Even though the Church and Medieval society at large condemned necromancy, never have its practitioners engaged in Satanic pacts or worshipped the devil. According to Sciencia, necromancers believed that they could only communicate with the spirits of the fallen through the power given to them by God. Piety was necessary for the magicians, who needed to purify themselves with fasting, chastity, and prayer before engaging in any spells. 

Necromancers were not unaware of the public and holy disapproval of their acts, but believed that their purity and concentrations achieved a state beyond good and evil. Necromancy was not always shunned: according to Brittanica, the souls of the dead were used by the Greeks and Egyptians as a “last defense” against evil spirits and magic. These traditions can explain why it was most often clergymen of all ranks who engaged in necromancy, rather than the roving bands of raving spell slingers we’re more likely to imagine today.