AEGiS-AP: John Boswell, Yale Historian Dies at 47

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1994. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

John Boswell, Yale Historian Dies at 47

The Associated Press, Mon, 26 Dec 1994

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- John E. Boswell, former chairman of Yale's history department who theorized that homosexual marriages were celebrated liturgically in the Middle Ages, died at age 47 of AIDS complications.

Boswell died Friday at the Yale infirmary, said Jerry Hart, a friend who provided the cause of death.

In June, Boswell provoked debate with his book "Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe," based on the study of more than 60 manuscripts from the eighth to the 16th century.

By the 12th century, Boswell wrote, the ceremony of same-sex union was "unmistakably a voluntary, emotional union of two persons," one that was "closely related" to heterosexual marriage "no matter how much some readers may be discomforted by this."

Some scholars and theologians have disputed Boswell's findings.

James Brundage, a professor of history and law at the University of Kansas, said last summer that "the mainstream reaction was that he raised some interesting questions, but hadn't proved his case."

Boswell gained wide notice in 1980 with the publication of "Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe From the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century."

The book won the American Book Award for history in 1981.

One major aim, Boswell wrote, was "to rebut the common idea that religious belief -- Christian or other -- has been the cause of intolerance in regard to gay people."

Boswell joined the Yale faculty in 1975 as an assistant professor and was appointed a full professor in 1982. He was named the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History in 1990, when he began a two-year term as department chairman.

In 1987, Boswell helped organize the Lesbian and Gay Studies Center at Yale.

Survivors include his parents.

Copyright (c) 1994 - The Associated Press. Reproduced with Permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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