During the Burning Times, 1,000CE to the 17th century, this period it is estimated that nine million men, women and children were tortured, some estimated that about 80% of the accused and 85% of those executed were women and children. They were tortured and killed under this incorrect and convenient, for the church, definition. Murder was a very profitable venture for the church. The practice of Witchcraft is a hard crime to disprove because it deals largely with the "unseen" worlds. Often victims weren't even Witches at all; rather they were people who didn't fit into the social norm. The accused were "guilty until proven innocent."
The accuser, often clergy or high-ranking citizens, would receive a fraction of the accused person's possessions as a reward, while the rest was reverted to the church. The accuser usually had a disagreement with someone of lower status. Many documents show that more than a few clergy were thought to have made a pact with the Devil and then cheat Him out of it in favor of the church. From this derived the practice of Demonology, commonly mistaken for Witchcraft. The propaganda of Witchcraft has grown so that it is always associated with Demonology, Satanism, the devil and almost all evil to this day.
During the Witch trials, victims were searched for the "Witch's Mark" a spot thought that familiars would suck blood from. Any mark, i.e., mole, freckle, birthmark, was enough to get a person hung.
