ABSTRACT
Sex was to be in marriage and in moderation, practised through penile-vaginal penetration for procreation, and was not meant to be enjoyed according to the Christ of St. Birgitta because the Devil could pull people into marital sin. Marriage was a recognition by the Church that most people could not fulfil a life lived in chastity or celibacy, the ideal, so married life was therefore a compromise for the flock and their need to sate the sexual urge. Scientific discussions of human sex and sexuality are quite often at variance to those from the field of the history of sexuality. Human sexuality is such an important topic because sexual pleasure has been seen as ‘momentous’, leading people to lose their dignity, pursue opportunities and exhibit a range of behaviours to obtain it. The term ‘early modern’ was invented in the 1920s, slowly coming into use in the mid-twentieth century before general acceptance in the 1990s.
