PREFACE HE DIARY OF COTTON MATHER is of value as the record of a man of peculiar attainments, as a bibliography of a very prolific compiler and publisher, and, most of all, as an important contribution to the history of the Congregational Church in Massachusetts. For he was only a type, one of many, made prominent by the large number of his printed writings, some of which have served to keep him in the public eye even to this day. The existence of this record, scattered in three different collections, has long been known, and much inquiry has arisen about its contents. Mr. Wendell used a part in his scholarly biography of Cotton Mather,1 and extracts have appeared in many places; but no year's record has ever been transcribed or printed, In April, 1908, Mr. Henry H. Edes proposed to the Council of the American Antiquarian Society to confer with the Council of this Society "with a view of securing the proper editing and publication of all the manuscript diaries of Increase Mather and Cotton Mather."2 In February, 1909, the Massachusetts Historical Society appointed a committee to publish the diaries in cooperation with the American Antiquarian Society, and invited the latter Society to aid. Circumstanced as it was, the Antiquarian Society could not take an active part in the editing and publication, but freely offered such material as it had, and named a committee of conference composed of Andrew McFarland Davis, George Parker Winship, and Clarence Saunders Brigham.3 1 Cotton Mather, the Puritan Priest. New York [1891]. 2 American Antiquarian Society Proceedings, XIX, 4. [ xiii] So far as it has been preserved, this Diary is now printed for the first time. It is far from complete, and the record for some of the most important years of the diarist's life has been lost or destroyed. It is an account edited by himself, and comprises therefore only what he wished to have preserved for the benefit of his children. Such care also precludes the idea that Mather was not preparing a calendar of events and a record of feelings for posterity, and therefore for publication. Enough of the Diary, perhaps more than enough, remains to develop and illustrate his career, and to enable the reader to measure the man in his intentions and in his actions. While describing these he has prepared, not consciously, the material for a better comprehension of the position of church affairs in Massachusetts during his ministrations. A diary being the more intimate and immediate records of the writer's thoughts, if spontaneous, better expresses his feelings and his character than any other form of writing. This was peculiarly the case with Cotton Mather. He early formed the habit of placing on paper his mental processes, of examining his own spiritual condition, and of measuring himself in action by standards arbitrarily imposed by his own beliefs, standards drawn from Scripture and his interpretation of what Scripture required. He inherited this habit from his father, Increase Mather, whose leaning towards a somewhat morbid introspection became exaggerated in the son. Cotton from his early youth minutely recorded his performance of the outward observances demanded by the church of the day from its members; and, from noting or listing such formal acts, it was an easy stage to recording the inward feelings and interpreting the agitations of mind an ill-balanced character endured. At first he intended to be a physician, and had made some progress in his studies when he altered his determination and studied for the ministry. The training required for the church was in that day not broad, being confined to philosophy, logic, dogma, and the dry husks of theological disputation, materials for culture that have become more curious than useful, and more capable of historical use than of actual application to problems of life in general. In Mather's case such a training only aggravated tendencies handed down from his father and his grandfathers - Richard Mather and John Cotton. Physically not strong and with oversensitized intuitions, he became an ecstatic, dangerously near to one possessed. In spite of all his reading, and he was one of the greatest readers of his day in America, he remained bound and limited by the accepted dogmas of his church; in spite of his great activities in public and church endeavor, he continued to be something of a dreamer, inclined to a quite material mysticism that was false, and to beliefs concerning his own power and influence that could only lead him astray. A wholesome counteraction of this tendency was wanting; and he suffers accordingly. For this the time was as responsible as his nature. The first generation of clergymen in New England contained men of strong characters and great performance. The names of Cotton, Wheelwright, Wilson, Norton, Chauncy, and Richard Mather command respect if they do not command allegiance to their beliefs and conduct. Trained in Old England, and armed with all the weapons of controversy that had been kept bright by persecutions and disputations under the distracting changes of church government from the days of Elizabeth, they possessed an energy and, for that day, a learning that compel admiration when applied to conditions in Massachusetts Bay. If the standards of today be applied, and no standards could be more severe, they were narrow minded and even cruel bigots. But the purpose that led them to migrate to a new and unknown 1 1Brooks Adams in his Emancipation of Massachusetts gave a much needed criticism of the rule of the elders. land, marked them as progressives, however tempered by an intention of preserving intact their church organization, in itself proof of an absence of the advancive principle that makes for progress. The conditions in New England strengthened this purpose and intention, and also hardened them to contend against the many dangers which they conceived threatened the safety and existence of the new settlements, based so firmly upon a strong churchly organization. In this contest they lost little of their power or influence, and found or compelled the magistrates to be willing to further their ideas of what the situation required. > This influence of the church and elders persisted in the next generation. Yet even then the beginnings of other tendencies began to be felt. However homogeneous the first emigrations had been, the unity of purpose had not been so perfect as to exclude moments of rebellion that called for the exertion of power to suppress. The mere growth of population, bringing with it an increasing diversity of interest, threatened the dominance of one church or one belief. The fear aroused in Winthrop's time by the visit to Boston of a Jesuit, exemplified the danger that seemed ever to threaten the colony. The Quakers, the French refugees, and the presence of a Jew, were only outward manifestations of disturbing factors, against which the church must exert her power. The Arians, Pelagians, Formalists, and Anabaptists -and the names were freely and wrongly applied- were enemies to the church, and also of the State. But as time passed, these hostile elements grew in number and restive under restraint, and the population perforce became more tolerant of their presence. They even made their influence felt and raised embarrassing questions on the requirements of the churches of the day. Political disturbances such as accompanied the abrogation of the old and the granting of the new charter were reflected in church unrest. The position of the clergyman was |