Through the Ages - Normans

William I - 1070

Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury

Invaders Land in England

Lanfranc, an Italian Benedictine, was the chief religious adviser to Duke William of Normandy. After the Norman conquest of England in 1066 he was rewarded with the highest position the English Church had to offer, namely the archbishopric of Canterbury.

Lanfranc was a theologian and teacher of enormous prestige even before he began his close co-operation with William of Normandy. Born in about 1010 in Pavia, northern Italy, Lanfranc was famous throughout Europe. Consequently he gave the Norman bid to conquer England a lustre it might otherwise have lacked. With his wide-ranging professional connections Lanfranc was able to obtain papal sanction for Duke William's enterprise. The pope's support validated William's quest for the English crown.

After the Norman conquest of 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, elected a well-connected and erudite Benedictine monk called Lanfranc as his chief advisor and entrusted him with governing the archbishopric of Canterbury. Lanfranc had an astute mind for politics and served William well.

Limiting Papal Power

However, what the pope did not know, but soon learned, was that the partnership of king and archbishop would be aimed at lessening papal power in England. William, backed by Lanfranc, insisted that the pope exercise power in his realm only with royal permission - and he was very sparing with that permission.

The limit placed on papal power in England had important benefits for Lanfranc. It enabled him to pursue his own path while enjoying the complete trust of the king. An early advantage transpired in 1072 when the king ordered that the Church in England should have jurisdiction over its own affairs. This was a major success for Lanfranc. He set about consolidating his position by seeing off his nearest rival, the archbishop of York, in the struggle to become Primate of All England.

Lanfranc's Reforms

Now armed with complete ecclesiastical power, Lanfranc set about reforming canon law, recasting monastic life and generally Normanising the Church. Unlike so many Normans in England, Lanfranc had not come to use force or punishment. During the difficult transition from the English to the Norman form of Christianity, his weapons were tact and patience.

One of Lanfranc's tasks was to replace Anglo-Saxon with Norman bishops, but there was no across-the-board sacking of native clerics. Instead, Lanfranc removed only those bishops or abbots who had not been properly consecrated. The rest he left where they were until they died, and then replaced them with Norman successors. Presented with a married clergy Lanfranc remained true to his moderate policy. Instead of issuing a blanket ban on the practice, he allowed those already married to keep their wives. Newly-ordained priests, however, had to remain unmarried. Thus in time, and with a minimum of pain, Lanfranc achieved his aim of making the English clergy celibate.

Separating Church and State

Using his connections with Rome, Lanfranc sought to obtain papal sanction for William I's (left) bid for the English crown. The move thinly disguised a political manoeuvre to undermine the power of Rome in England and grant Lanfranc the authority to start reforming canon law within the Church.

William 1

Just as delicately done was Lanfranc's strategy to protect the Church from interference from both royal and secular influences. The point at which it was most likely for Church and State to clash was in the law courts, but in 1076 Lanfranc, himself a former lawyer, issued an ordinance that detached the religious from the secular courts. This ordinance presented no challenge to royal authority: all it did was confirm a decision King William had made four years previously. He had ordered that the shire and hundred courts should no longer handle ecclesiastical cases. Instead, these would be referred to the local bishop who would try the cases according to Church law.

It was no small achievement for a cleric to persuade a despotic warrior king such as William I to relinquish such an important part of his royal authority. It was, however, so tactfully done that king and archbishop enjoyed the best possible relations right up until William's death in 1087. This might have made Lanfranc vulnerable to the designs of William's brutish and irreligious successor, William II, but his prestige was such that even the new king did not dare to move against him. William II had to wait two years, until Lanfranc died in 1089, before he reimposed some royal power over the Church. He exercised his right to choose Lanfranc's successor, and delayed his choice until 1093, in the meantime he diverted the revenues of Canterbury to his own pocket.