Harry Potter Morning Light

Although the news of Massachusetts could not reach England, it could still reach New York. The Episcopalians felt a little funny about this. They did not expect that Cotton Mather said two years ago that Satan was deliberately planning to subvert the colonies occupied by the Puritans. Witch hunting did cause the population of Massachusetts to drop sharply, and many people fled New England with their families and settled elsewhere. According to New York newspaper reports, more than a hundred suspects, most of them members of the church, have been held, a pastor died in prison, as was the daughter of another pastor, and a pastor's wife was accused of being a witch , A total of more than 700 people were involved.

The news was obviously distorted, but it was understandable given the speed of traffic and information flow at the time. People were shocked by this. Although the former Governor Ingerseth was annoying, he did not let the population go into exile. Neil Thornstall was one of them, and he also spent 15 days in prison for this.

Thornstall, a native of Ipswich, was the grandson of an early Bay Colonial leader and a resident judge in Massachusetts. He had lobbied for New England with Incris Mather, was a very popular militia captain, and served on the Maine frontier.

He left the courtroom the day after Bridget Bishop's hanging, and shortly thereafter began rumors that his ghost was at work, and that, according to Luke, "whatever is not in harmony with Jesus and his work, against him." Prior to this Cotton Mather had been nervous about the rumors that the devil would take over his body and pretend to be him.

The eight pastors who held a meeting in the Harvard library discussed this issue. It is not true, but there are always people in this world who like to spread scandals and sow discord. Eventually a warrant for Thorntonstall's arrest was issued, but an Andover sheriff hesitated in executing it, half-believing in the judge's crimes, which resulted in the sheriff's own imprisonment.

Samuel Willard also got in trouble for helping Philip English escape and participating in organizing a fast for John Alden, but for him, a pastor who was as famous as Ingerthus Mather, in The court did not dare to do anything to him without definite evidence.

A witch hunt held as a boring pastime has now become a kind of torture, the judges spend their time on the daily witchcraft trial, and let other less urgent things be postponed, exhaustion is everywhere from top to bottom , only the "harvest" can make people feel a little joy. George Corwin is the nephew of Judge Corwin, and he has the right to empty the houses after the criminals are convicted.

Not only did he sell the cattle from the Proctor family, but he also looted all the property by the river from the Jacobs family, including the golden wedding ring on Margaret's mother's hand. Margaret couldn't do anything about these things. Begging to come back.

Although the English and his wife escaped safely, their mansion was not spared. Law enforcement officer Corwin opened the door of his house, looted it recklessly, and let people in to loot it. The furniture, household items, and portraits were all stolen. Nothing left. After an elderly farm woman was hanged in September, an assistant sheriff rode to her home in central Andover town and took the family's cattle, grain and hay. While her son was trying to protect the property, the assistant sheriff told him he could talk to Herrick to prevent the rest of the property from being sold, and in that conversation Herrick kindly offered him "redemption" of the property. Opportunity, but asked them to pay 10 pounds, after negotiation, it was finalized as 6 pounds, as long as the bribe can be cashed in the current month.

The fences are crumbling, the crops are neglected, the orchards are neglected, the firewood is gone, and there is depression everywhere.

Commoners lived in fear, families were torn apart, and bandits dressed as Indians or French ravaged Massachusetts.

It's depressing to look at such a scene.

Judges don't really have much to gain in this matter, they can't accept bribes, they can't "empty" houses like sheriffs, and they don't even get paid.

What they want to do first is to empty out the wizards, restore order in Massachusetts, solve the witchcraft problem once and for all, and then solve problems such as the French and Indians.

Stoughton told the jury that the intent to perform witchcraft was enough for a conviction, which led to more women being tried and more people hanged. People seem to fall into the darkness and hurt each other in the darkness. If it is a dark tunnel, then at least it has an end. But at the moment people can't see the light. The only light is standing on the pulpit. What the pastors said. The sermons that once made people feel weak are now heard by many people. People use what the pastors said to identify the devil. , angels, ghosts, those spirits who live in the invisible world, and believe in it.

This may sound ignorant, but when people use science to explain haunting phenomena, don't they also apply their own known knowledge and make some plausible explanations to make themselves and the audience feel reasonable?

Order is fragile. The universe is full of disorder. It is not so easy to find order in the chaos and disorder. Man created God and threw all the problems he could not solve to it. It is also a process of exploration for people to understand it, just like taking a little wealth from a safe every time, if you know too much, you will be crushed to death by Jinshan.

Nothing goes too far, even seeking knowledge and being brave. The scholastic discussion of how many angels can stand on the tip of a needle cannot solve the problem of the spread of the Black Death. Those who are too brave will be foolish.

Giles Corey has always boasted that he has never been afraid of anyone in his life, even refusing to say the words "God and my country."

Judge Stoughton warned him that if he did not repent he would suffer the medieval stepping (peine forte et dure), meaning that stones or pieces of lead were piled on the suspect until the suspect begged for mercy or died.

The penalty has been proposed but never used in New England, and was last threatened in 1638 by a woman accused of murdering a three-year-old, who ended up hanging.

Although Giles Curry has similarities with Philip English, they are not the same person. At critical moments, he may not be able to make the same correct judgment as that young man.

If he had been as submissive as Barred was, or as far away from the accused wife as other husbands were, he wouldn't have been implicated.

He and John Proctor were neighbours, and the two accused each other about the wood problem, and later shook hands and drank together, years later Proctor accused Giles Curry on the dock to get himself off Set fire to his roof with demonic hands, only to become the first man convicted of witchcraft and hanged.

Proctor wrote a will before his death, as did Giles Currie, and he left the farm to his two sons-in-law, who had accused him of cursing the orchards for failure to bear fruit.

Whether they did it out of greed or to save their lives, they kept Cory's daughters out of the way, and he had nothing to worry about after he wrote his will, and his wife, Martha, was excommunicated from the church and was going to be hanged soon, like What's so scary about an old bachelor like him?

He has no intention of pleading guilty, nor does he have any intention of catering to the judge, and he has appeared in court several times without accusing anyone. He knows that anyone who steps into the court will suffer property losses even if he does not die.

After threatening nothing, Stoughton sentenced Giles to the death penalty, the first in New England to be executed on September 17, because that kind of punishment was too cruel to be executed in the United States. Held in public, but in an empty field.

Corey took off his shoes and clothes and lay almost naked on the shady ground with his arms outstretched like a Vitruvian man.

The wheat should be ripe in that season, but it was left in the field because no one was harvesting it, and the wind made a rustling sound.

The golden ears of corn and the blue sky should be beautiful together, until the watchman's face blocks his view.

"What else do you want to say?" asked the guard.

The stubborn old man looked not far away at the Sheriff Corwin who was holding a cane.

"Let's do it." After Corey finished speaking, he looked at the sky again, and the guard placed a wooden board on his chest, and then piled stones on the wooden board.

It was nothing at first, but with more and more stones, it became more and more difficult to breathe, and crowds of onlookers gathered beside the wheat fields that no one had passed by before, including Cory's friend, a wealthy but vicious southern man. Captain Tuckett, who was born in Salem and served as an executive committee member, can't do anything now, and his brother-in-law is also on the run because of his sister's involvement.

"Surrender," said his friend bitterly, "accuse Martha, and don't be right with the judge!"

Giles Curry ignored him, or said he was unable to speak.

But if he did it all over again, he would still be so stubborn.

Many people can't understand that although Giles Corey has a bad reputation, has been married three times, and is 70 years old, a rich farmer like him can't find any kind of woman, so he insists on marrying Martha Corey. The woman with a "stain" in it.

But if he did it all over again, he would still be so stubborn.

The agonizing ordeal continued for some time, probably from noon to evening, when Giles Corey finally died, his tongue protruding from his mouth, and Sheriff Corwin thrust it back with his cane.

When Giles Curry was a young man 43 years ago, he first appeared in court for stealing wheat, tobacco, bacon and other items from the sheriff's house.

On September 19th, George Corwin came forward to confiscate Giles's property. One of his son-in-law agreed to pay a huge fine, which prevented Corwin from continuing to confiscate the property, and redeemed Giles Cory buried in the stone pile. dead body.

On September 22, when Martha Corey came to Hanging Hill, the sky was gray and hot, and there were 7 other people who went with her that day. This time, it was no longer just a car of men or women, but It is mixed.

As the ox cart pulled them along, one wheel got stuck and it took a while to get it going.

"The devil stopped it!" the girls explained.

It’s hard to say how many people paid attention to their tedious explanations. The road outside the town was already rough, and the car was overloaded. In addition to the “Gospel Woman” Martha Corey and the “Prophet” Wardwell, He was an old babbler who was a spectator, and there was Mary Edith, Rebecca's sister, whose husband and children and friends had come to say good-bye to her.

They were executed by a professional executioner, who covered the faces of the wizards with a mask, and then pushed them off the gallows one by one.

Gravity hastened death, and their brains were starved of oxygen before they felt the pain, but maybe they could still hear.

"Look at these eight traitors from hell." The fat Reverend Noyce sneered at the corpses hanging on the gallows. "This is such a sad thing."

Martha Corey was still standing on the ladder praying before she died, and when Wardwell began to speak to the crowd, the smoke from the executioner's pipe floated to his face like a cloud, causing Wardwell who was speaking to begin Coughing violently, his accusers sneered that it was the devil who had interrupted him.

Smoking was a bad habit, and maybe Martha Corey talked the stubborn old man into smoking less.

He heard it, but never followed it, so that every night when Martha closed her eyes, she would fall asleep smelling the smoke on Giles.

The only thing that made her worry about before "falling asleep" was her mixed-race son. He was still a child, where would he go in the future?

According to the law, his mother is a free person, so he is also free.

He could run, run across fields of golden wheat at harvest time, and go wherever he wanted.

May God bless you, child.

Someday you'll meet a man like Giles Corey who will take you into his house.

He may not be as rich as Corey, but wealth is not the only criterion for judging a person's goodness, let alone clothes alone.