I think today as a society we now know that witches are not real. Hopefully. But back then many people believed in them because you always have a out cast that wants to make a big deal about something and everybody falls right in to there scandals or what ever they are doing. Also since they though the witches had to deal with the devil and thought they would be come the devils slaves by selling there soul to them. And even today so people still get offense when they hear the word devil and they get freaked out because they think they might be going to hell.