Which minister wrote "Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits"?

Increase Mather wrote Cases of Conscience Concerning Evil Spirits.

Mather was a prominent Puritan minister, scholar, and president of Harvard College. He wrote the work in response to the Salem witch trials and the controversial evidence being used against the accused. The book examined alleged witchcraft, spirits appearing in human form, and claims that spectral evidence could prove a person’s guilt.

Published in Boston in 1693, the book argued that invisible or supernatural testimony should not by itself be sufficient to convict someone. That position was important because Salem prosecutors had relied heavily on accusations that a suspect’s spirit had attacked or appeared to witnesses. Mather still believed witchcraft was real, but he urged greater caution in judging individual cases.

The title is often confused with Cotton Mather’s Wonders of the Invisible World. Cotton, Increase’s son, wrote that separate account, which defended aspects of the trials. Increase Mather’s book instead became an influential criticism of the evidentiary standards that had helped drive the prosecutions.