
The salacious Middle Ages - pepys
https://aeon.co/essays/getting-down-and-medieval-the-sex-lives-of-the-middle-ages
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jack6e
Whenever people suggest that 21st-century content (namely that distributed
through TV, but also in books) is somehow uniquely lascivious, I know they
have not read any popular late-medieval or Renaissance literature. Anyone who
has read Boccaccio's _Decameron_ or even parts of Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_
, such as the Miller's Tale, is purged of any imagined celibate medieval
period.

Sex is not new, which means humans have been doing it (!), thinking about it,
and talking/writing about it for a long time.

~~~
rhombocombus
A quick walk through Pompeii and Herculaneum will disabuse anyone of the
notion that ancient people were any less sexually motivated than modern
people. We're still the same animals we were back then.

~~~
drewblaisdell
> A quick walk through Pompeii and Herculaneum will disabuse anyone of the
> notion that ancient people were any less sexually motivated than modern
> people.

The ancient pagans have long been thought of as lascivious - that is still
consistent with the "celibate Middle Ages" narrative.

~~~
HarryHirsch
The _Carmina Burana_ are from the Middle Ages. They are full of life and not
celibate at all.

~~~
dredmorbius
The musical work dates from the 1930s, though yes, it is based on poems and
texts, by the same name, from ~1000 - 1100 AD. And quite bawdy / visceral.

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peterwwillis
Three things:

1\. Monks and priests were a lot less celibate than we are often told about.
They not only visited brothels, they were valued patrons (they paid more than
the average guy) and their monasteries even owned and operated brothels. Monks
got up to all kinds of naughty stuff. One story recounted by a monk told how a
woman seduced him and made love to him against his will, and it was only after
a period of many hours that he could recompose himself, and then flagellate
the woman for her indiscretion. (The husband, returning afterward, thanked the
monk for punishing his wife)

2\. Medieval 'damsels' and women in general were not the pious, virgin
innocents we imagine. This image was largely foisted upon us by the
Victorians, who wanted to recast their history in a more virtuous light. Women
certainly enjoyed sex in the middle ages, about as much as men did.

3\. This is all very focused on Christian European history. Islamic culture
throughout the middle ages, and even after its fall as a leading Mediterranean
power, was far more advanced than Christian culture, for about 800 years.
Their medical treatments were based on the study of ancient and contemporary
texts from around the known world. They brought together the history and
knowledge of every culture they came into contact with, examined it, and
improved upon it. They were leading pioneers in surgery, anatomy, and
treatment of infectious disease. They had multiple fully-functional hospitals
in major cities, maintained pharmacies, and trained doctors, all while
constantly improving their knowledge and practice.

Medieval Europe had some pretty cool advances in engineering and warfare, but
medicine, math and science was definitely not their strong suit.

~~~
stcredzero
_Monks got up to all kinds of naughty stuff._

Like becoming a painter, meeting an attractive nun, then going off and living
with her.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippo_Lippi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippo_Lippi)

There is a story about William Marshall, where he meets another monk who is up
to the same thing, so William beats him up, robs him, and spends the couple's
would-be nest egg in defense of Christian virtues.

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DoreenMichele
A good chunk of this is actually about pragmatic approaches to dealing with
STDs prior to germ theory. People could put 2 and 2 together and conclude that
a prostitute could transmit disease from one client to another, but their
concepts of what was happening were half baked.

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tremendulo
Let me try to straighten this out out loud:

(1) We develop sexual desire because we evolved to do so. Indeed without it we
couldn't have evolved. (2) Sex is essential for starting a family which is
extremely beneficial for your physical and mental well-being. (3) But too much
masturbation/sex is _bad_ for your physical and mental well-being. (4) In
particular sex can be an addiction which changes the way you view reality (up
to and including preventing you from acknowledging this. People used to call
this _sin_. Actually I think some of them still do). (5) Yet _telling_ people
that sex/masturbation is sinful can be repressive and harmful. (6) Unprotected
sex leads easily to STDs (which in the middle ages were no doubt widely
considered to be divine punishment). (7) Education is a vital means of
preventing STDs. (8) Yet talking about sex is generally consisdered rude. (9)
As is having sex in public. (10) Yet sex addicts and religious maniacs think
about sex all the time...

It seems the topic remains confusing half a millenium after the middle ages.
Please don't take this as any kind of advice or political statement.

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Nomentatus
Downplays Syphilis, but this was the most common cause of death, in North
America and elsewhere until 1945 (although not always mentioned in the death
certificate since for reasons of delicacy, the complication was often
mentioned instead.) It was more vicious when it first got to Europe. It wasn't
just one more V.D.

~~~
makeset
The article is about the Middle Ages in Europe, and points out that syphilis
didn't appear in Europe until the very end of the 15th century.

~~~
Nomentatus
Agreed. So what changed the relatively sex-positive Middle Ages so suddenly?
The horror of big S. did. It didn't just kill you, your children could inherit
it, and your partner might well die of it, too. The author mentions it, but as
one more sexual illness. It wasn't.

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jandrese
Something seems awfully convenient with a medieval man going "I need to have
sex with you to restore balance to my bodily humors or I will die".

I know for certain that masturbation was not unknown to men of the era (or any
era).

~~~
tclancy
It might have been prom night.

