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People were extremely superstitious. Of course, there is, and never was, any such thing as a "witch", just poor people accused of witchcraft.

The punishment was a way for the Church/community to put fear into people and control them. The idea behind it was to torture the poor person into "confessing" to it, then murdering them by fire, drowning, etc. The Church officials told people that if they 'confessed', they could at least save their immortal souls. If they didn't 'confess', then the idea is that the person's body would die and the soul would go to hell instead of heaven.

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Q: What was the purpose of punishing witches in the middle ages?
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