In 16th-Century Europe, everybody was terrified of witches. Terrified enough to . . . well, you know the rest.
In the same century and for some time after, Europe was divided into Catholic and Protestant populations and each demonized the other. “I’ll weed the turnips when I’m ready, who are you, the Pope of Rome?” might actually have been used in Protestant countries, who knows?
What was Michael Caine’s line from the second Austin Powers movie? Something like, “I hate only two things in this world. Stupid, blind, unreasoning hatred of any single country or its people… and the Dutch!”