Having studied the erotic traditions of classical Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian, Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and Japanese cultures, we now explore how some of them commingled in medieval and Renaissance Europe, creating a richly diverse but deeply conflicted field of erotic theory. Condemned as devilish and degrading, erotic desire was contrastingly commended for its power to educate and uplift, for its capacities to inspire individuals to strive for greater achievements of knowledge, grace, and virtue, as well as higher levels of love. Scholars once sharply distinguished the Middle Ages from the Renaissance, viewing the latter as a new expression of personal individuality and fresh, bold thinking that challenged entrenched Christian dogma by drawing on the inspiration of classical pagan Greco-Roman sources. But it is hard to draw a sharp line or essential divide between these two ill-defined periods, since they display considerable continuities, and each contains far too much diversity to be reduced to a distinctive, defining essence.1