Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe

Rating:
Summary: Catch-22
Review: Exellent Novel! I recomend this novel to anyone who likes satiristic stories! It is hard to understand at first, but after you get into the novel a bit more you will thoroughly enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Accomplishment in Historical Research
Review: I have difficulty believing this book has been listed this long on Amazon without gaining even the most cursory review. Nevertheless, serious students of the medieval period should seek out this book, if only to see how true academic scholarship should be performed.

For those not familiar with this text, Brundage transcribed, translated, edited, and summarized a vast corpus of materials from the medieval period and presents his results here. He consulted everything from medieval penitentials (confessors' manuals) to Roman law codes, from Germanic statutes to patristic doctrine, but does so without ever simplifying his source beyond recognition. In each chapter, he covers similar ground: marriage statues; laws regarding fornication and adultery; clerical marriage and celibacy regulations; prostitution, homosexuality, and concubinage. So, for example, he might outline in brief the arguments found in Gratian's Decretum regarding the legally binding aspects of marriage, followed by his arguments opposing divorce. Brundage was always careful not to generalize, and the ideas he presents are always attributed to their sources. The footnotes are meticulous, and his research apparatus impeccable.

This work is astounding. It is not the kind of text intended for a light summer's read, but the culmination of a career of research and analysis. While it should not substitute for primary source research on the part of the academic historian, it is nevertheless an essential summary of ideas and trends in law during the past. It is a remarkable achievement.

Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Accomplishment in Historical Research
Review: I have difficulty believing this book has been listed this long on Amazon without gaining even the most cursory review. Nevertheless, serious students of the medieval period should seek out this book, if only to see how true academic scholarship should be performed.

For those not familiar with this text, Brundage transcribed, translated, edited, and summarized a vast corpus of materials from the medieval period and presents his results here. He consulted everything from medieval penitentials (confessors' manuals) to Roman law codes, from Germanic statutes to patristic doctrine, but does so without ever simplifying his source beyond recognition. In each chapter, he covers similar ground: marriage statues; laws regarding fornication and adultery; clerical marriage and celibacy regulations; prostitution, homosexuality, and concubinage. So, for example, he might outline in brief the arguments found in Gratian's Decretum regarding the legally binding aspects of marriage, followed by his arguments opposing divorce. Brundage was always careful not to generalize, and the ideas he presents are always attributed to their sources. The footnotes are meticulous, and his research apparatus impeccable.

This work is astounding. It is not the kind of text intended for a light summer's read, but the culmination of a career of research and analysis. While it should not substitute for primary source research on the part of the academic historian, it is nevertheless an essential summary of ideas and trends in law during the past. It is a remarkable achievement.

Rating:
Summary: Sexual Laws of the Middle Ages
Review: This book is a detailed, difficult to read chronology of sexual morality laws from ancient times to about 1563. It deals mostly with canon law. It explains civil laws as well but not as in dept as I was expecting. It is filled with footnotes. The information provided in the book pretty much answered all the questions I had on sexual laws in the Middle Ages. The problem lies at the end of the book. I do not recommend reading Chapter 12. It is filled with the author's own liberal and modernist opinions of which I was not impressed. As a matter of fact I was highly offended as a practicing Catholic. Do not be deceived by the Catholic award on the back cover as I was. The author's views are clearly not Catholic. Had the author not expressed his own liberal opinions and suggestions I would have enjoyed the book more.