"George Burroughs, the only minister to be executed during the Trials, ran across this problem. He was standing at the gallows to be executed when he recited the Lord's Prayer to prove his innocence—it was believed that a witch (or warlock, in this case) would be unable to utter the holy words. People were momentarily convinced that the jury had wronged him, until...Cotton Mather told the crowd that the Devil allowed George Burroughs to say that prayer to make it seem as if he was innocent." ~Mental Floss
Nineteenth-century historian Charles Wentworth Upham put the blame on both Cotton and his father Increase Mather for the Salem Witch Trials:
"They are answerable… more than almost any other men have been, for the opinions of their time. It was, indeed a superstitious age; but made much more so by their operations, influence, and writings, beginning with Increase Mather's movement, at the assembly of Ministers, in 1681, and ending with Cotton Mather's dealings with the Goodwin children, and the account thereof which he printed and circulated far and wide. For this reason, then in the first place, I hold those two men responsible for what is called 'Salem Witchcraft.'"
However, Cotton Mather did believe in inoculation against the small pox epidemic whilst most did not. His scientific writings would go on to inspire Benjamin Franklin. It's too bad that the good he had done will always be overshadowed by the superstition that doomed the lives of many.
See also:
The Occult History of America by Lewis Spence 1920
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-occult-history-of-america-by-lewis.html
200 Books on DVDROM about Satan the Devil & Witchcraft
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2015/09/100-books-on-dvdrom-about-satan-devil.html
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