Contrary to what appears in folk tales, works of literature and anti-necromancy writings, in not one of the surviving magic manuals does the pact with the devil exist, or mockery of Christian worship, or the necromancer’s submission to and adoration of Satan. Quite the contrary, in fact. It is the necromancer who demands the obedience of demons and other spirits thanks to the power conferred upon him by God. This is reflected in the definition of magic by an outstanding fourteenth-century Catalan magician, Berenguer Ganell:
‘Magic is the art that teaches one to exercise coercive control over good and evil spirits through the name of God, the names of the spirits themselves and of the things that exist in the world. Hence the art of magic is a science of words, because every name is a word ...Consequently, the magician must have a profound belief in God and before performing any operation he must purify himself with a period of chastity, fasting, prayer and perform his ablutions with holy water. In exorcisms or spells, using the most varied names he first calls upon God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, the Virgin Mary, the saints, the angels, the Last Judgment, Heaven and Christian rites, in order to control the spirits, just before also invoking the kings and lords of the demons. Therefore, the necromancer is not alien to Christianity, but he may, in any case, be considered a perverter of it and a heretic.
Moreover, as the detractors of necromancy are eager to denounce, it does not fail to be contradiction to invoke the power of God, directly or through the holiest figures and elements, for selfish or evil purposes, such as finding treasure or even harming someone by putting a spell on them. But it is clear that it did not seem that way at all to those who practised necromancy, given that the basis of it was the irresistible power of these words over demons and the terror they inspired in them. They believed that thanks to ritual purity and mental concentration they achieved a holy state beyond good and evil.
