Robert Calef

Robert Calef (baptized 2 November 1648 – 13 April 1719)^[1] was a cloth merchant in colonial Boston. He was the author of More Wonders of the Invisible World, a book composed throughout the mid-1690s denouncing the recent Salem witch trials of 1692-3 and particularly examining the influential role played by Cotton Mather.

Life

Grave of Robert Calef in Roxbury

Robert Calef, son of Joseph Calef, was baptized in Stanstead, Suffolk, England on 2 November 1648. The Calef family of Stanstead was "one of substantial yeoman and clothiers."^[1] The majority of what is known about Robert Calef is what can be gleaned from his single book. His writing displays broad education and it is likely he attended one of England's semi-clandestine dissenting academies ^[2] as evidenced by Cotton Mather's use of the title "Mr." ("Mr. R.C")^[3] and Calef's pride in having no knowledge of the Latin language^[4] (English was the preferred language of instruction in dissenting academies, as Latin was viewed as having ties to Rome).^[5]

Calef emigrated to New England sometime before 1688. His children born in Boston were baptized in Boston's South Church, pastored by Samuel Willard. Calef's name does not come up in the records of the witchcraft trials of 1692-3 and, according to his book, his interactions with the Mathers began in Boston in September of 1693, with most of the writing of the book and compilation of trial records complete by 1697. From 1702-04, Calef was an overseer of the poor. In 1707 he was chosen an assessor, and in 1710 a tithingman, which he declined.^[6] He retired to Roxbury, where he was a selectman.^[7] He died there on 13 April 1719.^[1]

More Wonders of the Invisible World

Robert Calef's More Wonders

In an effort to promote the Salem witchcraft trials, Cotton Mather wrote, Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches, Lately Executed in New-England, in the summer and early fall of 1692, and his father Increase Mather published his own Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits the same year. Robert Calef, after exchanging several letters with Cotton Mather, published his book More Wonders of the Invisible World, deliberately referencing Cotton Mather's title. Calef objected to proceedings that lead to "a Biggotted Zeal, stirring up a Blind and most Bloody rage, not against Enemies, or Irreligious Proffligate Persons, But (in Judgment of Charity, and to view) against as Vertuous and Religious as any they have left behind them in this Country, which have suffered as Evil doers with the utmost extent of rigour". Aside from the preface and postscript, Calef begins and ends with Mather's accounts in his own words. He finished his compilation in 1697, but added a postscript before final publication.

Contents

• Preface: Calef's argument that Christians should rely on scripture, not superstition or mythology.
• Part I: Cotton Mather's published account of his visit to Margaret Rule in 1693.
• Part II: Calef's account of Margaret Rule and correspondence with Mather about her
  • The accounts of Calef's eyewitness souces regarding the Mather's visit to Margaret Rule in September 1693, as sent in a letter to Mather, seeking comment
  • Numerous subsequent letters to Mather and attempts to get him to respond in writing to what Calef calls "doctrinals". Mather sends a messenger to Calef to read a letter aloud and on another occasion Mather sends Calef a letter but says it must be returned in a fortnight and "which he forbad to be Copyed." NOTE, this letter was later found, including marginalia in Calef's hand, and a typescript can be viewed beginning page 240 here ^[8]
• Part III: A compilation of letters between Samuel Parris and his congregation, especially the relatives and survivors of those who were tried and executed.^[9]
• Part IV: Correspondence with an anonymous gentleman "endevouring to prove the received opinions about Witchcraft"^[10]
• Part V: Legal documents of the trials, including:
  • 1696 apology from one of the judges saying "he was apprehensive that he might have fallen into some Errors in the Matters at Salem" and
  • A letter signed by 12 members of the jury at Salem, "We do heartily ask forgiveness of you all... and do declare according to our present minds, we would none of us do such things again on such grounds for the whole World..."
  • Mather's own preface to Wonders of the Invisible World
• Postscript: Calef adds to his book a sharp response to a posthumous biography of Sir William Phips anonymously written by Cotton Mather which arrived in Boston in December 1697. ^[11]

Controversy

Due to licensing and control over the printing press by Boston clergy, and particularly the Mathers,^[12] Calef's book was shipped to England to be published in 1700. Cotton Mather wrote in his diary, "It was highly rejoicing to us when we heard that our Booksellers were so well acquainted with the Integrity of our Pastors, as that not one of them could admit of any of those Libels to be vended in their shops."^[13]

Mather's father, Rev. Increase Mather, publicly burned the book in Harvard Yard.^[14][15][16] In 1701, Mather responded with Some Few Remarks upon a Scandalous Book, written in the plural with co-signers, but occasionally lapsing into first person. The opening lines suggest that Calef's book had been well received by the masses in New England, despite his inability to have it published there: "...that Scandalous Book... has made our worthy Pastors Obnoxious ... among an unguided multitude".^[17] Mather does not directly address many particulars of Calef's book but accuses Calef of being a follower of Satan, and uses select quotes from the Bible intended to put the merchant Calef in his place, including Exodus 22:28: "Thou Shalt Not Speak Evil of the Ruler of Thy People".^[18]

Increase Mather subsequently lost Presidency of Harvard College^[19] and neither he nor his son Cotton Mather were able to regain the position despite numerous tries.^[20]

Writing Style

It is remarkable that Robert Calef, a tradesman and but an amateur writer, possessed a well-developed writing style and intellect that enabled him to frequently get the better of the highly-educated Cotton Mather. An example of Calef's rationalism and biting wit are provided by his response to Another Brand Pluckt Out of the Burning, Cotton Mather's account of the possession of Margaret Rule. Mather's first section is a long narrative about a proselytized Indian who was tempted into witchcraft by the devil and ultimately undone by his his steadfast refusal to submit to the devil's temptations. Calef's terse response occurs in a postscript to one his letters to Mather:

Postscript. —Sir, I here send you the copy of a paper that lately came to my hands; which, though it contains no wonders, yet is remarkable, and runs thus:
An account of what an Indian told Capt. Hill at Saco Fort.
The Indian told him, that the French ministers were better than the English; for before the French came among them there were a great many witches among the Indians; but now there were none; and there were witches among the English ministers, as Burroughs, who was hang'd for it.
Were I disposed to make reflections upon it, I suppose you will judge the field large enough; but I forbear.
As above, R. C.^[21]

Legacy

Writing about the trials in 1768, historian Thomas Hutchinson relied on Calef's analysis and called him a "fair relator."^[22] Calef's book has been reprinted numerous times,^[21] having "tied a tin can to Cotton Mather which has rattled and banged through the pages of superficial and popular historians."^[23] Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of Robert Calef's book and had it carefully arranged in his library at Monticello.^[24]

Twentieth Century Revision

In 1924, TJ Holmes, wrote that the critical view of Cotton Mather was based on the "insignificant" case of Margaret Rule and his contact over it with Calef. "Mather opponents tuned their fiddle to Calef's key." ^[25] TJ Holmes was a librarian at the William G. Mather library and his writing followed after work by Harvard English professor G.L. Kittredge, beginning in 1907, which seems to wish to exonerate the Mathers and the New England region, concluding: "The record of New England in the matter of witchcraft is highly creditable, when considered as a whole and from the comparative point of view." In this essay, Kittredge is dismissive of Calef's lengthy book, saying "Calef came too late to be really significant to our discussion." ^[26] This statement is difficult to reconcile considering Calef's interactions began in September 1693, as noted by TJ Holmes. TJ Holmes went on to publish bibliographies on both Mathers often citing the work of Kittredge or Kittredge's younger mentee in the Harvard English department, Kenneth B. Murdock, whose father worked closely with Kittredge in running the Harvard press.^[27] TJ Holmes views seem to have eventually become more nuanced. In a essay from 1985, Harold Jantz writes "TJ Holmes at times deeply regretted having descended into this 'vast Mather bog'...and he earnestly warned a very young man to stay clear of it." ^[28] The reflections by Jantz about TJ Holmes followed the discovery that a typescript copy of a September 2, 1692 letter from Cotton Mather to Chief Justice William Stoughton was authentic, and the heretofore missing "holograph" had been located and placed in the archives^[29]. Jantz had previously (in the same essay) dismissed this letter as a "nasty, psychopathological" forgery and in this view he seems to have perhaps been joined by other mid-twentieth century scholars, including K. Silverman, Chadwick Hansen (see below) and D. Levin.^[30] Jantz essay, with his mistake frozen in time, could offer a window into the zeitgeist. Silverman's biography of Cotton Mather, published the year before this discovery (1984), won a Pulitzer and a Bancroft. The September 2, 1692 letter strongly supports Robert Calef's view of Cotton Mather.

In 1969, Chadwick Hansen accused Robert Calef of libel.^[31] Calef had been cleared of the charge in 1693 when neither Mather showed up in court.^[32] Hansen writes, "I realize that in calling Calef a liar I differ from virtually every other person who has written about him since his own time."Somewhat similar to TJ Holmes beginning place in 1924, Hansen seems to base his accusations on the slim but charged portion of Calef's book making up the accounts of September 13 and 19, 1693. These events launched the interaction between Calef and CM, but Calef relied on eyewitnesses and was not present on either occasion, as both CM and Calef seem to agree. Hansen's analysis also seems to depend on a misunderstanding of the archaic word "bed-clothes" which Oxford English Dictionary defines as "sheets and blankets" with examples from period literature. Thus Hansen misunderstands the distinction made between "bed-clothes" and "clothes." Some scholars following Hansen have repeated these several mistakes, including David Levin who writes in 1985, "Even if we reject Robert Calef's libelous claim that he saw both Mathers fumbling under the young woman's bedclothes in search of demons (and the pleasure of fondling her breast and belly) and even if we reject the tradition that President Increase Mather had Calef's book burned in Harvard College Yard, we should hesitate to portray Increase Mather as the voice of unqualified reason and charity." ^[33] Some portions of Hansen's book rely on trial records compiled by Calef in Part 5 of his book.

Publications

• More Wonders of the Invisible World

References

Bibliography

• Calef, Robert (1972). Hansen, Chadwick, ed. More Wonders of the Invisible World. York Mail-Print. OCLC 00652857. 
• Miller, Perry (1953). The New England Mind: From Colony to Province. Belknap / Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674613010. OCLC 327220.