Medieval thinkers claimed polygyny caused women to sin mentally through unsatisfied desire

Evidence

Lull gave his personal touch to traditional arguments. He objected to polygyny that it caused women to sin mentally (by desire, because they must have less satisfaction individually) more than Christian women do. There is often a clownish element in Lull’s notions, although in this case what at first sight seems whimsical may have a certain Justification in the closed female societies of the magnates’ harims. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 813

Categorization

• SHARE: Lull’s argument that polygamy makes women sin mentally by wanting more individual satisfaction is an odd medieval corner worth sending to someone into religious history or feminism’s history.
• SEED: An essay angle: ‘the clownish element’ in medieval apologetics — whimsical arguments that occasionally stumble onto real structures, like the closed female societies of harems.
• XREF: connects to: The Church’s marriage-degrading clergy drove the medieval attack on women.