Men in the Middle: Local Priests in Early Medieval Europe

Published by De Gruyter 2016

Men in the Middle

Local Priests in Early Medieval Europe

Edited by: Steffen Patzold and Carine van van Rhijn

Volume 93 in the series Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110444483

Overview
Contents

About this book

This volume studies local priests as central players in small communities of early medieval Europe. As clerics living among the laity, priests played a double role within their communities: that of local representatives of the Church and religious experts, and that of owners of land and other goods. By virtue of their membership of both the ecclesiastical and the secular world, they can be considered as ‘men in the middle’: people who brought politico-religious ideas and ideals to secular communities, and who linked the local to the supra-local via networks of landownerhsip.
This book addresses both roles that local priests played by approaching them via their manuscripts, and via the charters that record transactions in which they were involved. Manuscripts once owned by local priests bear witness to their education and expertise, but also indicate how, for instance, ideals of the Carolingian reforms reached the lowest levels of early medieval society. The case-studies of collections of charters, on the other hand, show priests as active members of networks of the locally powerful in a variety of European regions. Notwithstanding many local variations, the contributions to this volume show that local priests as ‘men in the middle’ are a phenomenon shared by the early medieval world as a whole.

Author / Editor information

Steffen Patzold, University of Tübingen, Germany; Carine van Rhijn, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	v
Table of contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
1. Introduction Carine van Rhijn and Steffen Patzold Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Practices of property and the salvation of one’s soul: Priests as men in the middle in the Wissembourg material Miriam Czock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
3. Local priests in early medieval Alamannia: The Charter Evidence Bernhard Zeller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	32
4. Presbyter in parochia sua: Local priests and their churches in early medieval Bavaria Thomas Kohl Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
5. Ideal and reality: Carolingian priests in northern Francia Charles Mériaux Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
6. Local priests in early medieval rural Tuscany Marco Stoffella Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
7. Local priests in northern Iberia Wendy Davies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
8. Looking for local priests in Anglo-Saxon England Francesca Tinti Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
9. Priests and books in the Merovingian period Yitzhak Hen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
10. Manuscripts for local priests and the Carolingian reforms Carine van Rhijn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
11. Pater noster: Priests and the religious instruction of the laity in the Carolingian populus christianus Steffen Patzold Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
12. Early medieval priests: Some further thoughts Rob Meens Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Wissenschaftler/innen, Institute, Bibliotheken
Pages
- Front matter: 10
- Main content: 252
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 2
Keywords: Early middle ages; social history; history of Christianity

eBook

Published: May 24, 2016
ISBN: 9783110444483

Hardcover

Published: May 24, 2016
ISBN: 9783110443417