The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

Samael 221
imately 100 people sat in prison on the basis of the girls’
accusations. Bridget Bishop was first to be found guilty
and was hanged on June 10.
The court had to deal with the issue of spectral evidence.
The problem was not whether the girls saw the
specters, but whether a righteous God could allow the
Devil to afflict the girls in the shape of an innocent person.
If the Devil could not assume an innocent’s shape,
the spectral evidence was invaluable against the accused.
If he could, how else were the magistrates to tell who was
guilty? The court asked for clerical opinions, and on June
15 the ministers, led by Increase and Cotton Mather, cautioned
the judges against placing too much emphasis on
spectral evidence alone. Other tests, such as “falling at
the sight,” in which victims collapse at a look from the
witch, or the touch test, in which victims are relieved of
their torments by touching the witch, were considered
more reliable. Nevertheless, the ministers pushed for vigorous
prosecution, and the court ruled in favor of allowing
spectral evidence.
Of the executions, that of George Burroughs, formerly
minister of Salem Village, stood out. Burroughs and several
others were sent to be hanged at Gallows Hill on August
19. Before Burroughs died, he shocked the crowd by
reciting the Lord’s Prayer perfectly, creating an uproar.
Demands for Burroughs’ freedom were countered by the
afflicted girls, who cried out that “the Black Man” had
prompted Burroughs through his recital of the prayer.
It was generally believed that even the Devil could not
recite the Lord’s Prayer, and the crowd’s mood grew
darker. A riot was thwarted by Cotton Mather, who told
the crowd that Burroughs was not an ordained minister,
and the Devil was known to change himself often into
an angel of light if there were profit in doing so. When
the crowd was calmed, Mather urged that the executions
proceed, and they did. As before, the bodies were dumped
into the shallow grave, leaving Burroughs’ hand and chin
exposed.
Samuel Wardwell, completely intimidated, confessed
to signing the Devil’s book for a black man who promised
him riches. He later retracted his confession, but the
court believed his earlier testimony. Wardwell choked on
smoke from the hangman’s pipe during his execution,
and the hysterical girls claimed it was the Devil preventing
him from finally confessing.
Giles Corey, a wealthy landowner, was pressed to death
September 19 for refusing to acknowledge the court’s right
to try him. He was taken to a Salem field, staked to the
ground, and covered with a large wooden plank. Stones
were piled on the plank one at a time, until the weight was
so great his tongue was forced out of his mouth. Sheriff
George Corwin used his cane to poke it back into Corey’s
mouth. Corey’s only response to the questions put to him
was to ask for more weight. More stones were piled atop
him, until finally he was crushed lifeless. Ann Putnam,
Jr., saw his execution as divine justice, for she claimed
that when Corey had signed on with the Devil, he had
been promised never to die by hanging.
The hysteria subsided when the girls began accusing
more and more prominent people, including the wife
of the governor, Lady Phips. On October 29, Governor
Phips dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer, and
spectral evidence became inadmissible. The trials came
to an end.
Eventually, the prosecutions were seen as one more
trial of God’s covenant with New England—a terrible sin
to be expiated. Those who had participated in the proceedings—Cotton
and Increase Mather, the other clergy,
the magistrates, even the accusers—suffered illness and
personal setbacks in the years after the hysteria. Samuel
Parris was forced to leave his ministry in Salem.
By 1703, the Massachusetts colonial legislature began
granting retroactive amnesties to the convicted and
executed. Even more amazing, they authorized financial
restitution to the victims and their families. In 1711, Massachusetts
Bay became one of the first governments ever
voluntarily to compensate persons victimized by its own
mistakes.
In 1693, Increase Mather acknowledged in his Cases
of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits Personating Men that
finding a witch was probably impossible, because the determination
rested on the assumption that God had set
humanly recognizable limits on SATAN, but Satan and
God are beyond human comprehension.
In 1957, the legislature of Massachusetts passed a resolution
exonerating some of the victims. Still, citizens felt
they should do more. In 1992, a memorial was erected to
all the victims of the 1692 trial. It was dedicated by Elie
Weisel, a Nobel laureate known for his work concerning
the victims of Nazi concentration camps. The memorial
is located at the Old Burying Point in Salem and is a parklike
square with stone benches engraved with the names
of the victims.
Saleos FALLEN ANGEL and 19th of the 72 SPIRITS OF
SOLOMON. Saleos is a duke who appears as a gallant soldier
wearing a duke’s crown and riding on a crocodile.
He promotes love between men and women and speaks
authoritatively about the creation of the world. He governs
30 LEGIONs of DEMONs.
salt
See AMULET.
Samael (Sammael) In Hebrew lore, the prince of
DEMONs known as “the venom of God” and the executioner
of death sentences decreed by God. Samael is
linked to ADRAMELECH, another demon of death.
In rabbinical lore, Samael is a demon of a desert wind
called Samiel or Simoon. He flies through the air like a
bird, and the dark spots on the Moon are his excrement.
Samael was the SERPENT who tempted Eve in the Garden
of Paradise. He was an uncircumcised sexual partner