Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Introduction -- Shaping Policy: Case Study from Ancient Egypt -- The Political Role of an Egyptian Priest under the Early Ptolemies: The Case of Manetho -- Oracles as an Instrument for Political Decisions and Royal Legitimation: A Case Study of Ancient Egypt -- Experts for Teaching and Consulting -- Politics in the Life of Daniel the Stylite: The Holy Man as a Political Player in Late Antique Constantinople -- Did Brahmins have Power in Premodern India? -- Instrumentalizing the 'Priests' -- Ideologists, Instigators or 'Stage Props'? Priests and Popular Protest in the English Rising of 1381 -- Gender, Politics and Religion in Antiquity: The Challenge of the Reign of Queen Alexandra -- 'Vassal' or 'political player'? Towards a re-assessment of Willibrord's political activity in Merovingian Francia (AD 690-739) -- Control of Knowledge: Documenting Priestly Power -- The Power of the Rabbis: Reading Urban Stories of Late Antiquity -- "Domination through Knowledge": The Sacred Dimension of Bureaucracy in the Oracular Sanctuary of Dodona -- Behind the Scene: Religion at the Service of Politics in Ancient Egypt: Views from Philae Island -- In the Field of Power: Priests and Legitimization -- Power through Pilgrimage: The Making of the Papacy -- A New Political Order in the Late Sixth Century BC Athens Powered by the Delphic Oracle -- Keepers of the Secrets of the Sky, the Earth, and the Underworld: The |