Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of BeliefUniversity of Chicago Press, 2002 - 451 pages On September 20, 1587, Walpurga Hausmännin of Dillingen in southern Germany was burned at the stake as a witch. Although she had confessed to committing a long list of maleficia (deeds of harmful magic), including killing forty—one infants and two mothers in labor, her evil career allegedly began with just one heinous act—sex with a demon. Fornication with demons was a major theme of her trial record, which detailed an almost continuous orgy of sexual excess with her diabolical paramour Federlin "in many divers places, . . . even in the street by night." As Walter Stephens demonstrates in Demon Lovers, it was not Hausmännin or other so-called witches who were obsessive about sex with demons—instead, a number of devout Christians, including trained theologians, displayed an uncanny preoccupation with the topic during the centuries of the "witch craze." Why? To find out, Stephens conducts a detailed investigation of the first and most influential treatises on witchcraft (written between 1430 and 1530), including the infamous Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches). Far from being credulous fools or mindless misogynists, early writers on witchcraft emerge in Stephens's account as rational but reluctant skeptics, trying desperately to resolve contradictions in Christian thought on God, spirits, and sacraments that had bedeviled theologians for centuries. Proof of the physical existence of demons—for instance, through evidence of their intercourse with mortal witches—would provide strong evidence for the reality of the supernatural, the truth of the Bible, and the existence of God. Early modern witchcraft theory reflected a crisis of belief—a crisis that continues to be expressed today in popular debates over angels, Satanic ritual child abuse, and alien abduction. |
Contents
Copulation with Demons as Carnal | 13 |
Why Women? The Malleus maleficarum | 32 |
How They Got Bodies | 58 |
Confronting the Difficulty of Belief | 87 |
Why Witches Fly | 125 |
12 | 131 |
Experiments with Witches | 145 |
The Theory of Witchcraft Power | 180 |
14 | 296 |
Witches Who Steal Penises | 300 |
From Exorcism | 322 |
Witchcraft Body and Soul | 343 |
Talking around the Unspeakable | 365 |
109 | 405 |
120 121 | 419 |
Works Cited | 421 |
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accused angels Apistius Aquinas Aquinas's Aristotle Augustine baptism believe Bible bodily body Bohemian Canon Episcopi castration Cathars Catholic cats cause century chap Christ Christian church claimed clerics confessions consecrated corporeal defendants demonic copulation demonic reality demonology demonstrate desecration devils Dicastes discussion dreams effects efficacy emphasis added eucharistic eucharistic miracles evidence evil exorcism experience explain faith Faustus happened Heinrich Kramer heretics holy host human Hussitism Ibid idea illusion imaginary imagination implies incubi infants inquisitor interaction with demons Jews literal logic magic maleficia maleficium Malleus maleficarum matrimony Mazzolini miracles natural necromancy Nider Nider/Biedermann Nider/Chène Peter physical Pico Pico's Pico/Alberti Pomponazzi possession praestigium present priest proof prove question Quétif ritual Sabbat sacraments Saint Satan says sexual sigs skepticism soul Spina spirit story Strix succubi Summa theologiae theologians theology theory things tion Tostado transubstantiation transvection treatise unbaptized unguent Vineti Visconti Walpurga witch-cats witch-hunting witchcraft theorists witches woman women words