Like the body and childhood, sexuality has become an increasingly common topic for
historical investigation. The assertion of the women’s movement that the “personal is
political,” combined with the growth of social history, led historians fi rst to the sexual
lives of women in the past, and then to those of men. Historical investigations have
been an important part of gay and lesbian studies – which grew out of the gay liberation
movement – as scholars have detailed changes in the ways in which same-sex
relationships have been understood and practiced. Just as studies of women’s sexuality
led to studies of men’s, studies of same-sex relationships led a few scholars to frame
changes in male/female relationships as part of a history of heterosexuality, not simply
the history of marriage or the family.
All of this scholarship has made clear that sexual categories and meanings change
dramatically over time and across cultures. For example, though there were homosexual
subcultures in a few cities and courts in earlier centuries, the idea that everyone
has a “sexual identity” as a heterosexual or homosexual fi rst developed in the nineteenth
century. Ancient Greek and medieval Latin did not even have words for “sex”
or “sexual,” and the word “sexuality” only appeared in English and most other western
languages about 1800. Because of this, some historians choose to avoid the word
“sexuality” when discussing any era before the modern, but others point out that using
modern categories to explore the past is not an unacceptable practice, because investigations
of the past are always informed by present understandings and concerns; they
note that earlier cultures were clearly concerned by the issues we view as part of sexuality,
but contextualized them differently.
Medical and scientifi c texts provided one framework for sexual issues in early modern
Europe. In medical terms, male sexuality was the baseline for any perception of
human sexuality, and the female sex organs were viewed as the male turned inside out
or simply not pushed out. Vesalius depicted the vagina looking exactly like an inverted
penis, and his student Baldasar Heseler commented: “The organs of procreation are
the same in the male and the female … For if you turn the scrotum, the testicles and
the penis inside out you will have all the genital organs of the female.” 2 This view of the
correspondence between male and female sexual organs survived the Renaissance
discovery of the clitoris, with scientists simply deciding that women had two structures
that were like a penis. This idea meant that there was no precise nomenclature
for many female anatomical parts until the eighteenth century because they were always
thought to be congruent with some male part, and so were simply called by the
same name. The parallels between the two could lead to unusual sex changes, for many
medical doctors throughout Europe, including Ambrose Paré, solemnly reported cases
of young women whose sex organs suddenly emerged during vigorous physical activity,
transforming them into men; there are no reports of the opposite, however.
Because female sex organs were hidden, they seemed more mysterious than male
organs to early modern physicians and anatomists, and anatomical guidebooks use illustrations
of autopsies on women’s lower bodies as symbols of modern science uncovering
the unknown. Early modern sex manuals spread this idea to a wider public. The
best-seller among these was the anonymous Aristotle’s Masterpiece , fi rst published in
1684 and reprinted in many different versions, often with a subtitle such as “The Secrets
of Generation Displayed.” Attributing the work to Aristotle gave it a claim to respectability,
authority, and ancient pedigree; the real Aristotle, though he had nothing to do
with it, would probably have agreed with many of its assumptions. One of these was
the notion that both men and women needed to experience orgasm for procreation;
only through orgasm would the female “seed” be released, an idea that was yet another
example of female experience being simply extrapolated from male. This supposed
connection between female orgasm and procreation allowed the manuals to go into
great detail about ways to heighten sexual pleasure, while still claiming moralistically
to be guides for happy marital life.
Sexuality was also a key issue in religious texts. Those written by Orthodox Slavic
writers in eastern Europe saw all sexuality as an evil inclination originating with the
devil and not part of God’s original creation. Even marital sex was regarded as a sin,
with the best marriage an unconsummated one; this led to a large number of miraculous
virgin births among Russian saints, and to the popular idea that Jesus was born
out of Mary’s ear, not polluting himself with passage through the birth canal.
Western Catholic opinion did not go this far, but displayed an ambivalent attitude
toward sexuality. Sex was seen as polluting and defi ling, with virginity regarded as the
most desirable state; members of the clergy and religious orders were expected to remain
chaste, a policy that was enforced much more rigorously as part of the Catholic
Reformation, as we will see in chapter 5 . Their chastity and celibacy made them different
from, and superior to, lay Christians who married. On the other hand, the body
and its sexual urges could not be completely evil, because they were created by God;
to claim otherwise was heresy. Writers vacillated between these two opinions or held
both at once, and the laws that were developed in the Middle Ages regulating sexual
behavior were based on both of them. In general, early modern Catholic doctrine held
that sexual relations were acceptable as long as they were within marriage, not done on
Sundays or other church holidays, done in a way which would allow procreation, and
did not upset the proper sexual order, which meant the man had to be on top (what
has since been termed the “missionary position”). Spouses were held to enjoy a mutual
right to sexual intercourse (the “marital debt”), which would even excuse intercourse
when procreation was not possible. It was better, for example, for a pregnant or menstruating
woman to allow her husband to have intercourse with her if refusing this
would cause him to turn to a prostitute. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Catholic
authors adopted a more positive view of marital sex than their medieval predecessors,
regarding sexual pleasure, even fantasies and variant positions, as acceptable as a prelude
to procreative intercourse.
The Protestant reformers broke clearly with Catholicism in their view that marriage
was a spiritually preferable state to celibacy, and saw the most important function
of marital sex not as procreation, but as increasing spousal affection. Based on his
own experience, Martin Luther stressed the power of sexual feelings for both men and
women, and thought women in particular needed intercourse in order to stay healthy.
Western Christian authors and offi cials thus generally agreed that sexual relations
were permissable as long as they were marital and “natural,” though interpretations
of the latter varied. Jewish authorities agreed, seeing procreation as a commandment
of God, though marital sex still made one ritually impure. Islam regarded sex within
marriage or other approved relationships as a positive good. Sexual relations did not
have to be justifi ed by reproduction, so that contraception was acceptable, though having
children, and particularly having sons, was also seen as essential to a good life for
Muslims.
Sexuality was also an important theme in popular literature. Many historians have
viewed traditional popular culture in Europe as unrestrained, celebrating male sexuality
with bawdy stories, obscene songs, and, after the development of the printing press,
a range of pornographic literature. These songs and stories express a fear of rampant
female sexuality, and often advocate beating as the proper way to treat women who
showed too much independence: “Now will I sing so gaily, Hit thy wife on the head,
With cudgels smear her daily” went the fi rst of many verses of a sixteenth-century
German song titled “Song of how one should beat bad women.”
Medical, religious, and popular texts all discuss sexuality in theory, as do law codes
and ordinances issued by religious and secular offi cials that regulated a range of sexual
issues: premarital intercourse, adultery, rape, incest, sodomy. Court records providing
information about actual cases also survive for many parts of Europe beginning in the
fourteenth century; these can give us an idea about what types of sexual activities communities
felt it most important to control in reality.
While a certain amount of wild behavior was tolerated in young men, it was not in
young women, and punishments for sexual misconduct by unmarried women, particularly
premarital intercourse and pregnancy out of wedlock, could be quite sharp. It
was often very diffi cult for unmarried women to avoid sexual contacts. Many of them
worked as domestic servants, where their employers or employers’ sons or male relatives
could easily coerce them, or in close proximity to men. Female servants were sent
on errands alone or with men, or worked by themselves in fi elds far from other people;
notions of female honor kept upper-class women secluded in their homes, particularly
in southern and eastern Europe, but there was little attempt anywhere to keep female
servants or day laborers from the risk of seduction or rape. Rape was a capital crime
in many parts of Europe, but the actual sentences handed out were more likely to be
fi nes and brief imprisonments, with the severity of sentence dependent on the social
status of the victim and perpetrator. The victim had to prove that she had cried out
and made attempts to repel the attacker, and had to bring the charge within a short
period of time after the attack had happened. Women bringing rape charges were often
more interested in getting their own honorable reputations back than in punishing the
perpetrator, and for this reason sometimes requested that the judge force their rapists
to marry them.
The consequences of unwed motherhood varied throughout Europe, with rural areas
that needed many workers being the most tolerant. Once an unmarried woman
suspected she was pregnant, she had several options. In some parts of Europe, if she
was a minor her father could go to court and sue the man involved for “trespass and
damages” to his property. The woman herself could go to her local court and attempt
to prove there had been a promise of marriage in order to coerce the man to marry
her. Marriage was the favored offi cial solution, and was agreed upon in a surprising
number of cases, indicating that perhaps there had been an informal agreement, or at
least that the man was now willing to take responsibility for his actions. Marriage was
impossible in many cases, however, and young women often attempted to deny the
pregnancy as long as possible, hoping for a miscarriage.
If no other avenues were open to her, a pregnant woman might try to induce an
abortion, either by physical means such as tying her waist very tight or carrying heavy
objects, or by herbal concoctions that she brewed herself or purchased from a local
person reputed to know how to “bring on the monthlies,” that is, to start a woman’s
period again. Penalties for attempting or performing an abortion grew increasingly
harsh during the early modern period, but it was hard to detect. (Contraception was
even harder to detect, and though religious and secular authorities all opposed it, there
were almost no cases in which it was an issue.) Abortion was legally defi ned as killing in
the womb a child who had gained a soul, which most authorities thought happened at
the point in pregnancy termed “quickening,” when the mother feels movement, usually
about the fourth or fi fth month. (The word “quick” is an old word for alive, as in the
phrase “the quick and the dead.”) A woman taking medicine to start her period before
quickening was generally not regarded as attempting an abortion. Abortifacients of all
types were never very effective, however, so women gave birth in out-houses, cowstalls,
hay mounds, and dung heaps, hoping that they would be able to avoid public notice,
and took the infant to one of the new foundling homes that had opened during the
fi fteenth and sixteenth centuries in many cities. A few did kill their children, a crime
that carried the death penalty, often specifi ed as death by drowning.
Along with extramarital pregnancy, other sexual activities were also regulated and
punished during this period. During the Middle Ages, most European cities had
allowed prostitution in licensed city brothels; the city leaders justifi ed this by saying
World History
