In distinguishing desire-as-appetite from romantic or ‘true love’, William Reddy has posited what he claims to be a unique Western conceptual dualism that first evolved during the High Middle Ages. While desire-as-appetite conforms to the Christian concept of the flesh, romantic love was, according to Reddy, an attempt to overcome this polarisation by spiritualising and moderating sexual desire into a sublime, purified feeling of ‘true love’. Reddy's study encompasses the period 800-1200. With the Reformation, celibacy was no longer an ideal, though the distinction between what was seen as spiritually passionate love and indiscriminate carnal desire continued to be of relevance, not the least in terms of gender. The aim of this chapter is to provide examples of how male sexual desire was problematised within three arenas in early modern Sweden – medical theory, the courts of justice, and literary culture. It will be claimed that the early modern period saw a shift in all these arenas, toward a more pronounced understanding of male sexual desire as irrefutable and imperatively compelled to find an immediate outlet. Woman as temptress was overshadowed by the male seducer. The freer rein given to male sexual lust was, however, tempered by new threats from masturbation and venereal disease, both real and imagined.

The medical context – Diagnostics and health provisions

In a comprehensive medical work published in Swedish in 1642, Andreas Sparman defines desire as ‘longing for that which is good or appears to be good’. This aspiration is permissible as long as it is ruled by reason and does not contradict God's commandments. From this general definition, Sparman distinguishes five categories of desire according to their objects – ambition, avarice, and three kinds of love: carnal, conjugal, and Christian. Of these only the latter two are truly good and thus not only permissible but also imposed by God. While conjugal love is directed toward another person because of his or her virtues and with the intention of fulfilling God's order and divine plan for humanity, Christian love is the desire to treat one's fellow man as one would treat oneself. Chastity does not imply abstention from sexual intercourse but the subordination of such acts to the divine purpose of being fruitful and multiplying and as a remedy against fornication.