Cotton Mather

Author Code: ACMX

Educated at Harvard College, he entered the ministry and served with his father, Increase Mather, at Boston's Second Church from 1685 until his father died in 1723, whereafter he remained as the sole pastor until his own death. An energetic man of letters, Mather authored nearly 500 books, pamphlets and essays on a wide range of topics from medicine to the occult to scientific treatises to religion. Mather's most important works were Magnalia Christi Americana (one of the most scholarly works of the first century of America - an ecclesiastical history of New England), Wonders Of The Invisible World (which included many accounts from the witchcraft trials of Salem) and Essays To Do Good, which had a strong influence on Benjamin Franklin in his early years.