In his book "Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe," James Brundage creates a truly fantastic flow chart explaining when one can and (mostly) cannot engage in the physical act of love.

At the time, a lot of Christian theology basically took the form of lists of things one wasn't allowed to do, so this flow chart probably isn't far off from the real decision making process prescribed by the church.

Well, I didn't know it was so hard for my parents, especially after I was born. Took them 7 years to find time and place to make my sister.

A side issue of this is that not many people in Medieval Europe could read, so they had to have a church official with them at all times to make sure they got it right.

I clipped this too ... on the same day, even ... but I had no idea where it came from. How'd you find the information on the source? It's not on the Flickr page. Once again, I'm humbled...

Never mind... ten seconds with Google and I figured it out... Anyhow, very cool.