can conceive when the man’s semen has been merely spent round about the natural place, without any loss of her virginity: Navar. consil. 3. num. 23. de frigid. & mal. lib. 4.this is vouched for by Navarro as being the opinion of St. Thomas. I have read also that, being rubbed by the herb called Nepeta, the cat conceives, and that this herb can supply the lack of a male.
Nevertheless, although all these reasons have some weight, Agrippa.I prefer to follow the opinion of those who believe that no issue can result from such connexions. For everyone knows that the abounding vitality and heat of the whole body is the cause of procreation: I mean the natural heat of a man. It is therefore impossible that an accidental heat, or one that is acquired merely by artifice, can be competent to produce such a result. Now this natural vitality and heat is lacking in a demon, as is also the heart which is its source; and I shall never believe that the Devil, after having borrowed a man’s semen, can preserve its first heat, considering that it has to be carried to another place, and that semen becomes cold as soon as it is ejaculated from its ducts. Besides, all witches agree that the semen they receive from the Devil is as cold as ice. And further, can we think that God, who is jealous of His honour and is glorified in His works, would be willing to endow with life and a soul the fruit proceeding from so abominable a copulation?
I go even further, and maintain that nothing will be born if the witch has coupled with a ram, a cat, a dog, or any other animal, by reason of the disproportion between them: Bodin, Demonom. III. 6.that if the contrary were true, there would not only be the case of the two women burned, one at Toulouse and the other at Paris, who were brought to bed by the