It is interesting that pursuit of witches and processes directed at them, for whome it was believed that were under the influence of evil forces, led to the execution of a large number of people who were accused under strangest charges and subjected to crule interrogation and torture by the inquisition. The inquisition served to eradicate any form of belief that opposed church, so it can be said that it acted as some form of ecclesiastical police. Wizardry was considered to be any conection between a man and the devil, which was performed by signing a contract with the devil. With that contract man was put under devils will, and in return he got special powers. Based on todays research of that question we can conclude that "mass hysteria" or phenomenon of witch hunt was present in western european countries, as well in Croatia, where mass prosecutions of so called heretics ended at the end of 18th century. There are numerous documents about those processes. Most of the people prosecuted were women, but sometimes on the prosecution chair would sit beggars and old folk, who had noone to stand up for them. Witches were victims of jealousy, humankind malice and ignorance. Believes in witches are based on beliefs which church developed in middle ages. In trying to make accused confess to its sins, they resorted to many kinds of torture, which led to burning alive at stakes.