In October, Governor Phips permanently shut down the Court of Oyer and Terminer due to both political and personal reasons. Much debate had been "roiling the colony's political and religious elite" since Phips had partially halted the proceedings on October 12 to wait for orders from England. A "political and theological firestorm" erupted between supporters and opponents of the trials. Supporters wanted the proceedings to continue without delay. Opponents were upset that arrests and prosecutions would continue during the many months it would take to receive word from the monarch. Phips realized that the best way to quiet the discontent was to dissolve the court entirely. On a personal level, Norton points out that "in his letters to England, Phips stressed his growing realization that apparitions could appear in the form of innocents." Such a realization must have weighed heavily on Phips when he thought about the enormous importance given to spectral evidence in the trials. Shortly after the trials, in mid-November 1694, complaints by William's political opponents caused the king to recall him to England. He died of
girls. Another early mistake Phips made was his allowance of spectral evidence in the Court of Oyer and Terminer. This decision alone condemned many innocent lives to death.