What could make a a village execute someone for practicing magic or being possessed by the devil? Almost any witch trials in history were caused by a mob mentality situation after something bad and/or unexplainable happened. Could they really believe that children were being invisibly tortured? Yes apparently, when one person was accused, everyone became a suspect. Then a mass hysteria swept through the lands leading to mass executions of many innocent people.
Thesis: The Salem witch trials and the Elizabethan Era England Witch Trials were both based on that mob mentality that created a mass hysteria leading to many innocents being killed. These trials were very similar, based on their origins or what they were caused by, which type of people were accused, what type of execution they used to dispose of the accused, and finally how the trials ended and what happened after the trials.