The First Witch of Boston

The Massachusetts Bay Colony’s Puritan founders set out to create a society in which God takes center stage, and faith—not aristocratic birth as in England—is the primary form of social capital. Like many modern commentators on the Puritan worldview, the novel suggests that this project was doomed to fail from the outset. Any effort to mint social currency from the inherently private phenomenon of faith leads to performativity and hypocrisy. Several characters observe that what matters most in the community is not faith but the appearance of faith. Individuals who appear devout often have outsize social prominence and wield more power than their neighbors, even those who are, in reality, more ethical.

Thomas understands the distinction between public piety and private faith better than most because he was raised in a Catholic home. The Protestant Reformation’s stated goal was to create a new form of Christianity in which the problems of Catholicism—rigid clerical hierarchy, corruption, a too-cozy relationship between church and empire—would be addressed. Within Protestant communities, Catholicism was increasingly seen as suspect and even as a heretical misinterpretation of divine scripture. Thomas understands that within the Massachusetts Bay Colony in particular, rooting out hidden Catholic elements in society is one way for those in power to “create order in the wilderness,” and he realizes that if he is to practice his religion, he must do so clandestinely (30).