This week in Christian history: St. Athanasius exiled; Cotton Mather dies
Cotton Mather dies – Feb. 13, 1728
This week marks the anniversary of the death of Cotton Mather, a prominent and influential Puritan clergyman in British colonial America, in Boston, Massachusetts, at the age of 65.
A native of Boston and the son of Puritan minister and educator Increase Mather, Cotton Mather enrolled at Harvard at age 12 and received a master’s degree by age 18. He was ordained a few years later in 1685.
Cotton Mather was among many clergy who called for witch trials to exclude “spectral evidence”— or evidence drawn from visions or nightmares — from the proceedings. He was also an advocate for inoculating people against smallpox.
“Cotton Mather wrote and published more than 400 works,” noted Britannica. “His magnum opus was Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), an ecclesiastical history of America from the founding of New England to his own time.”
“His Manuductio ad Ministerium (1726) was a handbook of advice for young graduates to the ministry: on doing good, on college love affairs, on poetry and music, and on style. His ambitious 20-year work on biblical learning was interrupted by his death.”
