In 396 Ambrose of Milan attacked enjoyment of life, saying that the serpent of Adam and Eve fame was itself “pleasure, slippery and infected with the poisons of corruptions.” Adam succumbed and fell away from the enjoyment of grace. How can pleasure recall us to paradise, seeing that it alone deprived us of it?”
The idea that one should live one’s life in happiness and peace of mind and not fear death annoyed the early Christians.
The books and treatises of the Catholic Church, right up to the Reformation, were written by misogynist monks who lived unnatural lives and whose outlook on life was negative . As monks got older and realized what opportunities they had missed in life, they got more and more sour and anti-social, trying to curb the enjoyment of life for the layman. If they couldn’t enjoy a romp in the hay they were damned if anyone else was going to. These are the sort of people who ruled the Church, often becoming “saintly” bishops and archbishops with far too much influence on politics and society.
Unfortunately, it was that breed of man (seldom a woman) who did the character-assassination on Epicurus and his thought. The sour view of life is still extant and thriving in the form of the Catholic Encyclopaedia and no doubt in the Curia, stuffed as it is with reactionary old buffers.
Long live fun and enjoyment and cuddles!