<i>Patterns of Episcopal Power: Bishops in Tenth and Eleventh Century Western Europe/Strukturen bischöflicher Herrschaftsgewalt im westlichen Europa des 10. und 11. Jahrhunderts</i> (review)
John S. Ott
Patterns of Episcopal Power: in Tenth and Eleventh Century Western Europe/ Strukturen bischoflicher Herrschaftsgewalt im westlichen Europa des 10. und 11. Jahrhunderts. Edited by Ludger Korntgen Dominik Wasenhoven. [Prinz-Albert-Forschungen/Prince Albert Research Publications, Vol. 6.] (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 201 1 . Pp. 226. $1 35.00. ISBN 978-3-11-026202-5.)This collection essays opens with a now classic piece Timothy Reuter, warmly canonized the editors as patron saint research on bishops, kingship tenth eleventh centuries (p. 12). Reuter published Ein der Bischofe: Das Zeitalter Burchards von Worms shortly before his untimely death 2002, it has become standard point reference for scholars medieval ecclesiastical political history central Middle Ages. Wasenhoven have made available Reuter's own English translation essay (pp. 17-38), updating additional references to recent scholarship. Anglophone readers will surely welcome their effort.Korntgen andWasenhoven's inclusion ? Europe Bishops reminds us how effortlessly work bridged England Continent. spirit infuses this volume another respect. Influenced Benedict Anderson, several late urged think dioceses imagined communities, polities having both an institutional and, still more important, conceptual existence that centered bishop's person rituals connected episcopal office. argued bishops across Europe's continental core shared year 1000 range experiences; they were rather like chess pieces possessing similar powers but operating independently one other board.The editors' stated intention 13) is compare situations, actions, communications, individual protagonists, specific resources, rules behavior so order get better understanding practice construction [episcopal] power Anglo-Saxon Ottoman kingdoms. Essays Ernst-Dieter Hehl, Wasenhoven, Catherine Cubitt do examining bishops' actions during monarchic succession crises- namely, 1035-42 England, those 983/84, 1002, 1024 Ottonian-Salian reichs. A fourth essay, Pauline Stafford, explores interventions royal women Emma TElfgifu following Cnut 1035. These read best pairs. Hehl's Bedrangte belohnte Bischofe. Recht Politik als Parameter bischoflichen Handelns bei Willigis Mainz anderen 63-87), perhaps most detailed study here, argues persuasively crises, than providing opportunities agency, entailed great amount risk could just easily limit options action. …
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