Robert Calef, though probably not in advance of many others in detecting
and dissenting mentally from the public errors of faith and practice in
relation to witchcraft, was first to manifest nerve enough to speak out
boldly his own thoughts and those of many others. Backed and aided
probably by strong and learned men, he became to Christendom's witchcraft,
as Martin Luther had been to its Roman creeds and practices, a bold,
outspoken _protestant_. Each of them dared to brave strong currents of
popular beliefs and practices, even when the course was encompassed with
dangers. Each probably was moved and sustained by firm conviction that
truth, right, and justice were on his side; each had nerve enough to stand
firm and resolute in his self-chosen post of danger and philanthropy; and
each was, to great extent, successful. Luther challenged the pope and his
devotees to justify portions of their creed and practices, and Calef did
the same to Cotton Mather, as a leading annunciator and expounder of the
witchcraft creed. Luther and Calef each conceded that much in the creed of
those whom he contested was founded on Scripture, and so far was
impregnable; but they saw that many unauthorized and baneful appendages
had been put upon true scriptural faith and instructions, and each labored
to sever the true and good from the false and bad with which the currents
of opinions and events had long been investing them. Neither of them,
however, discerned all the errors and pernicious practices which have
since become visible. Luther, though he saw, or at least heard, and
scolded, and threw his ink-horn at Catholicism's devil, did not discard,
but retained, in his Protestant creed, both him and witchcraft as they
then existed in the Catholic belief. Calef conceded the positive existence
of Mather's great personal witchcraft devil of supernal origin, vast
power, and ever-burning malignity, but found him commissioned only by
God--never by human witches, as it was then generally believed he was and
must be, when he manifested his power through or upon man.
We are much in doubt as to whether Calef was properly _author_ of a large
part of what he published relating to witchcraft. The articles he put
forth from time to time seem to us very varied in style and in merits as
to their scholarly and rhetorical airs. It is said, in vol. i. p. 288,
Mass. Hist. Soc. Records, that "Calef was furnished with materials for his
work by Mr. Brattle of Cambridge, and his brother of Boston, and other
gentlemen who were opposed to the Salem proceedings." He may have had--and
we conjecture that he had--much help in putting his materials into the
form in which they came before the public. We are able to learn very
little concerning the man himself. It is usual to style him a Boston
merchant, but Mather alludes to him as that "weaver," &c.
Whatever may have been his culture, occupation, character, or social
position, he assumed the responsibility of what is imputed to him--and we
very willingly leave uncontested both his claims to have been author of
all that he subscribed to, and to be called a Boston _merchant_.
Calef went into his work in deep earnest, and perhaps from a strong sense
of duty to God and man; he perceived that departure from teachings and
requirements of the Scriptures, and adoption of opinions, processes of
examination, and kinds of evidence which the Scriptures did not prescribe,
had occasioned the chief woes of witchcraft, and therefore devoted much
time to the work of producing great and needed change in public opinion.
He continued for some time to write clearly and forcibly to Mather; but,
failing there to get his fundamental questions squarely and satisfactorily
met, after months of trial, addressed a letter "to the ministers, whether
English, French, or Dutch," upon this subject; this general application,
however, failed to bring a response. Next he tried the Rev. Samuel Willard
individually, then "all the ministers in and near Boston;" afterward Rev.
Benjamin Wadsworth singly; but his success in eliciting replies was so
meager, that we apparently may apply to those from whom he sought
information the following words which he used in reference to some who had
defined rules by which to detect witchcraft,--viz., "Perhaps the force of
a prevailing opinion, together with an education thereto suited, might
overshadow their judgments." His dates show that his calls for either
refutation or assent to his positions were continued for two or three
years, and that he was not simply or mainly an opponent of Mather, but an
earnest seeker for light. In 1700, his collected correspondence, together
with much other matter from Mather's pen and other sources, was published
in London, and entitled "_More_ wonders of the Invisible World," Mather
having previously published "Wonders of the Invisible World."
This clear-sighted, earnest, untiring spirit soon gained the public ear
extensively, began to enlighten the public mind, and turn it into new
channels of thought and inquiry. Though not a polished, he was an
intelligible, logical, and forceful writer in the main, and did much
toward accomplishing the reformation to which he devoted his energies.
Calef was a moral hero, and bravely did noble work in bringing flood tides
of murderous fanaticism, error, and delusion to an ebb, and in barring
channels against their return. His appropriate stand in history's niches
may be at the head of Witchcraft Reformers--not repudiators, but
_Reformers_.