PARRIS: A wide opinion’s running in the parish that the Devil may be among us, and I would satisfy them that they are wrong.
PROCTOR: Then let you come out and call them wrong. Did you consult the wardens before you called this minister to look for devils?
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 1. John Proctor challenges Parris’s authority for the decision to bring witchcraft expert Reverend John Hale into Salem to investigate. Proctor accuses him of going about things the wrong way and failing to consult the local community. Many locals believe that evil in the form the Devil is among them, Parris explains, and by bringing in Hale he hopes to prove them wrong. But the cowardly Salem minister did not himself speak out and declare them wrong, Proctor points out. The hysteria in Salem is greatly encouraged by Parris’s decision.