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I would have to say the biggest factor was fear. Socially anyone who was different in anyway cultural or religiously or even just socially posed as a threat for the pure fact they didn't have the same thoughts as everyone else and that was considered dangerous. These "witches" would make herbal concoctions to cure disease and had different ideas about the spiritual world and people would think they could cast spells or enter the spirit world for revenge or just to cause pain. Who's to say some of them weren't a threat, if the witches were real... Something to think about.
Even so a lot of Innocent people were tortured and murdered just for having different ideas.
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