to its literature. Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Mather received his education at Harvard College, an institution with which he would remain deeply connected throughout his life, ultimately serving as its president from 1685 to 1701. As a prominent Puritan minister, he exerted considerable influence on both the church and the secular governance of the colony. His scholarly work, “The Wonders of the Invisible World” (1693), is a defense of the Salem witch trials, in which Mather sought to validate the presence and threat of witchcraft within the Puritan community. The treatise now serves as a critical primary document for understanding the social and psychological undercurrents of the witchcraft hysteria that gripped New England at the close of the seventeenth century. Mather”s literary style is reflective of the Puritan ethos: it is at once didactic and cautionary, marked by a rich, complex prose that intended to edify and warn his contemporaneous readers about the spiritual dangers of their time. Mather”s legacy, however, is a controversial one, with his endorsement of the Salem witch trials casting a long shadow over his intellectual and clerical accomplishments.