Potential Causes
This is what ergotism grows on.
What is rye?
This is what Total Depravity means.
What is "everyone is inherently evil" or "everyone is born wicked"?
This is the first person accused of witchcraft, sparking the Salem Witch Trials.
This is where the trials started (Town AND Colony).
What is Salem Village, Massachusetts?
This is what the period of severe winters and damp springs in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is now referred to.
What is "The Little Ice Age"?
This is what Limited Atonement means.
What is "Jesus only died for SOME people's sins, not EVERYONE's"?
These are the first two girls "afflicted" by a witch/witches.
Who are Betty Parris and Abigail Williams?
This is how many people were accused vs. how many were hanged.
What is "over 200 vs. 19"?
This is why boredom may have been a cause of the trials.
What is "the young girls had little to no entertainment in the winter and had to create their own stories/games, leading to them telling scarier and scarier stories and taking their games more seriously, slowly convincing themselves all of it was real"?
This is what predeterminism means and which Tenet it relates to.
What is the idea that God has already chosen all the people he will save/who can go to heaven, and what is the Unconditional Elect?
This is the story of Giles Corey.
What is "Giles Corey was accused of witchcraft, refused to enter a plea during trial, was tortured via pressing by the court in hopes of getting him to plea, had the famous last words of "more weight," and ended up being pressed to death"?
This is the definition of spectral evidence.
What is "the idea that a witch can send his/her soul to bother or torture the afflicted with visions only the afflicted can see"?
This is how Salem politics may have been one of the factors leading into the trials.
What is "Parris, the new minister, was paid with tax money and people started to think he wasn't worth what they paid him, along with growing tensions between the Putnam and Porter families over land disputes and the future of the town, all created a community full of resentment for one another (and a minister desperate to prove he was needed)"?
This is what the concept of Irresistible Grace refers to.
What is "a member of the elect cannot resist God's calling"?
This is what Cotton Mathers is best known for.
What is "preaching at George Burroughs' execution in favor of the man's death and the trials in general"?
This is why a person would NOT want to confess to witchcraft, even if it meant hanging 'til death.
What is "the witchcraft accusation would destroy a person's reputation and credibility, making him/her someone no town would ever accept fully into the community and effectively exiling him/her to live on the edges of society until death; the reputation would even go on to ruin the lives of his/her family and children as well"?
What is "the Little Ice Age caused record low temperatures leading to severe winters and damp springs, and ergot fungi grows best on rotten rye. The damp spring could have caused the rye to rot faster, leading to a huge outbreak of ergotism, especially in the population of young girls due to their weaker immune systems"?
This is what the Perseverance of Saints refers to.
What is "no member of the elect can ever stray from the path of salvation or go against God's will"?
This is the man who officially dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer.
Who is Governor William Phips?
This is why the governor didn't stop the trials sooner.
What is "the Massachusetts Charter was up and the governor, along with other officials, had to go to England to ask the king to renew the colonies' charter, so the governor was unaware of what was happening back home for most of the trials"?