It is 1500s, Europe is overrun with witches, perhaps due to lack societal standards and people being morally deprived/depraved or both. It's a huge problem, people fear going out at night, they believed witches are more of a problem than Ottomans or the plague. They decide to be tough on witches.
There was three legal standards for deciding if someone is guilty of witchcraft.
- The flotation test. Since witches reject the sacrament of baptism, water will reject their body. Take the accused, bound them and toss them into some water. If they float, they are a witch. If they sink, they are innocent. Quickly now mate, retrieve innocent woman. Therefore all floating bodies and flotation devices are witches.
- The devil's spot test. The devil enters someone's body to infect with witch-ness, and that point of entry is less insensitive to pain. Systematically do something painful to every spot on the accused's body. If some spot is relatively less(blimey !!! scientific jargon, it's 1500s. Heresy !!!) sensitive to pain than the rest, you have found a devil's spot and identified a witch :)
- The tear test. Tell the accused the story of crucifixion of Our Lord. Anyone not moved to tears is a witch(am I a wizard/witch ?).
