Confession In Mather's Illustrious Providences

In Mather’s Illustrious Providences, the witnessed supernatural cases that were written about were based off of witnesses. Furthermore, confession played a major role in a person’s life. An example can be seen in the account of Ann Cole. It is said that Ann was executed after confessing that the devil had appeared to her as a fawn where she then “promised to go with him when he called” (Mather 9). The Puritan ideology was shown to be very strict and unforgiving when it came to sins. Although her husband did not make a confession, he was still killed because he did not come forward and “acknowledge himself guilty” (Mather 9). Additionally, in Rowlandson’s text, the role of a witness and confession was used. In both cases, the witness was the