Law, sex, and Christian society in medieval Europe / James A. Brundage.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brundage, James A.

Series:

ACLS Humanities E-Book.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sex and law--Europe--History.

Sex and law.

Sex crimes--Europe--History.

Sex crimes.

Sex--Religious aspects--Christianity--History.

Sex.

Law, Medieval--History.

Law, Medieval.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiv, 674 p. ) ill. ;

Edition:

Pbk. ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This monumental study of medieval law and sexual conduct explores the origin and develpment of the Christian church's sex law and the systems of belief upon which that law rested. Focusing on the Church's own legal system of canon law, James A. Brundage offers a comprehensive history of legal doctrines-covering the millennium from A.D. 500 to 1500-concerning a wide variety of sexual behavior, including marital sex, adultery, homosexuality, concubinage, prostitution, masturbation, and incest. His survey makes strikingly clear how the system of sexual control in a world we have half-forgotten has shaped the world in which we live today. The regulation of marriage and divorce as we know it today, together with the outlawing of bigamy and polygamy and the imposition of criminal sanctions on such activities as sodomy, fellatio, cunnilingus, and bestiality, are all based in large measure upon ideas and beliefs about sexual morality that became law in Christian Europe in the Middle Ages. "Brundage's book is consistently learned, enormously useful, and frequently entertaining. It is the best we have on the relationships between theological norms, legal principles, and sexual practice."-Peter Iver Kaufman, Church History

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Abbreviations

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Law and Sex in the Ancient World

2. Sex and the Law in Judaism and Early Christianity

3. Sex and the Law in the Christian Empire, from Constantine to Justinian

4. Law and Sex in Early Medieval Europe, Sixth to Eleventh Centuries

5. The Era of Church Reform, Intellectual Revival, and Urbanization: 1000-1140

6. Sex and Marriage in the Decretum of Gratian

7. Sexual Behavior and the Early Decretists, from Paucapalea to Huguccio (1140-1190)

8. Marriage and Sex in Canon Law from Alexander III to the Liber Extra

9. Sex, Marriage, and the Legal Commentators, 1234-1348

10. Sex, Marriage, and the Law from the Black Death to the Reformation, 1348.-1517

11. Sexual Issues in the Age of the Reformation: Ninety-Five Theses to Tametsi, 1517-1563

12. Medieval Sex Law and Modern Society: Recapitulation, Reflections, and Conclusions

Appendix 1. Tables

Appendix 2. Marriage Law and the Economic Interests of the Medieval Church

Appendix 3. Survivals of Medieval Sex Law in the United States and the Western World

List of Manuscripts Cited

Select Secondary References

Index of Cases Cited

General Index

Index of Legal Citations

Notes:

Includes indexes.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612069666

9781282069664

1282069667

9780226077895

0226077896

OCLC:

824153205