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How Did Puritans Influence Religion

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Religious Influences
Due to their extreme fear of the Devil based on their religious beliefs, Puritans were constantly on the lookout for signs that he walked among them. With that in mind, perhaps it was inevitable that the villagers of Salem would jump to the conclusion that Satan was behind the mysterious behaviors of the young girls. When Griggs was unable to diagnose a physical source for the girls’ symptoms, he relied on his religion to find the origin. Based on what his beliefs taught him, he drew the only logical conclusion: witchcraft caused the illnesses. Because of his verdict, the problem with the girls transformed from a disease to a crime. Witchcraft was a legal matter instead of a medical one. However, rather than pursuing …show more content…
Included amongst these instances was the situation of Mercy Short. Short, a servant girl from Boston, encountered Sarah Good after running an errand at the Boston jail, which served as home for many accused witches before they went to trial. Following this meeting, Short began to experience signs suggesting Good had afflicted her with witchcraft. Short’s minister, Cotton Mather, took a special interest in her case. After providing spiritual guidance to Lewis and keeping detailed records of her symptoms, Mather decided to take an alternative route with her treatment. While he concluded Short was indeed bewitched, he decided to use her predicament as a way to encourage the growth of religion amongst the community. Spectral evidence, or the accuser’s word that the alleged witch appeared in spiritual form to them as a method of torment, served a controversial function in the Salem witch trials. The type of evidence proved divisive among all parties involved with the trials. An excerpt from a letter addressed to John Foster and written by an unknown author on August 17, 1692 touches on a few of the concerns associated with the use of such types of proof in the conviction of

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