But it may be argued that devils take their part in this generation not as
the essential cause, but as a secondary and artificial cause, since they
busy themselves by interfering with the process of normal copulation and
conception, by obtaining human semen, and themselves transferring it.
Objection. The devil can perform this act in every state of life,
that is to say, in the matrimonial state, or not in the matrimonial state.
Now he cannot perform it in the first state, because then the act of the
devil would be more powerful than the act of God, Who instituted and
confirmed this holy estate, since it is a state of continence and wedlock.
Nor can he effect this in any other estate: since we never read in Scripture
that children can be begotten in one state and not in another.
Moreover, to beget a child is the act of a living body, but devils cannot
bestow life upon the bodies which they assume; because life formally only
proceeds from the soul, and the act of generation is the act of the physical
organs which have bodily life. Therefore bodies which are assumed in this
way cannot either beget or bear.
Yet it may be said that these devils assume a body not in order that they
may bestow life upon it, but that they may by the means of this body preserve
human semen, and pass the semen on to another body.
Objection. As in the action of angels, whether they be good or bad,
there is nothing superfluous and useless, nor is there anything superfluous
and useless in nature. But the devil by his natural power, which is far
greater than any human bodily power, can perform any spiritual action, and
perform it again and again although man may not be able to discern it.
Therefore he is able to perform this action, although man may not be able to
discern when the devil is concerned therewith. For all bodily and material
things are on a lower scale than pure and spiritual intelligences. But the
angels, whether they be good or whether they be evil, are pure and spiritual
intelligences. Therefore they can control what is below them. Therefore the
devil can collect and make use as he will of human semen which belongs to
the body.
However, to collect human semen from one person and to transfer it to another
implies certain local actions. But devils cannot locally move bodies from
place to place. And this is the argument they put forward. The soul is
purely a spiritual essence, so is the devil: but the soul cannot move a
body from place to place except it be that body in which it lives and to
which it gives life: whence if any member of the body perishes it becomes
dead and immovable. Therefore devils cannot move a body from place to place,
except it be a body to which they give life. It has been shown, however, and
is acknowledged that devils do not bestow life on anybody, therefore they
cannot move human semen locally, that is, from place to place, from body to
body.
Moreover, every action is performed by contact, and especially the act of
generation. But it does not seem possible that there can be any contact
between the demon and human bodies, since he has not actual point of contact
with them. Therefore he cannot inject semen into a human body, and therefore
since this needs a certain bodily action, it would seem that the devil
cannot accomplish it.
Besides, devils have no power to move those bodies which in a natural order
are more closely related to them, for example the heavenly bodies, therefore
they have no power to move those bodies which are more distant and distinct
from them. The major is proved, since the power that moves and the movement
are one and the same thing according to Aristotle in his
Physics. It follows, therefore, that devils
who move heavenly bodies must be in heaven, which is wholly untrue, both in
our opinion, and in the opinion of the Platonists.
Moreover, S. Augustine, On the Trinity, III,
says that devils do indeed collect human semen, by means of which they are
able to produce bodily effects; but this cannot be done without some local
movement, therefore demons can transfer semen which they have collected and
inject it into the bodies of others. But, as Walafrid Strabo says in his
commentary upon Exodus vii, II: And Pharao
called the wise men and the magicians: Devils go about the earth collecting
every sort of seed, and can by working upon them broadcast various species.
See also the gloss on those words (Pharao called). And again in
Genesis vi
the gloss makes two comments on the words: And the sons of God saw the
daughters of men. First, that by the sons of God are meant the sons of Seth,
and by the daughters of men, the daughters of Cain. Second, that Giants
were created not by some incredibly act of men, but by certain devils, which
are shameless towards women. For the Bible says, Giants were upon the earth.
Moreover, even after the Flood the bodies not only of men, but also of women,
were pre-eminently and incredibly beautiful.
Answer. For the sake of brevity much concerning the power of the devil
and his works in the matter of the effects of witchcraft is left out; for
the pious reader either accepts it as proved, or he may, if he wish to
inquire, find every point clearly elucidated in the second Book of
Sentences, 5. For hw will see that the devils perform all their works
consciously and voluntarily; for the nature that was given them has not been
changed. See Dionysius in his fourth chapter on the
subject; their nature remained intact and very splendid, although they
cannot use it for any good purpose.
And as to their intelligence, he will find that they excel in three points
of understanding, in their age-long experience, and in the revelation of the
higher spirits. He will find also how, through the influence of the stars,
they learn the dominating characteristics of men, and so discover that some
are more disposed to work witchcraft that others, and that they molest
these chiefly for the purpose of such works.
And as to their will, the reader will find that it cleaves unchangeably to
evil, and that they continuously sin in pride, envy, and gross covetousness;
and that God, for his own glory, permits them to work against His will. He
will also understand how with these two qualities of intellect and will
devils do marvels, so that there is no power in earth which can be compared
to them: Job xli.
There is no power on the earth which can be compared with him, who was created
that he should fear no one. But here the gloss says, Although he fears no
one he is yet subject to the merits of the Saints.
He will find also how the devil knows the thoughts of our hearts; how he can
substantially and disastrously metamorphose bodies with the help of an agent;
how he can move bodies locally, and alter the outward and inner feelings to
every conceivable extent; and how he can change the intellect and will of a
man, however indirectly.
For although all this is pertinent to our present inquiry, we wish only to
draw some conclusion therefrom as to that nature of devils, and so proceed
to the discussion of our question.
Now the Theologians have ascribed to them certain qualities, as that they
are unclean spirits, yet not by very nature unclean. For according to
Dionysius there is in them a natural madness, a rabid concupiscence, a wanton
fancy, as is seen from their spiritual sins of pride, envy, and wrath. For
this reason they are the enemies of the human race: rational in mind, but
reasoning without words; subtle in wickedness, eager to hurt; ever fertile
in fresh deceptions, they change the perceptions and befoul the emotions of
men, they confound the watchful, and in dreams disturb the sleeping; they
bring diseases, stir up tempests, disguise themselves as angels of light,
bear Hell always about them; from witches they usurp to themselves the
worship of God, and by this means magic spells are made; they seek to get a
mastery over the good, and molest them to the most of their power; to the
elect they are given as a temptation, and always they lie in wait for the
destruction of men.
And although they have a thousand ways of doing harm, and have tried ever
since their downfall to bring about schisms in the Church, to disable
charity, to infect with the gall of envy the sweetness of the acts of the
Saints, and in every way to subvert and perturb the human race; yet their
power remains confined to the privy parts and the navel. See
Job xli.
For through the wantonness of the flesh they have much power over men; and
in men the source of wantonness lies in the privy parts, since it is from
them that the semen falls, just as in women it falls from the navel.
These things, then, being granted for a proper understanding of the question
of Incubi and Succubi, it must be said that it is just as Catholic a view
to hold that men may at times be begotten by means of Incubi and Succubi, as
it is contrary to the words of the Saints and even to the tradition of Holy
Scripture to maintain the opposite opinion. And this is proved as follows.
S. Augustine in one place raises this question, not indeed as regards
witches, but with reference to the very works of devils, and to the fables
of the poets, and leave the matter in some doubt; though later on he is
definite in the matter of Holy Scripture. For in his
De Ciuitate Dei, Book 3, chapter 2, he says:
We leave open the question whether it was possible for Venus to give birth
to Aeneas through coition with Anchises. For a similar question arises in
the Scriptures, where it is asked whether evil angels lay with the daughters
of men, and thereby the earth was then filled with giants, that is to say,
preternaturally big and strong men. But he settles the question in
Book 5, chapter 23,
in these words: It is a very general belief, the truth of which is vouched
for by many from their own experience, or at least from heresay as having
been experienced by men of undoubted trustworthiness, that Satyrs and Fauns
(which are commonly called Incubi) have appeared to wanton women and have
sought and obtained coition with them. And that certain devils (which the
Gauls call Dusii) assiduously attempt and achieve this filthiness is vouched
for by so many credible witness that it would seem impudent to deny it.
Later in the same book he settles the second contention, namely, that the
passage in Genesis about the sons of God (that is Seth) and the daughters
of men (that is Cain) does not speak only of Incubi, since the existence of
such is not credible. In this connexion there is the gloss which we have
touched upon before. He says that it is not outside belief that the Giants
of whom the Scripture speaks were begotten not by men, but by Angels or
certain devils who lust after women. To the same effect is the gloss in
Esaias xiii, where the prophet foretells
the desolation of Babylon, and the monsters that should inhabit it. He says:
Owls shall dwell there, and Satyrs shall dance there. By Satyrs here devils
are meant; as the gloss says, Satyrs are wild shaggy creatures of the woods,
which are a certain kind of devils called Incubi. And again in
Esaias xxxiv,
where he prophesies the desolation of the land of the Idumeans because they
persecuted the Jews, he says: And it shall be an habitation of dragons, and
a court for owls. The wild beasts also of the desert shall meet . . . The
interlinear gloss interprets this as monsters and devils. And in the same
place Blessed Gregory explains these to be woodland gods under another name,
not those which the Greeks called Pans, and the Latins Incubi.
Similarly Blessed Isidore, in the last chapter of his 8th book, says: Satyrs
are they who are called Pans in Greek and Incubi in Latin. And they are
called Incubi from their practice of overlaying,
that is debauching. For they often lust lecherously after women, and
copulate with them; and the Gauls name them Dusii,
because they are diligent in this beastliness. But the devil which the
common people call an Incubus, the Romans called
a fig Faun; to which Horace said, “O Faunus,
love of fleeing nymphs, go gently over my lands and smiling fields.”