‘The Inevitable Errors of First Explorations’? Revisiting John Boswell’s Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality

By David Clark Medieval

What qualities have kept Boswell’s “Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality” monumental to the field of medieval history?

‘The Stimulus of the Flesh’ and Margaret Singleton’s Broken Vow

By Laura Wood Medieval

While many vowesses broke their chastity vows, Margaret Singleton’s case was different and remains an unsolved mystery.

Thinking Medievally: The Sexualisation Debate and Medieval Advice Literature

By Amy Burge Medieval

Concerns about the sexualisation of young women appear even in the late Middle Ages.

The Pustulent Penis: Searching for STDs in the Centuries before Syphilis

By Katherine Harvey Medieval

John of Gaunt ‘died of putrefaction of his genitals and body’.

The Manly Priest: Celibacy, Masculinity, and Reform in the Medieval Period

By Katherine Harvey Medieval, NOTCHES on the Bookshelf, Religion and Sexuality

The story of the imposition of clerical celibacy in the Anglo-Norman realms.

Bad for the Soul, Good for the Body: Religion, Medicine and Masturbation in the Middle Ages

By Katherine Harvey Medicine and the Body, Medieval

The monk could no longer be considered a virgin, since he has been ‘polluted…through masturbation’.

Her Virginal Members: Chastity and Sexual Desire in the Middle-Ages

By Kathryn Maude Medieval

Aelred of Rievaulx’s writings help us to understand medieval experiences of sex and sexual desire.