ABSTRACT
In the first several centuries after Jesus, Christianity was spread by individuals and groups acting as missionaries throughout the Mediterranean area. During the fourth century, the Emperor Constantine first legalized Christianity and then became a Christian himself, hoping that the Church might help the Roman Empire survive internal turmoil and external attacks. During the Early Middle Ages several institutions developed within Roman Catholic Christianity that would eventually have a major effect on the regulation of sexuality. By bridging body and soul, mysticism thus provided a discourse within Christianity that ran counter to the much more common disparagement of the body and the senses. The final, formal break between Orthodoxy and Catholicism did not occur until 1054, but eastern and western Christianity were already distinct enough in the fourth century that the thought of St. Augustine had little impact on Orthodox ideas about sexuality.
