Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe

by BOSWELL, JOHN

• ISBN13: 9780679751649
• ISBN10: 0679751645
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-05-30
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

Both highly praised and intensely controversial, this brilliant book produces dramatic evidence that at one time the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches not only sanctioned unions between partners of the same sex, but sanctified them--in ceremonies strikingly similar to heterosexual marriage ceremonies.

Author Biography

John Boswell (1947–1994) won the 1981 American Book Award for history for his groundbreaking work Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century.

Table of Contents

Preface
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
"What's in a Name?": The Vocabulary of Love and Marriage	p. 3
"For Family and Country": Heterosexual Matrimony in the Greco-Roman World	p. 28
"A Friend Inspired by God": Same-Sex Unions in the Greco-Roman World	p. 53
"This World Is Passing Away": Views of the New Religion	p. 108
"What God Has Joined Together": The Development of Nuptial Offices	p. 162
"Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds Admit Impediments": Comparison of Same-Sex and Heterosexual Ceremonies of Union	p. 199
The History of Same-Sex Unions in Medieval Europe	p. 218
"Those Who See and Those Who Do Not . . .": Subsequent Developments: A Look Forward	p. 262
Epilogue	p. 280
Appendix of Translations	p. 283
Appendix of Documents	p. 345
Jewish Perspectives	p. 364
Manuscripts of the Same-Sex Union	p. 372
The Passion of SS. Serge and Bacchus	p. 375
Index	p. 391
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