USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Metropolitan Boston; a modern history; Volume I > Part 20
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Others were punished in the general political house-cleaning that followed the trial of Anne Hutchinson. Two of her followers were both disfranchised and fined; eight disfranchised, two fined and three ban- ished. Before we sit in judgment of the Antinomian controversy and its results, it might be well to recall that this was a family affair, one in which all parties concerned were bound together by the freeman's oath and the "fellowship of the saints." Roger Williams was not a citizen of
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the Commonwealth when he was thrust out because of his beliefs; and the Quakers, who later disturbed the peace of Boston, were unwelcome visitors. When a sister misbehaves either she must change her ways or leave the parental roof. Boston faced disaster while Mrs. Hutchinson lived there and taught ideas ruinous to its solidarity. However harsh the treatment, it was meted out by those who were honest in believing that in so doing they were saving the theocracy which had been established at such great cost.
Roger Williams Banished-The banishment of Roger Williams and the later persecution of the Quakers belong in quite a different category from that of the Hutchinson controversy. These were cases of outsiders daring to upset the affairs of a settled state. Williams, it is true, had been invited to come and be one of the family, or at least, the Puritan Bostonians were glad to have him arrive. They were unfamiliar with his beliefs, however, and when he began to expound such radical doctrines as: that man was responsible solely to God in all matters of religion; that magistrates had no right to impose penalties for the breaking of church rules; and that dreadful Anabaptistic doctrine that adults should be baptized; Boston made another hero for the pages of history by ex- pelling him. There was no injustice in all this from the viewpoint of the Puritan. They had come to Massachusetts to be free to worship God as they pleased, and to manage their own affairs as they pleased. Their purpose was to secure freedom for themselves but not to give freedom to anyone but themselves. Less than a year after their arrival in Boston, the ruling had been made that only members of their church in good standing could be "freemen" and enjoy to the full the benefits of the colony. In 1637, an order of the court decided "that none should be allowed to inhabite her but by the permission of the Magistrates." Just prior to the Antinomian Controversy, a law was passed which imposed a heavy fine upon any citizen who, without permission of the authorities, should receive in his home a stranger intending to remain, or to rent such a person land or dwelling-house. In other words, those who were not wanted in the colony were free to keep out. In the years that fol- lowed, this freedom to keep away was severely enforced. It was the too brutal enforcement of such ideas as were embodied in the laws against the Quakers that led to a royal restraint of the high handed procedures of the magistrates and opened the way for the loss of the Colonial charter. To quote Howe again : "In point of austerity in administering justice, the seventeenth century Bostonian was very much a man of his time, with contemporary faults and virtues blended in special proportions from the general supply of good and ill. In Hawthorne's characterization of Endicott, 'who would stand with drawn sword at the gate of Heaven and
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resist to the death all pilgrims thither, except they who travelled in his path,' we find a memorable suggestion of the chief and distinguishing fault, if such it be, of the race of New England Puritans."
Persecution of the Quakers-The "Quaker Episode," although brief, three years, was the climax of the religio-civil persecutions in Boston. One can understand and excuse the horror felt by the magistrates and elders of this new people, "in contempt called Quakers." The heresy which this sect exemplified had risen abroad, the knowledge of it reaching Massa- chusetts some time before any of its exponents had found their way to the colony. President Dunster, of Harvard, wrote a warning letter to Boston two years before ever a Quaker had been found in the town: "A sect called Quakers doe much increase rayleing much att the ministry and refusing to sho any reverence to magestrates. We hope they wil be confounded and ashamed of their Tenetts; butt I could desire thatt some stricter course were taken than is." There was no lack of a strict course being taken by Boston when once it started to rid itself of this new threat to the peace and continuity of their Commonwealth. Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, the first of the Quakers, were allowed to land only as prisoners. Their belongings were searched as well as their per- sons; a hundred books found were burned in the market-place by the hangman ; and after five weeks the two were deported. There were no laws to cover such acts, but this was quickly remedied that same year (1656) by a whole series of fines, mutilations, banishment, and death penalties which were to be meted out to not only such of the sect who should enter the town, but to those who attended any of their meetings, be- friended them in any way, or even failed to inform upon them.
The Quakers of that day are not to be considered to be other than violent precursers of the gentle-minded "Friend" of today. Indeed, not so many years later (1693) a Philadelphia Friend visiting the Quakers of Boston was led to exclaim at their barbarous welcome, "O! what a pity it was that all the society were not hanged with the other four," having reference to the execution of the Quakers on the Common in 1659-61. The Quakers, as the Puritan Boston saw them, were mostly an illiterate lot, fanatics of the wildest type, reckless, seemingly seeking martyrdom. They claimed divine illumination and guidance in their vio- lences. "Their objurgatory denunciation of Magistrates and ministers ; their bitter revilings ; their contempt of preaching and ordinances ; their dismal prophesying of awful divine judgments to come upon the colony in black pox, in pestilences and all dreaded calamities; and their un- seemly and indecent behavior, designed to have a symbolic meaning- exasperated those whom they denounced beyond the limits of patient endurance." They would remove their clothes in the street and smear
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themselves with wet ashes; enter the churches in sack-cloth and break bottles over the head of the clergy to express the "emptiness" of the minister; they hurled all manner of abuse at everything touching the religion of the Puritans, defying persecution and even returning after being driven out for further ill-treatment.
Quaker Executions-They deserved punishment for their civil of- fenses, but not such as was given to them. As one contemplates the two sets of antagonists, each sober-minded literalists, both intolerant, both sure of their religious rightness and divine guidance, one knows not whether to laugh or be sorrowful. Just a bit of a sense of humor on either side would have prevented the disgraceful outcome of the whole affair. Instead there were imprisonments, beatings with many stripes, mutilations, banishments and death. Somewhere under the sod of the Common lie the ashes of four Quakers who were hanged as the culmina- tion of the strife. One of them was released after the hangman's noose was around her neck, Mary Dyer, but she returned from banishment before a year had passed to suffer the postponed penalty.
The last execution, March, 1661, marked the height of the storm, but the last flash of punishment was delayed until 1677. Sewall records that on July 8, of this year, "In sermon time there came in a female Quaker, in a canvas frock, her hair disshevelled and loose like a Periwigg, her face as black as ink, led by two other Quakers and two others following. It occasioned the greatest and most amazing uproar that I ever saw. Isaiah i. 12, 14." Whittier dramatized the scene :
Save the mournful sackcloth about her wound, Unclothed as the primal mother, With limbs that trembled and eyes that blazed With a fire she dared not smother. . . .
And the minister paused in his sermon's midst And the people held their breath, For these were the words the maiden said Through lips as pale as death : .
Repent! repent! ere the Lord shall speak In thunder and breaking seals ! Let all souls worship him in the way His light within reveals.
She shook the dust from her naked feet And her sackcloth closer drew, And into the porch of the awe-hushed church She passed like a ghost from view.
Margaret Brewster was brought to trial for her offense. She plead with the Governor "to put an end to these cruel laws that you have made to fetch my friends from their peaceable meetings, and keep them in the house of correction, and then whip them." The stern answer came, "Margaret Brewster, you are to have your clothes stript off to the mid-
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dle, and to be tied to a cart's tail at the South Meeting-house, and be drawn through the town, and to receive twenty stripes on your naked body."
The Forced Rise of Liberalism-The Quaker persecutions came to- ward the closing years of Puritanism as the sole rule in New England. One of the banished Quakers sought redress from the King. Charles II sent back the order that members of this sect would henceforth be tried in England. The franchise in the colony was no longer to be confined to. members of the Puritan church. This rule was evaded until the uncoven- anted non-voters of the colony forced compliance. Within a few years a provincial government was substituted for the charter, and the Puritan domination was broken. The first great landmark in the social develop- ment of Boston was religion. "The people of Boston," says Henry Cabot Lodge, "practically went from work to religion and from religion to work with little to break the monotony." However much we may deplore the characteristics of that religion and the extremes to which it drove our forefathers, we must acknowledge the virtues which it begat, and the lofty purposes of those who followed its tenets. The experiment to build a state from a church failed, but the city that they founded remains as a monument to their effort. "The survival from it (Pur- itanism) in tradition, in influence, in the sway of manifold habits and customs, and in the lessons of childhood retaining their power over those who lived to advanced age, perpetuated very much of its austere and characteristic qualities in this community. Nor even in these days, among the mixed and diversified elements of our population and all the relaxing and liberalizing results of the most radical social change, is the fire in the ashes of Puritanism wholly extinguished."
The break-down of the Puritan theocracy did not mean that religion ceased from being the dominating factor in Boston affairs. It really became more powerful in many respects. The breaches had been made in the political walls of the Puritan state, and through them entered other sects. This but added to the religious character of the settlement, al- though religion expanded a bit and became more liberal and broad in its manifestations. This is true in spite of the fact that the witchcraft delusion was still to rage in the colony. Even the later entrance of royal Governors and the setting up of a miniature royal court, did not, at first, overcome the Puritanism of Massachusetts. Commerce made strides at this time, opening new vistas of money prosperity to the colony, and particularly to Boston. The coming of wealth, with its new ideas, new desires, novel pleasures seems to have reacted well rather than badly upon religion when brought in close association with the church. The churches became more numerous, the places of worship larger and more
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largely attended. Not until the next century did the commercial spirit begin to dominate the religious. The church of the day became a better church, and the mistakes made were the mistakes of the times rather than of bigotry. If the warfare against witches was carried on with horrible vigor, it must be remembered that the belief in witchcraft was universal in that day ; nor has it passed completely in our present period.
The Mather Dynasty-So it is when one searches for the dominant men of the era which followed Winthrop's reign, we find religious leaders still stand out against the background of the expanding life of Boston. If one name were to be chosen as standing for the period which carried over into the eighteenth century, that name would be "Mather," or bet- ter the "Mathers." If there be one family that more than any other left its mark upon Boston's history and character, that family is the Mather, members of which through four generations shed their influence over the town for nearly a century and a half. The "Dynasty of the Mathers," the story of it offers a "remarkable illustration of power-theological and otherwise-transmitted through at least four generations"; an example of the manner in which great men's lives affect the destiny of a com- munity.
The first of the name, Richard Mather, came to Boston in 1635 at the age of thirty-nine; his grandson, Samuel, died in the same town in 1785 at the age of seventy-nine. "There were eleven of this lineage trained for the sacred office in these four generations three of whom, two Sam- uels and one Nathaniel, exercised their ministry in England; while another Nathaniel died there on the threshold of the ministry ; and seven Richard Eleazer, Increase, two Samuels, Cotton and Warham, expended about 250 years of ministerial labor on New England, besides publish- ing more than 500 different works." Richard, under the ban for non-con- formity in England, sought free speech on this side of the water, and after being sought by the churches at Plymouth, Dorchester and Rox- bury, located at Dorchester where he labored for thirty-three years. He was a far bigger man than was realized in his day and the fame of his sons and grandsons have somewhat hidden his greatness. He was a student, writer, orator, a leader of men.
Of his six sons, four followed the profession of their father. The best known of the four in Boston annals was Increase, the youngest, born in Dorchester, June 21, 1639. Of weakly constitution, much of his education was by private tutor, but he took his degree at Harvard when seventeen ; preached his first sermon on his nineteenth birthday, sailed to England and took his M. A. degree at Trinity College, Dublin, where his eldest brother was minister. After pastorates in various places abroad, he returned to this country when twenty-two and was ordained
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pastor of the Second Church of Boston, May 27-June 6, 1664, a connec- tion which he held for nearly sixty years. For seventeen years of this pastorate, he was president of Harvard College, or "until displaced in the first throes of that theological convulsion which was to shake New England." However weak his constitution in boyhood, he seems to have suffered from few "weaknesses of the flesh" during mature life. He could spend sixteen hours a day in his library, take care of his church, preach long and well, travel widely through the colony, go to England as a special agent of the colony, serving for four years as such, and despite his never-ending round of activities find time to issue more than 150 publications. "Increase Mather was, questionless, the greatest though not the most noted, of his name."
Cotton Mather-Cotton Mather, son of Increase and grandson of Richard, seems to have inherited much of the talent of both ancestors and the physical weakness of his father. He was also afflicted with "idleness" if we may believe his preceptor. Nevertheless, weakness, idleness and all, he managed to graduate from Harvard when less than fifteen years and a half old, the youngest to receive the bachelor degree. To overcome an impediment of speech that threatened to prevent his entry upon his father's profession, he taught for some time. After serv- ing as assistant. to his father for two years, Cotton was ordained to the joint pastorate, which position he held for forty-three years, or until his death at sixty-five, in February, 1728.
In view of the "weakness" of the boy, and his "idleness," some ex- planation should be given of his ability to earn a college degree before reaching the age of sixteen. His own explanation is all that need be offered. When chided by his father for his idleness, Cotton Mather wrote: "The thing that occasioned me much idle time was the Distance of My Father's Habitation from the School; which caused him out of compassion for my Tender and Weakly constitution to keep me at home in the Winter. However, I then much employed myself in Church His- tory ; and when the Summer arrived I so plied my business that thro' the Blessing of God upon my Endeavors, at the age of little more than eleven years I had composed many Latin exercises, both in Prose and verse, and could speak Latin so readily, that I could write notes of sermons of the English Preacher in it. I had conversed with Cato, Corderius, Tully, Ovid and Virgil. I had made Epistles and Themes to my Master, with- out his requiring or expecting as yet any such thing of me ; whereupon he complimented me Laudabilis Diligentia tua (your diligence deserves praise). I had gone through a great part of the New Testament in Greek, I had read considerably in Socrates and Homer, and I had made some entrance in my Hebrew grammar. And I think before I became
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fourteen, I composed Hebrew exercises and Ran thro' the other Sciences, that Academical Students ordinarily fall upon."
The lad who took himself so seriously in youth did not fail to take his affairs soberly as a man. Unfortunately, his like extended into the period when the minister was no longer the chief magistrate, when Calvinism no more was the sole, or the principal religion of the town, and the towns- folk forgot the greatness of the Mather dynasty. Nothing can take away from the goodness or the greatness of Cotton Mather. He labored as few men could as preacher, pastor and writer. His list of published works reach the remarkable total of 382. Granting that many of these were merely sermons which were not such brief productions after all, there were many of large size, one being a folio of 800 pages. He invaded all realms of literature. If, as some insist, the most of his works were worthless-well, so is most of that which we call literature. He was a reactionary, but who would not have been in his day and placed in his position. On the other hand, think of the courage and progressiveness of a man, who in a day when inoculation against smallpox was fought with a fervor worthy of the Inquisition, while half the population of Boston was ill with the disease, could desire to try the new remedy upon himself, and did, when his age and value to the community was con- sidered too great to make wise the risk, stand by and have his son infected with the disease, and his "kinsman" as well, while an angry mob tried to destroy him. It was a daring move forward in medicine, and the triumph of the pioneer against opposition was extraordinary and worthy of our highest praise. If he failed of appreciation, in Massachu- setts, it is to be recalled that at one time he was "in correspondence with more than fifty learned Europeans, and received from the University of Glasgow the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and made a Fellow of the Royal Society, both in those days, for a remote colonist, being remarkable distinctions." The "New England Weekly Journal" of February 26, 1728, in publishing the notice of Cotton Mather's funeral, had this to say : "He was, perhaps, the principal Ornament of this Country, and the greatest Scolar that was ever bred in it. But, besides his unusual learn- ing, his exalted Piety and extensive Charity, his entertaining Wit, and singular Goodness of temper, recommended him to those who were Judges of real and distinguished merit."
Samuel, the only son of Cotton Mather, who lived to middle age, brought the "dynasty" to an end, as neither of his three sons studied for the ministry. Samuel graduated when seventeen from Harvard, 1723, and four years after his father's death was ordained over the Boston church. Internal difficulties led to his removal to a church of his own making where he labored until his death in 1785. He was, possibly, worthy of more notice than has ever been given him. The Reverend Mr.
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A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF BOSTON AND ITS SURROUNDINGS IN 1850
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Dexter, in his brochure on the Mathers, amends an epitaph, said to have been written for his great-grandfather, and made it to read:
Under this stone lies Richard Mather, Who had a son greater than his father, And eke a grandson more famous than either, But the next generation failed-rather.
An Appreciation of the Mathers-From the above-quoted gifted writer, Henry Martyn Dexter, the following lucid summary is taken :
It remains to refer, in the fewest words, to that more general influence as public men which was exerted over the community by these marvelous Mathers,-a department of the subject necessarily too vague for exact treatment. The Dorchester pioneer scored his mark upon his time mainly in his gown and bands and through his work as an Elder, "the Lord making him an Eminent Blessing not only to Dorchester, but to all the Churches and Plantations round about, for the space of Four-and-thirty years." His son realized a more imperial mastery over his contemporaries, in the pulpit for more than half a century reigning supreme; over the college for a third of that time he also ruled with vigor, dignity, and success. To this popularity he gradually added the repute of a man exceptionally learned, sagacious, energetic, and peerless among his fellows in the management of affairs; and throwing himself upon the people's side in the conflict with the Crown and its myrmidons, and standing before kings on the people's behalf, he gained still loftier distinction as a diplomatist. It is not, probably, too much to say that for many years he was the first subject in the colony; as Professor Tyler puts it. . .
Born in America, bred in America,-a clean specimen of what America could do for itself in the way of keeping up the brave stock of its first imported citizens; a man every way capable of filling any place in public leadership made vacant by the greatest of the Fathers; probably not a whit behind the best of them in scholarship, in eloquence, in breadth of view, in knowledge of affairs, in every sort of efficiency.
To the full length and breadth of this, his father's fame and sway, Cotton Mather- although in some respects more gifted, and in some departments more learned-never succeeded. His lot fell upon different days. The old ways were in process of being changed. The ecclesiastical and civil powers no longer synonymized each other. He did his manifold utmost to stay the ebbing of the tide, but day by day could feel the accelera- tion of its subsidence. Still, with his big wig, his gleaming eyes, his grave yet comely face and scholarly dignity of bearing, as he walked about the streets of his native place, he had at least the port and bearing of a nobleman, if not, like his father, monarch of all he surveyed. And his manifest and controlling desire to be helpful, at whatever personal sacrifice and in whatever way, small or great, among even the deteriorating populace, made him, so long as he lived, one of the marked men of Boston, and, despite the great drawback of his obvious faults, caused his demise to be lamented as the loss and sorrow of the town and country. That he almost endured martyrdom in gallantly contending for that inoculative ante-treatment of that loathsome pest which every few years was then accustomed to decimate the community, which is now well-nigh universally conceded to be, in point of philosophy and in point of fact, one of the most useful of modern illustra- tions of the ancient proverb that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," is now mainly forgotten; while every graduate in a primer of history from the vast height of our "High Schools" of today voices a new sneer against his memory, as the "credu- lous" and "cruel" apostle and primate of the witchcraft mania and murders.
Met. Bos .- 12
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The Witchcraft Delusion-The tragedy of the "Witchcraft Delusion" is no more a blot on the escutcheon of the Mathers than it is upon the whole world, civilized or pagan. Cotton Mather was simply unfortunate in being a leader of his age, and as such the person who most clearly voiced his conclusions, and pushed his decisions to their logical ends. As the one most consulted by the magistrates, he had, in Boston at least, the most to do with the attempt to stamp out diabolism. For his own delusion he was to blame, but hardly for the rise of the whole miserable business. As one student has pointed out, "If today his (Mather's) records of spiritual phenomena were first appearing as reports of psych- ical research, they would stand forth as unprecedented statements, but in many instances would mark the recorder as a careful investigator and historian of occult science."
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