I always find works like the Dictionarire Infernal to be a fascinating trip down a rabbit hole. It's not even a compilation of folk demons (although I'm sure some appear in here), as much as it's an earnest D&D Monster Manual, or editing Wookiepedia. It's hard to imagine if I was writing it taking it as anything more than escapism.
Of course the flip side of this book is De Coelesti Hierarchia, which defines angelology with a hierarchy and different types to closely mimic contemporary feudal society. ("How can you have a kingdom, without a minor land barons? Let's make some up!")
If it was just scholarship that something, but it's no even that, it's more pseudo-scholarship.
To be honest, occultism is less religion and more straight superstition. Which is why it was generally shunned or outlawed even when religious authorities were in charge.
Of course the flip side of this book is De Coelesti Hierarchia, which defines angelology with a hierarchy and different types to closely mimic contemporary feudal society. ("How can you have a kingdom, without a minor land barons? Let's make some up!")
If it was just scholarship that something, but it's no even that, it's more pseudo-scholarship.
Religion is a hell of a drug.