How was witchcraft connected to fears about illness, crop failure, and dying livestock?

In premodern society, witchcraft was frequently invoked as a rationalization for misfortune that lacked an obvious cause. For the lower classes, the concept of maleficium—or malevolent sorcery—served as a primary explanation for mundane problems, including illness, crop failure, and the death of livestock.12

When individuals experienced such losses, they often sought someone to blame, leading to accusations against neighbors based on perceived slights or existing communal tensions. These accusations functioned as a means of understanding uncontrollable events or seeking revenge for personal grievances. While elite investigators often reinterpreted these local suspicions through the lens of diabolical conspiracy theories, the initial impetus for most trials was rooted in these immediate, practical concerns regarding health and property.12

It is important to recognize that these accusations were based on a fundamental misunderstanding of reality; no one ever fit the definition of a "witch," and the vast majority of those prosecuted were innocent victims of a culture that viewed such supernatural harm as a genuine threat.12