James A. Brundage

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

James A. Brundage (February 5, 1929 – November 5, 2021) was an American historian who specialized in medieval canon law. He served as Professor Emeritus of history and held the Ahmanson-Murphy chair of medieval European history at the University of Kansas. He earned his PhD from Fordham University and previously taught in the History department at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee before moving to Kansas.

Brundage focused on how canon law shaped medieval society. In the early part of his career he studied the Crusades from the standpoint of canon law, and later he explored the professionalization of medieval law. He also wrote about canon law and sexuality in the Middle Ages, and he even created a humorous flow-chart about medieval Christian sexual ethics.

Selected publications (a sample)
- The Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession: Canonists, Civilians, and Courts (2008) — University of Chicago Press
- The Practice and Profession of Medieval Canon Law (2004) — Ashgate
- Handbook of Medieval Sexuality (1996) — co-editor with Vern L. Bullough
- Medieval Canon Law (1995) — Longmans
- The Crusades, Holy War and Canon Law (1991) — Variorum
- Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe (1987) — University of Chicago Press
- Richard Lion Heart (1974) — Scribner
- The Crusades, A Documentary Survey (1962) — Milwaukee: Marquette University Press

Brundage was a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. His work helps explain how religious law influenced lawmaking, sexuality, and daily life in medieval Europe.