The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

Gospel of John 97
The severity of the tortures increased, but always
the children would be able to rest in their beds at night.
Other times, they were stricken deaf and dumb and had
their limbs, tongues, and mouths pulled about and their
skin stretched. They made pitiful, animalistic noises and
moans.
Their father, John Goodwin, worried that he had committed
some grievous sin that turned his pious “little
Bethel” house into a “den for devils.” Four ministers were
asked to conduct a day of prayer, after which the youngest
was permanently relieved of symptoms. Cotton Mather
visited the family and prayed for DELIVERANCE and even
took Martha into his own home for observation.
One of the boys saw a dark shape wearing a blue cap
in the house; the shape tormented him and an invisible
hand tried to pull out his bowels. The children said blows
of invisible clubs rained down upon them. Voices in their
heads urged them to do violent acts, such as strike friends
or throw themselves down stairs or strangle themselves.
They broke objects and laughed hysterically.
Glover was arraigned and put on trial, charged with
witchcraft. Testimony was given that she allegedly had
bewitched a person to death six years earlier. She acknowledged
that she had been the black shape with the
blue cap and invisible hand. Mather visited her twice in
prison. He called her a “horrible old woman.”
Glover did not deny the charges of witchcraft but said
little about her activities as a witch. She acknowledged
working with “the Prince,” or the DEVIL, and four of his
DEMONs. Mather urged her to break her PACT with HELL,
but she said she could not do it unless her ANGELs allowed
her to do so. She did not want Mather to pray for her, but
he did anyway. When he finished, she took out a stone,
spit on it, and worried it.
Glover was judged guilty and condemned to execution
by hanging. Prior to her death, the almshouse where she
had lived was plagued with mysterious banging noises.
En route to her execution, she said that the children
would not be relieved by her death, for others had a hand
in it, and she named one other person.
The three children still afflicted were not relieved at the
death of Glover; rather, matters grew worse. John, Jr., saw
a specter in the house and was pushed and stabbed by it.
The children barked like dogs, yowled like cats, and complained
that they felt as though they were in a red-hot oven.
Their bodies were covered with bruises and red marks.
The children would have periods of relief for a few
weeks, and then the troubles would start again. The afflictions
were the worst whenever ministers visited to pray.
Martha enjoyed some relief upon her arrival in Mather’s
home but then declared that the devils found her, and she
began suffering again. She vomited weird balls the size of
eggs and said she could feel the chains of the dead witch
upon her. If Mather read the Bible, her eyes went blank,
and she writhed on the floor and howled. She could not
say the names of God and Christ. A demon in the form
of a spectral horse appeared on many occasions and took
her on flights through the air.
The other suspect named by Glover died before she
could be brought to trial. Mather and other ministers
continued their prayers of deliverance and finally broke
the possessions by November 1688. There was one final
serious assault on Martha, when she said an invisible rope
came about her neck and she choked until she was black
in the face. Handprints were seen on her neck.
After that, the assaults of the demons dwindled in frequency
and severity. At Christmastime, Martha and one
sister were made drunk without having had any alcohol.
In her final fit, Martha seemed to be and thought she was
dying. The fit ended, and she recovered.
Mather was pleased with the case and considered it a
fine example of righteousness overcoming the Devil.
FURTHER READING:
Burr, George Lincoln, ed. Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases
1648–1706. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1914.
Middlekauff, Robert. The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan
Intellectuals 1596–1728. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1999.
Gospel of John Biblical text used against DEMONs.
Although the reading of any Scripture sends a possessing
demon into a tailspin, the words in the Gospel of John
seem to cause the most discomfort. The beginning of the
book, especially, sent medieval demoniacs into howling
fits and tantrums. The following text appears in the King
James version, much as 16th- and 17th-century exorcists
would have read it:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the
beginning with God. All things were made by him; and
without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And
the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended
it not.
John 1:1–5
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and
we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotton of
the Father), full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
If all things are made by God, then the Devil is also
God’s instrument, perhaps sent to test humans’ faith. But
can the Devil’s claims and boasts be believed? In chapter
8, John tells that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for not believing
in him or his works, saying:
If God were your Father, ye would love me; for I proceeded
forth and came from God; neither came I of
myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my
speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of
your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode