Cambridge Association

The Cambridge Association was an influential group of Congregational clergymen in the Boston area who regularly met in the Harvard College library between 1690 and 1697.

Although some these men worked at Harvard as tutors, fellows, and library-keepers, and thus may have been present in some capacity at meetings in the library, it is unlikely any joined officially before being ordained as a minister.

[2] On June 27 1692, during the height of the witchcraft trials, Cotton Mather scribed the question for the group to ponder and discuss at their next meeting in early August.

The question proposed was chosen by his father, Increase Mather: "Whether the devils may not sometimes have permission to represent an innocent person as tormenting such as are under diabolical molestations?

The question was discussed at the next meeting August 1, and in Increase Mather's handwriting the conclusion was recorded, "All did agree to the affirmative... [that false accusations can happen]... but that such things are rare and extraordinary especially when such matters come before civil judicature.

Parris' use of the word "delude" is also notable because this was a term long associated with skepticism and the Calvinistic doctrinal view opposed to a belief in the validity of acts of witchcraft.

The Massachusetts Historical Society acquired the record book in 1850[7] and have traced it back to original member Charles Morton who had also taken part in similar group in England called the Cornwall Association 1655-1659.

Despite its availability in the archives, important Salem historians Charles W. Upham and George Lincoln Burr do not seem to have been aware of it, perhaps because it was filed under Morton's name and begins in Cornwall, England.