The demonologists were responding to an extraordinary situation, though not the one they imagined. From about 1560 onwards, Europe was in the grip not of Satan and his minions, but of the Little Ice Age. Wet springs, cold summers, frequent hailstorms, crop failure and food shortages became the norm. Glaciers advanced down Alpine valleys. Lake Constance froze over in 1563 and again in 1671-3. Baffled and terrified by what they saw as unnatural weather, people sought explanations and a scapegoat in the supposed maleficent practices of witches. It has been shown that phases of particularly bad weather coincided with collective panics leading to persecutions.
-Ritchie Robertson, The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness 1680-1790
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