Parris views Putnam as a loyal supporter of his. Parris views himself as quite holy and important. That's one reason why John Proctor can't stand Parris. Because of Parris's pompous view of himself, he thinks that anybody who doesn't agree with him, must not be a good Christian. The following sequence is a good illustration.
Hale: Is every defense an attack upon the court? Can no one -?
Parris: All innocent and Christian people...
Parris views Putnam as a loyal supporter of his. Parris views himself as quite holy and important. That's one reason why John Proctor can't stand Parris. Because of Parris's pompous view of himself, he thinks that anybody who doesn't agree with him, must not be a good Christian. The following sequence is a good illustration.
Hale: Is every defense an attack upon the court? Can no one -?
Parris: All innocent and Christian people are happy for the courts in Salem! These people are gloomy for it. To Danforth directly: And I think you will want to know, from each and every one of them, what discontents them with you!
Essentially Parris says that anybody who supports his witchcraft hunt is innocent, and anybody that doesn't must be witches or bad Christians. It's an incredibly ironic line, because Miller makes it clear that Parris is the antithesis of holy, while characters like John, Elizabeth, and Rebecca are pillars of Christian holiness. Yet, they are accused of witchcraft.
Parris's view of Putnam is ironic, because Putnam is the one character that Parris should actually see as an evil influence on the church. Putnam's main motivation for crying witch is so that he can gobble up the farms now vacated by the accused witches. Parris supposedly should be a humble minister who loathes greed, but Parris is actually acting like a "best bud" to the greedy Thomas Putnam (the one guy that Parris should not like).
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