Editing Cotton Mather (section)

==Early life and education==
[[File:Richard Mather.png|thumb|left|150px|Richard Mather]]
[[File:JohnCotton (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|150px|John Cotton (1585–1652)]]

Cotton Mather was born in 1663 in the city of Boston, the capital of the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]], to the Rev. [[Increase Mather]] and his wife Maria ''née'' Cotton. His grandfathers were [[Richard Mather]] and [[John Cotton (Puritan)|John Cotton]], both of them prominent Puritan ministers who had played major roles in the establishment and growth of the Massachusetts colony. Richard Mather was a graduate of the [[University of Oxford]] and John Cotton a graduate of the [[University of Cambridge]]. Increase Mather was a graduate of Harvard College and the [[Trinity College Dublin]], and served as the minister of Boston's original [[Second Church, Boston|North Church]] (not to be confused with the Anglican [[Old North Church]] of [[Paul Revere]] fame).  This was one of the two principal Congregationalist churches in the city, the other being the [[First Church in Boston|First Church]] established by [[John Winthrop]]. Cotton Mather was therefore born into one of the most influential and intellectually distinguished families in colonial New England and seemed destined to follow his father and grandfathers into the Puritan clergy.

Cotton entered Harvard College, in the neighboring town of [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]], in 1674. Aged only eleven and a half, he is the youngest student ever admitted to that institution.{{sfn|Silverman|2002|p=15}} At around this time, Cotton began to be afflicted by [[stuttering]], a [[speech disorder]] that he would struggle to overcome throughout the rest of his life.  Bullied by the older students and fearing that his stutter would make him unsuitable as a preacher, Cotton withdrew temporarily from the college, continuing his education at home. He also took an interest in [[medicine]] and considered the possibility of pursuing a career as a physician rather than as a religious minister.  Cotton eventually returned to Harvard and received his [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree in 1678, followed by a [[Master of Arts]] degree in 1681, the same year his father became Harvard President. At Harvard, Cotton studied [[Hebrew]] and the sciences.<ref>McNamara, R. (2019). Cotton mather, Puritan clergyman and early American scientist. ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/cotton-mather-4687706</ref>

After completing his education, Cotton joined his father's church as assistant pastor. In 1685, Cotton was [[Ordination|ordained]] and assumed full responsibilities as co-pastor of the church.<ref name="Sibley">{{cite book|last=Sibley|first=John Langdon|date=1885|title=Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Volume III|url=https://archive.org/details/sibleysharvardgr03sibl|location=Cambridge|publisher=Charles William Sever, University Bookstore |page=8}}</ref> Father and son continued to share responsibility for the care of the congregation until the death of Increase in 1723. Cotton would die less than five years after his father, and was therefore throughout most of his career in the shadow of the respected and formidable Increase.

When Increase Mather became president of Harvard in 1692,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Driscoll |first=Timothy |title=Research Guides: Harvard Presidents & Inaugurations: List of Harvard presidents |url=https://guides.library.harvard.edu/c.php?g=839611&p=6255264 |access-date=2023-09-05 |website=guides.library.harvard.edu |language=en}}</ref> he exercised considerable influence on the politics of the Massachusetts colony. Despite Cotton's efforts, he never became quite as influential as his father.  One of the most public displays of their strained relationship emerged during the Salem witch trials, which Increase Mather reportedly did not support.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Hovey | first = Kenneth Alan | year = 2009 | contribution = Cotton Mather: 1663–1728 | title = Heath Anthology of American Literature | volume = A | editor-first = Paul | editor-last = Lauter | place = Boston | publisher = Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | pages = 531–532}}</ref> Cotton did surpass his father's output as a writer, producing nearly 400 works.