Ann, my understanding of the "witch" burnings during the Middle Ages is that as Christians came into Europe to convert the agrarian, goddess-centered pagans, the first thing they did is to exhort men from their pulpits to beat their women to control them. Since the pagan women were more in more egalitarian relationships with their husbands, working side by side in the fields, the idea of male-dominated religions that started with Judaism and Christianity were foreign to them.
Your profile does not mention where you are from, but if you live in a large city I am pretty sure the video "The Burning Times" would be available at the central public library. This video, by the National Film Board of Canada, and written by feminist scholars and is full of original paintings and illustrations from the times, showing the way women were tortured and burned, is the basis of a lot of my conceptual understanding. The public broadcasting television stations in the San Francisco area show this film during pledge drives, but I understand this is not true in more conservative parts of America.
While the "witches" in Salem, Massachusetts seem to have been turned in by other women (or girls), I am not sure if this is as true in Europe. However, it is important that these women were tortured, so it would not be surprising if under great pain, they said whatever would make it stop.
Interestingly, Mary was a goddess figure at least until the twelfth century in Europe, and was much more popular and symbolic in the mythology than she is now. It was very typical of the Christians, as well as other religious belief systems, to come into a culture, emphasize something that was already prevalent to get a foot hold, and then become more narrow, ideologically speaking.
I really have some problems with women being tortured. It doesn't seem like a very religious act to me!!
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