Irony no.2 – this evil thing, best represented by Holy Men and their works

As time marched forward, numerous reports and treatments were issued by the Christian Church. Nearly all of the reliable research available from 1600–1800 A.D. was the work of deacons, priests, monks, and the like. Vampire scares continued to sweep through Europe, complete with vampire hunts and witch hunts, mass exhumations, legions of corpses staked and/or burned in an attempt to rid villages of vampirism. This became an area of intense study by the church.

The Malleus Maleficarium, published by the church in 1486, was meant to be the handbook for the discovery and eradication of witches. It also covered vampirism and their link to Satan, as well as how to deal with the evil beings. By the 1600s, this treatise was being used as the "bible" of witch and vampire hunters across Europe. The treatise also included some early vampire sightings.

Dom Augustin Calmet (1672–1757) was a monk of the Benedictine order. His work, Treatise on The Appearance of Spirits and on Vampires, attempted to divorce the vampire from its link to Satanism and demonic forces. He described them simply as dead bodies which rise up, and proclaimed them to be superstition. He was heavily chided for his radical, sweeping declarations. Still, this work stands on its own in a time in history when so many were caught up in the massive witch and vampire hunts of the Middle Ages.

Even long after the hysteria of the plague-riddled Middle Ages had died down, important research was being conducted into the vampire myth. Probably the best known chronicler of vampire stories in ages past is the legendary Montague Summers. He was ordained as a deacon of the Anglican church in 1908, but soon after left the Anglican church in favour of the Roman Catholic church. He conducted numerous studies into all things supernatural. His two best-known vampire publications, The Vampire: His Kith and Kin and The Vampire in Europe are unparalleled in terms of vampire research.

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