this was just too good to pass up.

The Lonely Pleasure, From Sin to Symbol Medieval Christian theologians devoted pages to sexual sins, but they lacked both a word for masturbation and a pressing interest in the subject. "Burchard of Worms, a major late-10th-, early-11th-century figure, was far clearer than most in specifying what we understand as masturbation," Mr. Laqueur writes, "but he thought little of it: 10 days of mild penance if a boy did it alone; three times that if in company."