Devil, and that he was, in fact, guilty. One form of torture, though, was even more absurd. The witch's head would be forced underwater and kept there for a certain period of time. If she came up alive everyone said she had magical powers that kept her from drowning, and then she would be executed. If when they lifted her up she was dead then she was presumed innocent, but that was completely pointless. Either way the accused were killed. These were a few examples of preposterous tortures against the people. The credibility of these trials was challenged multiple times by many people. These people protesting against the trials varied. Some were villagers and some were authoritative figures in the community. One of these people was Increase Mather, who wrote Cases of Conscience. He stopped short of calling the possessed girls liars but instead called them "Deamoniacks" as "mouthpieces for the Father of Lyes." He also argued that "no juror can with a safe Conscience look on the Testimony of such, as sufficient to take away the Life of any Man even if the possessed normally knew their real tormentors." He said the supposed psychic abilities these girls came to have after being possessed should be ignored because God "has taught us not to receive the Devil's Testimony in any thing." Mather also claimed that confessing witches were also "not such credibly witnesses." He told the people that witches sometimes lied outright with no shame about their rituals and about the names of their various "Associates in that Trade." Other times Satan filled their heads to make them "dream strange things of themselves and others which are not so." This work is what eventually led to the end of the witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Finally, in October of 1693, so many people doubted the guiltiness of the witches that Governor Phips, governor of Massachusetts, decided to stop the trials and the executions. They realized that the trials should not co...
