Albert the Great (d.1280) was a misogynist who reflected the prejudicial notions of women in a patriarchal Church and a patriarchal world. Albert embedded Greek philosophy into Christian theology; demonstrating the continuity of ideas and beliefs of the Greco/Roman world and the Christianity of the Middle-Ages. Hence, fantasies surrounding semen found a convenient resting place in Christian sexual theology. Albert’s student Aquinas would synthesise Greek wisdom and Christian theology and cement the prejudicial discourse about women into Christian theology in a practical way. Once Aquinas elevated semen to the ‘divine’ concern about semen increased. Every act of sexual intercourse must be open to the reception of semen. Sexual activity became hedged in with rules and regulations, forbidden times and permissions. The sin of contraception was conflated to murder. Christian sexual theology, rooted in the fantasies surrounding semen, biological determinism and patriarchy, came to rest on the protection of ‘divine’ semen and the control of women and genital sex. It follows that sexual theology is a theology of semen. Any challenge to the biological arguments for male superiority, are a direct challenge to Christian sexual theology, and to the structures, institutions and traditions, which arise from that theology.
Albert the Great was a 13th-century German Dominican, who was influenced by Aristotelian philosophy, which had reached Europe through the Arab world. Despite Albert’s reputation as a searcher for the truth, it is evident from his discourse that he was influenced by patriarchal gender stereotypes and a hatred of women. Albert clearly believed that women were less qualified than men for moral behaviour; and were liars, untrustworthy and sly. His discourse illustrates a continuity of ideas from the ancient world, which negatively affected women.
'Woman is a misbegotten man and has a faulty and defective nature......she is unsure of herself. What she cannot get she seeks to obtain through lying and diabolical deceptions....one must be one one's guard with a woman as if she were a poisonous snake and the horned devil....woman is not cleverer but slyer, more cunning than man. Cleverness sounds like something good, slyness sounds like something evil. Thus in evil and perverse doings woman is cleverer that is, slyer than man, her feelings drive women towards evil, just as reason impels man toward good'. 1
The theologian Uta Ranke Heinemann gave Albert the title of ‘Patron Saint of Rapists’. Albert stated very clearly that when women say, No, they really mean, Yes. This idea has continuity in the twenty-first century.
'As I heard in the confessional in Cologne, delicate wooers seduce women with careful touches. The more these women seem to reject them, the more they really long for them and resolve to consent to them. But in order to appear chaste, they act as if they disapprove of such things’. 2
With the introduction, by Albert, of Aristotelian philosophy into Christian theology, fantasises surrounding semen found a convenient resting place in Christian sexual theology. The re- discovery of Greek writings, which had been preserved in the Arab world, confirmed for Albert, and later Aquinas, that their beliefs about male superiority through the possession semen and the inferiority of women were ‘proven’ by these ancient texts. Albert's remarks about women demonstrate most clearly the continuity between the beliefs of the Greco/Roman world and the Christianity of the Middle-Ages. Albert and his pupil Aquinas incorporated much of this 'new' thought into Church dogma. Albert’s student Aquinas would synthesise Greek wisdom and Christian theology.
Aquinas (1225-1274) took the biological fantasy about male superiority (through the possession of semen) from the Ancient World as ‘evidence’ for the superiority of man, the inferiority of woman. These ideas were not ‘evidence’ of superiority, but evidence of the continuity and persistence of the myths and fantasies surrounding semen that existed in the ancient world. Albert and Aquinas gave these myths and fantasies new life and impetus. Aquinas cemented the prejudicial discourse about women into Christian theology in a practical way. He worked to reconcile the re-discovered philosophies of Aristotle and Plato with Christian theology. He confirms the patriarchal construction of woman as mentally, physically and spiritually inferior to men; this supports and sustains justification for male control over women and their bodies. Aquinas reflects almost exactly the ancient construction of woman as an inferior being. Man is the norm against which to measure woman. Reminiscent of ideas from the Greek texts, he notes that, in unfavourable circumstances a woman, that is, a 'misbegotten' man is born.
'Aquinas...if he adopted and adapted a number of Aristotelian theories (did so), not because they were Aristotle's nor yet because he thought then useful, but because he believed them to be true'. 3
His thinking, later called Thomism, was adopted by the Church. He was canonized in 1323. The continuity of the ideas from the Ancient World to the 19th century is evident when in 1879; Pope Leo XIII declared Aquinas's works ‘the only true philosophy’.
With Aquinas, the prejudicial discourse about women is cemented into Christian theology in a practical way. Aquinas institutionalised the control of women and their bodies. He confirms the patriarchal construction of woman as mentally, physically and spiritually inferior to men; this supports and sustains the justification for male control over women and their bodies. Aquinas reflects almost exactly the ancient construction of woman as an inferior being. Man is the norm against which to measure woman. Reminiscent of ideas from the Greek texts, he notes that, in unfavourable circumstances a woman, that is, a 'misbegotten' man is born.
Woman is 'a defect that does not correspond to nature's first intention’ and 'originating in some defect'18 … they (women) did not respond to 'nature's first intention' which aims for perfection, but to 'nature's second intention....decay, deformity and the weakness of age'4
The only use Aquinas can find for women in God's plan is that 'woman is intended for procreation', that exhausts her usefulness. 5 Aquinas confirmed that women were sexual objects to be used by men. Woman's primary function was that of a receptacle for semen and the nurture of the foetus.
Convinced of man’s superiority, and his role as co-creator (with God) of new life, Aquinas focuses much attention on semen; and the fantasies surrounding semen reach new heights. Following the Greek philosophers and physicians Aquinas recognises
semen as the active element in procreation. He starts with the principle that every active element creates something like itself. 'The energy in semen aims of itself to produce something equally as perfect, namely another man’.6. Aquinas describes semen as this 'divine liquid'7. (Implicit in this assumption is the further elevation of man, the possessor of semen, almost to the divine).
As Aquinas elevated semen to the 'divine' he re-enforced the inferiority
of women; women were confirmed as mere vessels for the ‘divine liquid’.
Semen, raised to the ‘divine’ also led to the belief that male celibates who retained their semen became ‘angelic’ with exclusive access to access ‘truth’. This excluded
any woman, celibate or not from access to truth. Church politics of the exclusion of women from priesthood are rooted in this assumption. It is also a factor in the reluctance for married priests.
Concern about semen increased; the ‘divine liquid’ must be protected. Sexual activity became hedged in with rules and regulations, forbidden times and permissions for indulgence. Sexual activity must be contained if semen was to be protected. For Aquinas, as for Augustine before him, the dilemma was that ‘divine’ semen must be protected, but at the same time it must be used for procreation. He was no doubt aware that sexual intercourse between men and women could not be stopped entirely. Aquinas was also concerned that some married couples may not have procreation in the forefront of their minds when indulging in sexual intercourse. He said that he had never met a husband who could claim that ‘he had sexual relations only in the hope of conception’. 8 That some husbands admitted their failure to always think of procreation holds out some hope that some of the people remained reasonably sane; protecting themselves from the worst excesses of the celibate obsession with sex, by ignoring them and their edicts.
How could semen be protected and at the same time be used in the sexual act? How could these two positions be reconciled? Following Augustine, Aquinas took a pragmatic approach and gave married couples 'excuses' for sexual intercourse. Sex was for procreation or the avoidance of (male) fornication. There was also a fear that some individuals may even indulge in sexual intercourse purely for pleasure. In order to restrict opportunities for men to seek forbidden pleasure outside marriage a wife must always be open to her husband’s advances. Wives were to blame if men were not sexually satisfied at home.
Aquinas confined the sexual act within extended forbidden times, forbidden couplings, forbidden reasons and forbidden practices. Hence, the concern to protect semen intruded into the bedrooms of married couples. The male celibates dictated how, when and why semen should be released into ‘the vessel’. Semen must be delivered in a proper manner into the correct vessel, within the proscribed times and for the right reason. The correct vessel was the womb; the correct times were those decided by the clerical caste; the only correct coupling was husband and wife; the correct reason was to beget a child; the proper manner was the 'missionary position (Albert had told Aquinas that if a woman lay on top of a man the uterus was upside down the semen would fall out. 9 The 'natural' position was to have a woman on her back. Positions other than this 'missionary position' were considered most seriously sinful as they were ‘unnatural’ forbidden practices.
The most heinous sins were reserved for those where semen was not delivered in the proper manner, to the correct vessel, and for the right reasons. Aquinas considered, that vices worse than incest, rape and adultery, were masturbation, bestiality, homosexuality, anal and oral intercourse and coitus interruptus'.10 Concern for semen overwhelmed any possible consideration for the 'vessel', that is woman. The unregulated ejaculation of semen became synonymous with sin and death of the soul. Christian sexual theology came to rest on the protection of semen and the control of genital sex. As it did so the control of women and their bodies increased.
In the overwhelming concern to protect semen, every act of sexual intercourse must be for procreation; coitus interruptus or contraception in any form was forbidden. In any act of intercourse a woman must always be open to the reception of semen. Therefore, after the sin of murder, the sin of preventing generation came second. By the fifteenth century contraception had been inflated to murder. 'Those affected with this vice are murderers of human beings...truly murderers of children’ 11. In the sixteenth century, Pope Sixtus V introduced the death penalty (only for women) for contraception through potions. Justification for such a severe sanction was that reproduction must remain in the hands of men for: 'If women were to be allowed to prevent conception...this would be an astonishing abuse and great damage would be done to human reproduction' 12. Evidently, women were not able to make independent decisions about contraception. Men must control a woman’s fecundity.13
Aquinas also dismissed the possibility of divorce because a woman needed a man to control her and spoke of woman as mentally defective. ‘(Woman) has a defect in her reasoning ability also evident in children and mentally ill persons'. 14. A woman needed a man to think for her, to guide her and to instruct the next generation.
'Woman is in no way adequate to educate children...the father on account of his more perfect reason (can better) instruct the children' and 'the woman needs the man not only for generating and educating children but also for her personal master (for the man) is of more perfect reason and stronger virtue’.15
The inferior status of woman was confirmed and her role was that of 'service ' to men and to the Church. A woman was subject to her husband, his property, his slave. Augustine used his mother Monica to remind women that their role in life was to serve men. He explained,'when she (Monica) reached marriageable age she was given to a husband whom she served as master…They (wives) had all heard she said, the marriage contract read out to them and from that day they ought to regard it as a legal instrument by which they were made servants; so they should remember their station and not set themselves up against their masters’. 16
Despite her husband 's infidelities, Monica avoided quarrels by never complaining. In describing woman as a 'misbegotten ' man, Aquinas illustrates most clearly a direct continuity between the beliefs and assumptions of the Greek philosophers and the sexual theology of the Christian Church. The elevation of semen to the status of 'divine liquid ' strengthened the imperative to protect semen. Unlawful emissions of semen were confirmed as sinful and sexual activity became hedged in with sanctions and prohibitions. Women were confirmed as mere vessels for men's 'seed' and penalties for women who practiced contraception escalated. It is evident that Christian sexual theology was influenced by the world from which it sprang.The patriarchal discourse in the world in which Christianity took root was a discourse of biological determinism in which woman was constructed as man 's inferior other. Patriarchal discourses led to discursive practices which subordinated women. Women were active in the early Church, but were gradually excluded from public participation. A male God justified religious, political and social arrangements which excluded women. A patriarchal discourse supported and sustained the rising power and authority of the clerical caste and supported their claim to define and explain truth. As the orthodox Church increased its sphere of influence, the bio-theology of orthodoxy became generally accepted as a 'divine truth ', and all other discourses were denounced as heretical. The incorporation of Greek philosophy into Christian sexual theology is evidence of the absorption beliefs from the Ancient World concerning male superiority. These beliefs support and sustain patriarchy in the Christian Church.
Christian sexual theology is rooted in the fantasies surrounding semen, which emerge from the biological determinism of patriarchy. It follows that sexual theology is a theology of semen. As such, any challenge to the biological arguments for male superiority, are a direct challenge to Christian sexual theology, and to the structures and institutions which arise from that theology. Later articles in this series will demonstrate that through sexual theology and the patriarchal State, notions of male superiority have persisted into the twenty-first century. The emphasis on sexual sins continues to be the hallmark of Catholic Christianity, which claims continuity with the early orthodox Church. In Catholic Christianity, a celibate hierarchy continues to attempt to control women and reproduction. But, between the Middle Ages and the twenty-first century there have been significant changes in Europe, which have affected not only the claim by the male celibates to define and explain truth, but have challenged the nature of truth itself. The Renaissance, the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution resulted in a new view of the world, which challenged traditional myths and ‘truths’.
By the time of the Reformation the patriarchal view of women is firmly entrenched in Christian theology. Martin Luther, a German theologian who challenged practices in the Christian Church did not challenge the literal ‘truth’ of the creation myth. There was no Reformation for women. Following Calvin, Luther preached that Satan had attacked the weaker part of human nature -Eve, the woman, not Adam the man.
It is evident that by the time of the Protestant reformation, the superiority of man, the elevation of the male celibate, and the role of semen were cemented into Christian thought and practice. Man together with God was the co-creator of new life; semen as the primary life-source was to be protected. Woman was confirmed merely as the incubator for man’s seed. Control over women and children was absolute and. Women had less and less control over their own bodies and contraception was conflated to murder. Divorce for a woman was out of the question. Woman’s mental incapacity was affirmed as a reason to keep a woman under the control of a man. Christian sexual theology was based on the fantasies surrounding semen and patriarchal attitudes towards women.