You're misinformed if you think all the witchcraft trials had anything to do with "consorting with the devil". A lot of women in the records appeared to have b

You're misinformed if you think all the witchcraft trials had anything to do with "consorting with the devil". A lot of women in the records appeared to have been healers and midwives. Many of the records contain evidence of the practice of folk medicine/magic. It not only brings in the issue of unhappy customers. They also take place when the apothecary system was beginning to form in Europe, who were skilled practitioners of herbal medicine. It's not hard to presume these early healers had the knowledge to produce poisons, much like their successors the apothecarist. The majority of witchcraft trials were performed by the Catholics and most were done so for heresy. Predominantly for pagan practices. It was the English witchcraft trials, and those that occurred later in the Americas that focused on the aspect of Satan/Devil. However, some of these get confusing when according to the records the accused admit to murder and poisoning/killing livestock before they're tortured, and we could well be seeing violent schizophrenics who could well have believed they're possessed. I'm not saying that any of these would pass modern due process, but assuming away all credibility to all the claims is equally naive. There was high levels of scepticism present right from the beginning with records of trials being dismissed due to mental illness and 'unbalanced humours'. Assuming they're 100% fraudulent would be extremely naive. You're no more intelligent than they were, we've just been gifted with easier access to more information than they ever were.