Widespread belief in magic and witchcraft occurred in Europe and America in the seventeenth-century. These beliefs in magic ironically existed alongside the clergy and church religions at the beginning. The supernatural interventions, such as lightning that sticks one house but not another or an epidemic that reduced their enemies, were believed by many Puritans. The association with witches changed as more and more people saw witches as horrible supernatural beings that gained their powers through pacts with the devil. People began associating the harm of others, such as a baby born dead, or interference with natural processes, such as failed crops, as the work of the witches. The witches supposed powers challenged the men as heads of the
