Modest Enquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft

This balanced account of the Salem Village witchcraft trials, including the events leading up to them, was first printed in 1702. The book was written by Reverend John Hale, the pastor of the church in Beverly, Massachusetts. He concludes with the theory that it was Satan, not the witches, who used the manipulation of objects to afflict others. Rev. Hale had been the preacher in Salem since 1664, and was a participant in the trials, attending them and praying with the accused. This eyewitness account is one of the rarest, having been reprinted once in 1771 and again in 1973.