Steffen Patzold – författare

The local priest was the most ubiquitous embodiment of the Church for many people in medieval Christian Europe. By centring this key figure in post-Carolingian Europe, this book provides a fresh perspective on the transition between two focuses of historiographical attention, the Carolingian reform and the Gregorian reform. This pivot away from Church elites such as popes, bishops and abbots, and the institutional structures of dioceses and parishes, sheds light on new lines of continuity and moments of transformation, examining the resources and kinship ties of local priests and assessing their relationship with the bishop at both the collective and the individual level. It draws on a variety of methodologies and forms of evidence, ranging from the detailed study of specific manuscripts to wide-ranging overviews of liturgical and documentary evidence. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

This book explores social cohesion in rural settlements in western Europe from 700–1050, asking to what extent settlements, or districts, constituted units of social organisation. It focuses on the interactions, interconnections and networks of people who lived side by side – neighbours. Drawing evidence from most of the current western European countries, the book plots and interrogates the very different practices of this wide range of regions in a systematically comparative framework. It considers the variety of local responses to the supra-local agents of landlords and rulers and the impact, such as it was, of those agents on the small-scale residential group. It also assesses the impact on local societies of the values, instructions and demands of the wider literate world of Christianity, as delivered by local priests.

This book explores social cohesion in rural settlements in western Europe from 700–1050, asking to what extent settlements, or districts, constituted units of social organisation. It focuses on the interactions, interconnections and networks of people who lived side by side – neighbours. Drawing evidence from most of the current western European countries, the book plots and interrogates the very different practices of this wide range of regions in a systematically comparative framework. Neighbours and strangers considers the variety of local responses to the supra-local agents of landlords and rulers and the impact, such as it was, of those agents on the small-scale residential group. It also assesses the impact on local societies of the values, instructions and demands of the wider literate world of Christianity, as delivered by local priests.

Christentum, Judentum und Islam gehen gemeinsam davon aus, dass Gott sich aus der Unverfügbarkeit seiner Transzendenz heraus den Menschen selbst verfügbar gemacht hat. Das göttliche Wesen und sein Wille werden in den heiligen Schriften erkennbar ― aber auf eine Weise, die ein weitergehendes Wissen darüber erforderlich macht, wie diese Schriften für den Alltag handlungsleitend werden sollen: Solches „religiöses Wissen“ ist wesentlich verfasst als reflexives und praktisches Wissen darum, wie der Mensch Gott zur Verfügung zu stehen hat.Umgekehrt geht es den institutionellen Religionen, aber auch den sozialen Gruppen und Individuen darum, Gott „handzuhaben“. Dabei ist für sie wesentlich, die Welt mit jenen transzendenten Potentialen aufzuladen, die Leben sichern und auch über sein Scheitern und Ende hinaus „aufbewahren“. Die Allmacht Gottes wird demnach trotz der Versuche, ihn verfügbar zu machen, nicht verneint. Der Glaube an sie ist vielmehr die Triebfeder für das Handeln der Akteure. Im vorliegenden Band zeichnen verschiedene Disziplinen nach, wie Konflikte um das Zu-Handen-Machen Gottes dazu beigetragen haben, Institutionen, Verfahren und soziale Gruppen zu generieren, die „religiöses Wissen“ mitprägten und damit letztlich auch die Entstehung unserer heutigen Wissensgesellschaft beeinflusst haben.Vier Forschungsfelder strukturieren dabei den Sammelband. Sie fragen (1) nach Strategien der Distinktion, (2) dem religiösen Expertentum, (3) den Gender-Kategorien der Handhabung Gottes und (4) ihren Medien. Alle beruhen auf dem Gegensatz zwischen „Mythisierung und Rationalisierung“ bzw. „Verzauberung und Entzauberung“.

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.

Germanische Altertumskunde Online (Germanic Antiquity Studies Online) – just like the Reallexikon that has merged with it – is accompanied by supplementary volumes. This series comprises both monographs and edited volumes on specific topics from the fields of archaeology, history, and literary studies. It thus expands the database with the inclusion of aspects that require comprehensive analysis. More than 100 volumes have now appeared, from Germanenproblemen in heutiger Sicht (The Problems of Germanic Peoples from a Contemporary Perspective) to Germanische Altertumskunde im Wandel (Germanic Antiquity Studies in Flux).

Das Mittelalter gilt als Zeit der Ritter und Burgen, als Zeit "feudaler" Gewalt und "feudaler" Herrschaft. Als Ursprungsort einer solchen "Feudalgesellschaft" gilt eine "feudale Revolution" im 11. Jahrhundert. Der vorliegende Band eröffnet eine neue Perspektive auf die Transformationen des 10.-12. Jahrhundert.