In medieval Europe, the death of a king could not only cause a dispute about the succession, but also a severe crisis. In times of a vacant throne particular responsibility fell to the bishops – whose general importance for the time around the first milennium has been revealed by recent scholarship – as royal counsellors and policy makers. This volume therefore concentrates on the bishops’ room for manoeuvre and the patterns of episcopal power, focusing on the Eastern Frankish Reich and Anglo-Saxon England in a comparative approach which is not least based upon the research of a renowned medievalist, Timothy Reuter. His article about ‘A Europe of Bishops’ (‘Ein Europa der Bischöfe’) is presented in English translation for the first time.

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