Increase Mather and The Decline of Cultural Domination

Abstract Between 1675 and 1686, Increase Mather exercised an unprecedented sway over the orthodox Bay regime. When King Philip’s War erupted, it was Mather who first called for reform and then dictated its eventual course. Often consulted on matters of public import, Mather saw his views on imperial policy regularly accepted and implemented by the General Court. When, at his prompting, the last synod in Puritan Massachusetts’s history was convened, he gave the opening address to the assembly, served as its moderator, and wrote its unanimous conclusion. He successfully led the movement on behalf of mass covenant renewal in the decade after King Philip’s War. And, of course, it was Increase Mather who finally helped tum the tide in favor of the half-way covenant. To a remarkable extent, the history of Puritan Massachusetts in its final years is identical to that of the minister of the second church of Boston.