Sexuality in Christian demonology

Traditional demons of Christianity, such as Satan, Beelzebub, and Asmodeus are almost invariably assigned a male gender in religious and occultist texts.

John Milton, in Paradise Lost, specifies that although demons may seem masculine or feminine, spirits "Can either Sex assume, or both; so soft And uncompounded is thir Essence pure".

William of Auvergne conceived the idea that demons felt a particular and morbid attraction to long and beautiful female hair, and thus women had to follow the Christian use of covering it to avoid exciting desire in them.

Thomas Aquinas asserted that demons could not experience voluptuousness or desire, and they only wanted to seduce humans with the purpose of inducing them to commit terrible sexual sins.

Remy wrote that "demons do not feel sexual desire inspired by beauty, because they do not need it to procreate, having been created since the beginning in a predetermined number".

[citation needed] Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger (15th century), authors of the Malleus Maleficarum, adopted an intermediate position.

Demons acting as incubi and succubi with common people were passionate lovers that felt the desire of being with their beloved person and have sexual intercourse with them.

The first story of this type is narrated in the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit, in which the demon Asmodeus either fell in love with Sarah or felt sexual desire for her (or both).

Asmodeus never had sexual intercourse with Sarah, and intended to kill Tobias, her eighth husband, but was foiled by the angel Raphael.

[citation needed] Another of these stories about demonic lewdness and passionate love is told in The Life of Saint Bernard, written by Geoffrey of Auxerre c. 1160.

[12] It was only beginning in the 1150s that the Church turned its attention to defining the possible roles of spirits and demons, especially with respect to their sexuality and in connection with the various forms of magic which were then believed to exist.