With the reform of the system of papal elections at the Lateran Council of 1059, and with the association created between the papacy and the Normans, two decisions were made during the short pontificate of Nicholas ii which were to shape the papacy for centuries to follow. And so it is the case that these two events stand as the middle point in the book under review. With the decree on papal election (pp. 102–27), which ascribed a leading role to cardinal archbishops, Hägermann emphasises that the intention was to ensure the reform, definitively influenced by Rome, of the whole Church by establishing an electoral procedure. Against this the subsequent justification of the partly irregularly conducted election of Nicholas ii is of only subordinate importance. The author argues that papal policy towards the Normans resulted from deteriorating support from the Empire and was also an expression of papal attempts to secure reform through power politics by binding southern Italy more closely to the papacy (pp. 145–64). Particular attention is given to the subdeacon and archdeacon of the Roman Church, Hildebrand and the abbot, Desiderius of Monte Cassino, as initiators of this drastic change in papal politics. The remaining chapters of the book are devoted to these two events. The first two chapters serve as it were as background to the pontificate of Nicholas ii (pp. 7–64) and concern themselves with the situation of the Church at the death of Pope Victor ii, the eight-month papacy of Stephen ix and the attempt of the Roman nobility to win back with the Tusculan Benedict ix the papal position of authority which had been lost in 1046. The government of Stephen ix, which was too short to make much difference, nevertheless served as a continuation of reform measures and was characterised by the growing hostility of Normans to the pope which had begun in the papacy of Leo ix. The ensuing biographical discussion of Nicholas focuses on his Burgundian origins, his time as a bishop in Florence and his reforming tendencies which moved him closer to the Roman reformers Peter Damian, Humbert von Silva and Hildebrand. For the election of Nicholas ii, Hägermann rejects the usual date of 6 December 1058 in Siena, for which there are indeed no reliable sources. For these details, as well as for the discussions of the papal decree on elections, the author is dependent upon earlier works whose conclusions he repeats at some length. The remaining chapters concern themselves with further enactments of the Roman councils of 1059 (pp. 129–44), with the final removal from office of Benedict x in 1060 which essentially only the later Roman Annals report (pp. 165–71), and are considered in some detail with the documents issued at the time of Nicholas ii (pp. 173–212) and are arranged by region (Italy, France, England and the Empire). The last pages of the book are devoted to Pope Nicholas ii's arguments with the German court (pp. 213–17). They present no more than a summary of the different interpretations and in the face of the extremely sketchy comments in the sources these events remain a conundrum. A list of secondary literature and a register of persons and names conclude the volume.