Patterns of Episcopal Power: Bishops in Tenth and Eleventh Century Western Europe

by Ludger Körntgen & Dominik Waßenhoven (Editors)

In medieval Europe, the death of a king could not only cause a dispute about the succession, but also a severe crisis. In times of a vacant throne particular responsibility fell to the bishops - whose general importance for the time around the first milennium has been revealed by recent scholarship - as royal counsellors and policy makers. This volume therefore concentrates on the bishops' room for manoeuvre and the patterns of episcopal power, focusing on the Eastern Frankish Reich and Anglo-Saxon England in a comparative approach which is not least based upon the research of a renowned medievalist, Timothy Reuter. His article about "A Europe of Bishops" ("Ein Europa der Bischöouml;fe") is presented in English translation for the first time.

226 pages, Hardcover

First published August 18, 2011