The Christian code was based, quite simply, upon the
conviction that the sexual act was to be avoided like the plague, except for
the bare minimum necessary to keep the race in existence. The Church never
succeeded in obtaining universal acceptance of its sexual regulations, but in
time it became able to enforce sexual abstinence on a scale sufficient to
produce a rich crop of mental disease. It is hardly too much to say that
medieval Europe came to resemble a vast insane asylum. It is unhappily the case
that a good many outstanding figures in the history of the Church showed signs
of what today would be regarded as psychological disturbance. It has therefore
been necessary to analyse a number of these restless, unhappy, obsessed men,
driven by the energies of their bottled up libidos, who were apt to impose
their ideals on the average sensual man; some readers may feel, in consequence,
that the picture of clerical behaviour that emerges is not a balanced one. Let
me therefore emphasise here that, at all periods, there were, of course, within
the Church numerous persons of more balanced characters living more normal
lives and preaching less extreme views. Numerically, I have little doubt, they
outnumbered the extremists, unfortunately, their influence on the Church's
policy was usually less.
Nice post
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