Institute for Medieval Studies

Session	226
Title	Priests in a Post-Imperial World, c. 900-1050, II: Priests and Their Communities
Date/Time	Monday 4 July 2022: 14.15-15.45
Organiser	Alice Hicklin, Department of History, University of Sheffield
Moderator/Chair	Nicolas Schroeder, Faculté de Philosophie et Sciences Sociales, Université libre de Bruxelles
Respondent	Sarah M. Hamilton, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Exeter
Paper 226-a	Priests' Wives and Partners in Northern Italy in the Long 10th Century (Language: English) Emilie Kurdziel, Centre d'Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale (CESCM - UMR 7302), Université de Poitiers Index Terms: Canon Law; Ecclesiastical History; Religious Life
Paper 226-b	Mum of a Preacher Man: Priests and Their Mothers in Western European Charters (Language: English) Alice Hicklin, Department of History, University of Sheffield Index Terms: Charters and Diplomatics; Ecclesiastical History; Lay Piety; Religious Life
Paper 226-c	Local Priests and Tithes in the Long 10th Century (Language: English) Steffen Patzold, Seminar für mittelalterliche Geschichte, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen Index Terms: Canon Law; Ecclesiastical History; Economics - General; Religious Life
Abstract	The history of the western church in c. 900-1050 has historically been seen as a trough between the two peaks of 'Carolingian' and 'Gregorian reform', as the Church either struggled against secular lords or else compromised itself by working too closely with them, depending on historiographical perspective. In recent years, historians have begun to challenge this picture, whether by nuancing inherited historiographical concepts of church reform or simply through taking more critical attitudes to the surviving sources. There has been much revisionist work on monasteries and on bishops in this period; but very little attention has been paid to rural priests. Our second session will consider local priests in the communities they served, from the bonds of family and friendship they maintained to their incomes and roles in land transactions. Instead of judging local priests only with reference to a narrative of reform, the speakers will explore the shifts and changes which can be discovered in the life-worlds of rural priests in the 10th and 11th centuries.