responsibility. Inspired by the belief that they were on a mission for God to preserve the true church, these committed immigrants eagerly pursued the task of establishing a Christian utopia. God, they believed, had entered into a covenant with man to save his predestined “elect” status. Therefore, one of the possible causes of the massive witch hunt was the desire of people to establish the true Christian church and emphasize their special place in cosmos destroying those whose behavior was somewhat different from traditional Christian beliefs. As it was mentioned earlier in this paper, some witches had fortunetelling and healing skills. Also, some of them were old and ill and could not attend church. Besides, some women were unfaithful to their husbands; the fact that, also, contradicts Christian values.
The second reason was the desire of men to preserve their dominant status in the society. As it was stated earlier, the majority of those accused were women. Besides, women could strengthen its status in the society by inheriting property and gaining economic prosperity.
Furthermore, the lack of knowledge in the field of medicine was the third cause of the witch hunt. It is obvious that the doctors who were not able to explain the origin of illness could not admit their incompetence. Therefore, they did not want to ruin their reputation and simply stated that witchcraft caused the illness.
Finally, Salem farmers suffered from unfavorable weather conditions. Since they could not find scientific factors to explain natural occurrences they endeavored to find supernatural causes.
Thus, there can be various interpretations of the persecution of witches in the seventeenth century but we can certainly