Ancient Medical Teachings. Some medieval ideas and values about human sexuality were inherited from ancient medicine. Because ancient medicine had developed prior to Christian morality and had remained for the most part independent of it, medical learning and conventional Christian morality were often at odds. Yet, throughout the Middle Ages the two went through a process of mutual influence and accommodation. The medical knowledge of the ancients had been preserved in the eastern Roman Empire and was incorporated into Arabic learning with the spread of Islam. In the tenth century, Constantine the African translated many ancient medical texts from Arabic into Latin, thus making available to Europe a sophisticated body of medical knowledge.

Galen on Sexuality. The understanding of the human body and sexuality presented in medieval medical texts was based primarily on the teaching of the...