Perhaps one of the few points on which Christian demonologists agree is in the belief that witchcraft is a heresy, induced by demons, and that a belief in witchcraft is an essential part of the Christian faith.
To Christian demonology demons are particularly pleased with the practice of witchcraft (including black magic) because it involves many sins, including attendance at the Sabbaths.
According to the traditional beliefs on witchcraft and Sabbaths, the sins committed were human sacrifice; a vow of fidelity and offerings to the Devil; offences to God, Jesus, the cross and the sacraments; eating human flesh; incest and sexual relationships with animals (zoophilia) according to Pierre de Rostegny; profanation of the host (generally by sexual practices); a parody of the mass called Black Mass; conjuration of demons; invocations to them to obtain favours; divination; homosexuality; pederasty; having sexual relationships with demons; causing harm to other people or their possessions; bewitching people; causing demon possession; and more.
The Malleus Maleficarum intended by all possible means to prove that witchcraft was an essential belief in Christianity, induced by demons, and practised mostly by women. Its authors presented "concluding" proofs of their theory.
The problem with the "concluding" proofs in this case is that those proofs are not based on scientific facts but in mere beliefs, which vary according to time and place, and also to the ignorance of people (including high ecclesiastical authorities, because ignorance in this case has nothing to do with alphabetisation but with knowledge of science). When the book was written science was not based on the scientific method but in dogmas; most experimentation was forbidden, especially in medicine and chemistry (or alchemy), and other sciences were associated with alchemy, like physics. Philosophy, which is not currently considered a science because it cannot be demonstrated by means of the scientific method, was the mother of all sciences in that epoch, and the works of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas (inspired by Aristotle) were considered the basis for every accepted theory. Of course, the ecclesiastical authorities, who had more temporal power than their contemporary kings, were the men who decided what were going to be accepted or not, and who managed universities and studies of science.
Before the Malleus Maleficarum were written, Alfonso de Spina had already defined a category of demons whose specific function was to induce old women to attend the Sabbath, so the animosity toward women attributed to Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger existed before them.
After the Malleus Maleficarum became the Inquisition's handbook, many Christian demonologists wrote other works detailing how witches and warlocks had confessed to having practised witchcraft, making a diabolical pact, attending Sabbaths, and committing all the sins committed by them. These confessions were made during the witch trials and under torture. The Malleus Maleficarum started the worst persecution against people suspected of practising witchcraft, and innocence was very difficult to prove (or accepted by the tribunals).
Other authorities on the subject were Remigius, Peter Binsfeld, Jean Bodin, etc., causing hundreds of executions. Francis Hutchinson and Cornelius Loos, among others, wrote against the use of torture, persecutions, and testimony of children. Hutchinson ended the persecutions in England; Loos died burnt at the stake.
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