Samuel Willard and the Witch Trials - Old South Meeting House

310 Washington St

Samuel Willard, Puritan Pastor and President of Harvard College, buried in Granary. He was greatly affected by the Salem Witch Trials. These trials were an abuse of power by clergy and in defending the innocent he put himself at risk, speaking out against any in power who would misuse it.
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Samuel Willard was born in Concord, Massachusetts, graduated from Harvard College in 1659, and was minister at Groton from 1663 to 1676, before being driven out by the Indians during King Philip's War. Willard was pastor of the Third Church, Boston, from 1678 until his death with many published sermons. He opposed the Salem witch trials and was acting president of Harvard University from 1701.

Although situated 18 miles from Salem, Third Church became infected by the hysteria as soon as it began in 1692. Some of the members are accused. (such as Capt. John Alden, son of the Mayflower’s Priscilla and John Alden; and Mrs. Thacher, widow of the first beloved minister) Some of the members are accusers while four others serve as justices on the special court of Oyer and Terminer, which the governor has established to hear so-called “spectral evidence.” Mr. Willard is pastor to them all.

Willard investigates the matter and finds the evidence wanting. At great risk both to his life and his reputation he positions himself between accused and accuser and publicly demands a return to reason. (In Old South’s portrait of Samuel Willard he appears to have a black eye) In meetings, letters, and sermons, he defends the victims of the hysteria. He emerges as this country’s original public defender, and his persistence is eventually rewarded. He is among those few clergy who finally succeed in persuading the governor to dismantle the notorious tribunal of Oyer and Terminer.

Many pastors gave annual Election Day sermons to address the regions recently elected rulers. This was a Puritan phenomenon that lasted from 1634 through 1884. It was one of the means by which church and state were twined tightly together in colonial New England. The election sermon served as a centering and ritualized observance of the purpose of the entire Puritan enterprise. Election sermons were published and made widely available.

Mr. Willard’s election sermon of 1694 is particularly significant. It is preached one year after the debacle of the Witch Trials, a calamity worsened at every turn by political leadership that assisted in and enabled collective madness. Now he reminds them that “the Weal or Woe of a People mainly depends on the qualifications of those Rulers, by whom we are Governed …”

He describes civil rulers as “God’s Vice-regents here upon the earth.” “A People are not made for Rulers, But Rulers for a People, and just as there is a great Trust devolved on them, so is there an answerable Reckoning which they must be called unto …” Mr. Willard insists that civil rulers should be just men. It is not adequate that they understand the law. Surely the justices who presided over the executions in 1692-93 understood the law. That is not nearly enough. They must themselves be just.

Finally Mr. Willard says of the ruler, “he must be one who prefers the public Benefit above all private and separate Interests whatsoever.” This has people question the validity of their rulers if they are unjust. While this applied at the time to the recent Salem Trials, it was the same question in people’s minds for the Revolutionary War.

What fruitage did these spiritual leaders produce? Mt 7:15-20. Consider John 17:16 vs Acts 20:29, 30. What would Jesus have said seeing this?

-Source Links-

https://reflections.yale.edu/article/who-are-we-american-values-revisited/character-good-ruler-then-and-now

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Willard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3bBja7t3Hc Judge Samuel Sewall’s Apology for Salem Witch Trials read here