Patterns of Episcopal Power: Bishops in Tenth and Eleventh Century Western Europe, ed. Ludger Korntgen and Dominik Wassenhoven
John Eldevik
Timothy Reuter’s last published article, ‘Ein Europa der Bischöfe: Das Zeitalter Burchards von Worms’ (in W. Hartmann, ed., Bischof Burchard Worms, 1000–1025 [2000]), has acquired a kind of foundational status in recent medieval episcopal studies. Appearing 2000 an edited German volume commemorating the millennial anniversary elevation to episcopate, essay offered panoramic sketch European affairs tenth and eleventh centuries that shifted traditional frame reference away from monarchs royal governments towards ecclesiastical nobility. He considered what turn millennium had looked like for bishops—not exactly history bottom up, but power took seriously idea magnates were not merely political apparatchiks with fancier hats, independent, charismatic rulers whose dioceses domains constituted small proto-states their own right. Reuter suggested world these pre-Gregorian prelates represented unique moment deserved be studied on its terms—a project he intended undertake prior his untimely death just two years later.
The English Historical Review