Dr. Conrad Leyser

Biography

Conrad Leyser is an Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford specializing in religious social history in Western Europe and North Africa. His research encompasses the fall of Rome and the rise of Latin Christendom from the post-Roman period through the millennium. Leyser's recent work has focused on the complex problems of moral authority in the post-Roman West, exploring institutional identity and cultural memory during the late ancient and early medieval periods. He is currently engaged in a study titled 'Myth of the Church', which investigates the slow development of the professional and celibate clerical hierarchy. Leyser proposes a new interpretation of the tenth-century Church, arguing that bishops seized the opportunities presented by the collapse of the Carolingian Empire to enhance their institutional autonomy and self-definition. He examines how late ninth- and tenth-century clerics actively forged their authority and shaped the episcopacy as a career path, establishing a personal code of conduct that allowed for prospects of advancement.

Research Interests

Experience