The Gospel of John, chapter 20, verse 23, said: "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained."
On August 1, 1692, they discussed on the second floor of Harvard University Library how to use their authority to pardon some people and put them on trial.
There was no doubt that the Salem Witch Trials Court was losing its authority. If witches had already signed a pact with Satan, that proved they had abandoned God and Christ. Making them place their hands on the Bible and swear an oath was meaningless. The methods of interrogation were also extremely ignorant. The girls acting as accusers behaved absurdly, and since the "miracles" involving Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor had never occurred, they more often screamed and fainted in court. Naturally, that could not fool Alden and his friend Bartholomew Gedney, men who had traveled far and seen the world.
The problem was that Attorney General John Newton was a novice. This Anglican Communion attorney general, who had once been a lawyer, was still unfamiliar with the colonies and did not possess the jurors' extensive knowledge of the community. The forty-eight jurors assembled by Stoughton were all veterans of the court. They had earned their seats through experience. When these jurors were summoned, the word "witchcraft" had never been mentioned, yet they knew perfectly well what they had come to do. Unlike Elizabeth Cary, Alden had been arrested. To ensure everyone could see him, Hassan ordered Alden to stand on a chair. That alone was humiliating. Once his hands were restrained, Alden had no choice but to stand on the chair.
Gedney urged Alden to confess, but Alden said he had no intention of pleasing the Devil with lies. He demanded that the