l Council. At length, many of the Ministers, who
sympathized with the aggrieved brethren, felt it their duty to
interpose, and addressed a letter to Mr. Parris, giving him to
understand that they were of opinion he ought to comply with the demand
for a Council. This letter, dated the fourteenth of June, 1694, was
signed by several of the neighboring Ministers, and by James Allen, of
the First, and Samuel Willard, of the Old South, Churches, in Boston,
_but not by the Mathers_. On the tenth of September, a similar letter
was written to him, also signed by neighboring Ministers, and Mr. Allen,
and Mr. Willard, _but not by the Mathers_.

Not daring to refuse any longer, Parris, professedly yielding to the
demand, consented to a Mutual Council, but avoided it, in this way. Each
party was to select three Churches, to maintain its interests and give
friendly protection to its rights and feelings. The aggrieved brethren
selected the Churches of Rowley, Salisbury and Ipswich. Parris undertook
to object to the Church of Ipswich; and refused to proceed, if it was
invited. Of course, the aggrieved brethren persisted in their right to
name the Churches on their side. Knowing that they had the right so to
do, and that public opinion would sustain them in it, Parris escaped the
dilemma, by calling an _ex parte_ Council; and the Churches invited to
it were those of North Boston, Weymouth, Malden, and Rowley. The first
was that of the Mathers. That Parris was right in relying upon the Rev.
Samuel Torrey of Weymouth, is rendered probable by the circumstance
that, of the names of the fourteen Ministers, including all those known
to have been opposed to the proceedings at Salem, attached to the
recommendation of the _Cases of Conscience_, his is not one; and may be
considered as made certain by the fact recorded by Sewall, that he was
opposed to the discontinuance of the Trials. The Pastor of the Malden
Church was the venerable Michael Wigglesworth, a gentleman of the
highest repute; who had declined the Presidency of Harvard College;
whose son and grandson became Professors in that institution; and whose
descendants still sustain the honor of their name and lineage. From the
tone of his writings, it is quite probable that he favored the
witchcraft proceedings, at the beginning; but the change of mind,
afterwards strongly expressed, had, perhaps, then begun to be
experienced, for he did not respond to the call, as his name does not
appear