Magic Forums

Ok so in school we're taking a look at The Crucible. This story was about the real people involved in the real witchcraft trials. One of them is Mr. Hale. A doctor guy of some sort. Well it is known that Mr. Hale has books on witchcraft. Giving ways of detecting it, learning it, how one goes about it. But my question is, how accurate were those books? Did they fail to mention the fact that witchcraft needs a great deal of meditation? Were the judges and the court so blind to see this? Im just confused on why there was no knowledge of witchcraft and why it was so easy for the girls to fool everyone with the exception of john proctor and those few who knew what was going on. Id like to hear your views on this.