Ok I didn't expect such honesty regarding if you are interested in the topic you're talking about or not. At least you were honest I guess..
Well, hence I said "it was perfectly normal".
But likely they were used as needed scapegoats, now that old pagan sacrifices didn't fit the bill anymore.
Well, witch burning was ironically done by a group of Christians who hated the Inquisition, more common in North Europe and post Reform period. Given many pagan religions required female intervention, the fear of a pagan re-rise after 30 year war led the "reformed" to go beyond the Inquisition.
Excluding the Spanish one, the typical southern inquisition was more worried about warlocks, alchemists and what they considered heresy and distortions to the Canon (cases like the hussites or the cathars for example), also jews when it was politically and financially convenient.
On cats being killed for blame of black death, well, while technically it came from fleas in rodent animals (rats and the such), killing cats only helped to make it longer. Most likely a scapegoat. That said, during black death period people would have more worries than killing cats, given if you contracted the plague you had 3 days to live, and it was unknown how you contracted it, but surely some insolit incidents existed, given the warped state of mind populace had.
Ironically during Napoleonic period ("post superstition period") French Marshal Junot ordered dogs in Lisbon to be killed, due to being blamed for the diseases soldiers would catch. Given food leftovers and the such was eaten by the dogs, it would instead be left for bacteria, and the number of sick french soldiers increased. This would help in his defeat later on.
I guess history repeats itself even when beliefs are changed.
Well considering it was seen as an offense against Imperial Authority to openly refuse to worship Jupiter or openly denying any metaphysical atributes that rested on the Emperor, the Christians and Jews (among possibly others) fit the criteria.
Also Rome due to its time had a more tolerance sense on violence than us today, given back then a society too weak to fight would be brutally erased.
Adding that Saul persecuted and tortured Christians before becoming St. Paul, it's another hint.
But the most interesting one is the use of secret symbology and terms that Christians used among themselves to not out each other out (like the fish symbol). Necessity is mother of invention.
So yea there's plenty of reasons to support the view of persecuted Christians.