Love in the Time of Demons: Thirteenth-Century Approaches to the Capacity for Love in Fallen Angels
Juanita FEROS RUYS
Original title: O amor em tempos demoníacos: diferentes abordagens no século XIII para a capacidade de amar dos anjos caídos
Published in Emotions in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean World
Keywords: Demons, Free will, Friendship, Natural love, lust.
Demons in the Middle Ages were primarily known as creatures that could feel only envy, anger, and malicious glee. But there remained an undercurrent in both scholastic thought and monastic tales that also understood demons as creatures once capable−and perhaps still so−of love. This paper examines the capacity for love and friendship attributed to demons in the thirteenth century. It shows how love could be seen as the motivating emotion in their original fall from Heaven, and explores the role love is subsequently thought to have played in both their relationships with each other and their amatory and sexual relationships with humans.