I believe most witches were nothing more then women living outside of society, living an anusual lifestyle and making brews with the psychedelic plants and mushrooms that were available at the time. Those plants generally gave a darker trip than the psychedelics we have available nowadays. That scared people off. They kind of were the hippies of the middle ages. People were so close minded back then that they just had to burn them. I kind of feel sorry for those women. I probably would have prefered living among them instead of among the "normal" catholic indoctrinated people.