Analysis: The Shields of the Churches: New England’s Governors

Date: 1702

Author: Mather, Cotton

Genre: biography

Summary Overview

Cotton Mather, a third-generation Massachusetts Bay leader descended from two of the original colonizing families, took it upon himself to write a history of New England. The book, from which this article is excerpted, was named Magnalia Christi Americana, or,The Ecclesiastical History of New England from Its First Planting, in the Year 1620, unto the Year of Our Lord 1698. Mather sought to relate the historical events in the colony to his articles of faith. Thus, this was not a history in the modern sense of the word, but rather an interpretation of what had happened. The text was divided into seven books, and this excerpt is from the second book, which contains brief biographies of the colony’s civic leaders. William Bradford and John Winthrop, founders of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, respectively, are the foci of the passages in this article. The text greatly helps scholars understand the sentiments of that era, as well as giving some information not available elsewhere.

Document Analysis

Cotton Mather considered himself a man with a special mission: to call the people of New England back to the true form of the Christian faith and to unite all Christians in order to hasten the Second Coming of Christ. In most of his more than four hundred publications, this was the focus. The work that conveyed his beliefs most clearly was Magnalia Christi Americana. Through this highly stylized work, he proclaimed the superiority of the New England Puritans to their contemporaries. In addition, he presents them and their leaders as at least on par with those in the Bible who were seen as God’s chosen people. Thus, when he describes the lives of the colonial leaders, he does not compare them to other secular leaders, but rather with Old Testament leaders and prophets who assisted in the creation and continuation of the Jewish state in the Promised Land. For Mather, New England was the new Israel selected to inaugurate Christ’s kingdom.

Mather begins his biography of William Bradford by describing the area around Plymouth as a wilderness. Drawing an analogy to Moses’s strong leadership when he led the Israelites across the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula, Mather asserts that the same type of leadership was needed when the Pilgrims arrived in 1620. However, the wilderness in which the Pilgrims settled was not an arid desert. There were fertile fields and only a small population of American Indians in the area. While the original settlers believed that the prepared fields were a miraculous gift from God, by Mather’s time, it was understood that the fields had been vacant because much of the local American Indian population had died during the preceding five years, from smallpox or other European diseases. However, from Mather’s perspective, this does not lessen the fields’ status as a gift from God. As described elsewhere, Mather saw the native population as agents of the devil and demon worshippers. Thus, to him, it was perfectly natural that their population would be decimated in order to provide for the English who settled there.

In the opening seven sections regarding Bradford, Mather gives a short biography of him from birth through the first two years of the colony’s history. That section concludes by recording his service as governor for thirty-one of the first thirty-six years of the colony’s existence. Mather notes that during the hard times of the first few years, it was Bradford who had established the communal system of caring for one another, as well as making certain that he did not have any more than the least of the others. This is one reason why Mather calls him a “worthy person.” Despite the strict discipline Bradford had to impose upon the community, Mather affirms, “The people had never with so much unanimity and importunity still called him to lead them.”

As one of the leaders who sought the charter for the colony, Bradford could have asked for some type of compensation for giving up any claim to the colony’s lands. However, when asked to sign over his rights to the colony’s government, Mather states, “He willingly and presently assented . . . reserving no more for himself than was his proportion.” An earlier statement that Bradford had given up “friends, houses and lands for the sake of the gospel” is not hyperbole. Orphaned at a young age, Bradford inherited the resources to have a comfortable income for his entire life. Raised by extended family members, who were not religiously observant, he was derided when he became devout. Leaving his home, he joined the Pilgrim community about the time they were moving to the Netherlands. Bradford gave up his rights to his English property and related income to join them. When it became clear that the group would have to leave Europe to find peace, Bradford stepped up to work through the many legal and administrative details necessary to establish a colony. When they left the Netherlands for England and then the New World, he and his wife, Dorothy, had to leave their four-year-old son behind. Ultimately, Bradford was reunited with the child. When they arrived in the New World, Dorothy Bradford drowned after a fall from ship. Thus, Bradford’s support for the community had cost him much. His willing service to God’s cause, in Mather’s view, was the source of his popularity and relative material prosperity, including a second marriage to Alice Carpenter Southworth.

In section 9, Mather recalls some of the attributes and disciplines that allowed Bradford to do well as a leader. Throughout the previous sections, Mather had described many of Bradford’s accomplishments. Here, this “person for study” is analyzed. According to Mather, Bradford’s linguistic skills were phenomenal. He could speak Dutch almost as well as English, due to his years spent in the Netherlands after the Pilgrims fled England. He also spoke French, which he acquired while learning about the silk trade. In addition to studying Latin and Greek, which were traditional topics in a classical education, he pressed to learn the Hebrew language purely for religious reasons, in order to read the Old Testament in its original language.

The last section describes the period just before Bradford’s death. After being sick for several months, he had a religious experience. In his New Testament writings, the apostle Paul described being taken up to the seventh level of heaven and experiencing the presence of God. This is how Mather understands what Bradford experienced, and to him, it was another affirmation that the founding leaders of Massachusetts Bay Colony had been as close to God as biblical leaders were. Mather records that Bradford was at peace when he died. He then concludes with nonbiblical classical affirmations, which he applies to Bradford.

Mather then replicates for John Winthrop what he did for Bradford. Just as Mather compares Bradford with Moses, John Winthrop is portrayed as similar to Nehemiah, a leader of the Israelites just after the Babylonian Exile. Carrying the analogy further, Mather implies that Boston, the city Winthrop helped found, is “our American Jerusalem.” Just as Tobiah and Sanballat questioned whether Nehemiah could adequately rebuild Jerusalem and its wall, Mather indicates that some questioned the undertaking of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and its new capital. Reminding the reader (in Latin) that everyone tends to attack a leader when things are rough, Mather states that Winthrop overcame this by “doing the part of a neighbour,” rather than acting like a dictator. Thus, for Mather, Winthrop surpassed anything Nehemiah did because Winthrop gave up “a thousand comfortable things” in order to assure success.

As this text begins with section 6, it should be noted that the previous five sections deal with Winthrop’s early life and his discussions with other leaders regarding how to govern the colony. Winthrop believed that during the process of settling into the new land, leniency should be used in administering the laws. Since the majority of the other founders disagreed, Winthrop moved closer to their position. However, even in doing this, Winthrop was not willing to act like the officials in England in relating to the others in the community. His manner of living was quite simple. He did not have fancy food prepared for his meals, and Mather recounts, “Water was commonly his own drink.” Since Winthrop did serve wine, Mather asserts that his choice of lifestyle was not a result of an opposition to nicer things; rather, Winthrop lived a simple life because it was necessary for the good of the community.

Although Winthrop served for many years as a civic leader and governor, none of those discussions or accomplishments is included in Mather’s biography of him. He had even been involved the religious controversies that led to some colonists establishing Rhode Island and Connecticut, but these incidents are left out as well. Rather, as was Mather’s style, the text focuses on Winthrop’s personal qualities. In the early days of the colony, survival was not assured. Thus, Mather depicts some of the ways in which Winthrop assisted the community to survive. Mather writes about Winthrop’s special care for the widows and children of deceased ministers, “whom he always treated with a very singular compassion.” In yet another biblical allusion, Winthrop is compared with the patriarch Joseph, as the one to whom the community could turn when food was in short supply. Mather writes that Winthrop “continued relieving of them with his open-handed bounties, as long as he had any stock to do it with.” Continuing with the theme of Winthrop as God’s special servant, Mather refers to an instance when Winthrop gave a hungry man the “last handful of the meal in the barrel” just as a supply ship “arrived at the harbour’s mouth, laden with provisions for them all.”

Mather further illustrates Winthrop’s character with additional examples of his giving spirit. Thus, Mather passes on the events of the opening of Winthrop’s third term as governor. Winthrop indicated that, as governor, he had received various gifts and payments from people and towns, which he had taken to be polite, even though he was not certain it was proper. As his third term opened, Winthrop stated he would no longer accept these gifts and payments, which meant that he would pay his own expenses as he traveled within the colony on the colony’s business. Mather also describes Winthrop sending family members to various homes in the colony at mealtime to understand who was doing well and who was not. Section 6 ends with an unusual story of a man in need who stole wood from his neighbors. Winthrop’s solution to this was to tell the man that if he needed wood to take some of Winthrop’s, thus addressing both men’s needs and choosing not punish a man for trying to survive.

Section 7 of this text addresses the political struggles that Winthrop faced. For Mather, all opposition to Winthrop’s leadership was based upon the imperfect nature of human beings. In Mather’s mind, Winthrop was fortunate not to have the same failings as most other people; he encountered “this envy from others, but conquered it, by being free from it himself.” Earlier in the text, Mather comments on Winthrop’s “unspotted integrity” and “profound humility.” However, beyond the normal human imperfection, Mather makes it clear that certain individuals were leading the effort to keep Winthrop out of office. From other sources, Winthrop appears to have been a good and honest leader but not the picture of perfection Mather describes. Religiously, Winthrop was moderate to slightly liberal and thus was attacked by both conservative and ultra-liberal clergy. Mather correctly notes that “sermons were preached at the anniversary Court of election” in an attempt to keep Winthrop from being reelected.

In place of the real reasons for the struggles facing Winthrop and the colony, Mather dismisses all opposition as manifestations of jealousy, saying, “Indeed, his right works were so many, that they exposed him unto the envy of his neighbours.” In addition, for Mather, there were those “unto whom it was almost essential to dislike every thing that came from him.” Thus, all opposition to Winthrop’s leadership is understood by Mather to be the result of the failings of others. Politically, issues ranging from the location of the capital to how much decoration should be allowed in private homes established an ongoing divide between Winthrop and others. Mather ignores all of these matters in explaining why Winthrop was elected governor only twelve of the twenty years he lived in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Comparing those who opposed Winthrop to the sharp attacks of leaders and crowds in sixteenth-century Florence who opposed the Medici family’s rule, Mather asserts that Winthrop’s patience and essential goodness allowed him to survive and serve the community.

In a text to teach young ministers key points in communicating the gospel, Mather stated that one should be entertaining while teaching the religious truths. In these biographies of the early Massachusetts Bay leaders, he followed his own advice by using a fancy, outdated style to attract attention, while teaching readers his understanding of the truth. As in all parts of Magnalia Christi Americana, documenting religious truths in the lives of the leaders was essential to Mather. Many see the biographical sections of this work to be patterned after the hagiographies of the Middle Ages. Hagiographies were stylized biographies of saints, written not only to inspire the reader, but also to demonstrate that the saint (or colonial leader, in this case) was truly chosen by God for the tasks undertaken. Mather believed this was the case for Bradford and Winthrop.

The use of this antiquated form for the biographies may seem to be an unusual choice. To many scholars, Mather’s apparently strange mixture of beliefs and styles was the result of New England’s (and his own) ongoing transition from a medieval worldview to one reflecting the opening stages of the Enlightenment. While the stylistic flourishes may be simply a rhetorical device, Mather did believe in the divine guidance given the early colonial leaders and the divine purpose for the colonies in New England. With Boston as the American Jerusalem, the colonists were not only to live Christian lives, but also to lead in transforming the world in order to fulfill ancient prophecies and usher in the Second Coming of Christ. Only enlightened leaders could move people in that direction, and Mather made it clear that the early colonial leaders had been just such persons.

Bibliography

Mather, Cotton. Magnalia Christi Americana, or, The Ecclesiastical History of New England from Its First Planting, in the Year 1620, unto the Year of Our Lord 1698. Ed. Thomas Robbins. Hartford: Andrus, 1853. Print.

Silverman, Kenneth. The Life and Times of Cotton Mather. New York: Welcome Rain, 2001. Print.