This week in Christian history: SBC's ‘conservative resurgence,’ Charleston shooting
Ministers warn Salem against using ‘spectral evidence’ at witch trials – June 15, 1692
This week marks the anniversary of when a group of ministers sent a letter to judges overseeing the Salem witch trials, warning against the use of spectral evidence, or evidence derived from people’s dreams and visions, in the legal proceedings.
Sent days after the first person was executed for witchcraft, 12 local ministers said that while they supported the trials, they expressed concern over, among other things, using spectral evidence and making the trials a major public spectacle.
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“[C]onvictions whereupon persons may be condemned as guilty of witchcrafts, ought certainly to be more considerable than barely the accused persons being represented by a spectre unto the afflicted, inasmuch as it is an undoubted and notorious thing that a demon may by God’s permission appear even to ill purposes, in the shape of an innocent, yea, and a virtuous man,” stated the clergy.
“Nor can we esteem alterations made in the sufferers, by a look or touch of the accused, to be an infallible evidence of guilt, but frequently liable to be abused by the devil’s legerdemains.”
Despite their warnings, the Salem court continued to use spectral evidence as their chief means of determining guilt for those accused of witchcraft, leading to the deaths of 25 people.
