Daily Quiz for October 31, 2007

Memorable Providences, Related to Witchcrafts and Possessions, published by Cotton Mather in 1689, contributed to the hysteria that led to the Salem witch trials of 1692. Mather was a Puritan clergyman and the eldest son of Increase Mather. While Cotton Mather advised witch trial judges that executions would not be necessary, during the mass executions he remained uncritical. In his 1693 Wonders of the Invisible World Mather defended the verdicts of various trials.