The Devil: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Darren Oldridge

Author:Darren Oldridge [Oldridge, Darren]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2012-05-30T16:00:00+00:00

For the evil one, this was a matter of strategy rather than desire. As a disembodied spirit, he was not impelled by physical needs. In this respect, his sexual activities were strangely ‘pure’. Among those scholars who considered Satan’s physiology, there was general consensus that he required a proxy body in order to interact with human beings. This could be a purpose-made fabrication composed of compressed air, or, according to some authorities, a possessed human corpse. Opinion was divided on the capacities of these improvised bodies. For example, could the Devil produce offspring through sex with mortals? The 17th-century theologians Martín Del Rio and Francesco Maria Guazzo maintained that this was possible, although Satan could not make his own semen. Guazzo described the process involved:

The Devil can collect semen from another place, as from a man’s vain dreams, and by his speed and experience of physical laws can preserve that semen in its fertilizing warmth, however subtle and airy and volatile it be, and inject it into a woman’s womb at the moment she is most disposed to conceive, making it appear to be done in the natural way.

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