Patriarchy was Springfield's Basic Principle of Government

“The people of Springfield didn't need to grasp the finer points of Pynchon's Theology to be unsettled to hear him voice heretical opinions. Heresy and Witchcraft were different sins; but they shared a diabolic source and were believed to exert a malign force that divided nations, neighbourhoods, even households - and as the Bible warned, 'if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand' 

Since the early years of The Reformation, orthodox clerics had feared The Devil slipping into the pulpit, from where he could corrupt impressionable souls.

Pynchon spoke The Truth, Moxon believed, yet inevitably the unlawfulness of his words served to undermine His Authority as a Magistrate and Leader in the eyes of The People.

Patriarchy was Springfield's basic principle of Government, and upon The Integrity of that principle everything depended. 

Now it was at risk.

Furthermore, this was the year of patriarchal failure, writ large in the disgrace of an English King beheaded for Treason. 

Springfield's faltering confidence in Pynchon, together with the sordid end of Charles I, in turn inflamed hostile feelings towards the town's most hopeless patriarch, Hugh Parsons.

When people were most agitated, and their families, churches, communities and polities off-kilter, then Witchcraft, which often seemed ethereal or dubious, became most plausible and real. This is how it felt across New England, in Springfield's public discourse and in the life of individuals.”