part motion and heat at their will.

* “Innocent VIII.”? The Bull ‘‘Summis desiderantes affectibus,” 9 December;' 1484, a translation of which will be found in my “Geography of Witchcraft,” pp. 533-6, as also prefixed to the ““Malleus Maleficarum,”’ John Rodker, 1928.
COMPENDIUM
BK. I, CH. X.
They can therefore create the appear- ance of sex which is not naturally present, and show themselves to men in a feminine form, and to women in a masculine form, and lie with each accordingly: and they can also pro- duce semen which they have brought from elsewhere, and imitate the natural ejaculation of it.
I add that a child can be born of such copulation with an Incubus devil. To make this clear, it must be known that the devil can collect semen from another place, as from a man’s vain dreams, and by his speed and experi- ence of physical laws can preserve that semen in its fertilising warmth, how- ever subtle and airy and volatile it be, and inject it into a woman’s womb at the moment when she is most disposed to conceive, making it appear to be done in the natural way, and so mingling it with the woman’s ova. Yet it is true that the devils cannot, as animals do, procreate children by vir- tue of their own strength and sub- stance: for neither between them- selves have they any propagation of their own kind, nor are they endowed with any semen which can in the least degree prove fertile. And how should they have semen of their own, since semen is a vital part of the corporeal substance, and (according to Sym- posianus in his Problems) a secretion from well-digested food; whereas devils are substances without corporeal bodies? We say, then, that a child can be born from the copulation of an In- cubus with a woman, but that the father of such a child is not the demon but that man whose semen the demon has misused. There are countless examples told by many authors (Jor- nandus, de rebus Gothicis, and Luit- prand) that the Huns were descended from the union of Fauns with Gothic witches. Chieza (Hist. Peru, II, 27) writes that in Spanish America a demon named Corocoton lies with women and that there are born child- ren with two horns. The Japanese claim that their Shaka is of the same
BK. I. CH. XI.
sort. Nor are there wanting those who place Luther * in this class. And not ten years ago a woman was punished in the chief city of Brabant because she had been brought to bed by a demon. It remains for us to reply to the arguments which are brought for- ward to contradict this belief.
The first argument is that of Remy as follows. Devils and human beings are of a different species, and therefore no issue can come of a copulation be- tween them. I answer that this argu- ment bears no weight; for from a horse and an ass, and from other differing animals, are born mules, wolves, leo- pards, panthers, etc. Also, the pro- creation is not ascribed to the demon, but to the man whose semen is used, as S. Thomas says (Quodlib. VI, art. 6 and 8
The second argument is that the devil has no part in life, but is the source of death; therefore he cannot be the author and origin of the vital act. I answer that this vital force is not in the devil, but in the semen it- self; just as the warming virtue of wine is not in the vat or the goblet, but in the wine itself. See S. Thomas as above, and the Malleus Maleficarum, I, 4.
The third argument is that witches confess that the semen injected by the devil is cold, and that the act brings them no pleasure but rather horror; and therefore no issue can come of such a union. This is the argument of Mark of Ephesus, who is followed by Remy, and it is based on the con- fessions of witches who say that such copulations are entirely devoid of pleasure, and that they rather feel the most acute pain in them. I answer that when the devil wishes to disguise himself in the form of a certain man, and would not have it known that he
* “Tuther.’? Malvenda, ‘‘De Antichristo”’ (1604), II, vt, certainly says of Luther: “Ex incubo demonio genitum haud leuibus futili- brisque coniecturis deprehensum est a plerisque, ut Coclaeus refert.’? Coclaeus is Fohann Do-
beneck, 1479-1552.
MALEFICARUM 31
is a devil, then he must as far as possible imitate every detail of true copulation between a man and a woman: and then, if he wishes any issue to result (which is very rare; for he never desires propagation for his own sake, since nothing of like nature to himself can be generated: although sometimes at least he humours the woman’s wish and seeks to make her pregnant by means of another’s semen), he must necessarily take care to provide everything needful for pro- creation. Therefore he seeks for fer- tile semen and, having found it, con- serves it and so quickly transports it that its vital essence is not wasted; and when need is, he injects it. But when he does not mean to beget issue he injects some substance in the likeness of semen, which is warm so that the deception may not be de- tected. As for the cold semen, that is only found in the case of witches who are fully aware that he is a devil. Moreover, as Sprenger says (Malleus