Who is Samuel Parris from I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem and what is their importance?

Parris is the white male Christian pastor to whom Tituba and John Indian are sold by Susanna Endicott (once she realizes that her illness is the result of Tituba's "witchcraft"). Rigid, puritanical, judgmental and obsessive, he is the exact opposite in every way of Tituba and the life she strives to live, acting both from a place of judgment and a desire to at least dominate, if not destroy, that which his faith tells him is evil. In his close mindedness, lack of compassion, and lust for power, he comes across as an embodiment of what the narrative suggests is the essential hypocrisy of the Christian faith and those who practice it.