Samuel Parris, pastor at Salem Village, Massachusetts, was convinced that when Mary Sibley, a member of his church, turned to countermagic in an attempt to cure her niece, she did so “ignorantly.” Sibley was apparently an unwitting transgressor, who did not realize that experimenting with magic was illicit. Other godly layfolk also used magical techniques “in their simplicity,” to use Increase Mather's words. Lay recourse to magic shocked New England ministers, yet the clergy themselves may have been partly responsible for this state of affairs. Ambiguity in Puritan teaching on one central issue, the allocation of responsibility for human sin and misfortune, may have prompted layfolk to turn to countermagic as a defense against affliction. Inadvertently, from their own pulpits, the New England clergy promoted a rival supernatural agency.

Liability for sin and suffering was a matter of crucial importance to Puritans, yet there was no consensus within the godly community on this issue. Samuel Parris saw the afflictions in Salem Village as divine punishment for the villagers' backslidings; he felt that this was as much his as their responsibility and so adopted a course of repentant prayer and fasting.