Actually, Johannes Kepler's mother was tried as a witch. Although he was afraid that some of his writings would be used by the prosecution (especially his Somnium, in which the narrator's mother is an old lady who does the whole herbal nostrums/communes with spirits thing), what mostly seems to have caused Mrs. Kepler to get into trouble was that she was an argumentative old lady from a family that had once been important in the neighborhood, but had since had a 2 or 3 generations-long run of alcoholism, foolhardy heirs, etc..