@einjineer The church didn't promote the Witch Hunts, instead stating that witches and magic weren't real... they denied the existence of witches... wanting people to believe that only they alone had power...
But in the end, mobs and superstitious villagers and greedy people existed....
It doesn't matter what you promote, people still pick and choose what they want to believe. There is surprisingly more diversity in ancient Europe than people give it credit for, with different places having different beliefs and cultures...
Even in modern times, with the internet and information being easily accessible, there are catholic cultures that still have practices that are anti-catholic... in a such a situation...
The masses have a lot more influence than they actually get credit for. And culture cannot be fully controlled... it's why the Catholic church often adopted other cultures... because changing or removing a hugely ingrained religious or cultural belief is difficult.
And that doesn't mean there weren't any priests or members at all that didn't join (the Church is a large organization and there were going to be some that either didn't want to fight the mob, or were among the crowd).
The Church had influence, sure, but it didn't have absolute control (and frankly, they didn't need absolute control; just enough to get what they want; they were more interested in controlling the top political figures rather than the ignorant masses).