Here follows the
Way whereby Witches copulate with those Devils known as
Incubi.
As
to the method in which witches copulate with Incubus
devils, six points are to be noted. First, as to the
devil and the body which he assumes, of what element it
is formed. Second, as to the act, whether it is always
accompanied with the injection of semen received from
some other man. Third, as to the time and place, whether
one time is more favourable than another for this
practice. Fourth, whether the act is visible to the
women, and whether only those who were begotten in this
way are so visited by devils. Fifth, whether it applies
only to those who were offered to the devil at birth by
midwives. Sixth, whether the actual venereal pleasure is
greater or less in this act. And we will speak first of
the matter and quality of the body which the devil
assumes.
It must be
said that he assumes an aerial body, and that it is in
some respects terrestrial, in so far as it has an
earthly property through condensation; and this is
explained as follows. The air cannot of itself take
definite shape, except the shape of some other body in
which it is included. And in that case it is not bound
by its own limits, but by those of something else; and
one part of the air continues into the next part.
Therefore he cannot simply assume an aerial body as
such.
Know,
moreover, that the air is in every way a most changeable
and fluid matter: and a sign of this is the fact that
when any have tried to cut or pierce with a sword the
body assumed by a devil, they have not been able to; for
the divided parts of the air at once join together
again. From this it follows that air is in itself a very
competent matter, but because it cannot take shape
unless some other terrestrial matter is joined with it,
therefore it is necessary that the air which forms the
devil's assumed body should be in some way inspissated,
and approach the property of the earth, while still
retaining its true property as air. And devils and
disembodied spirits can effect this condensation by
means of gross vapours raised from the earth, and by
collecting them together into shapes in which they
abide, not as defilers of them, but only as their motive
power which give to that body the formal appearance of
life, in very much the same way as the soul informs the
body to which it is joined. They are, moreover, in these
assumed and shaped bodies like a sailor in a ship which
the wind moves.
So when it is
asked of what sort is the body assumed by the devil, it
is to be said that with regard to its material, it is
one thing to speak of the beginning of its assumption,
and another thing to speak of its end. For in the
beginning it is just air; but in the end it is
inspisated air, partaking of some of the properties of
the earth. And all this the devils, with God's
permission, can do of their own nature; for the
spiritual nature is superior to the bodily. Therefore
the bodily nature must obey the devils in respect of
local motion, though not in respect of the assumption of
natural shapes, either accidental or substantial, except
in the case of some small creatures (and then only with
the help of some other agent, as has been hinted
before). But as to local motion, no shape is beyond
their power; thus they can move them as they wish, in
such circumstances as they will.
From this
there may arise an incidental question as to what should
be thought when a good or bad Angel performs some of the
functions of life by means of true natural bodies, and
not in aerial bodies; as in the case of Balaam's ass,
through which the Angel spoke, and when the devils take
possession of bodies. It is to be said that those bodies
are not called assumed, but occupied. See S. Thomas, II.
8, Whether Angels assume bodies. But let us keep
strictly to our argument.
In what way
is it to be understood that devils talk with witches,
see them, hear them, eat with them, and copulate with
them? And this is the second part of this first
difficulty.
For the
first, it is to be said that three things are required
for true conversation: namely, lungs to draw in the air;
and this is not only for the sake of producing sound,
but also to cool the heart; and even mutes have this
necessary quality.
Secondly, it
is necessary that some percussion be made of a body in
the air, as a greater or less sound is made when one
beats wood in the airs, or rings a bell. For when a
substance that is susceptible to sound is struck by a
sound-producing instrument, it gives out a sound
according to its size, which is received in the air and
multiplied to the ears of the hearer, to whom, if he is
far off, it seems to come through space.
Thirdly, a
voice is required; and it may be said that what is
called Sound in inanimate bodies is called Voice in
living bodies. And here the tongue strikes the
respirations of air against an instrument or living
natural organ provided by God. And this is not a bell,
which is called a sound, whereas this is a voice. And
this third requisite may clearly be exemplified by the
second; and I have set this down that preachers may have
a method of teaching the people.
And fourthly,
it is necessary that he who forms the voice should mean
to express by means of that voice some concept of the
mind to someone else, and that he should himself
understand what he is saying; and so manage his voice by
successively striking his teeth with his tongue in his
mouth, by opening and shutting his lips, and by sending
the air struck in his mouth into the outer air, that in
this way the sound is reproduced in order in the ears of
the hearer, who then understands his meaning.
To return to
the point. Devils have no lungs or tongue, though they
can show the latter, as well as teeth and lips,
artificially made according to the condition of their
body; therefore they cannot truly and properly speak.
But since they have understanding, and when they wish to
express their meaning, then, by some disturbance of the
air included in their assumed body, not of air breathed
in and out as in the case of men, they produce, not
voices, but sounds which have some likeness to voices,
and send them articulately through the outside air to
the ears of the hearer. And that the likeness of a voice
can be made without respiration of air is clear from the
case of other animals which do not breathe, but are said
to made a sound, as do also certain other instruments,
as Aristotle says in the de Anima. For certain
fishes, when they are caught, suddenly utter a cry
outside the water, and die.
All this is
applicable to what follows, so far as the point where we
treat of the generative function, but not as regards
good Angels. If anyone wishes to inquire further into
the matter of devils speaking in possessed bodies, he
may refer to S. Thomas in the Second Book of
Sentences, dist. 8, art. 5. For in that case they
use the bodily organs of the possessed body; since they
occupy those bodies in respect of the limits of their
corporeal quantity, but not in respect of the limits of
their essence, either of the body or of the soul.
Observe a distinction between substance and quantity, or
accident. But this is impertinent.
For now we
must say in what manner they see and hear. Now sight is
of two kinds, spiritual and corporeal, and the former
infinitely excels the latter; for it can penetrate, and
is not hindered by distance, owing to the faculty of
light of which it makes use. Therefore it must be said
that in no way does an Angel, either good or bad, see
with the eyes of its assumed body, nor does it use any
bodily property as it does in speaking, when it uses the
air and the vibration of the air to produce sound which
becomes reproduced in the ears of the hearer. Wherefore
their eyes are painted eyes. And they freely appear to
men in these likenesses that they may manifest to them
their natural properties and converse with them
spiritually by these means.
For with this
purpose the holy Angels have often appeared to the
Fathers at the command of God and with His permission.
And the bad angels manifest themselves to wicked men in
order that men, recognizing their qualities, may
associate themselves with them, here in sin, and
elsewhere in punishment.
S. Dionysius,
at the end of his Celestial Hierarchy, says: In
all parts of the human body the Angel teaches us to
consider their properties: concluding that since
corporeal vision is an operation of the living body
through a bodily organ, which devils lack, therefore in
their assumed bodies, just as they have the likeness of
limbs, so that have the likeness of their functions.
And we can
speak in the same way of their hearing, which is far
finer than that of the body; for it can know the concept
of the mind and the conversation of the soul more subtly
than can a man by hearing the mental concept through the
medium of spoken words. See S. Thomas, the Second
Book of Sentences, dist. 8. For if the secret wishes
of a man are read in his face, and physicians can tell
the thoughts of the heart from the heart-beats and the
state of the pulse, all the more can such things be
known by devils.
And we may
say as to eating, that in the complete act of eating
there are four processes. Mastication in the mouth,
swallowing into the stomach, digestion in the stomach,
and fourthly, metabolism of the necessary nutriment and
ejection of what is superflous. All Angels can perform
the first two processes fo eating in their assumed
bodies, but not the third and fourth; but instead of
digesting and ejecting they have another power by which
the food is suddenly dissolved in the surrounding
matter. In Christ the process of eating was in all
respects complete, since He had the nutritive and
metabolistic powers; not, be it said, for the purpose of
converting food into His own body, for those power were,
like His body, glorified; so that the food was suddenly
dissolved in His body, as when one throws water on to
fire. How in Modern Time Witches perform the
Carnal Act with Incubus Devils,
and how they are Multiplied by this Means.
But no difficulty arises out of what has been said, with
regard to our principal subject, which is the carnal act
which Incubi in an assumed body perform with witches:
unless perhaps anyone doubts whether modern witches
practise such abominable coitus; and whether witches had
their origin in this abomination.
In answering
these two doubts we shall say, as to the former of them,
something of the activities of the witches who lived in
olden times, about 1400 years before the Incarnation of
Our Lord. It is, for example, unknown whether they were
addicted to these filthy practises as modern witches
have been since that time; for so far as we know history
tells us nothing on this subject. But no one who reads
the histories can doubt that there have always been
witches, and that by their evil works much harm has been
done to men, animals, and the fruits of the earth, and
that Incubus and Succubus devils have always existed;
for the traditions of the Canons and the holy Doctors
have left and handed down to posterity many things
concerning them through many hundreds of years. Yet
there is this difference, that in times long past the
Incubus devils used to infest women against their wills,
as is often shown by Nider in his Formicarius,
and by Thomas of Brabant in his book on the Universal
Good, or on Bees.
But the
theory that modern witches are tainted with this sort of
diabolic filthiness is not substantiated only in our
opinion, since the expert testimony of the witches
themselves has made all these things credible; and that
they do not now, as in times past, subject themselves
unwillingly, but willingly embrace this most foul and
miserable servitude. For how many women have be left to
be punished by secular law in various dioceses,
especially in Constance and the town of Ratisbon, who
have been for many years addicted to these abominations,
some from their twentieth and some from their twelfth or
thirteenth year, and always with a total or partial
abnegation of the Faith? All the inhabitants of those
places are witnesses of it. For without reckoning those
who secretly repented, and those who returned to the
Faith, no less than forty-eight have been burned in five
years. And there was no question of credulity in
accepting their stories because they turned to free
repentance; for they all agreed in this, namely, that
there were bound to indulge in these lewd practices in
order that the ranks of their perfidy might be
increased. But we shall treat of these individually in
the Second Part of this work, where their particular
deeds are described; omitting those which came under the
notice of our colleague the Inquisitor of Como in the
County of Burbia, who in the space of one year, which
was the year of grace 1485, caused forty-one witches to
be burned; who all publicly affirmed, as it is said,
that they had practised these abominations with devils.
Therefore this matter is fully substantiated by
eye-witnesses, by hearsay, and the testimony of credible
witnesses.
As for the
second doubt, whether witches had their origin from
these abominations, we may say with S. Augustine that it
is true that all the superstitious arts had their origin
in a pestilent association of men with devils. For he
says so in his work On the Christian Doctrine:
All this sort of practices, whether of trifling or of
noxious superstition, arose from some pestilent
association of men with devils, as though some pact of
infidel and guileful friendship had been formed, and
they are all utterly to be repudiated. Notice here that
it is manifest that, as there are various kinds of
superstition or magic arts, and various societies of
those who practise them; and as among the fourteen kinds
of that art the species of witches is the worst, since
they have not a tacit but an overt and expressed pact
with the devil, and more than this, have to acknowledge
a form of devil-worship through abjuring the Faith;
therefore it follows that witches hold the worst kind of
association with devils, with especial reference to the
behaviour of women, who always delight in vain things.
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