When teaching medieval history, the account by Guibert of Nogent of the murder of the bishop of Laon in 1112 is always likely to stir students’ imagination because it seems to question their image of medieval society as static and obedient. In conventional historiography, the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries are described as a period of conflict between traditionalist bishops who believed in loyalty to the crown, as distinct from reform-minded bishops, driven by desire to support papal interests. In this perspective, bishops tended to be presented as relatively passive agents, not as important as the monarchs and popes who shaped the political agenda, at least in nineteenth-century historiography. John Ott's monograph seeks to overturn this perspective by looking at bishops as a distinct social group in a region that he calls north-western Europe (referring exclusively to the continent rather than to the British Isles). He argues that labels like ‘reformer’ and ‘traditionalist’ fail to explain the achievement of the episcopal class that he sees emerging in northern France and Flanders between 1050 and 1150, in the face of criticism of their behaviour from certain groups in society.

This episcopal caste offers a large, enormously rich field of study. Ott provides a meticulous analysis, based on close investigation of a number of separate dioceses. A major focus of his attention is the archdiocese of Reims, not least because it was here in the mid-eleventh century that so many dramatic new developments took place. Some of the book's most successful sections relate to his analysis of individuals, like Gervais of Château-du-Loir, who became its archbishop from 1055 to 1067 after being bishop of Le Mans. While Gervais is conventionally described as a reformer, initiating a number of new Augustinian abbeys in his diocese, Ott presents him more as a politically ambitious magnate extending his seigneurial authority in an archdiocese where the king of France was for a while losing influence. In the case of Reims, there was a rich historiographical tradition that went back to the tenth century. Ott shows how successfully Gervais exploited this tradition for his own ends. He demonstrates how numerous saints’ Lives written between the eleventh and twelfth centuries (not just within the archdiocese of Reims) reflect a conscious desire by bishops to reassert their patronage, as figures who sought to re-shape religious life in the regions under their care. Rather than seeing bishops as either opposing or implementing papal policy, Ott sees them as active and often thoughtful players, who were keen to advance not just their own interests, but those of the cities and regions under their charge.

If there is a problem with this richly detailed book, it lies in the organisation. By choosing to devote different chapters to different regions, the narrative moves from early chapters about the archdiocese of Reims around 1100 and challenges to episcopal authority in the early twelfth century to the mid-eleventh century, with chapters about figures like Gervais of Reims or Lietbert, bishop of Cambrai 1051–76. Ott uncovers so much detail about each of these figures as individuals that the thread of the bigger picture is sometimes in danger of being lost. Perhaps this is a consequence of wanting to move away from a historiography that focused so much on popes, kings and emperors. While it is excellent to focus attention on bishops as a neglected social group, this episcopal elite was also having to compete with a number of other emerging groups, not least that circle of ambitious legates and cardinals who saw the papacy as offering a lever for implementing religious reform as well as for promoting the interests of their families. Many of these same bishops, eager to renew religious life in their dioceses, were also cultivating relationships with the crown.

Perhaps the most helpful aspect of this monograph is the way in which it leads us into individual cities, as we learn (through a number of useful maps) the complex relationship between urban space and the different religious and civic groups that sought to assert themselves within that space. Thus Amiens, dominated until 1117 by its cathedral and the tower of the count, gradually witnessed the emergence of a large number of consecrated sacred spaces, often dominated by particular religious communities. Through uncovering neglected sermons and saints’ Lives, Ott helps to explain how competition between these various communities resulted in an explosion of church-building, many (although not all) of which churches are still standing in the various cities to which he gives attention. Because Paris in the twelfth century has been so well studied, it is helpful to be reminded that cities like Reims and Amiens were just as important – as the reconstruction of their cathedrals during this period makes clear.

While Ott avoids the label of ‘reformer’ for these bishops, his chapters ‘Bishops and the word’ (on bishops as preachers) and ‘Toil and togetherness in the vineyards of the Lord’ (on their planting of new foundations) argue that many bishops in this period were committed to religious renewal. He touches on a significant development within the episcopate, exemplifed by the careers of William of Champeaux and Joscelin of Soissons: that a number of bishops became increasingly well-educated, through being trained in the schools of Laon and Paris. Perhaps we could have learned more about the attitude of bishops and archbishops towards the townspeople in their communities, and the reasons for occasional outbursts of violence, as at Laon in 1112. None the less, by drawing attention to the episcopate as a significant social group, Ott opens up a promising new field of inquiry.