Sex and sin have a complicated history in Christian tradition. In the Middle Ages in Western Europe, Church theologians argued that sex itself was not evil, but enjoying it was. As Pope Gregory the Great wrote to Augustine of Canterbury around 600, “lawful intercourse should be for the procreation of offspring, and not for mere pleasure; to obtain children, and not to satisfy lust”.
Besides creating an awful lot of sinners, this line of thought had odd ramifications about purity rituals for both men and women.
For instance, men who had just had sex needed to clean themselves before going to church — unless they had absolutely no lustful thoughts during the act and were 100% in it for the kids. Same washing rules applied for men who had sex dreams or lustful thoughts in the day.
On the other hand, even though women’s bodies were physically marked by their sexual nature — they had periods, they gave birth, and their breasts made milk — their bodies did this regardless of whether they felt lust, so in that regard, they weren’t necessarily sinful. Therefore, Gregory argued that women ought to be able to attend church *even if* they were menstruating, nursing, or pregnant: think of how different a religion Christianity would have been had this not been allowed.
Gregory muses, “for all sin is consummated in three ways, that is, by suggestion, pleasure, and consent. Suggestion comes through the devil, pleasure through the flesh, and consent through the will”.
These ideas were promoted by men who had made vows to remain celibate: a very small percentage of the population. Yet their influence on Western culture has been profound.
Image is from a Medieval manuscript showing Mars and Venus having sex and getting caught by Vulcan, Venus’ husband.
Source(s): I.27, Bede, pp 81-83, _Ecclesiastical History of the English People_. MS Egerton 881, f 126r, France c. 1380 from the “Roman de la Rose”.
