Origins of witchcraft

There are numerous explanations for the bloody practices of our ancestors who tortured and killed several thousands of innocents because they suspected them to be witches. Being a witch was then considered to be some sort of monster that belonged to the devil. 

Historians and other scholars have long debated the reasons for the witch trials. The majority of historians concur that there never were any such organized group of witches.

Mainstream historiography sees the reason for the witch craze in a complex interplay of various factors that mark the Early Modern period, including the religious sectarianism in the wake if the Reformation, besides societal, economic and climatic factors.