Background
Daniel Spofford was one of the earliest adherents of Mary Baker Eddy (then known as Mary Baker Glover). Spofford was born in New Hampshire and grew up as a menial laborer and watchmaker's apprentice in eastern Massachusetts. [8] At 19, he enlisted in the United States Army and served in the American Civil War. [8] After the war, he worked in a shoemaker's shop in Lynn, Massachusetts, and around 1867 obtained copies of some of Glover's early writings on Christian Science. [8] [9] Spofford left Lynn to travel out west, but returned to Lynn in 1870 and met Glover. [9] [10] Spofford took one of Glover's classes in metaphysical healing in the early spring of 1875, and graduated in April. [10] [11]
Immediately thereafter, Spofford organized a group of Christian Science students to provide financial support to Glover (so that she might continue to teach them the tenets of her religious beliefs) and to rent a meeting space for them. [12] He also set up several offices around the area to practice Christian Science healing, and began calling himself "Dr. Daniel Spofford". [11] When Glover had difficulty finding a publisher for her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures , Spofford acted as publisher, while fellow students George Barry and Elizabeth Newhall financed the publication. [13] [14] Spofford even distributed handbills alongside Glover to promote the book. [13] He also introduced Glover to her future husband, Asa Gilbert Eddy. [15] Glover and Eddy soon married, and Spofford was asked to help arrange the ceremony. [16] The now-Mrs. Eddy continued to ask Spofford for assistance in handling the mental drain of her many students and the preparations for the second edition of her book. [17]
In the spring of 1877, while Eddy was vacationing, she and Spofford disagreed over the publication terms of the second edition of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. [18] [19] On January 19, 1878, Spofford was expelled from the Association of Christian Scientists on grounds of "immorality". [20] [21] Eddy then sued Spofford for unpaid tuition, but lost the suit. [22] Eddy and Spofford broke completely shortly thereafter. Modern commentators claim that Spofford felt shut out by Asa Eddy. [19] [23]
Role of Christian Science teaching in the case
In her writings, Mary Baker Eddy developed the concept of "malicious animal magnetism" (MAM), seemingly a form of hypnosis or possibly mental control or mental energy which could harm others. [19] [24] [25] Chapter V of the first edition of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was titled "Animal Magnetism Exposed", and explained how the mind can cure itself but also harm others ("mind crime"). [26] [19] [23] [27] [28] Eddy apparently believed that such "mind crimes" could be stopped by having people in close physical proximity to her so she could "intercept" these mental emanations. [26] [29] [30]
MAM proved to be a lifelong concern of Eddy's after 1878. [31] [32] She rushed a truncated, second edition of Science and Health into print in 1878 so that her thinking on the issue could become public as soon as possible, and her lectures paid increasing attention to the issue. [33] In 1881, a more complete, two-volume edition of Science and Health appeared, with the chapter on MAM greatly expanded and retitled "Demonology". [29] [33] (Later editions would remove this term from Science and Health.) [29]
Lawsuit
Lucretia Brown was a 50-year-old spinster who lived in Ipswich, Massachusetts, [22] a town about 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Salem, Massachusetts. An injury to her spine during childhood left her disabled, but she said Christian Science had healed her. [34] She suffered a relapse in 1877 and again in 1878, and accused Spofford of having interfered with her health through "mesmerism". [34] Her lawsuit stated: [35]
...that Daniel H. Spofford, of Newburyport, ... is a mesmerist, and practices the art of mesmerism, and by his said art and the power of his mind influences and controls the minds and bodies of other persons, and uses his said power and art for the purposes of injuring the persons and property and social relations of others and does by said means so injure them.
And plaintiff further showeth that the said Daniel H. Spofford has at divers times and places since the year eighteen-hundred and seventy-five wrongfully and maliciously and with intent to injure the plaintiff, caused the plaintiff by means of his said power and art great suffering of body and mind, and spinal pains and neuralgia and a temporary suspension of mind, and still continues to cause the plaintiff the same.
And the plaintiff has reason to fear and does fear that he will continue in the future to cause the same. And the plaintiff says that the said injuries are great and of an irreparable nature, and that she is wholly unable to escape from the control and influence he so exercises upon her and from the aforesaid effects of said control and influence.
At least one witness claims that Eddy's attorney drew up the complaint for Brown. [36] Eddy strenuously denied this. [33] [37] Some modern scholars have concluded that Brown acted without Eddy's influence, [29] [33] but others have asserted that Eddy was behind the suit. [26] [38] [6] [23] [39]
The trial at the Supreme Judicial Court in Salem opened on May 14, 1878. [36] [39] Judge Horace Gray presided. [40] Mary Baker Eddy and 21 other witnesses traveled to Salem to testify against Spofford. [21] [36] Judge Gray ordered Spofford to appear on May 17. [40] The case garnered widespread attention from the media, with articles appearing in the Boston Globe, Newburyport Herald , and Salem Observer . [38] [29] [39] [40]
On May 17, Amos Noyes, Spofford's attorney (appearing on behalf of his client who did not attend the trial), filed a demurrer with the court, arguing that there was no question in equity and that the court had no jurisdiction in the case. [41]
Brown's attorney, Edward Arens, claimed that mesmerism was an acknowledged fact and challenged the demurrer. [42] Judge Gray dismissed the case, noting the claim was vague and the complaint "framed without a knowledge of the law of equity." [38] [42] The court ruled it was not clear how it could prevent such mental control, even if it were to imprison Spofford. [23] Brown appealed the court's ruling, but the appeal was dismissed in November 1878. [42]
One critical observer called the trial "one of the most bizarre court-room sessions ever held in the United States." [43] Eddy was strongly criticized in the press over the case. [26]
Phineas Parkhurst Quimby was an American folk healer, mentalist and mesmerist. His work is widely recognized as foundational to the New Thought spiritual movement.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy is, along with the Bible, one of two central texts of the Christian Science religion. Eddy described it as her "most important work." She began writing it in February 1872, and the first edition was published in 1875. She would continue editing it and adding to it for the rest of her life.
Mary Baker Eddy was an American religious leader, Christian healer, and author, who in 1879 founded The Church of Christ, Scientist, the Mother Church of the Christian Science movement. She also founded The Christian Science Monitor in 1908, and three religious magazines: the Christian Science Sentinel, The Christian Science Journal, and The Herald of Christian Science.
Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices which are associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally known as the Christian Science church. It was founded in 1879 in New England by Mary Baker Eddy, who wrote the 1875 book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which outlined the theology of Christian Science. The book was originally called Science and Health; the subtitle with a Key to the Scriptures was added in 1883 and later amended to with Key to the Scriptures.
Goody Ann Glover was an Irish former indentured servant and the last person to be hanged in Boston as a witch, although the Salem witch trials in nearby Salem, Massachusetts, occurred mainly in 1692.
The Massachusetts Metaphysical College was founded in 1881 by Mary Baker Eddy in Boston, Massachusetts, to teach her school of theology that she named Christian Science. After teaching for almost seven years, Eddy closed this college in 1889 in order to devote herself to the revision of her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, but retained her charter and reopened the college in 1899 as an auxiliary to her Church.
The Christian Science Quarterly is a publication of the Christian Science Publishing Society that sets out the Bible lessons for all students of Christian Science. Each lesson serves as the Sunday sermon in church and is studied for the week preceding the Sunday on which it is read as the sermon.
A Reader in a Christian Science church is a member of the congregation who has been elected to serve in one of two positions responsible for church services. Each week's sermon in Christian Science churches is outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly, prepared months in advance, and is the same in all Christian Science churches, worldwide. As a lay church, the congregation elects readers from the congregation and they serve as readers for a set period of time. The sermons consist of passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and are studied as lessons during the week and read aloud to the congregation on the Sunday following. The readers are referred to as the First Reader and Second Reader, according to the order in which they initially speak during the Sunday services. First Readers also conduct the Wednesday evening testimony meetings.
The history of New Thought started in the 1830s, with roots in the United States and England. As a spiritual movement with roots in metaphysical beliefs, New Thought has helped guide a variety of social changes throughout the 19th, 20th, and into the 21st centuries. Psychologist and philosopher William James labelled New Thought "the religion of healthy-mindedness" in his study on religion and science, The Varieties of Religious Experience.
Julius A. Dresser was an early leader in the New Thought movement. Along with his wife Annetta, Dresser was the first proponent of the "Quimby System of Mental Treatment of Diseases", named after his mentor Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. Julius and Annetta were also the parents of prolific New Thought author Horatio Dresser, who, along with them, led a long-time dispute against Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy over whether she used Quimby's teaching unattributed in her writing.
The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science (1909) is a highly critical account of the life of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, and the early history of the Christian Science church in 19th-century New England. It was published as a book in November 1909 in New York by Doubleday, Page & Company. The original byline was that of a journalist, Georgine Milmine, but a 1993 printing of the book declared that novelist Willa Cather was the principal author; however, this assessment has been questioned by more recent scholarship which again identifies Milmine as the primary author, although Cather and others did significant editing. Cather herself usually wrote that she did nothing more than standard copy-editing, but sometimes that she was the primary author.
Georgine Milmine Welles Adams best known as Georgine Milmine, was a Canadian-American journalist most known for writing about Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science. Milmine, along with Willa Cather and others, worked on 14 investigative articles about Eddy that were published by McClure's in 1907–1908. One of the only major investigative works on Eddy to be published in her lifetime, besides Sibyl Wilbur's Human Life articles, the articles were instigated by Milmine: S. S. McClure purchased her freelance research before assigning a group of reporters to verify, expand and write it up.
Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, is a theory invented by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century. It posits the existence of an invisible natural force (Lebensmagnetismus) possessed by all living things, including humans, animals, and vegetables. He claimed that the force could have physical effects, including healing.
Calvin Augustine Frye was the personal assistant of Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910), the founder of Christian Science.
James Henry Wiggin was a Unitarian minister. He also worked as an editor and proofreader.
Sibyl Wilbur O'Brien Stone, best known as Sibyl Wilbur, was an American journalist, suffragist, and author of a biography of Mary Baker Eddy. She was a San Diego Branch Member of the National League of American Pen Women and a member of the New England Woman's Press Association.
Samuel Putnam Bancroft, also known as Samuel P. Bancroft, was an American Christian Scientist and an early student of Mary Baker Eddy.
Adam Herbert Dickey, was an author, member of the Board of Directors of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and a secretary to Mary Baker Eddy.
The Christian Science movement is a religious movement within Christianity founded by Mary Baker Eddy that arose in the mid to late 19th century and that led to the founding of The First Church of Christ, Scientist.
The "Next Friends" suit of 1907 was a lawsuit instigated by the New York World regarding Mary Baker Eddy, a religious leader from New England.
