Lust in demons is a controversial theme for
Christian demonology, and scholars disagree on the subject.
Early advocates Justin Martyr (2nd century),
Origen of Alexandria (3rd century),
Tertullian (2nd-3rd century),
Augustine of Hippo (5th century),
Hincmar (early French
theologian,
archbishop of Rheims, 9th century),
Michael Psellus (11th century),
William of Auvergne, Bishop of Paris (13th century),
Johannes Tauler (14th century), and
Ludovico Maria Sinistrari (17th century), among others, supported the idea that demons were lustful and lascivious beings. 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 to long and beautiful female hair, and thus women had to follow the
Christian 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, another reason being that of impregnating women.
Early opponents Plutarch (1st and 2nd centuries),
Thomas Aquinas (13th century),
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. 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, in reference to Plutarch's
Life of Numa in
Parallel Lives and Lactantius's
The Divine Institutes, stated that "it is absurd to believe that Demons are captivated by human beauty and grace, and have intercourse with mankind for the sake of carnal pleasure... they were created in the beginning of a certain fixed 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. By supporting the idea that demons could rape women and sexual relationships with them were painful,
Nicholas Remy assigned a sadistic tendency to their sexuality.
Intermediate views Heinrich Kramer and
Jacob Sprenger (15th century), authors of the
Malleus Maleficarum, adopted an intermediate position. According to their book, demons did not feel love for
witches. This is because sexual relationships with them were a part of the
diabolical pact these men and women made with
Satan. Demons acting as
incubi and
succubi with common people were passionate lovers that felt the desire of being with their beloved person and have sexual intercourse with them.
Pierre de Rostegny supported the idea that
Satan 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 other demons.
In literature 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 Book of Tobit, in which the demon
Asmodeus either fell in love with
Sarah 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, written by
Geoffrey of Auxerre 1160. He wrote 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 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. ==Sexual relations==