What is more, by openly entering into combat with witchcraft, the Church inadvertently fostered the climate of hysteria on which the alleged witches and sorcerers thrived. The crucial Bull Summis Desiderantes , which launched the Church's official counter-offensive, was issued by pope Innocent VIII as late as 1484. If previously there had been reticence about witches' doings, now there could be none. Henceforth all Christendom knew that the legions of the Devil were led by evil women who anointed themselves with grease from the flesh of unbaptised children, who rode stark naked on flying broomsticks or on the backs of rams and goats, and who attended their nocturnal Sabbaths to work their spells and copulate with demons. Women were classified as weak, inferior beings, who could not resist temptation.
Torture is sanctioned as a means of securing confessions.
When egregious disparities appear between preaching and practice in the Roman Church, as evidenced by the luxury, dissipation, and the scandalous lifestyles of the clergy, the anguished response from pious followers is not to seek defensive refuge within the soul this tradition is little developed in Europe instead, their response is directed externally. A group of fervent Christians break off from the Church giving expression to a wider sense of scandal, return to the fundamentals, and rely on their own interpretation of scripture. These are very devout people indeed and interpret every statement in the New Testament literally. It is not the Greek spirit of reason or inquiry informing their protest the Greeks and their works have not yet dawned upon them a handful of theologians, taking the cue from Islamic philosophers, have only taken the first steps. These include Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, John Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham in the 13th and 14th centuries.