Johannes VIII. Päpstliche Herrschaft in den karolingischen Teilreichen am Ende des 9. Jahrhunderts. By Dorothee Arnold. (Europäische Hochschulschriften. European University Studies, Ser. 23. Theology, 797.) Pp. 268. Frankfurt-am-Main: Peter Lang, 2005. £29.80 (paper). 3 631 53179 6; 0721 3409; REVIEWS; JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

[...]the treatment of the material is extremely uneven, with worship not at all being the main focus of some chapters; the reader is left wondering whether sacred space, the spread of Christianity or modern mission is the real subject under scrutiny. [...]the work which promises to deliver beyond the text is in fact almost entirely based on secondary sources, some of which are now superseded. [...]of his behaviour in the Acts of the Apostles(viii.924), where he is rst mentioned as a sorcerer who oers Peter money in order to obtain his divine powers, Simon Magus name gave rise to the term simony. Alberto Ferreiro examines this tradition in many of its ramications. Besides appearing in the work of various church Fathers, such as Jerome and Vincent of Lrins, Simon Magus is to be found in medieval Ireland and England, notably in Aelfrics Passion sermon and the Blickling Homilies, and, as the original impostor, he was sucked into anti-Islamic polemics by Embrico of Mainz and other writers in the twelfth century (who drew an obvious comparison between the Prophets Night Journey and Simon Magus eorts to y).