Demoniality; or, Incubi and Succubi - Ludovico Maria Sinistrari

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE[5]

Father Ludovico Maria Sinistrari, of the Order of Reformed Minors of the strict Observance of St. Francis, was born in Ameno, a small town of the district of St. Julius, in the diocese of Novara, on the 26^th of February 1622. He received a liberal education and went through a course of humanities in Pavia, where, in the year 1647, he entered the Order of Franciscans. Devoting himself henceforward to tuition, he was first a professor of Philosophy; he then, during fifteen successive years, taught Theology in the same town, amidst a numerous concourse of students attracted from all parts of Europe by his high repute. His sermons preached in the principal cities of Italy, at the same time as they caused his eloquence to be admired, were productive of the most happy results for piety. Equally endeared to the World and to Religion, he had been favoured by nature with the most brilliant gifts: square frame, high stature, open countenance, broad forehead, sparkling eyes, high-coloured complexion, pleasant conversation replete with sallies of wit[6]; more valuable still, he was in possession of the gifts of grace, through which he was enabled to sustain, with unconquerable resignation, the assaults of an arthritical disease he was subject to; he was, moreover, remarkable for his meekness, candour and absolute submission to the rules of his Order. A man of all sciences[7], he had learnt foreign languages without any master, and often, in the general Meetings of his Order, held in Rome, he supported, in public, theses de omni scibili. He, however, addicted himself more particularly to the study of Civil and Canon laws. In Rome he filled the appointment of Consulter to the supreme Tribunal of the Holy-Inquisition; was some time Vicar general of the Archbishop of Avignon, and then Theologian attached to the Archbishop of Milan. In the year 1688, charged by the general Meeting of Franciscans with the compilation of the statutes of the Order, he performed this task in his treatise entitled Practica criminalis Minorum illustrata. He died in the year of our Lord 1701, on the 6th of March, at the age of seventy-nine[8].

INDEX

	Pages
Preface.	[v]
Demoniality: origin of the word.—Wherein that crime differs from those of Bestiality and Sodomy.—Opinion of St Thomas. N^rs 1 to 8.	[1]
Material intercourse with Incubi and Succubi is not a thing of imagination; testimony of St Austin. N^rs 9 and 10.	[15]
Wizards and Witches; their relations with the Devil; ceremonials of their profession. N^rs 11 to 23.	[21]
Artifices resorted to by the Devil for the assumption of a body. N^r 24.	[31]
Incubi do not assail but women. N^r 26.	[35]
Goblins have no dread of exorcisms. N^r 27.	[37]
Humorous story of signora Hieronyma: the enchanted repast. N^r 28.	[37]
Men begotten by Incubi: Romulus and Remus, Plato, Alexander the Great, Cæsar-Augustus; Merlin the Enchanter, Martin Luther.—The Antechrist to be born of an Incubus. N^r 30.	[53]
Incubi are not pure spirits: they beget, and therefore have a body of their own.—Remark concerning Giants. N^rs 31 to 33.	[57]
Angels are not all pure spirits: decision to that effect of the second Council of Nicea N^r 37.	[71]
Existence of rational creatures or animals other than man, and endowed, like him, with a body and a soul. N^rs 38 to 43.	[85]
Wherein do those animals differ from man? What their origin? Do they all descend from one individual, as men descend from Adam? Is there between them a distinction of the sexes? What are their manners, laws, social customs? N^rs 44 to 50.	[87]
What are the shape and organisation of their body? A comparison drawn from the composition of wine. N^rs 51 to 56.	[95]
Are those animals subject to diseases, to physical and moral infirmities, to death? N^rs 57 and 58.	[107]
Are they born in the original sin? Have they been redeemed by Jesus-Christ, and are they capable of beatitude and damnation? N^rs 61 and 62.	[119]
Proofs of their existence. N^rs 65 to 70.	[123]
Story of an Incubus and of a young Nun. N^r 71.	[139]
Story of a young deacon. N^r 72.	[145]
Incubi are affected by material substances: they therefore participate of the matter of those substances. N^r 73.	[149]
Instance drawn from the history of Tobit; ejection of the Incubus which vexed Sarah; cure of old Tobias. N^rs 74 to 76.	[151]
St Anthony falls in with a Faun in the wilderness: their conversation. N^r 77 to 84.	[161]
Other proofs of the corporeity of Incubi, especially the Manna of the Hebrews or Bread of Angels. N^rs 90 to 95.	[179]
In what sense are to be understood the words of Christ: “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold?” Apollo’s address to the Emperor Augustus: the end of the Gods. N^rs 96 to 101.	[191]
“The Great Pan is dead”, or the death of Christ announced to Fauns, Sylvans and Satyrs: their bewailing. N^r 102.	[203]
Solving of the problem: How can a woman be impregnated by an Incubus?—Comparison of Giants with mules. N^rs 104 and 105.	[207]
Wherein lies the generating virtue; why no more Giants are born. Luxuria in humido. N^rs 106 to 111.	[211]
Appreciation of the crime of Demoniality: 1^o committed with the Devil; 2^o committed with an Incubus. N^rs 112 to 114.	[219]
Is Demoniality more grievous than Bestiality?—Conclusion. N^r 115.	[223]
Appendix	[227]
Biographical Notice	[245]