The word masturbation derives from the Latin words manus,
meaning hand, and stupare, meaning to defile.
The famous Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas believed that
masturbation was a worse sin than rape, incest, and adultery
(because in these other sins procreation is a possibility). And
Pope Leo IX forbade masturbators from being admitted to sacred
orders.
It was not until 1940 that a respected textbook, "Diseases of
Infancy and Childhood," removed its discussion of masturbation from
the chapter titled "Functional and Nervous Disorders."
