SOURCE: "The Mather Dynasty," in Main Currents in American Thought, Vol. I, 1927. Reprint by Harcourt Brace & Company, 1954, pp. 99-118.

In the following excerpt, first published in 1927, Parrington assesses Mather as a religious and politically influential figure.

… The Mathers were a singularly provocative family, capable, ambitious, certain to have a finger in every pie baking in the theocratic oven. From the emigrant Richard with the great voice, chief architect of the Cambridge Platform, to the provincial Cotton, the family combativeness and love of publicity put their marks on New England history. Of the three generations, certainly Increase Mather was the most generously endowed with capacity for leadership; an able man, practical and assertive, liking to be in the forefront of affairs, not wanting his light hidden under a bushel. An archconservative, he justified his ways to his conscience by the excellence of the heritage he strove to conserve. A...