MATHER, COTTON. - American Protestant writer, b. in Boston on Feb. 12, 1664, d. there on Feb. 13, 1728. He studied at Harvard College, of which he later hoped to be appointed president, but in vain, since he held intransigent views and at Harvard liberal tendencies were increasingly prevailing.

His knowledge extended to the field of the natural sciences; he was a member of the Royal Society, although he shared some of the superstitions of his time and actively fought witches. He is a typical representative of American literature of the colonial period, which has a mostly celebratory and edifying character. His most important works are: The wonders of the invisible world (1693), Essays to do good (1710), a work that strongly influenced the formation of Franklin, and Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), which is the ecclesiastical history of New England, written in an inspired tone and in the firm conviction that the great American era was that of the origins, when New England was imbued with religious spirit and governed by the clergy, and Providence «had irradiated an Indian desert».

Bibliography

BIBL.: R. P. and L. Boos, C. M., Keeper of the puritan conscience, New York 1928.

Augusto Guidi

@incollection{ec8_mather_cotton, author = {Guidi, Augusto}, title = {Mather, cotton}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {395}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/mather-cotton} }

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Mather, Cotton

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