Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- Introduction
- 1 Magical Experiments: Divining, Healing, and Destroying in Seventeenth-Century New England
- 2 The Serpent that Lies in the Grass Unseen: Clerical and Lay Opposition to Magic
- 3 Entertaining Satan: Sin, Suffering, and Countermagic
- 4 Sinful Curiosity: Astrological Discourse in Early New England
- 5 Insufficient Grounds of Conviction: Witchcraft, the Courts, and Countermagic
- 6 Rape of a Whole Colony: The 1692 Witch Hunt
- Epilogue
- Appendix A Witchcraft Trials in Seventeenth-Century New England (Excluding Persons Accused During the Salem Witch Hunt)
- Appendix B Persons Accused During the Salem Witch Hunt
- Name Index
- Subject Index
4 - Sinful Curiosity: Astrological Discourse in Early New England
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- Introduction
- 1 Magical Experiments: Divining, Healing, and Destroying in Seventeenth-Century New England
- 2 The Serpent that Lies in the Grass Unseen: Clerical and Lay Opposition to Magic
- 3 Entertaining Satan: Sin, Suffering, and Countermagic
- 4 Sinful Curiosity: Astrological Discourse in Early New England
- 5 Insufficient Grounds of Conviction: Witchcraft, the Courts, and Countermagic
- 6 Rape of a Whole Colony: The 1692 Witch Hunt
- Epilogue
- Appendix A Witchcraft Trials in Seventeenth-Century New England (Excluding Persons Accused During the Salem Witch Hunt)
- Appendix B Persons Accused During the Salem Witch Hunt
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Summary
Is it not Vanity and Impiety, to attempt the Revelation of Secret Things that belong to the Lord our God?
Christian Lodovick, The New-England Almanack for the Year of Our Lord Christ 1695In 1652, John Cotton, one of the most prominent of the firstgeneration New England ministers, fell ill and died. That momentous event coincided with the appearance of a comet over New England, a coincidence that did not go unnoticed. The records of the First Church in Boston, where Cotton had served for almost twenty years, contain the following account of the comet's timely course.
Theire was a starr appeared on the 9th of the 10th month 1652. darke and yet great for Compasse. with Long blaze dim also to the east. and was quicke in the motion. and every night it was less and less till the 22 of the same month and then it did no more appeare, it being the night before our Reverend Teacher mr John Cotton Died, the Greatest starr in the Churches of Christ that we could heare of in the Christian world for opening and unfolding the counssells of Christ to the Churches. and all the Christian world did receive light by his Ministry.
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- The Devil's DominionMagic and Religion in Early New England, pp. 122 - 152Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992