While the East in the seventeenth century was sinking into darkness and chaos because of war, Europe was also undergoing the Witch Hunts. The case of the healer Michele Zope even became a subject of discussion for the Pope and the Inquisition. Certain directives arising from that case influenced the Inquisition's attitude toward wizards for a time.
Because of the Malleus Maleficarum and the fact that most victims were women, the Witch Hunts were also called witch hunts. Executing the male healer Zope represented "fairness," and the Inquisition no longer showed mercy to "outsiders" who claimed to stand with "non-magical humans," whether they truly were wizards, "guarantors of the harvest," or Werewolves "fighting for faith in God."
This was what the villagers wanted—a peaceful life. After so much madness, they hoped those "guarantors of the harvest" would either admit they were wizards or admit that their accusations against "wizards" were merely little tricks to swindle some money, deliberately creating conflict among people accustomed to peace.
Thus, those "guarantors of the harvest" who had originally fought wizards at night to prevent abnormal weather became an evil that needed to be eradicated alongside wizards. They were "villains," destroyers of domestic harmony, sowers of disputes and malicious slander.
That was what the Scourer from America had said. They were mercenaries, unlike the group that drove Garudas to capture wizards. Not all Muggles were like those who longed for peaceful lives and hurried to cut themselves off from everything connected to the Wizarding World. They protected people with "special missions," like Maria, intermarried with them, gave birth to children who likewise possessed magical powers, took pride in them, and then let them continue hunting wizards.
Even during the height of the Witch Hunts, Venice still handled all manner of controversial cases in the Inquisition