Why did people believe in witches in the 16-1700's?

Answer 1

the general public's idea of witches isn't entirely correct, they never flew on brooms, had green skin or tons of warts. and most likely no witches were accused or killed in the Salem Witch Trials. I think that people believe all that because of people tainting the stories and twisting things up to make it sound better to them.

Answer 2

Most people believed in witches because when things went wrong they needed someone to blame. They had people who went out and looked for witches and earned money by doing this.

To make a decision of whether someone was a witch or not, the authorities used to burn them, believing that if they were a witch they would survive; if they died, then they weren't. Also they would attach a weight to their feet and drop them in water: if they floated they were a witch; if they drowned, they weren't.

Witches were real though, not the same as what you see in movies though. It's a practice of healing someone with magic and potions (tea, ointment, etc.)
Witchcraft became popular through the printing of books and references to the forbidden practice of witchcraft in The Bible which was freely available in print.

Answer 3

because ordinary people had a lack of knowledge about witches making accusations easy to make and with little evidence. religion played a significant role too as if something bad happened to you it was gods way of saying i stopped protecting you and let the demon do his dirty work by ruining you. Witch finders seemed to know allot about witches when in fact they knew as muck information as every one else they were just clever in how they went about, and targeted vulnerable and disliked people.

Answer 4

Witches were seen as active agents of the devil. Not only were they blamed for agricultural failures, they were seen as the cause of any ailment or disease that was affecting the pious. For example, Charles II of Spain was so deformed from generations of inbreeding (his grandmother was related to him 42 different ways), that the only way he could rationalize his extreme physical and mental defects was to assume that his citizens were practicing witchcraft - this sparked a cruel and viscous period in the history of the Catholic Church and Inquisition.

Answer 5

Witches were being condemed because of various reasons because they had much power of which they could not even control themselves which triggered selfness.

They could do many things to satisfy there need no matter whether the consiquences could hate other people. The communities got fed up of these behaviors and that led to ban witchcraft but those few who did it for the best of the communities were being praised.

Answer 6

Conjure up potions to tend with a wide variety of problems. People thought they were evil, and in league with the devil, and could change forms.

Answer 7

They were believed to use magic for the devil, I think.

Answer 8

The general public's idea of witches isn't entirely correct.

Answer 9

For most people when they think about witches they think of evil and that the side with the devil , no one thinks witches are nice .

Answer 10

that they were vermin and that they deserved to be killed hence the witch hunts