Read The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728 Online

Authors: Robert Middlekauff

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The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728 (61 page)

 
Page 357
kind of prevention. Both the Mathers agreed with common opinion that the epidemic represented a judgment sent upon the land for its sins. Increase Mather had in fact predicted the year before that smallpox would strike New England soon unless it threw off its sins. But neither Mather ever really answered the charge that inoculation constituted a challenge to the purposes of God in afflicting the people.
For one thing both were soon busy answering other charges, and returning abuse that fell upon their heads. Neither turned the other cheek; neither was the innocent victim of a blind publicrather both struck hard and did not confine themselves to answering the Douglass camp. And as often happened in New England disputes, the issues in question were soon shrouded in vilification and personal attack.
Publicly Cotton Mather may have been more restrained than his father in the exchanges between advocates and opponents of inoculation. But he caught more barbs than Increasemore indeed than anyone who favored the practice, including Boylston. No one escaped completely; even the gentle Colmanwho defended inoculation without scurrilityhad to read his
Observations
styled as a ''little vain Book." Increase Mather had his great age in his favor, and Douglass for one confessed a reluctance to attack him. Cotton Mather had no such defense and in any case all parties recognized him as the leader of the inoculators. During the course of the controversy he was referred to as the "Promoter," a sneer at his propensity to do good, ''the young
Cub
, a Chip off
the old
Block (by Direction)," and simply as being "mad." Probably the most difficult charge he had to bear came when he referred to a passage defending inoculation in the
London Mercury
. His enemies denied that the
Mercury
carried the passage and managed to suggest in passing that Mather had no right to claim membership in the Royal Society. The
Courant
printed this charge, causing Increase to withdraw publicly his "support" from the paper and to warn its subscribers that they were "Partakers in other Mens Sins." Lest there be any doubt about Douglass' eternal fate, Increase had already informed the community that Douglass was a man who lacked "the least spark of Grace in his heart." Cotton Mather went one step further in his
Diary
, recording his belief that the Devil had taken possession of the people who attacked him and inoculation.
18
 
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The ultimate expression of rage against Mather occurred in November when someone tossed a bomb through his study window at three o'clock in the morning. The bomb failed to explode and Thomas Walter, Mather's nephew, who was sleeping in the room escaped injury. As if the bomb was not message enough, the thrower had attached a note which said "COTTON MATHER, You Dog, Dam you: I'l inoculate you with this, with a Pox to you." Mather, as was especially characteristic of the last dozen years of his life, reacted with powerful feelings of martyrdom. He reported in his
Diary
that "when I think on my suffering Death for saving the lives of dying People, it even ravishes me with a joy unspeakable and full of Glory." He found it impossible, he noted, to ask the Lord for the deliverance of his life. Nevertheless, he was angered at the attempt and shocked to discover that fresh trials at killing him might be in the offing.
19
There was still another reason for dismay even though no one had died from inoculation by the end of 1721. The affair had revealed, as well as stimulated, anti-ministerial feeling in Bostonand probably in nearby communities as well. There is, of course, no way of measuring how pervasive this feeling was in the society. Its bitterness, however, appeared unmistakable; and the evidence of popular attitudesfrom the anger of the
Courant
to the melancholy defenses of ministers in the Mather groupsuggests that it was widespread. The feeling against the ministers accompanied clear ideas about their rolesfrom the layman's perspective. Douglass' jibe that the inoculating ministers were "Conscience Directors" was his way of saying that they lacked the qualifications to pronounce on public policy about the community's health. Of course Douglass, and othersnot just those in the Hell-Fire Clubsaid the same thing in less sardonic terms. Someone even had the wit to remind Cotton Mather that in his
Bonifacius
he had written that the clergy had no business meddling in practical physic. And someone else resurrected memories of the Salem witch episode, suggesting that the ministers had long been the instruments of mischief in the community.
20
Cotton Mather knew that the authority of the clergy had been called into question, and that his own prestige in the community was at stake. This recognition undoubtedly explains much of his own anger and bitterness. It does not, however, explain his original decision to propose inoculation or even to see things through
 
Page 359
once the opposition rallied itself. The recognition that ministerial authority had long since diminished had penetrated Mather's mind years before. He did not admire the reduced power of the ministry, but he had accepted it. Whatever his yearnings for power and status, his impulses cannot be reduced to a desire to dominate his society and to reassert the standing of the clergy. Mather proposed inoculation and clung stubbornly to its side because he saw in it a genuine opportunity to serve his God. His piety, more than his pride, made him urge Boylston on; his piety made him question the blacks in Boston about the practice and to try to make sense out of their stories; his piety made him scan the Royal Society's reports so eagerly. The third Maxim of Piety required men to do good to their neighbors and thereby glorify their God. Mather began the business of inoculation with this imperative in mind just as he had so many other projects for doing good. But in this case, though the persons deliberately infected by Boylston survived and proved immune to smallpox, Mather received the fury of his communitynot its thanks. Good luck turned bad, but not without cause. He and Boylston had proceeded heedless of rudimentary standards of safety and they had shown themselves insensitive to legitimate fears about the dangers of their practice. Mather, however, never really understood his community's reaction, nor, for that matter, did he fully grasp the complexity of his own.
21
The conflict over inoculation had passed by the summer of 1722, although resentments lingered for years. As the shock of the episode eased, New England felt anotherlesser to be sure, but frightening nonetheless. In September at the annual commencement at Yale, a college founded in part as a conservative counterpoise to liberal Harvard, the head of the college, Timothy Cutler, two tutors, and four ministers of nearby churches announced that they had decided to give up Congregationalism in favor of the Church of England. This news stunned men of all persuasions all over New England. The
Courant
, for once printing an opinion that Cotton Mather could second, stated that what the renegades had done was as bad as if they had declared for Popery.
22
Three of the ministers were persuaded to give up their heretical intentions, but not long after commencement, Cutler, the tutors, and the fourth minister sailed for England letting every-
 
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one know before they departed that they would return in Holy Orders. As if this was not bad enough, news soon arrived in New England that an Episcopal Church would soon be built in Stratford, Connecticut. Like everyone else, Mather was surprised by the defection, but he must have taken a grim satisfaction in the affair when it became known that Cutler and the others had come to Anglicanism through the reading of Arminian books. Mather after all had long predicted an Arminian incursion and he had fought the High-Fliers, as he called the false Church of England. Now the High-Fliers, through their Arminian henchmen, had corrupted good men in New England. Sober men perhaps would now put up their guard.
Cutler soon returned as Rector of Christ's Church in Boston. Mather listened to all the gossip about him, welcoming every hint that not all was well in the Anglican communion. In fact, the Church of England did not thrive in New England in these years. The rumor soon circulated that its support lay principally among men who wanted a complete exemption from paying rates for any religious establishment. Mather repeated this nasty charge privately but there is no evidence that he aired it in public. But the damage was done; Cutler did not help his cause a few years later, in 1727, when he appealed to London for an exemption for his church from paying taxes in support of the Congregational churches. He had every right to make this request, of course, which had been granted to the Quakers in 1724. But justified and just, as it was, the appeal set Congregational teeth on edge.
23
The same year that Cutler spoke for tax reform he demanded representation on the Board of Harvard Overseers. Cutler based his demand on the College Charter which provided that "teaching elders" of the Boston churches should sit on the Board; Christ's Church was one such church and obviously should contribute representatives to the Overseers. Cotton Mather did not live long enough to see Cutler turned down but he would have been gratified by the explanation which accompanied the denial of Cutler's request. According to official reasoning, the Charter referred only to Congregational teaching elders.
24
Mather worried about Harvard on other grounds during these last years. He worried in particular about its leadership in the
 
Page 361
person of its President, John Leverett. Mather had long envied and disliked Leverett, envied him the Presidency which Mather coveted for himself at the time of Leverett's selection in 1708, and disliked him for his early association with the Dudleys (they later fell out), his opposition to Pierpont, and probably most of all for his educational policy which emphasized a broader learning than Mather thought suitable in a college. Leverett's death in May 1724, prompted Mather to remark only on "that unhappy Man" and to begin to dream of at last succeeding to the Presidency. Mather's desire to head Harvard was transparent to his friends, and at least one of them proceeded to tell him what he wanted to hearthat what was generally wished for in New England was that he be chosen to follow Leverett. Mather immediately considered approaching the tutors, who were temporarily in charge, with a proposal for reviving learning and especially PIETY among the Harvard students.
25
Sensitive and insecure creature that Mather was, he may soon have got a glimmer that he would not be the Corporation's choice. In June he recorded in his
Diary
his fear that the College might dissolve, and in July he stayed away from Commencement in orderbe saidto pray for a president who would be a blessing to the College. The next day he addressed a meeting of ministers who had gathered for Commencement and recommended that they too beg God for a good president. The Corporation, unmoved by this lobbying, met in August and chose the Reverend Joseph Sewall, minister of the Old South Church and son of Judge Samuel Sewall. This selection, contrary, Mather noted, to the "epedemical expectation" of the country brought out the worst in him. The Corporation's act proved two things to himthat "if it were possible for them to steer clear of me, they will do so," and "if it be possible for them to act foolishly," that too "they will do."
26
As in the crisis of smallpox inoculation, he reacted as he did in part because his profound impulse to advance pietyto do goodhad been thwarted. But this motive probably was less important than his pride, a deeply personal and family pride in this case. The pride is clear in Mather's sneer that the Corporation had chosen "a Child" rather than come to him. Sewall, at thirty-six years of age, did not impress him in any way, either
 
Page 362
in learning, governing skill, or in piety. To be distressed at this baby's selection would be a "Crime," Mather wrote, but as he moved his pen over his
Diary
, he committed the crime.
27
All this anguish was unnecessary, for Sewall declined the appointment. By this time Mather had prepared himself to be disappointed again; the Corporation did not fail his expectations, choosing Benjamin Colman in November. Mather's response was his ultimate way in dealing with rejection: he rejoiced that he now conformed more closely to Christ than before. After all, Christ too had been despised and rejected by men. But Mather attained one shred of self-knowledge at this time which saved him from the worst of his self-pity and self-righteousness. He recognized his own anger for what it was and asked God to help him govern his resentments at these affronts. Still, the anger and the sense of martyrdom broke through frequently. The anger appears in the last years of his life most often in his denunciations of his community"this abominable Town"; the martyrdom achieved its most revealing expression in his reaction to the malicious letters he received, which he carefully saved and then when he had enough, tied into a bundle inscribed on the outside with "'Libels: Father, forgive them!'"
28
Mather's concern for his reputation and for his projects to help bring on the Kingdom of God could not relieve him of family obligations. Cotton Mather was at his best as a son, and very near it as a father. These last years of his life saw him straining in both roles. After his mother died in 1714, his father was often in his thoughts. He wanted to make the old man comfortable, gradually a more difficult problem, for Increase Mather's health slowly declined after his wife's death. Increase remarried in 1715; his second wife, Anne Cotton, must have helped ease his old age, but he needed the care and support of his son, too. Cotton Mather gave both unstintedly hoping always to make his father's last years happy and useful.
29
Cotton enlisted his father's aid in the inoculation crisis but there was not much the old man could do. The abuse that his son and other ministers received obviously distressed him. This controversy began just as one involving the New North Church was winding up. The churches of New England were dear to both Mathers' hearts, of course; and Increase at least may have

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