Priests in a post-imperial age, c. 900-1050

西欧历史在漫长的第十世纪（c。900 - c。1050）长期以来一直分裂的历史学家。对一些人来说，特别是那些研究英国和法国知识传统的人来说，这主要是一部在德意志帝国分裂之后的崩溃史;对另一些人来说，特别是那些从德国的角度来研究这个话题的人来说，这首先是一部在教皇改革的动荡之前，教会和世俗领袖之间前所未有的合作史。这个英国和德国的联合项目挑战了这两种观点，首次系统地调查了这个漫长的第十世纪普通地方牧师的生活世界。这些牧师目前是这一时期中世纪早期教会的“暗物质”。他们代表了大部分的人员，并作为主要中间人之间的一般平民谁构成人口的绝大多数和受过教育的精英和文化领袖。如果我们想了解后君士坦丁堡时期文化和社会变化的本质，并将这一时期的精英政治置于适当的背景下，那么我们必须了解这些地方牧师：他们的经济地位，他们知道什么，他们设定了什么标准，他们如何融入当地社会-以及所有这些事情是如何变化的。然而，直到现在，尽管10世纪的地方牧师具有明显的重要性和重要的档案足迹，但他们几乎没有被研究过，被边缘化，有利于更引人注目的精英人物和社区，如主教和修道院。通过结合不同的方法，针对一系列的证据，研究这些牧师的生活世界的变化和变化，主要是在继承国的土地上，以君士坦丁堡法兰克（大约是现代的德国、北方意大利和法国），并借鉴了一个团队的专业知识，汇集了独特的英国和德国史学传统，这一项目对漫长的第十世纪的动态，从而对欧洲历史上一个关键的过渡时刻，提出了一个全新的见解。

The history of Western Europe in the long tenth century (c. 900 - c. 1050) has long divided historians. For some, especially those working in English and French intellectual traditions, it is primarily a history of collapse after the fragmentation of the Carolingian empire; for others, especially those approaching the topic from a German perspective, it is above all a history of unprecedented collaboration between ecclesiastical and secular leaders before the convulsions of papal reform. This joint UK-German project challenges both these views by investigating systematically for the first time the life-worlds of ordinary local priests in this long tenth century. These priests are currently the 'dark matter' of the early medieval church in this period. They represented the bulk of its personnel, and acted as the key brokers between the general lay populace who constituted the overwhelming majority of the population and the educated elites and cultural leaders. If we want to understand the nature of post-Carolingian cultural and social change, and to set the elite politics of the period into a proper context, then we must understand these local priests: their economic standing, what they knew, what standards they were set, how they fitted into their local societies - and how all these things changed. Until now, however, and despite their evident importance and significant archival footprint, tenth-century local priests have barely been studied, sidelined in favour of higher-profile elite figures and communities such as bishops and monasteries. By combining different methodologies tailored to a range of bodies of evidence to research the variation and change in the life-worlds of these priests primarily in the lands of the successor states to Carolingian Francia (approximately modern-day Germany, northern Italy and France), and by drawing on the expertise of a team that brings together the distinctive UK and German historiographical traditions, this project throws an entirely new light on the dynamics of the long tenth century, and thus on a crucial moment of transition in European history.