The problem of demonic corporeality in Early Modern England: Thomas Aquinas, Demonology, and Witchcraft Folkloric Ideas (c. 1587-1648)

Abstract

Thomas Aquinas´ ideas have frequently been considered as one of the intellectual cornerstones of early modern European witch-hunts. His revolutionary approach to the study of angels created the conceptual basis that allowed theologians and other members ofthe cultural elite to explain the physical and visible manifestations of demons in the material world, especially their interactions with human beings. Nevertheless, the penetration of Aquinas´ notions among Protestant demonologists have sometimes been doubted or considered imperfect. English authors of witchcraft tracts, for example, have been pointed out as continuators of Augustine of Hippo´s gnoseological pessimism or John Calvin´s minimalist position on the matter. This article aims to demonstrate that despite being Calvinists, English demonologists adopted Thomistic ideas about the nature and features of demonic bodies, one of the essential problems of Christian demonological theory. The central hypothesis is that English authors resorted to demonological concepts developed by Aquinas in the thirteenth century and synthetized by late medieval and early modern European demonologists to rectify popular ideas about demons delineated in witchcraft pamphlets published during Elizabethan and early Stuart periods.