ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with Christianity because it is Christian ideas of chastity that have had a great influence on modern Western ways of thinking about sex as inherently sinful. Chastity was certainly valued in women, and language similar to that found in Christian texts was sometimes used about women as temptation or gateway to evil, but virginity was not valued for either men or women. Chastity, closely related to sexual purity, played a major role in the medieval church, and monasticism was its main vehicle. Attitudes toward monastic and clerical chastity began to change with the emergence of the reform movement of the eleventh century. The insistence on clerical celibacy in the west in the wake of the church reform movement of the later eleventh century served to draw a sharp line between clergy and laity, a line that was defined in terms of sexual activity.
