MATHER, INCREASE
(21 June 1639, Dorchester, MA-23 August 1723, Boston, MA). Education: B.A., Harvard College, 1656; M.A., Trinity College, Dublin, 1658. Career: Minister, Great Torrington, Devonshire, 1658-59; chaplain, English garrison, Guernsey, 1659~1; supply preacher, Massachusetts, 16614; minister, Second Congregational Church, Boston, 1664-1723; president, Harvard College, 1685-1701.
As a boy Increase Mather suffered from a dangerous illness, and in the language of an earlier time, "his thoughts were fixed more decidedly upon his immortal interests." Young Mather devoted himself to fasting and prayer and came eventually to feel close to God. He then resolved to enter the ministry, following the example of his father, Richard Mather*. He was at the time a student at Harvard, having entered the university when he was only twelve. He graduated in 1656 and preached his first sermons when he was seventeen.
Like many other young men of New England's second generation he was attracted to the possibility of becoming a minister in Britain, where the Puritans were now in control. He visited a brother in Ireland and another in England and became chaplain to the governor of Guernsey. Then came the Restoration of Charles II. If Mather had agreed to conform to the Church of England, he could have secured a lucrative post as. an Anglican cleric. But he refused to conform, and suddenly the distant Congregational commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay became more attractive.
Back in New England Mather took the conservative side on the question of the Half-Way Covenant, and when the Synod of 1662 adopted it, he continued his opposition. As he became more familiar with conditions in New England, however, a practical consideration won out over his ideal-he came to see that in order to keep up membership the Puritans needed to adopt a new standard of church admission. Mather soon emerged as the leading Congregationalist of his generation. He was influential in the Reforming Synod of 1679-80, which adopted a confession of faith and passed resolutions against vice. In his own church he preached jeremiads against sin, and ordered days of fasting and prayer.
During the political turmoil of the 1680s when policies of King James appeared to threaten religious and political freedom in Massachusetts, Mather emerged as one of the most outspoken defenders of colonial liberties. In 1688 the colonists appointed him to represent them in London; because the British authorities opposed his going, he boarded ship in disguise and sailed for England, arriving on the eve of the Glorious Revolution. In London Mather argued valiantly for the continuation of the status quo in Massachusetts, but the crown insisted on a new charter, designating a royally appointed governor and a franchise not based on church membership. Mather bowed to the inevitable, but he persuaded the crown to grant the colony a strong representative assembly. Opponents back in Massachusetts claimed that he had given up too much, but in fact he had no choice in the matter. However, the authorities in London were so taken with Mather that they let him nominate the first Royal Governor, Sir William Phips.
Increase Mather arrived back in Massachusetts in the midst of the Salem witchcraft trials. While believing in witches and the supernatural, Mather was uncomfortable with the hysteria accompanying the trials. He argued that "spectral evidence"-proof of guilt based on supernatural visions-was unreliable, and he counseled Governor Phips to halt the trials, which the Governor did. Although Mather was in advance of his time in his skepticism about the trials, he continued to be a conservative on other issues. When Solomon Stoddard. opened communion in Northampton, Massachusetts, to all but the openly scandalous, Mather was one of the chief opponents of the innovation.
Mather remained active in his ministry until the year before he died. During part of that time he also served as president of Harvard, although he refused to leave his church in Boston to take up residence in Cambridge. Mather wrote 130 books and tracts. For almost four decades of his ministry, he shared his pulpit with his son, Cotton Mather·, one of the few Puritans who ever published more books than he did. Through his thought and influence Increase" Mather did more than any other minister of his generation to represent primitive Congregationalism in the more secular climate of the eighteenth century. Near the time of his death he said, "I shall leave ministers in Boston, who, I trust, will defend the Churches, when I shall sleep with my fathers."
Bibliography
A: The Life and Death of. .. Mr. Richard Mather (Cambridge, MA, 1670); A Discourse Concerning Baptism (Cambridge, Mass., 1675); A Brief History of the War with the Indians (Boston, 1676); The Call from Heaven (Boston, 1679); Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences (Boston, 1684); New England Vindicated (London, 1688); Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits (Boston, 1693); The Surest Way to the Greatest Honor (Boston, 1699); A Dying Legacy of a Minister (Boston, 1722).
B: AAP 1, 151-59; DAB 12,390-94; DARB, 296-97; NCAB 6,412-13; SH 7, 248; Benjamin Colman, The Prophet's Death (Boston, 1723); Cotton Mather, Parentator: Memoirs of Increase Mather (Boston, 1724); Samuel Mather, Memoirs of the Life of Increase Mather (London, 1725); Williston Walker, Ten New England Leaders (New York, 1901), 97-134; Kenneth B. Murdock, Increase Mather: The Foremost American Puritan (Cambridge, MA, 1925); Robert Middlekauff, The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728 (New York, 1971); Mason I. Lowance, Jr., Increase Mather (New York, 1974); Michael G. Hall, The Last American Puritan: The Life of Increase Mather, 1639-1723 (Middletown, Conn., 1987).
As a boy Increase Mather suffered from a dangerous illness, and in the language of an earlier time, "his thoughts were fixed more decidedly upon his immortal interests." Young Mather devoted himself to fasting and prayer and came eventually to feel close to God. He then resolved to enter the ministry, following the example of his father, Richard Mather*. He was at the time a student at Harvard, having entered the university when he was only twelve. He graduated in 1656 and preached his first sermons when he was seventeen.
Like many other young men of New England's second generation he was attracted to the possibility of becoming a minister in Britain, where the Puritans were now in control. He visited a brother in Ireland and another in England and became chaplain to the governor of Guernsey. Then came the Restoration of Charles II. If Mather had agreed to conform to the Church of England, he could have secured a lucrative post as. an Anglican cleric. But he refused to conform, and suddenly the distant Congregational commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay became more attractive.
Back in New England Mather took the conservative side on the question of the Half-Way Covenant, and when the Synod of 1662 adopted it, he continued his opposition. As he became more familiar with conditions in New England, however, a practical consideration won out over his ideal-he came to see that in order to keep up membership the Puritans needed to adopt a new standard of church admission. Mather soon emerged as the leading Congregationalist of his generation. He was influential in the Reforming Synod of 1679-80, which adopted a confession of faith and passed resolutions against vice. In his own church he preached jeremiads against sin, and ordered days of fasting and prayer.
During the political turmoil of the 1680s when policies of King James appeared to threaten religious and political freedom in Massachusetts, Mather emerged as one of the most outspoken defenders of colonial liberties. In 1688 the colonists appointed him to represent them in London; because the British authorities opposed his going, he boarded ship in disguise and sailed for England, arriving on the eve of the Glorious Revolution. In London Mather argued valiantly for the continuation of the status quo in Massachusetts, but the crown insisted on a new charter, designating a royally appointed governor and a franchise not based on church membership. Mather bowed to the inevitable, but he persuaded the crown to grant the colony a strong representative assembly. Opponents back in Massachusetts claimed that he had given up too much, but in fact he had no choice in the matter. However, the authorities in London were so taken with Mather that they let him nominate the first Royal Governor, Sir William Phips.
Increase Mather arrived back in Massachusetts in the midst of the Salem witchcraft trials. While believing in witches and the supernatural, Mather was uncomfortable with the hysteria accompanying the trials. He argued that "spectral evidence"-proof of guilt based on supernatural visions-was unreliable, and he counseled Governor Phips to halt the trials, which the Governor did. Although Mather was in advance of his time in his skepticism about the trials, he continued to be a conservative on other issues. When Solomon Stoddard. opened communion in Northampton, Massachusetts, to all but the openly scandalous, Mather was one of the chief opponents of the innovation.
Mather remained active in his ministry until the year before he died. During part of that time he also served as president of Harvard, although he refused to leave his church in Boston to take up residence in Cambridge. Mather wrote 130 books and tracts. For almost four decades of his ministry, he shared his pulpit with his son, Cotton Mather·, one of the few Puritans who ever published more books than he did. Through his thought and influence Increase" Mather did more than any other minister of his generation to represent primitive Congregationalism in the more secular climate of the eighteenth century. Near the time of his death he said, "I shall leave ministers in Boston, who, I trust, will defend the Churches, when I shall sleep with my fathers."
Bibliography
A: The Life and Death of. .. Mr. Richard Mather (Cambridge, MA, 1670); A Discourse Concerning Baptism (Cambridge, Mass., 1675); A Brief History of the War with the Indians (Boston, 1676); The Call from Heaven (Boston, 1679); Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences (Boston, 1684); New England Vindicated (London, 1688); Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits (Boston, 1693); The Surest Way to the Greatest Honor (Boston, 1699); A Dying Legacy of a Minister (Boston, 1722).
B: AAP 1, 151-59; DAB 12,390-94; DARB, 296-97; NCAB 6,412-13; SH 7, 248; Benjamin Colman, The Prophet's Death (Boston, 1723); Cotton Mather, Parentator: Memoirs of Increase Mather (Boston, 1724); Samuel Mather, Memoirs of the Life of Increase Mather (London, 1725); Williston Walker, Ten New England Leaders (New York, 1901), 97-134; Kenneth B. Murdock, Increase Mather: The Foremost American Puritan (Cambridge, MA, 1925); Robert Middlekauff, The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728 (New York, 1971); Mason I. Lowance, Jr., Increase Mather (New York, 1974); Michael G. Hall, The Last American Puritan: The Life of Increase Mather, 1639-1723 (Middletown, Conn., 1987).
