ABSTRACT
The European Reformation has been portrayed as a key turning point in the history of religion as well as European and world history. In terms of what Protestant reform meant for sex and sexuality, Lyndal Roper states that it ‘had its greatest impact’ on ‘marriage and sexual relations. There were two earth-shattering innovations: first, celibacy was no longer required for the priesthood, and the monastic lifestyle of both monks and nuns was rejected. Second, Luther argued that marriage was not a sacrament’. Like Luther, Calvin believed that sex in marriage was acceptable and that marriage was not a sacrament. Calvin went so far as to question the Catholic Church’s own contradictory attitude towards marriage, which ‘having adorned marriage with the title of “sacrament”, they turn round and call it uncleanness, corruption and carnal defilement. Socialisation is the key way that regulation begins which is ‘implicit’, and ‘conditions feelings of shame and embarrassment that channel expectations, shape emotions and restrain behaviour’.
