Invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was met with skepticism
There's a stereotype that witch hunts were “mass hysteria” (as Wikipedia calls them) affecting stupid backwards people (another common stereotype) or stupid believers (a stereotype with a militant atheism flavour). In these cases, we would see more witch hunts the earlier the age is or the stronger the church is. People weren't much more stupid than people today are. Moreover, it's a fairly recent era, I'd even say that the amount of significant differences between city dweller of that time and traditional peasant of that time might be bigger that between city dweller of that time and city dweller of today.<p>Witch hunts were guided by individuals feeling the opportunity, and, like in more recent purges, bureaucratic and societal structures were abused for some ends. Similarly, there was little resistance to the runaway machine because of the lack of alternative structures and ideas. In a way, they are early examples of dystopian stories realized.<p>Believing that nowadays we live in a different time and witch hunts are impossible is an extreme shortsightedness.