Sexuality in Christian demonology - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The sexuality of demons

Sumer

Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....

ians, Babylon

Babylon

Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

ians, Assyria

Assyria

Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...

ns, and Jews there were male and female demons (Jewish demons were mostly male, although female examples such as Lilith

Lilith

Lilith is a character in Jewish mythology, found earliest in the Babylonian Talmud, who is generally thought to be related to a class of female demons Līlīṯu in Mesopotamian texts. However, Lowell K. Handy notes, "Very little information has been found relating to the Akkadian and Babylonian view...

exist). In Christian demonology

Christian demonology

Christian demonology is the study of demons from a Christian point of view. It is primarily based on the Bible , the exegesis of these scriptures, the scriptures of early Christian philosophers and hermits, tradition, and legends incorporated from other beliefs.-Development:In monotheistic...

and theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

the matter of the sexuality of the demons is not clear. They may variously be considered male or female, but the general view is that they are masculine and feminine, while not actually being of either sex. This is the general view of the angels as well, who are generally considered sexless. One possible exception is the Grigori

Grigori

The Watchers is a term found in the Old Testament Book of Daniel, and later sources, which is connected to angels...

who, led by Azazel

Azazel

Azazel or Azazael or Azâzêl is a term used three times in the Hebrew scriptures, and later in Hebrew mythology as the enigmatic name of a character....

, descended on Mount Hermon and copulated with earthly women out of lust.

Gregory of Nyssa

Gregory of Nyssa

St. Gregory of Nyssa was a Christian bishop and saint. He was a younger brother of Basil the Great and a good friend of Gregory of Nazianzus. His significance has long been recognized in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Catholic and Roman Catholic branches of Christianity...

(4th century), as well as Ludovico Maria Sinistrari

Ludovico Maria Sinistrari

Ludovico Maria Sinistrari was an Italian Franciscan priest and author.-Biography:Born in Ameno, Italy, he studied in Pavia and entered the Franciscan Order in 1647...

(17th century), believed in male and female demons, or at the very least demons having male and female characteristics.

Other conceptions posit that beings of spiritual substance are gender-transcendent or otherwise non-gendered; the experience of a demon as having gender and directional sexual tendencies would be the result of the purposes of the demon in tempting, deceiving, or otherwise harming human targets. John Milton

John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...

upholds this view in Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...

, specifying that although demons may seem masculine or feminine, spirits "Can either Sex assume, or both; so soft
And uncompounded is thir Essence pure". It is of note that although God is predominantly experienced and self-revealed as male in the Hebrew Scriptures and Christian New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

, the Hebrew Scriptures and their Greek translation - the Septuagint - contain feminine allusions to God (e.g., "El Shaddia" referring to breast, hence a nurturing image; "Lady Wisdom

Wisdom

Wisdom is a deep understanding and realization of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgements and actions in keeping with this understanding. It often requires control of one's emotional reactions so that universal principles, reason and...

", often paralleled to the Word

Word

In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own...

of Gospel of John

Gospel of John

The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...

chapter 1, whose incarnated form is Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

; the Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...

has feminine references, etc.) although this is due to the Hebrew word form of "wisdom" being a feminine word, hence a masculine personification would not make sense for literary purposes. The notion that God is then gender-transcendent but self-revealed as male for purposes of revelation could also carry over to angels and demons.

By supporting the idea that demons could rape women and sexual relationships with them were painful, Nicholas Remy

Nicholas Remy

Nicholas Remy was a French magistrate who became famous as a hunter of witches comparable to Jean Bodin and De Lancre. After studying law at the University of Toulouse, Remy practiced in Paris from 1563 to 1570...

assigned a sadistic tendency to their sexuality.

Lust in demons

Lust in demons is a controversial theme for Christian demonology

Christian demonology

, and scholars disagree on the subject.

Early advocates of demon lust theory

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...

(5th century), Hincmar (early French theologian

Theology

, archbishop of Rheims, 9th century), Michael Psellus (11th century), William of Auvergne, Bishop of Paris

William of Auvergne, Bishop of Paris

William of Auvergne was a French priest who served as Bishop of Paris from 1228 until his death in 1249. He is also known as Guillaume d'Auvergne, Guilielmus Alvernus, or William of Paris.-Life:...

(13th century), Johannes Tauler

Johannes Tauler

Johannes Tauler was a German mystic theologian.- Life :He was born about the year 1300 in Strasbourg, and was educated at the Dominican convent in that city, where Meister Eckhart, who greatly influenced him, was professor of theology in the monastery school...

(14th century), and Ludovico Maria Sinistrari

Ludovico Maria Sinistrari

Ludovico Maria Sinistrari was an Italian Franciscan priest and author.-Biography:Born in Ameno, Italy, he studied in Pavia and entered the Franciscan Order in 1647...

(17th century), among others, supported the idea that demons were lustful and lascivious beings.

Early opponents of demon lust theory

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

(1st and 2nd centuries), Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...

(13th century), Nicholas Remy

Nicholas Remy

(16th century), and Henri Boguet (16th and 17th centuries), among others, disagreed, saying that demons did not know lust or desire and cannot have good feelings like love; as jealousy would be a consequence of love, they could not be jealous. Ambrogio de Vignati agreed with them.

Intermediate views

Heinrich Kramer

Heinrich Kramer also known under the Latinized name Henricus Institoris, was a German churchman and inquisitor....

and Jacob Sprenger (15th century), authors of the Malleus Maleficarum
Malleus Maleficarum
The Malleus Maleficarum is an infamous treatise on witches, written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer, an Inquisitor of the Catholic Church, and was first published in Germany in 1487...

, adopted an intermediate position. According to their book, demons did not feel love for warlock

Warlock

The term warlock in origin means "traitor, oathbreaker".In early modern Scots, the word came to be used as the male equivalent of witch ....

s or witches. This is because sexual relationships with them were a part of the compromise these men and women made together with the diabolical pact to honour them by humiliating themselves conceding what demons could sexually ask from them. Demons acting as incubi

Incubus (demon)

An incubus is a demon in male form who, according to a number of mythological and legendary traditions, lies upon sleepers, especially women, in order to have intercourse with them. Its female counterpart is the succubus...

and succubae

Succubus

In folklore traced back to medieval legend, a succubus is a female demon appearing in dreams who takes the form of a human woman in order to seduce men, usually through sexual intercourse. The male counterpart is the incubus...

with common people were passionate lovers that felt the desire of being with their beloved person and have sexual intercourse with him/her.

Augustine, Hincmar and Psellos thought that lust was what led demons to have sexual relationships with humans. William of Auvergne, conceived the idea that demons felt a particular and morbid attraction by long and beautiful female hair, and thus women had to follow the Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

use of covering it to avoid exciting desire in them. Tauler had the opinion that demons were lascivious and thus they wanted to have sexual intercourse with humans to satisfy their lewdness. Sinistrari supported the idea that demons felt sexual desire, but satisfaction and pleasure were not the only motivation to have sexual relationships with humans, being another reason that of fecundating women.

Plutarch wrote that demons could not feel sexual desire because they did not need to procreate, his work inspiring later Remy's opinion. Thomas Aquinas asserted that demons could not experience voluptuousness or desire, and they only wanted to seduce humans with the purpose of inducing them to commit "terrible" sexual sins. Remy wrote that demons do not feel sexual desire inspired by beauty, because they do not need it to procreate, having been created since the beginning in a predetermined number. Boguet said that demons did not know lust or voluptuousness because they are immortal and do not need to have descendants, and so they also do not need to have sexual organs, so demons could make people imagine that they were having sexual relationships, but that actually did not occur. Vignati agreed with Boguet saying that sexual relationships with demons were imaginary, a mere hallucination provoked by them, and Johann Meyfarth agreed too.

Pierre de Rostegny supported the idea that Satan

Satan

Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

preferred to have sexual intercourse with married women to add adultery to other sins like lust, but told nothing about his lust or that of his companions.

Demon lust in fiction works

Supporting the idea that demons had feelings of love and hate, and were voluptuous, there are several stories about their jealousy.

The first story of this type is narrated in the deuterocanonical

Deuterocanonical books

Deuterocanonical books is a term used since the sixteenth century in the Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity to describe certain books and passages of the Christian Old Testament that are not part of the Hebrew Bible. The term is used in contrast to the protocanonical books, which are...

Book of Tobit

The Book of Tobit is a book of scripture that is part of the Catholic and Orthodox biblical canon, pronounced canonical by the Council of Carthage of 397 and confirmed for Roman Catholics by the Council of Trent...

, in which the demon Asmodeus

Asmodeus

Asmodeus may refer to:* Asmodai, a demon-like figure of the Talmud and Book of Tobit* Asmodeus , Austrian black-metal band*Asmodeus , the name of several characters in Marvel Comics*Asmodeus...

either fell in love with Sarah

Sarah

Sarah or Sara was the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac as described in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. Her name was originally Sarai...

or felt sexual desire for her (or both). Out of jealousy, Asmodeus killed seven of her husbands before the marriages could be consummated. Asmodeus never had sexual intercourse with Sarah, and intended to kill Tobias, her eighth husband, but was foiled by the angel Raphael.

Another of these stories about demonic lewdness and passionate love is told in The Life of Saint Bernard
Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. Three years later, he was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val...

, written by a monk, and said that during the 11th century a demon fell in love with a woman, and when her husband was asleep he visited her, awoke the woman and began to do with her as if he were her husband, committing every type of voluptuous acts during several years, and inflaming her passion.

A story referring to demonic jealousy was told by Erasmus (16th century), who blamed a demon for the fire that destroyed a village in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

in 1533, saying that a demon loved deeply a young woman, but discovered that she had also sexual relationships with a man. Full of wrath, the demon started the fire.

Demons and sexual relations

Christian

demonologists agree in the fact that sexual relationships between demons and humans happen, but they disagree in why and how. A common point of view is that demons induce men and women to the sin

Sin

In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...

of lust

Lust

Lust is an emotional force that is directly associated with the thinking or fantasizing about one's desire, usually in a sexual way.-Etymology:The word lust is phonetically similar to the ancient Roman lustrum, which literally meant "purification"...

, and adultery

Adultery

Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...

is often considered as an associated sin. Pierre de Rostegny supported the idea that Satan

Satan

Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

preferred to have sexual intercourse with married women to add adultery to her sins.

Gregory of Nyssa

Gregory of Nyssa

said that demon

Demon

call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...

s had children with women, which added to the children they had between them, contributed to increase the number of demons.

It was considered that demons always had sexual relationships with witches and warlock

Warlock

The term warlock in origin means "traitor, oathbreaker".In early modern Scots, the word came to be used as the male equivalent of witch ....

s in the form of incubi

Incubus (demon)

and succubae

Succubus

, and some witches had sexual intercourse with a male goat

Goat

The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...

, as it was supported by Pierre de Rostegny. But common people, as it was believed, also were seduced by incubi and succubae, especially while they were asleep, and sometimes when they were awake, in the form of a beautiful man or woman that excited their desire to the point of not being able to resist the temptation, although the possibility of resistance always existed as asserted by Christian theologian

Theology

s, but the tendency to sin was stronger than their faith. Francesco Maria Guazzo

Francesco Maria Guazzo

Francesco Maria Guazzo, aka Guaccio, aka Guaccius was an Italian priest in Milan. He wrote a book, the Compendium Maleficarum , in which he cited numerous experts on the subject, among them Nicholas Remy....

offered detailed descriptions of sexual relationships between demons and humans.

Nicholas Remy

Nicholas Remy

, disagreeing with many theologians and demonologists, supported the idea that even if a woman opposed resistance to the demon he could rape

Rape

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

her, and wrote about a case of a young teenager that "was raped twice the same day by a demon, although she opposed resistance, and, not being her body enough mature to receive a man, she almost died because of the hurts". Catherine Latonia confessed this case to him in 1587. If that confession was an excuse to avoid giving the name of the rapist or the girl actually thought that a demon had raped her, will remain unknown. Sylvester Prieras agreed with Remy, supporting the idea that demons could not only rape common women but also nuns.

The Malleus Maleficarum
Malleus Maleficarum
The Malleus Maleficarum is an infamous treatise on witches, written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer, an Inquisitor of the Catholic Church, and was first published in Germany in 1487...

established that sexual relationships between demons and humans were an essential belief for Christians. But its authors considered also the possibility that demons provoked a false pregnancy

False pregnancy

False pregnancy or hysterical pregnancy, most commonly termed pseudocyesis in humans and pseudopregnancy in other mammals, is the appearance of clinical and/or subclinical signs and symptoms associated with pregnancy when the person or animal is not pregnant. Clinically, false pregnancy is most...

in some women, filling their belly with air due to certain herbs they made them drink in beverages during the Sabbaths

Sabbath (witchcraft)

The Witches' Sabbath or Sabbat is a supposed meeting of those who practice witchcraft, and other rites.European records indicate cases of persons being accused or tried for taking part in Sabbat gatherings, from the Middle Ages to the 17th century or later.- Etymology :The English word “sabbat”...

; at the time of giving birth to the child, a big quantity of air escaped from the woman's vagina. The false pregnancy was later explained by medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

.

Many Christian theologians (Martin Luther

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...

and Jean Bodin

Jean Bodin

Jean Bodin was a French jurist and political philosopher, member of the Parlement of Paris and professor of law in Toulouse. He is best known for his theory of sovereignty; he was also an influential writer on demonology....

among others) believed that demons could impregnate women but their children would have a short life and be good for nothing; other theologians (Francisco Valesio, aka Valesius, Tomaso Malvenda

Tomaso Malvenda

Tomaso Malvenda was a Spanish Dominican exegete and historical critic.-Life:He entered the Dominicans in his youth; at the age of thirty-five he seems to have already taught philosophy and theology...

and Johann Cochlaeus

Johann Cochlaeus

Johann Cochlaeus was a German humanist and controversialist.-Life:Originally Johann Dobneck, he was born of poor parents at Wendelstein , from which he obtained the punning surname Cochlaeus , for which he occasionally substituted Wendelstinus...

among others) thought that these children could be important characters, like Attila, Martin Luther

Martin Luther

, Melusine

Melusine

Melusine is a figure of European legends and folklore, a feminine spirit of fresh waters in sacred springs and rivers.She is usually depicted as a woman who is a serpent or fish from the waist down...

or the Antichrist

Antichrist

The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...

.

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo

, Pope Innocent VIII

Pope Innocent VIII

Pope Innocent VIII , born Giovanni Battista Cybo , was Pope from 1484 until his death.-Early years:Giovanni Battista Cybo was born at Genoa of Greek extraction...

, Albertus Magnus

Albertus Magnus

Albertus Magnus, O.P. , also known as Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, is a Catholic saint. He was a German Dominican friar and a bishop, who achieved fame for his comprehensive knowledge of and advocacy for the peaceful coexistence of science and religion. Those such as James A. Weisheipl...

, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

, Peter of Paluda, Martin of Arles

Martin of Arles

Martinus de Arles y Andosilla was doctor of theology and canon in Pamplona and archdeacon of Aibar, author of a tractatus de superstitionibus, contra maleficia seu sortilegia quae hodie vigent in orbe terrarum , a work on demonology in the context of the Early Modern witch-hunts...

and Ludovico Maria Sinistrari

Ludovico Maria Sinistrari

Ludovico Maria Sinistrari was an Italian Franciscan priest and author.-Biography:Born in Ameno, Italy, he studied in Pavia and entered the Franciscan Order in 1647...

believed that demons could fecundate women, but Ulrich Molitor

Ulrich Molitor

Ulrich Molitor was a legal scholar. He wrote one of the first books on witchcraft, De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus , published in 1489...

, Heinrich Kramer

Heinrich Kramer

Heinrich Kramer also known under the Latinized name Henricus Institoris, was a German churchman and inquisitor....

, Jacob Sprenger and Nicholas Remy disagreed.

According to Remy, sexual relationships with demons were painful, meanwhile many persons that confessed to have had those relationships told that they were satisfying.

Henri Boguet and Johann Meyfarth supported the idea that demons provoked an imaginary coitus because they did not have sexual organs, such as a penis

Penis

The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...

or a vagina

Vagina

The vagina is a fibromuscular tubular tract leading from the uterus to the exterior of the body in female placental mammals and marsupials, or to the cloaca in female birds, monotremes, and some reptiles. Female insects and other invertebrates also have a vagina, which is the terminal part of the...

Nephilim

In Genesis chapter 6 the "sons of God", presumed by some to be fallen angels, mate with human women, creating a race of super-beings called the Nephilim
Nephilim
The Nephilim are the offspring of the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men" in Genesis 6:4, or giants who inhabit Canaan in Numbers 13:33. A similar word with different vowel-sounds is used in Ezekiel 32:27 to refer to dead Philistine warriors....

.

This interpretation is disputed by some, who claim that "sons of God" in that text refers only to believers in the "Promised Seed" and that "daughters of men" refers to pagan women, particularly implying that descendants of Seth

Seth

Seth , in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is the third listed son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, who are the only other of their children mentioned by name...

were marrying descendants of Cain.

Under this interpretation, the Nephilim were not physical giants, but just men without conscience who were extremely evil and aggressive. This interpretation limits the direct roles of demons on the early human race to merely a role as being influential to human affairs, without actually engaging in sexual relations with humans themselves. Under this, the Nephilim were not part-man and part-demon, but were full-blooded men that were particularly susceptible to demonic influence over their actions.

The key argument defending this interpretation is that demons had no need to mate with humans and turn them against God, but only a need to stop the entire human race all at once from having faith that it would be promised a savior from sin

Sin

, which would guarantee the damnation of all humanity at once, thereby allowing Satan to fulfill his revenge against God for expelling him from Heaven.

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