In this episode of the Malleus Maleficarum, we tackle the third question which Heinriech Kramer
asks, which is in accordance with the night demons known as the succubi and the incubi, and whether
they can produce children. The chapter is titled “Whether Children can be Generated by Incubi and
Succubi.” For those who are unaware of the concept of the Succubus and the Incubus, put simply,
a succubus was thought to be a female demon that preyed on male victims in the nocturnal hours.
Whilst in some variations the demon was thought to cause the male victim harm, the more recent
rendition of the legend is that the succubus took the form of a beautiful woman in order to seduce
her mate. It was also believed the repeated sexual intercourse with the succubus would eventually
cause the male involved to suffer from poor health that which could actually contribute to his death.
The incubus on the other hand was the male variant of the succubus and like his female counterpart,
he would manifest to women and impregnate them with the seed stolen by the succubus from her male
victims. Kramer essentially believed that this was how demons were able to sire children in the first
place, by transferring sperm from one vessel to another and that when the woman gave birth,
she gave birth to a deformed child or one who suffered from grave physical and mental illnesses.
These children were known as ‘cambions’ and they were also thought to be more
susceptible to the devil’s influence and thus, were more likely to do his bidding over God’s.
Kramer begins his argument by addressing the fact that it might not seem to be very congruent with
the Catholic Faith to believe that children can be produced by demons - the incubi and the succubi,
especially when you consider that God was the one who instituted human procreation by creating women
from the rib of man. It was then God who designed man’s ability to procreate with a woman,
who thus created Cain and Abel and it was through this method
that the descendants of Cain and later Seth would increase and multiply. With this in mind,
there was no other way for human beings to be created. So to factor in this concept that their
were nocturnal demons manifesting in the bedrooms of men to steal their seed and for male demons
to transfer this seed into the wombs of women was quite outlandish even for the time period,
where many believed that witches were casting spells at each other.
You’ll notice that Kramer in this text is keen to mention that female demons extract
the semen of a man and transfer it to a male demon, who then impregnates a woman.
At no point does Kramer propose the idea that the succubus gave birth to the child herself, nor does
the incubus appear to impregnate the woman with its own seed. This might seem like a small detail,
but it does highlight the fact that the demons were so powerless that they had to find a loophole
in God’s design of procreation in order to sire their children. They do not appear to be able
to mate with each other, perhaps showing us that God did not want there to be demons on the earth
and so did not incorporate the ability to conceive in their design. It also shows us
that demons are not only not as powerful as God, but also not as powerful as humans,
for unlike us, continuing their legacy and race requires quite a few hoops to jump through,
as opposed to just regular human intercourse. Furthermore, from a religious standpoint, these
extra steps that the demons take to procreate show that God had not intended for it to happen
and as a result of that, their process of childbirth seems tedious and unnatural.
Furthermore, this idea shows us that the demons need humans in order to continue their species,
whereas human beings do not require demons, thus establishing humanity as superior.
Kramer then focuses on an idea that the devil (and his succubi and incubi) cannot affect a man and
woman if they are married, for the ideal married couple under the eyes of God would be practicing
sexual continence in the first place and would only lay one another. Therefore, if a demon
appeared to either one of them with the proposal of sex, both individuals would be able to resist.
Additionally, if both individuals were in wedlock and were pious, moral people, then God
would protect them from such spirits and or give them the strength to overcome such a visitation.
Kramer also adds that to beget a child is the act of a living body,
but demons do not have a living body on the count that they do not possess a soul. Therefore,
it is impossible for them to produce a living being themselves,
hence why they must use human beings to achieve their goal. He also adds, however, that while
the succubi and the incubi do not possess such bodily power, the devil himself possesses great
spiritual power, that which is far greater than any bodily power that humans can muster.
In essence, what he is saying is that it doesn’t matter how physically strong a human being is,
nor his mastery over his body, for the devil’s spiritual power makes him superior in strength.
With this spiritual power that he holds, he can perform any spiritual action and can perform it
again and again, which is mostly imperceptible by humans anyway. He iterates that all bodily
powers and material things are on a lower scale than pure and spiritual intelligences - these
spiritual intelligences being not only the devil, but also the angels too. In this,
he suggests that the power of the angels and the devil is above us and so with this in mind,
the angels and the devil can both affect the world beneath them. In this context, he proposes that
the devil can collect and make use of the male’s semen because it belongs to the body and that
man is powerless to stop him in this endeavour. One idea to support this is that whilst the devil
isn’t here on earth manually extracting semen from men - because that would be pretty bold of
him - he tempts men into masturbation and or sex with the succubus in order to get men to release
their seed - that which the she-demons then transport to the incubus to insert into a woman.
But Kramer then proposes an argument against the idea of Succubi and Incubi in that it is
not possible for the demons to collect human semen, for it is produced by the living body.
Because of this, the demons cannot interact with it, for they are a spiritual essence
whereas the semen is physical. The idea here is that the devil and his minions cannot affect the
physical world unless God has given him permission to do so - like in the story of Job - and so,
he is actually powerless to enable this morbid transaction of semen from one body to a host.
Put simply, demons cannot physically touch the elements of our world and so, the whole
succubi/incubi premise is rendered as fantasy. Interestingly, this idea acknowledged by Kramer
contradicts the ideas from Saint Augustine in his third volume of the Trinity, who believed
that demons were indeed capable of collecting semen and utilising it to create their offspring.
This is quite interesting given that Kramer seems to quote from Saint Augustine quite considerably
and is seen to use him and his works to reinforce his own ideas. Kramer turns to
Benedictine monk Strabo in his commentary of Exodus where he also advocates the idea that
demons were capable of impregnating women, where he notes that the giants (possibly a reference to
the Nephilim in the Book of Enoch) were created by spirits - or the Watchers and so with this,
the spirits could indeed affect the mortal plane. For the sake of brevity, Kramer concludes that
demons perform all of their work consciously and voluntarily, for this is simply their nature.
He also comments that in this work that they perform, none of it can ever be for a good purpose
and that demons do not possess the ability to change what they are - they simply are evil.
As for their intelligence, they are said to have centuries worth of experience and so are
more than capable of outwitting humans should they need to do so. Kramer notes that demons
learned a lot of their characteristics from men - most particularly the more domineering attitudes
that make man unsavoury. The demons actually sin with pride and indulge in greed and envy,
those which they seek to pass onto mankind in order to encourage their downfall.
With these traits, Kramer notes that whilst the demons should not be held in the same fear
that one might hold God, they should nonetheless be revered given that there is simply no other
dark power on earth like theirs. This brings into question witchcraft itself,
in that despite the supposed power of witches in the 15th century,
it paled in comparison to the raw potential demonstrated by the demons.
Kramer continues to highlight the powers of the devil, in that though he might not be
able to physically harm mankind, he is a master in essentially getting them to harm themselves.
He is said to know the thoughts and desires of all men and can in some capacity alter our perception
to ‘substantially and disastrously’ conceive something that he has metamorphosed. In this
context, this might relate to the succubus appearing as a beautiful woman, instead of
her gruesome and wicked form that would not otherwise be able to tempt men to lay with her.
Moreover, the devil can also affect the intellect and will of a man, albeit indirectly,
to cause him to act in a debaucherous manner.
We are then privy to some interesting ideas from Kramer who quotes from the Saint Dionysius
that demons are indeed the natural enemy of the human race. He states that the demons are mad
in their nature and that in their sins of pride, envy and wrath - they are undisciplined and savage
creatures who should not be entertained. Whilst they are subtle in their wickedness,
they are eager to cause pain and will not hesitate to befoul the emotions of men and alter their
perceptions. They disturb the dreams of those who sleep - implying that nightmares are the
cause of some demonic activity and that they are responsible for the bringing of diseases and poor
health. Demons even have the ability to disguise themselves as angels, highlighting the fact that
they literally can take the form of anything they wish in order to sway men off the righteous path.
With their keenness for pride, they also incite the witches to worship them
and enjoy the adulation that these sorcerrors offer them,
for it likens them to a certain God status that they could not otherwise achieve.
Dionysius concludes that they seek mastery over the good and to convince them to do wicked things,
most notably witchcraft in the name of the devil. Ultimately, they lie in wait for the
destruction of mankind, but are more than willing to accelerate this with their own intervention.
Namely, Kramer indicates that they do this through wantonness, for it is through the flesh
that man is thought to sin the most and it is the flesh that man finds the hardest to resist.
This is what makes the Succubi and the Incubi so potent in their evil tasks, for it is not
the fact that they themselves are powerful, but that mankind gives them power for their
inability to resist such temptations and pleasure. Kramer signs off on the idea that Incubi and
Succubi do fit into a Catholic view and that if one does not believe in them or view them
as a conceivable threat, then they are maintaining the opposite view of the saints and in that sense,
are contradicting the holy words of Augustine and Dionysius. Kramer goes on to say that because of
the amount of reports of Succubi and Incubi, there had to be some merit to these demons being real
and that many who were trustworthy and god-fearing also vouched for their existence through their
own experience. He notes that these people have described seeing Satyrs and Fauns (those which
were actually Incubi) and that they had appeared to wanton women seeking to copulate with them.
With so many credible witnesses, Kramer determines that it would be impudent to deny
the existence of Succubi and Incubi and as noted earlier, doing so would have been ‘un-Catholic’.
But let me know what your thoughts were on today’s episode of the Malleus Maleficarum and as always,
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