Maleficia

Maleficia is the plural of maleficium, a Latin term used in medieval and early modern European sources to denote harmful magic or sorcery. The concept designated acts believed to cause injury, illness, misfortune, or property damage through supernatural means, as opposed to benevolent magic.

In church, legal, and scholarly writings, maleficia was a category of witchcraft and sorcery associating wrongdoing with malevolent intent. The malefici—those accused of practicing maleficia—were subjects of inquisitorial proceedings and sometimes executed or punished, depending on the jurisdiction and period. In many sources, the boundary between maleficia and other forms of magic or heresy was not precise, and authorities sometimes equated malicious magic with diabolism or treason against the social order.

Commonly attributed forms of maleficia included curses, binding spells, love spells used to harm others, poisoning, and necromantic communication with spirits or the dead. In some accounts, practitioners were alleged to have made pacts with demons to increase their power, though not all cases required such associations.

Historically, maleficia reflects how communities defined harmful influence and attempted to regulate or suppress alleged sorcery. Later legal reforms, changes in theological emphasis, and the rise of rational-legal approaches gradually reduced the use of maleficium categories in criminal law. In modern scholarship, maleficia is studied as part of the history of witchcraft, magic, and demonology, often to understand social control, gender dynamics, and religious conflict in past societies.