L'Espace du diocese. Genese d'un territoire dans l'occident medieval (Ve-XIIIe siecle)

Many of the papers are case studies, often focusing on particular disputes between neighbouring sees; in addition two papers look more generally at particular aspects of developing ecclesiastical administration in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries - rural deans (Daniel Pichot) and the extent to which cathedral cartularies reflect the internal organisation of dioceses (Florian Mazel). The French case studies include a valuable account of how Visigoths, Arabs and Franks brought about major changes in the diocesan map of southern Gaul between the Rhône and the Pyrenees between the fifth and ninth centuries (Laurent Schneider), detailed case studies of territorial disputes in Provence, imperial Burgundy, Gascony and Normandy (Yann Codou; Laurent Ripart; Florian Mazel), an account of developments in early Brittany (Bernard Merdrignac and Louisa Plouchart) and a study of the province of Rheims by Charles Mériaux that explores the means by which bishops sought to strengthen their authority in the earlier Middle Ages, in particular through the takeover of monasteries and the development of patronal saints' cults. Fuzzier edges to dioceses, characteristic of France in the earlier Middle Ages, sometimes resulted from belts of unpopulated forest, sometimes from seigneurial decisions to switch spiritual control of a given area from one bishop to another.