Why were witches burnt at the stake?

Answer 1

Witches were burned because it was easy and also because the devil is meant to live in flames, then witches(who were considered children of the devil) were 'sent back to their master.' I think another reason is that the church needed to destroy these children of the devil but churches weren't allowed to spill blood.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

America during that time was a highly Christian nation. The original colonies were primarily Protestant and they strived the live their lives according to God's Word. In The Bible, it is clearly stated that people who become wiches should be put to death. The colonists knew that they were evil and so they sought to destroy them.

Answer 3

They used to burn "witches" because they were seen as the work of the devil and that they caused diesese and misery wherever they lived, but to the knowledge of today, we know that witchs ar'nt real.

Answer 4

Most of the supposed witches persecuted by the Christian churches, during medieval times and for some centuries afterwards, were innocent women who were accused of unChristian activities. In some cases, the clergy accused rich women of witchcraft in order to relieve them of their wealth. In other cases, attractive women were offered the choice of becoming sexual favourites of the clergy or being tried as witches. Whatever practices were performed by the real witches, if any existed, they were holy compared with the Christian churches that persecuted them.

Answer 5

Catholic Answer
Witches were burned at the stake both to stop the evil that they were doing and to free all those affected by such evil. Unfortunately, although witchcraft and evil are both very real, the vast majority of those who were burned at the stake would appear to have not been real witches. Remember that real witches are not something magical, but simply real people who have entered into real pacts with Satan and evil. In reaction to the Horror of the persecutions that existed in many countries resulting in burning many old woman, people today do not believe in real evil. These is a tragedy. Remember that two wrongs do not make a right! For the story of real witches, please read Fr. Gabriele Amorth's books on Exorcists: An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories.

from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

Witchcraft. From the earliest recorded times the learned and experienced as well as the common people have believed in witchcraft (Pope Innocent VIII published a bull about it in 1484), but it was not until the 16th and 17th centuries that anything resembling a with-mania broke out; this was a frenzy of fear, ignorance and superstition which was very widespread but particularly violent in the Protestant countries of northern Europe. The reaction from this disastrous panic has done away with any belief at all in witchcraft among most educated people, but "it must be steadily remembered that the most brilliant minds, the keenest intelligences, the most learned scholars, the noblest names, men who had heard the evidence at first hand, all firmly believed in witchcraft" (G.B. Harrison); and the experience of the Church in barbarian lands forbids her to deny the possibility, and indeed actual occurrence, of the exercise of preternatural powers possessed in virtue of an alliance with evil spirits, usually with the intention of injuring others.

Answer 6

Well, it was not just women. Men were also killed. Keep in mind people were not as smart as us today, so they needed reasons to explain something- they chose witch instead of logical sense...

Answer 7

That's because strange as it may seem, many people believed that witches actually existed - and that they were dangerous.