The Devil in the Bedroom: Witches, Sex, and the Body

What could be more frightening to a Puritan than the Devil tempting your soul? The possibility that he wanted your body, too. Or your wife's.

To better understand Puritans and their views on women, sex, and evil, we travel back to the Early Modern Period, which began around 1500. In 1486, the authors of the Malleus Maleficarum, a notorious witch-hunting treatise, devoted an entire chapter to alleged sexual relations between witches and demons. They pondered the mechanics of these encounters, including questions about human seed, reproduction, and sexual pleasure. In other words, they wanted details, including whether “the actual venereal delectation was greater or less.” (Malleus Malleficarum, Part I, Question VI.) Apparently, even the Devil’s bedroom habits deserved theological scrutiny, not to mention a woman’s. It is important to state that men could also be tempted to carnal indiscretion: "Thirdly, it may happen that men or woman are by witchcraft entangled with Incubi or Succubi against their will." (Malleus Maleficarum, Part II, Question II, Chapter I), this post will focus on women. The authors make their attitude toward female sexuality brutally clear: “All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable.” (Malleus Malificarum, Part I, Question VI.) Yet early modern Europeans did not necessarily consider female sexual pleasure unnatural. Some medical traditions held that a woman’s sexual climax contributed to conception. Female pleasure could have a recognized place in discussions of reproduction, particularly within marriage. Only there was it allowed, given by the husband.

A woman’s desire could take on a very different meaning when authorities believed she had stepped outside accepted boundaries. In witchcraft literature, alleged sexual encounters with demons became evidence of a woman’s supposed alliance with evil. The body itself could become a crime scene. English witchcraft investigation sometimes searched women for supposed marks of the Devil or signs that a familiar spirit had suckled blood from them. Suspicion could turn intimate body details into supposed proof of an invisible pact.

These ideas were not confined to Europe. In Connecticut in 1662, Elizabeth Greensmith was accused of witchcraft, and later accounts attributed to her a confession involving sexual relations with the Devil. Such accounts demand careful scrutiny, but they reveal just how intimate the imagined relationship between witch and Devil could become.

That brings us to a fascinating question about the Puritans: when was sexual desire considered good, and when could it become dangerous? It’s a question I explore in Puritans & Sex, where the history of desire is far more complicated than the familiar image of the joyless Puritan might suggest.

A Little Death & Damnation continues through October. Until next time, keep questioning the past. It normally has receipts.

Notes & Sources1. Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, Malleus Malificarum (1486), Part I, Question VI, “Concerning Witches who copulate with Devils.” English translation by Montague Summers (1928).

2. Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, Malleus Malificarum (1486), Part II, Question IV, “Here follows the Way whereby Witches copulate with those Devils known as Incubi.” English translation by Montague Summers (1928).

3. Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, Malleus Malificarum (1486), Part II, Question II, Chapter 1, “Of the Ways in which Witches may Inflict Injury upon Men, and the Means by which they may be Cured.” English translation by Montague Summers (1928).

4. Julia M. Garrett, “Witchcraft and Sexual Knowledge in Early Modern England” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 13, no. 1 (2013): 32-72.

5. Orna Alyagon Darr, “The Devil’s Mark: A Socio-Cultural Analysis of Physical Evidence” Continuity and Change 24, no. 1 (2009).