Cotton Mather’s sermons from Pillars of Salt

Posted on June 4, 2007 by aaust6yp

1. sermon– in this text, the sermon serves as a warning rather than just a delivery of God’s word. It is a public display of something done wrong, for example, in “the wicked man’s portion.” it served as a way to make someone repent of something they had done wrong. It was through the delivery of this sermon to influence the fate of a person’s afterlife or soul. the hearing of the sermon at this time was as important as hearing a sentence announced in a present day courtroom. the sermon was published very much like a courtroom ruling is published today.

2. minister– the role of the minister is obviously very related to the role of the sermon. given the importance of the sermon, the minister’s role in an execution and confession of a person was an imperative one. the judge or jury is never mentioned in any of these accounts. just the minister. the minister was present at all points of a person’s conviction all the way up to their execution. their role was so important that their names are remembered before the name of the criminal. People remember what Mather spoke at Morgan’s execution before thinking about Morgan being a murderer. their names stand out as being related to these sentences much like scalia’s name stands in relation to creating a legal precedent in supreme court ruling.

3. soul– besides the relationship of power from external and internal forces as defined by Foucault, the soul at this time is spoken of as more of an entity that lives on after the body is gone. in fact, it has taken precedence over the physical body. when reading the first few works in this course dealing primarily with torture, the body was the key entity. they focused on the pain and transformation of the physical body. however, now that toruture has been replaced with the more common hanging, the soul has arisen as the most important aspect of ending someone’s life. now the transformation has taken on a more spiritual sense rather than physical. “God has made now these bitter to my soul…i know what pain is, but what shall i do for my poor soul?”

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owen syllavan

Posted on June 4, 2007 by chard3ah

Guilt- Owen in no way denies that he is guilty of counterfeiting money, but seems to make a different conception of guilt than Esther or Patience.  Although he seems himself as guilty in the sense that he did it, he doesn’t seem particularly torn up or repentant.  The account of his life is a matter of fact record of what happened, what kind of money he reproduced, and how many times he escaped from jail.  If anything, there is a sort of pride in how tricky and clever he is, not any real shame.  His final mention of the concept of guilt is perhaps the most interesting, as he refuses to incriminate any of his accomplices, for he will not “be guilty of shedding their blood” (147).  Although naming his accomplices would be encouraged by the justice system, Owen is appealing to his own internal sense of guilt—one governed neither by the laws or religion, something that we saw for a brief moment when Patience Boston could not kill her child and did not know why. 

 

Bravery- Any sort of refusal on the gallows seems to be witnessed as a form of bravery—like William Fly’s refusal to pray and beg for mercy, Owen’s refusal to name his accomplices or give any information about the money he made seems somewhat brave as well.  When asked for more information about the counterfeited money, he says that people must find that out for themselves, and so, “died obstinate” (149).  His only words about the money or his accomplices is a request that they burn any incriminating evidence so that they don’t end up being hanged—not that they save their souls and change their evil ways.

 

Mercy-  For all his bravery and humor, Owen Sullivan gives himself away when he cries for mercy from God minutes before he dies, just as William Fly couldn’t hide his shaking knees.  We must wonder, of course, if either of these things really happened or it is merely the author inserting his own religious commentary, proving that even the most “brave” prisoners are fearful of death and the afterlife.  Owen cries out for God to have mercy on his soul, and then says the Lord’s prayer before dying, an odd ending to an account so devoid of any religious undertone.    

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william fly

Posted on June 4, 2007 by chard3ah

 

Bravery- The captain, William fly, in an attempt to go out heroically, refuses to appear in public on the Lord’s day, or to forgive his executioner or make any sort of repentance: “he seem’d all along ambitious to have it said that he died a brave fellow” (114).  Interestingly, here we see William Fly’s conception of the opposite of piety being not wickedness, but bravery.  Is there perhaps a well-known pressure put on prisoners to become good and repentant, or is the pattern of sudden piety simply a fear of death and damnation?  Either way, William Fly wants nothing to do with it, would rather be brave than religious, and having been condemned by the justice system, “we must leave him for the judgment to come” (215).

 

Repentance- Here, William Fly’s bravery is contrasted with Cole and Greenville’s repentance.  They prayed and warned the mob to take lessons from their own crimes, and Cole even writes papers confessing his sins and warning other seafaring men not to end up how he did.  Although the text seems obviously more favorable to the repentant Cole and Greenville, Fly’s refusal to do what they want him to do—pray, confess, and warn others against temptation—seems to have a certain virtue of its own

 

Spirit- The convicted pirates are “cast into a place…where in the destruction on their flesh their spirit might be saved” (114).  The manner of this saving seems to be the repentance displayed by Cole and Greenville, and we are to assume that Fly’s “judgment to come” means his damnation.  It seems here that there are two forms of judging going on: the guilty or not guilty determination made by the courts, and the heaven or hell determination, the spiritual sentence, not made by God, but by public opinion and documents like this one.  This text has essentially sent William Fly to hell in the eyes of the public for something worse than the crimes he committed—refusing to apologize for them. 

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patience boston

Posted on June 4, 2007 by chard3ah

Wickedness- Patience, when recalling her early life, seems to have a concept of herself an innately wicked: despite the good efforts of her parents, she would “play on the Sabbath, tell lies, and do other Wickedness” (120).  Although her mistress attempts to correct this early wickedness with some of the religious warnings that seemed to change Esther Rodgers, they have a more short-term effect on Patience, and her “convictions were too weak for strong and violent corruptions” (121).  Interestingly, like Esther, Patience speaks of the times in her life in which she is good as times when she was influenced by religion, and the times in which she commits crimes as times when religion cannot control her wicked nature: “sinning would make me leave praying or praying would make me leave sinning” (122).

 

Murder-  Patience is constantly being accused of, and confessing to, the murder of her own children.  She confesses to the death of her second child (three times) presumably to anger her husband and because she is drunk.  Although she is acquitted, she later drowns her third child so that “Now I am guilty of murder indeed”, and in fact attempts to kill him more than once, but finds that she can’t (124).  Interestingly, this text is sympathetic to Patience because although she killed at least one of her own children, she finds God in the end, and is presumably forgiven both by him and by public opinion.

 

Believing- Patience, again much like Esther Rodgers, is deeply comforted by the fact that regardless of her sins, her faith in God will be her salvation.  She mentions that she is troubled when she hears that all adulterers and liars will be cast into hell, but is comforted when told that the greater debtor will be forgiven equally as the lesser debtor, no matter how much more he owes.  She repeats to herself the same quote that Esther does, that a man who believes in God shall never die, but have eternal life.  While awaiting her execution, she is calmed and comforted by a belief that her soul will be saved—a greater issue to her than the saving of her body.   

 

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esther rodgers

Posted on June 3, 2007 by chard3ah

Believing- Esther Rogers is told before her execution that if she believes in Jesus, she will be saved, which interestingly removes her from the whole dilemma of crime and punishment and places her problem in the larger realm of religion.  It is also contrary to the idea of God espoused in the introduction to Pillars of Salt, which argued that the judicial system saw itself as carrying out God’s will.  Here, a concept of religious right and wrong emerges as one drastically different form the one upheld by the justice system: believers are in the right, and non-believers in the wrong: “whoever believeth shall be saved” (101).  Her dying words express a sort of comfort in the fact that she has at last found religion, and thus hope, even while minutes away from certain death.

 

Mercy- Before her death, Esther is continually asking God for mercy, something that the justice system has already denied her.  She is so caught up with the idea that her belief in God will be her salvation that even though she admits that “my sins have deserved Hell”, she seems to expect a divine pardon, as “whosoever believeth on thee shall never dye” (107).  This obviously religious speech (and text in general), makes almost no reference to Esther’s guilt or innocence or to the fairness of her sentence or her trial: the religious aspect of punishment and redemption seems to become important only when hope of earthy redemption and mercy have failed.

 

Deserve- Esther repeats that she deserves both to die and to go to hell, although she dies asking God for mercy, something the public admires her for.  The question of what Esther “deserves” is another interesting difference between the two concepts of relationships between God and the judicial system: either the justice system is doing God’s work, what God would sentence criminals for if he could, or the justice system simply gives people what they “deserve”, not, as God would, something merciful, good, or kind.  This separation of goodness and justice, demonstrated by Esther’s appeal to God, is an interesting aspect of the vilification of the penal system.

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Mather

Posted on May 31, 2007 by mtt3e

Propoganda– Mather’s narrative reads like religious propaganda.  The dying speeches of the repentant sound very crafted, calculated, and unauthentic.  It does not seem realistic for a servant to blame his misery after murdering his master on his earlier disobedience to his parents, for example.  The mutinous sailors, according to Mather, fell because “Their education had been under the means of Grace, and the faithful preaching of the gospel in England; but they had sinned against that Education.”  All of the stories are reduced to trite morals.

 

Jealous–  Jealous is used here almost like vengeful.  Mather talks repeatedly of a “jealous” God causing the downfalls of various sinners.  In speaking of the revelation of a man’s bestiality, Mather says “By these means, the burning Jealousy of the Lord Jesus Christ, at length, made the churches to know, that He had all this while seen the Covered Filthiness of this Hellish Hypocrite…”  The use of the word jealous has implications of a sort of human anger at being ignored which perhaps the church felt when it believed people were “backsliding” and transferred onto God.

 

Impurity– Mather speaks of religious impurities throughout the chapter, but he also treats race and gender as impurities.  When he speaks of Indians and blacks he implies an innate moral inferiority.  He speaks especially often of the weakness of women, and how easily they succumb to sex and murder.  He even uses class as a kind of impurity- servants trying to overthrow their masters are a theme.

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Mather’s Sermon

Posted on May 31, 2007 by bford

1. Vengeance – Once condemned to death the criminal role, according to ministers, is one in which they must come to terms with their sin and repent. This is accomplished by acquiring a mindset where you are bent on vengeance against the sin itself, you must attack the act and the piece of your soul that it has affected. The eternal justice of the merciful lord is another area where the concept of revenge manifests. Although merciful, no wrong doing in a past life goes without rectification through divine justice.

2. enmity – Throughout much of the conversation that Mather conducts with those soon to be “…before GOd the Judge of all,” he begins to pick apart the foundation of their criminality, trying to discern when or how their comportment became fraught with such ill will. Mather suggests that they have always carried the burden of wickedness and must open their souls and embrace Christ as their savior before eternal sentencing. He believes that these criminals have been cursed with this adamantine condition.

3. Help – “Your crime lay in Blood; and your Help also, That lies in Blood.” This statement made by Mather to Hugh Stone is the ministers final attempt to convince Hugh the only option is to accept Jesus Christ. Mather very plainly states that there is nothing else that can correct the ruinous nature of his earthly existence.

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Ch. 2 Foucault

Posted on May 29, 2007 by mtt3e

Ambiguity: uncertainty, lack of absolute proof

 

“Full proof” could lead to any sentence, but in the 17th century, proof would have been hard to obtain. Their definition of full proof, however, was ambiguous: the testimony of 2 irreproachable witnesses could count as full proof. Confessions, too, were taken as truth. Officially, a confession was ambiguous, but people took it as the most important proof that could be offered. Confessions were not always completely voluntary; torture was “a great means used by classical criminal law” that was later repeated and accepted as spontaneous and solid evidence.

 

Visibility: extent that an event is open and observable to the public

 

The role of the public in executions is also ambiguous because public outcry has been cited as a reason for the end of public executions and torture but here, Foucault says that when the guillotine was introduced to France, the crowd cried out that they wanted their gallows back.

 

Paradox: a situation with no obvious solution

 

Torture was used as both a punishment and means of getting a confession. This does not make sense, because the accused is punished before his guilt is certain. This torture was a kind of theater and also displayed the sovereignty of the law. Because the law was sovereign, the methods of achieving confessions were not questioned. Punishment and trial were wrapped up together in a “theatre of hell” and the eternal.

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second foucault reading

Posted on May 29, 2007 by drummerboy

excessiveness – The most important factor of public punishment was the excessiveness that was employed whenever the punishment was enacted.  “excess of violence emploiyed is one of the elements of its glory:  the fact that the guilty man should moan and cry out under the blows is not a shameful side effect it is the very ceremonial of justice being expressed in all its force.  Justice pursues the body beyond all possible pain.”  ” In the ‘excesses’ of torture, a whole econonmy of power is invested.”  Power is also at stake in the process of public execution and torture.  The goal of these actions taken against a person was for those in position to rule over the citizens of a society to maintain that autonomous rule by exerting extra force on those who disobeyed their laws and commandments.

 confession – The ultimate goal of the penal system is the confession or admittance of guilt for a crime.  In most cases it is held that a confession means the truth has been told and the true guilty party has taken repsonsibility for the crime.  “Through it the accused committed himslef to the procedure; he signed the truth of the preliminary investigation.”  Torture is a way to get preople to fess up although strong enough men may be able to withstand it and maintain silence while weaker men will readily confess to crimes they haven’t committed.

demonstration – The scaffold was used “It was the task of the guilty man to bear openly his condemnation and the truth of the crime he had committed.”  “A successful public execution justified justice, in that it published the truth of the crime in the very body of the man to be executed.” “in torture, pain, confrontation and truth were bound together…”

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pillars of salt

Posted on May 29, 2007 by bford

1 divine- Criminals were believed not to have only challenged the fundamental regulation of law but to have also challenged the sacred code of life that God preordained. By taking the life of a criminal they were accelerating the onset of divine justice which came during the final judgment. These criminals were even thought to have been chosen by God as “monuments of divine justice” that were a tool in scaring the people straight.

2. ritual – the arduous process of trying, convicting and executing a criminal became a symbol of governmental power and dramatic lengths it went to became a ritualized process. The criminal would be tortured, paraded through town and given the chance (and encouraged) to repent in hopes that the other world would recognize genuine sorrow regarding their sins. the crowds that came to watch even became part of the ritual by cheering, jeering, attacking and occasionally saving the person to be executed.

3. individual – As the popularity of criminal narratives became a more and more fascinating form of literature for the colonies the criminal as well as the crime began to be placed in context.  The motivations for crime and the situations surrounding it were looked to for answers as to why these acts were committed.  Although the criminals themselves were many times portrayed in a fashion that the ministers wanted, where the text served as a parable  and an example of conversion or that the author wanted, a sensationalized account, the public began to see the condemned souls having unique personalities.  The public now viewed criminals as having more to them than simply being heathens that have mocked God and the executors of his will.  The rise of secular thought in regards to crime had a large role in this because people now saw crimes as acts against the state.

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