peripathetic

Bloody Salemite puritans... swings and roundabouts, really
"The Puritans saw and heard wondrous signs of God's purpose and the devil's menace: ominous lights in the sky... ...the magistrates abdicated some of their power, and most of their discretion... ... the silences in the documentary record indicate a purge of embarrassing documents by the authors or their descendants..."

Any of this sound familiar?