Why were witches burned at the stake and tortured?
To ‘purify their souls’ This despicable practice was rife when the Church had so much power and people lived in fear of their ‘souls’. Pretty much they were scared into going to church, no such thing as ‘free will’ At this time there were still feudal systems in place, and if the Lord of the Manor said ‘you shall be Christian because I am Christian’ there was no choice for the people. If they disagreed they would lose their homes and their livilihood – and often their lives. That was how life was at that time. The Church was trying to convert everyone via fear rather than education – at this time the Church and the Law pretty much the same thing, and both were about control of the people. Very few people could read or write and so learning was by verbal teaching, and the people doing the teaching were Christian so therefore the teachings were christian. Now because of the Church having so much power, and people being scared to ‘go against the grain’ in case their mortal Soul was put in
