Question Two of Chapter Two of the Third Decade
Whether among demons there is generation through seed, as among human beings and perfect animals
It is asked whether among demons there is generation from the male and female sex through seed, as among human beings and perfect animals.
To this it first appears that one must respond affirmatively.
For it is said in Genesis, chapter 3: “I shall place enmities between you and the woman, and your seed and her seed.” But generation occurs from seed. Therefore, and so forth.
Likewise Jesus said to the Pharisees in John, chapter 8: “When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own, because he is a liar and its father.” But no one is father of another according to the flesh except through true seed. Therefore, and so forth.
In response it must be said that Avicenna in Book VI of his Metaphysics held that from the first principle, that is, from God, only one thing in number proceeded immediately, namely one first intelligence or supreme angel.
And from this first intelligence a second proceeded, and from the second a third, and so on as far as the lowest, from which he held that souls are produced or were produced.
And in some measure this also appears in support of this opinion: just as God instituted the whole human race of rational creatures so that all should have their origin from one Adam—in order that among human beings there should be a greater bond of love, a greater union, and a stronger relation to the one who is simply first, from whom all things proceeded—so likewise, by the same reasoning, all the angels would appear rather to have had their origin from one first angel, namely Lucifer, and thus angels would have been produced by angels.
But the theologians reject this, denying that a creature can create and denying that the causes for the production of the angels from one first angel were similar to that for all human beings from one Adam.
This is so both because angels do not remain in the state of life in the same manner as human beings, and because kinship could not have been contracted among them, since there can be no substantial communication among them like that which exists in the generation of a human being, and because the angels did not have to merit beatitude through continued association as human beings do.
Aristotle also would deny that one separate intelligence can produce another through intellect and will, although the cabalists concede this, foolishly and without foundation.
Others imagined generation among demons in another way. Saying that demons are aerial animals, as has been said, they therefore also affirm that among them there is in its own manner a male and female sex, as among human beings and perfect animals. They say that demons generate young demons as human beings generate children.
In support of this is the fact that deceived gentility once worshiped not only gods but also many goddesses, some of whom were called mothers of gods and goddesses, such as Cybele and Samia. The poets also fabricated many things concerning the weddings and marriages of gods and goddesses, and concerning their debaucheries and adulteries, as is evident from their books.
But to this it must be answered that in none of these ways did that Lucifer, the supreme demon, possess or have the capacity to possess any seed or generation.
And it is said conclusively that a demon, through the assumption of any body whatsoever, could not generate a human being from a woman in such a way that the human being would truly be his son. For in that case the demon would have to be in itself and truly a corporeal animal, from whose substance a seminal severance would be made; but such a severance cannot be made from the substance of a spirit. Therefore, and so forth.
And I pointedly say “in such a way that he would be his son,” because, as is reported, a demon has sometimes procured the generation of a human being from a woman without the customary concurrence of a man, as they say of a certain Merlin born in England.
Hence Augustine also says thus in Book XV of The City of God, chapter 23:
And because there is a most frequent report, and many confirm that either they themselves have experienced, or have heard from those who had experienced and whose trustworthiness is not to be doubted, that Silvans and Fauns, whom the common people call incubi, have often been wicked toward women, and have desired and accomplished intercourse with them…
After certain intervening words he adds:
I do not dare rashly to define anything here concerning whether certain spirits are embodied in an aerial element—for even this element, when stirred by a fan, is perceived by bodily sense and touch—and can also suffer this lust, so that, in whatever way they can, they mingle sensibly with women.
These are his words.
Some say that giants were born in this way.
In whatever manner the matter may therefore be stated, it must be maintained that natural children have never been born, nor could have been born, from a woman and a demon.
To the argument from Genesis it is said that seed is taken in three ways.
In one way it is taken materially and literally, and in this way the text of Genesis is not understood.
In another way it is taken for those who fell on his occasion and were made demons.
In a third way it is taken for the tinder of original sin, which he sowed in all those who were to be born and first in the nature of the human being who first fell—the tinder and tares which the enemy, the man, oversowed in the field of God, that is, in the nature of fallen humanity.
To the second argument it is said that the Manichaeans took occasion from that word of the Savior to posit generation of demons through seed, and did so badly. For the relative pronoun “its” refers not to the demon but to the lie—as though Jesus were saying that the devil is a liar and its father, that is, the father of the lie—as Thomas expounds upon John.
Addition
Although a demon can be made an incubus and a succubus, receive male seed, transfuse it into a woman’s womb, and cause a child to be generated in the woman, nevertheless it is consonant with reason that this ought rather to be placed in doubt than that either position should be asserted. For Saint Augustine also appears to speak doubtfully.
Nevertheless, if you desire more things, see the Malleus Maleficarum.