Sex with the Devil was a popular belief with both the inquisitors of the time and with the local culture. Nearly all of the women who confessed to having sex with the Devil (usually under torture), describe him the same way. He is usually dressed in black (or is black himself), he wears a hat with a feather in it, and when they have sex, his feet are like an animal (usually goat's feet) and his member is always cold. They describe the encounter as cold and harsh with no feeling at all.
But, could having sex with the Devil result in having offspring? Medical doctors back then argued that heat was necessary for conception and that "the friction of intercourse created the warmth which would release male and female seed, allowing them to join together" (Roper 98). Most people believed that the Devil would merely steal semen from men and use it to impregnate women. This belief was more believable and Balthasar Bekker stated that "There is not a Christian, be he Protestant or Paptist, who believes that spirits are truly capable of engendering" (Roper 102).
Why were women so eager to give in to having sex with the Devil? According to Roper, the Devil usually preys on women who are in despair and in dire need of assistance. "The Devil seems to understand her plight and he offers a way out", and "Demonologists were well aware of the power of melancholy to expose women to temptation"(Roper 93). Do you believe that most women who confessed were really very depressed? Or is there something else going on?
Sounds like the premise for multitudes of stories and movies about down-trodden women. They are in despair and that is when some unsavory character swoops in and takes advantage of them. I guess we see this in the case of the Devil during this intense period. I find it hard to believe that these women's confessions were solely based on a depressed state. Pondering this question, I think back to what Johann Weyer wrote about in his De praestigiis daemonum (1563) that "witchcraft confessions were... products of (mostly) female senile dementia," (Kors & Peter, 281). I personally feel that these two aspects - depression and senility - with some torture added in for good measure, played a significant role in shaping confessions in the early modern period. Thanks for the post George!
ReplyDeleteGeorge,
ReplyDeleteYou hit on some great points and it does seem like women are unhappy and therefore are imaging themselves with a more pleasurable lover. What I thought was really interesting about what Roper quotes about the diabolical sex not being able to produce offspring. As Roper states in Genesis 6:4 "There were giants in the earth those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men and women". If angels can reproduce with humans then one would imagine that demons would theoretically be able to reproduce with humans as well since demons and angels are made of the same 'spiritual matter'.
First of all, I love the title. You and Kevin both had great titles, I couldn't stop laughing after I read them. And after I read your post I really found the point about how the physicians of this time claimed heat was necessary for conception and it made me think of the theory of humors, at least that is what I think it is called, that claims men are hot and dry while women are cold and wet. This was used to explain the difference and superiority of men over women, apparently in some odd theory it was logical, and I just wondered if the prerequisite of heat for conception was related to this theory of the four humors.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that the confessions to sex with the devil were based on depression per se but was perhaps a cry for attention from the women and provided a way to explain unexpected pregnancies. However my primary theory in this is that most of the confessions were coerced through torture and reflects more on the attitude and perception of women from the interrogators perspective than the women themselves.
ReplyDeleteReally fun to follow this train of minds trying to figure out how to interpret the past. As some reminders, George pointed out that these women are being tortured. As you'll see in the next unit, that is a determining factor of major importance--more than senility or depression. While some narratives have been shaped (cold, cloven feet) in the way we all kind of imagine an alien, though we haven't seen one, the women's accounts are very different than the demonologists. That's why I pair these together in class. I want to make sure that class understands the difference from demonologist's accounts and the women's. Ben, yes!
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