Was courtly love sexual? Of course today's scholars don't know. But it was supposed to occur within the context of the Code of Chivalry which upheld the principles of Church which deemed all sex beyond the need to procreate to be sinful. Even sex within marriage, unless for procreation, was taboo.
Many scholars identify courtly love as the "pure love" described in 1184 by Andreas Capellanus in De amore libri tres:
It is the pure love which binds together the hearts of two lovers with every feeling of delight. This kind consists in the contemplation of the mind and the affection of the heart; it goes as far as the kiss and the embrace and the modest contact with the nude lover, omitting the final solace, for that is not permitted for those who wish to love purely.... That is called mixed love which gets its effect from every delight of the flesh and culminates in the final act of Venus.
