Attitudes toward sex and marriage revealed in the Old Testament indicate a sensual and earthy consciousness of sex with an accompanying double standard and devaluation of women. The Song of Solomon is essentially a hymn of appreciation for the sexual potential of the human body. Women as sexual beings were, however, regarded as property, and there were strict sanctions against such trespasses as violating a virgin and adultery. The unchaste maid was no longer marriageable, thus worthless to her father; the violator had to marry her and pay money to her father. Adulterers could be put to death, the woman for her sin, the man for violating the property of another man. The sexual behavior of women was carefully prescribed and guarded in order to ensure that legal offspring would inherit property. Women were unclean and required ritual purification in connection with the natural events of their bodies, such as menstruation and childbirth. If a woman gave birth to a son, the period required for her purification was thirty-three days. If the child was a daughter, the time required was sixty-six days. Although sexual behavior was carefully regulated, especially for women, and fornication and adultery were serious crimes, marriage itself was an important institution, and everyone was expected to marry and produce children (Kennett). The good wife, described in the Book of Proverbs, had a price “above rubies,” and the impression in that account is that she was a respected companion in the marital enterprise, though subservient. Sexual desire was an accepted characteristic of humans, and chastity was valued only before marriage.
With the advent of Christianity, beliefs and values about marriage and sexuality began to change. Chastity and asceticism became synonymous with holiness; marriage was a sorry state, to be contracted only in direst need or for procreation, and the status of women declined accordingly. At best, the woman was a silent submissive wife; at worst, she was the instrument of damnation, exciting lust and luring man from his holy mission. Paul wished that all men could be celibate as he was. “But if they cannot contain, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn” (I Corinthians 7: 7-9). The man was not made for the woman, but the woman for the man. “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, … as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church” (Ephesians 6: 22-23). “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection … I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence” (I Timothy 2: 11-12).
The doctrine of asceticism was largely responsible for the low esteem to which marriage fell during this period:
“It would be difficult to conceive of anything more coarse or more repulsive than the manner in which (the ascetics) regarded it. . . . Even when the bond had been formed, the ascetic passion retained its sting. . . . Whenever any strong religious fervor fell upon a husband or wife, its first effect was to make a happy union impossible The more religious partner desired to live a life of solitary asceticism, or at least, if no ostensible separation took place, an unnatural life of separation in marriage”
(Lecky).
During the Middle Ages the equation of chastity and abstinence with sanctity and superior virtue continued to be prominent in the writings of the theologians. The Penitentials of Theodore, seventh-century archbishop of Canterbury, described various punishments for transgressions. A man who had intercourse with his wife must take a bath before entering the church. Newly married persons or women who had given birth were likewise barred from the church for a period, followed by a set penance. Even the more liberal St. Thomas Aquinas thought that marriage was inferior to virginity. Sexual intercourse, even in marriage, partook of the profane connotations of the body. One who indulged would never be as high on the ladder of sanctity as one who abjured the devilments of the flesh in favor of the spiritual life and its promised rewards.
If this was the approved model, however, it appears that in many cases practices in real life were less elevated and more corporeal. Between the sixth and the eleventh centuries the clergy were noted for their sexual excesses and license. Consort with women as wives or concubines was common, and friars, monks, and priests were the main clientele of prostitutes. Suggestions that some women appreciated the pleasures of sex appear in the love letters of Heloise to Abelard, and in the frank sensuality of Chaucer’s Wife of Bath. In general, however, women and their sexuality continued to be devalued, and there is little evidence that sexual gratification and emotional satisfaction were normally expected to be part of marriage (Murstein).
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