The accused witches were sentenced to execution by burning when found guilty of heresy, and few escaped this conviction of the church, which practically controlled every aspect of human life, because "Fire itself is the element of purification, and nothing less than fire could negate the evil that was said to be witches."

The 16th century demonologist, Jean Bodin, stated in “De la Demonomanie des Sorciers”:

Even if the witch has never killed or done evil to man, beast, or fruits,
and even if he has always cured bewitched people, or driven away
tempests, it is that he has renounced God and treated with Satan that
he deserves to be burned alive...Even if there is no more than the
obligation to the Devil, having denied God, this deserves the most cruel
death that can be imagined.

The idea of burning could also come from the “Wicker man" of the pagan Celts. As reported in accounts by Julius Caesar and other Romans, the Celts would build a huge, cage-like structure in the shape of a large man made from wood or wicker. Inside it were stuffed living human beings. In bonfire-like fashion the "wicker man" was set ablaze, sacrificing the people inside.

However, all witches were not burned at the stake. It seems various countries had their preferred forms of execution. Hanging was preferred in England and the American colonies. In France, Scotland and Germany it was the custom to first strangle the condemned witches, as an act of mercy, before sending them to the hanging stand or garroting, and then cremating them to ashes.

Many witches were burned alive, needless to say. It is alleged by church authorities that many who were burned had either recanted their confessions at the last moment or did not repent for their crimes.

The burnings were executed by civil authorities because the Church would have no part in the murdering of people. An elaborate accounting system connected with the burnings was established which included expenses for the trail and the prisoner's incarceration in jail. Some trial in Scotland show that the burning of a witch consumed 16 loads of peat plus wood and coal. This debt was attached to the condemned person's estate or relatives.

A witch burning was a great public spectacle. Most of the village's population turned out to witness it. It has been pointed out that more burnings occurred in small villages than larger towns or cities because in the villages people were more superstitious. Usually the burning occurred shortly after sentencing. The interval between was just long enough to hire the executioner, construct the execution site and gather the wood or fuel.

However, in Scotland, the burning was preceded by days of fasting and preaching. The witch was strangled first, sometimes not completely. Then she was drugged unconscious or semiconscious to where she was tied to a stake or dumped into a barrel of tar and set afire. If the witch was not dead and managed to escape the flames then onlookers would shove her back into the fire.