Strange Case of the Amorous Incubus

In Christian accounts, the experiences of a woman who suffered the embrace of an incubus were not always unpleasant, but might become so if she resisted her lover. Ludovico Maria Sinistrari (1622-1701), for the past two centuries regarded as the leading authority on sexual unions between humans and demons, relates in his Demoniality the story of a woman named Hieronyma, a native of the Italian city of Pavia, who for several years was tormented by the poltergeist tricks of an amorous incubus. Sinistrari himself was a witness of the ongoing affair. His account offers insights into the nature of spirit love, although it is distorted by religious superstitions and prejudices.

After receiving and eating a mysterious cake for which she had not paid, and therefore had no right to eat, Hieronyma began to suffer the loving advances of a spirit.

The next night, whilst in bed with her husband, and both were fast asleep, she suddenly woke up at the sound of a very small voice, something like a shrill hissing, whispering in her ears, yet with great distinctness, and inquiring whether “the cake had been to her taste?” The good woman, thoroughly frightened, began to guard herself with the sign of the cross and repeatedly called upon the Names of Jesus and Mary. “Be not afraid,” said the voice, “I mean you no harm; quite the reverse: I am prepared to do anything to please you; I am captivated by your beauty, and desire nothing more than to enjoy your sweet embraces.”

Whereupon she felt somebody kissing her cheeks, so lightly, so softly, that she might have fancied being stroked by the finest feather-down. She resisted without giving any answer, confidently repeating over and over again the Names of Jesus and Mary, and crossing herself most devoutly. The tempter kept on thus for nearly half an hour, when he withdrew. The incubus would not take no for an answer. When Hieronyma persisted in repulsing him, he began to appear to her in the form of a handsome young man with golden hair, a flaxen beard, and sea-green eyes. He was dressed like a Spaniard. He even appeared to her while she was in the company of others, whispering loving words into her ear and kissing her hand, but only she was able to see or hear him—to everyone else the incubus remained invisible.

This gentle persuasion continued for several months. When the lady would not relent, the spirit began to steal valuables from her and beat her. The blows raised livid bruises on her face and body, but these only persisted for a day or two then quickly faded. More alarmingly, the incubus took to snatching Hieronyma’s infant child away from her arms when she was breastfeeding it, and hiding it upon the roof of the house, or on the edge of the gutter. The child was never injured.

The spirit played all the common tricks of poltergeists, upsetting the furniture, throwing around pots and pans, smashing dishes. One night it built a wall of flagstones around the bed of the sleeping woman and her long-suffering husband. In the morning they found themselves unable to leave the bed without the aid of a ladder. Another time when the husband was having a few friends over for dinner, the spirit caused the entire dining table, along with the feast and dishes laid upon it, to vanish into thin air, then later restored it with a loud crash, but set with different dishes.

After several months of this sort of nonsense, Hieronyma made a vow to St. Bernardine that she would wear the holy robe of his religious order every day for a full year if the saint would rid her of the incubus. The next day, as she was about to enter the church to pray, the robe was stripped from her body and whisked away on the wind, leaving her in the crowded street completely naked.

The Conclusions of Sinistrari

From the fact that incubi and succubi appear to be immune from exorcism, which he himself on a number of occasions observed firsthand, Sinistrari reached the interesting conclusion that incubi and succubi were not infernal demons of hell. He pointed out that the incubus does not actually tempt a woman to damn her soul, as the Devil was supposed to do, but merely to have sex with him.

Besides, the Evil Spirits, the incorporeal Demons who copulate with Sorceresses and Witches, constrain them to Demon worship, to the adjuration of the Catholic Faith, to the commission of enchantments, magic, and foul crimes as preliminary conditions to the infamous intercourse, as has been above stated; now, Incubi endeavour nothing of the kind: they are therefore not Evil spirits. . . . Now, if the evil Demons, subdued by our Lord Jesus Christ, are stricken with fear by His Name, the Cross and the holy things; if, on the other hand, the good Angels rejoice at those same things, without however inciting men to sin or offend God, whilst the Incubi, without having any dread of the holy things, provoke to sin, it is clear that they are neither evil Demons nor good Angels; but it is clear also that they are not men, though endowed with reason. What then should they be?”

Sinistrari speculated that the incubus and succubus were beings of rank intermediate between angels and humans. In lusting after men and women, they pollute themselves, even as a man is degraded by coitus with a beast; on the contrary, a man or a woman who has sex with an incubus or a succubus is elevated and exalted.

“From all that has been concluded above, it is therefore clear that there are such Demons, Succubi and Incubi, endowed with senses and subject to the passions thereof, as has been shown; who are born through generation and die through corruption, who are capable of salvation and damnation, more noble than man, by reason of the greater subtilty of their bodies, and who, when having intercourse with humankind, male or female, fall into the same sin as man when copulating with a beast, which is inferior to him. . .. But, when copulating with an Incubus, it is quite the reverse: for the Incubus, by reason of his rational and immortal spirit, is equal to man; and, by reason of his body, more noble because more subtle, so he is more perfect and more dignified than man. Consequently, when having intercourse with an Incubus, man does not degrade, but rather dignifies, his nature.”

This is a remarkably bold assertion for a Franciscan monk born in 1622, who served as Consultor to the Supreme Tribunal of the Most Holy Inquisition. Sinistrari was undoubtedly uncomfortable with it, but he had the courage to follow his own logical process to its inevitable conclusion. However, it is no accident that the manuscript of Demoniality remained unpublished and lost to the world until discovered in the possession of a London collector in 1872. It was first printed at Paris three years later. Sinistrari could never have published it during his lifetime.

If such spirits do degrade their nature by having sex with humans, it is a voluntary degradation on their part. They usually come to men and woman unsought, so no accusation of tempting the spirits to sin can be leveled at their human partners, anymore than we would accuse a beast of tempting the passion of a man who copulates with it.

Source: “Sexual Alchemy” - Donald Tyson, pages 12-15