Whether Children
can be Generated by Incubi and Succubi.
At
first it may truly seem that it is not in accordance
with the Catholic Faith to maintain that children can be
begotten by devils, that is to say, by Incubi and
Succubi: for God Himself, before sin came into the
world, instituted human procreation, since He created
woman from the rib of man to be a helpmeet unto man: And
to them He said: Increase, and multiply, Genesis
ii, 24. Likewise after sin had come into the world, it
was said to Noe: Increase, and multiply, Genesis
ix, 1. In the time of the new law also, Christ confirmed
this union: Have ye not read, that he who made man from
the beginning, Made them male and female? S. Matthew
xix, 4. Therefore, men cannot be begotten in any other
way than this.
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.” |