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Christian demonology studies the power of humans on demons as another of its branches.
It can be first mentioned a reference to the authority Jesus gave to the apostles to expel demons in his name in Matthew 10:8 and Mark 6:13. This is the only biblical reference telling on such a power.
To Christian demonologists humans can oblige demons to do certain things using several methods. This is explained in several treatises that mention the means by which demons can be subdued by humans and obliged to serve them.
The three most known of these treatises are the Key of Solomon, Pseudomonarchia Daemonum and The Lesser Key of Solomon.
By means of conjurations, curses, rituals and amulets demons can be constrained. According to several grimoires, the seal of the demons can be used as a protection against them. By wearing their own seal as an amulet, the conjurer gains control on the summoned demon or demons. By means of another seal, they can be chained into a bronze vessel without any possibility of escape (Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, The Lesser Key of Solomon).
The invocation of God or God's power, the name of Jesus and certain prayers can oblige demons to flee as soon as possible, meanwhile symbols of other beliefs do not have any effect on them.
Demons are to be resisted. 1 Pet. 5:8, 9--"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour; whom resist steadfast in the faith." James 4:7--"Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." This resistance is best accomplished by submitting to God (Rom. 6:17-33; James 4:7), and by putting on the whole armor of God (Eph. 6:10-20).
Human race had always the need to control in some form what it cannot. Demons were out of control until some charm was created to "control" them. This is similar to Shamanic conjurations to stop storms or invocations to ask for rain.
But how can a human deal with demons without falling in sin? The same Christian church gives the answer. The Malleus Maleficarum established that obliging demons to do something in the name of God was not a sin, but the sin consisted in asking them for the favour; this idea, already accepted before, became an essential belief, and perhaps that is the reason by which most authors on demonology chose to add some text concerning the way to oblige demons in the name of God. Were they convinced of this, or they did it to avoid the persecution of the Inquisition after knowing what happened to those who did not take it into account?
It is difficult to think that a person could have been convinced that invoking God's name and purifying his/her soul, the harm he/she could do was going to work better; but it is also difficult to understand how the Inquisition admitted that obliging a demon to do something in the name of God could not be a sin, without explaining the nature of what the demon were going to do, because the Malleus Maleficarum does not explain if that nature was good, evil or what, and the Key of Solomon (and other grimoires), that explains how to cause harm to others and how to offer animal sacrifices to demons was known by the time the Malleus Maleficarum was written. Here we have a separation between what is allowed by the Christian (and especially Catholic) church in the name of God, and what is allowed by the Christian doctrine, especially by the ten commandments and Jesus commandment (Matthew 22:39).
See also Power of the demonsThe means to subdue a demon
Analysis
