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In 1070, when Lanfranc left his abbacy at Caen to become Archbishop of Canterbury, he was probably about 60 years old — by medieval standards an advanced age. In Lombardy, and then in Normandy, he had had a long and varied experience of lay, monastic, and general church life, and not least of the aspirations and concerns of the early reform papacy and of secular rulers who, for whatever reason, had sympathy with them. At each stage of his life he had demonstrated his ability to adapt himself with integrity and effectiveness to the demands that he encountered. A cardinal feature of Lanfranc's monastic years as prior of Bec and as abbot of Caen was his close and sympathetic relationship with the reform popes of the time, especially Leo IX, Nicholas II, and Alexander II, all of whom held him in high regard.

From the beginning of his archiepiscopate, Lanfranc insisted that the primacy of his church of Canterbury extended beyond the two English provinces of Canterbury and York to include the whole of the British Isles. His insistence upon the obedience of Bishop Herfast of Elmham to him as metropolitan culminated in a declaration that Britain was agreed to be the single jurisdiction of his own one church of Canterbury. In 1072, Lanfranc had drawn upon Bede to claim before Pope Alexander II that his early predecessors had exercised a primacy over the church of York and over the whole island called Britain including Ireland, dispensing pastoral care to all and holding ordinations and councils wherever they thought fit. Lanfranc's impact was different with regard to the three regions of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. This was largely the result of the differing power and initiatives of the secular rulers concerned.

When Lanfranc became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1070, he had some two-and-a-half decades of monastic life behind him. Lanfranc's episcopal model, for himself as a monk and for others who shared his pastoral care, was that of a monk-bishop who, according to his circumstances, combined the qualities of the cloister with those requisite for his wider responsibility. Lanfranc exhibited a combination of severity arising from an insistence upon authority and obedience with a pastoral care for the duly subject which arose from mercy and charity. This chapter examines Lanfranc's monastic order, his reforming of monastic life at Christ Church, his dealings with three abbeys (St. Albans, Bury St. Edmunds, and St. Augustine's at Canterbury), the body of legislation that he provided in his monastic constitutions, and his propagation of and provision for cathedral and episcopal monasteries.

There has been considerable debate amongst historians about the process by which Lanfranc established his ultimate view of English saints. It has involved the wider question of the attitude of Norman abbots to the traditions and observances of their English subjects. There has been a strong tendency amongst recent scholars to question whether Norman churchmen in general disparaged the sanctity of England's men and women whom they found to be venerated in their churches, and whether in particular Lanfranc purged the Canterbury calendar of many English saints and reduced or suspended the recognition of his predecessors as archbishop, Dunstan (959-988) and Elphege (1006-1012). This chapter examines the newer view and presents examples confirming that Lanfranc was not hostile to the saints of Christ Church.

Like most leading churchmen of his time, Lanfranc favoured strong kings who provided peace and justice in a violent world, not least for churches, monks, and all grades of clergy. During the seventeen years of their working relationship as Archbishop of Canterbury and king of England, Lanfranc and William I undoubtedly maintained a harmony and collaboration that have few if any parallels in the history of medieval Europe. The relationship of Lanfranc and King William I was the closer and more fruitful by reason of the active part that Lanfranc took in the government and administration of the English kingdom. Aside from being a mentor of and collaborator with the king in his ecclesiastical capacity as archbishop, Lanfranc was also royal deputy and royal justice involved in matters of royal administration and justice.

Lanfranc's loyal and collaborative service of King William I of England in both ecclesiastical and temporal affairs stands in contrast to the coolness and distance that he showed towards the great reforming pope who from 1073 to 1085 was his contemporary in office, Gregory VII. Lanfranc's attitude may be attributed in part to Gregory's curt refusal, while still Archdeacon Hildebrand, to grant Lanfranc the papal privilege that he desperately needed in order to settle the issue of the primacy of Canterbury unless he came in person to Rome for proper discussion. With regards to partisans of the anti-pope that arose from the papal schism which began in 1084, Lanfrand remained cautiously non-committal.

As Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc was the ecclesiastical head of an English church that consisted of the provinces of Canterbury and York; he claimed a primacy over the British Isles that includes Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. On account of his own past career and present reputation, Lanfranc continued to be considerably concerned with persons and problems both in the Duchy of Normandy and beyond its frontiers, including the French church. Lanfranc's Norman concerns centred upon the abbey of Bec and its two leading figures: abbots Herluin and Anselm. Lanfranc's known concern with matters arising in the French church beyond the Duchy of Normandy is limited to two of his letters: one to Archbishop Manasses I of Rheims in 1080, and the other to Abbot Reynald of Saint-Cyprien at Poitiers and others regarding the Trinity and especially about the incarnation of the second Person of the Trinity.

Lanfranc allegedly wished to die of some dysentery or fever, because these illnesses neither disturb the memory nor impair speech. His wish was fulfilled: he died of a fever, postponing medication until he made confession and received the viaticum. He died at Canterbury on May 28, 1089, and was buried in the nave of the cathedral, to the west of the choir screen. This chapter chronicles Lanfranc's last years prior to his death and burial, including his continued support of William Rufus who would be proclaimed King William II, and the trial of Bishop William of Saint-Calais for his involvement in the failed rebellion against the king.

Considered in terms of his own life and achievement, Lanfranc's exceptional stature as Archbishop of Canterbury is apparent. In particular aspects of an archbishop's life and work in church and kingdom, others would excel him, but in the succession of archbishops from Augustine to the present day, only Theodore of Tarsus approaches Lanfranc's high competence in each of the main concerns of his office, his skill in human and political relationships, and above all the enduring character and benefit of his government of the English church both in itself and as an aspect of national life. He was important as a monk-archbishop not only because of his background as monk and prior of Bec and then abbot of Saint-Étienne at Caen, but also because he was ex officio abbot of the cathedral monastery at Canterbury.

Lanfranc's birthplace, Pavia, had its origin in the Roman municipium of Ticinum which was established before the Christian era on the River Ticino, just north of its confluence with the River Po. Neither Lanfranc's own writings nor anything written about him gives any positive evidence for the impact upon his mind of Pavia's long history or of the events there in his childhood and youth. Yet the environment in which he grew up should be remembered when his later career is studied, most of all in the years during which he was actively engaged in the religious and secular affairs of the Anglo-Norman kingdom. Except for the assured fact of his progress from Pavia to the border of Normandy at Bec, the 1030s are the most obscure decade of Lanfranc's life. This chapter offers a glimpse into Lanfranc's early life, including his family, education, and career.

This chapter discusses Lanfranc's entry into the monastic order as a fundamental conversion of life, his life as monk, and his years as prior of Bec. There is no positive reason to doubt that Lanfranc's decision to change his manner of life came quite suddenly. Lanfranc became abbot of Saint-Étienne at Caen in 1063, and ruled the newly founded abbey until he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1070. When he moved to Caen he is likely to have been already some fifty years of age. His seniority, and therefore his experience and proven loyalty, are likely to have commended him to Duke William, who for political as well as for ecclesiastical reasons was seeking to establish the town of Caen as a centre of ducal authority.

William II, Duke of Normandy, succeeded to the Duchy of Normandy in 1035 as a boy aged only some 7 years. Some features of the Norman church under Duke William are particularly relevant when considering the position of Lanfranc. One was the series of church councils which were held in the Duchy, perhaps beginning in 1042. There can be no doubt that both contemporary and later sources understate Lanfranc's contacts and association during his monastic years with the reform papacy which was ushered in by the Emperor Henry III's intervention at Rome in 1046 and especially by the energetic pontificate of Leo IX (1049-1054). All the evidence suggests that Lanfranc was to the core a man of the early reform papacy from Pope Leo IX to Pope Alexander II. He knew and was known by its leading Roman personalities, sharing their principles and purposes.

As scholar and teacher, Lanfranc's intellectual concerns extended over his lifetime, but they also underwent changes so far as his priorities were concerned. He came to Normandy as a teacher of the liberal arts, and the financial needs of the abbey of Bec led him to continue as such during his long service as its prior. Nevertheless, as he grew to maturity in the life of a monk, he wished to devote himself increasingly to the study of the Bible as an aspect of monastic discipline; his determination led, in particular, to his commentaries on the Psalms and the epistles of Paul. The difficult subject of Lanfranc's theology of the eucharist and of his controversy about it with Berengar of Tours is best approached with his biblical commentaries in mind, especially in so far as they illustrate his view of the relation between authority and human learning.

This chapter discusses the ecclesiastical background to Lanfranc's becoming Archbishop of Canterbury. In a letter probably of early 1073, Lanfranc testified to his long and stubborn resistance in 1070 to accepting the promotion. Two persons were mainly instrumental in overcoming his resistance. The first was Herluin, his sometime abbot at Bec, to whom he acknowledged a lasting obedience; King William used him to assist in persuading Lanfranc. Lanfranc provides evidence that a probably still greater part in overcoming his resistance was played by Pope Alexander II. The chapter also looks at two matters that illustrate Lanfranc's approach and actions: the career and character of his predecessor at Canterbury, Archbishop Stigand; and the standpoint taken with regard to the English church by the apostolic see under Pope Alexander II.

An ultimate pastoral motive lay behind Lanfranc's thoroughgoing reform and development of the structure and organisation of the Canterbury church as archbishop. Although this was in accordance with the precedent set by Pope Alexander II's legates in their councils of 1070, Lanfranc was in a position to take the further step of re-establishing the church of Canterbury as the mother church of the kingdom of England. He did so, first, by giving attention to the cathedral church and see of Canterbury itself, and second, by claiming for Canterbury a primacy which carried authority over the English church as constituted by the provinces of Canterbury and York and also more widely over the whole of the British Isles.

If the endeavour to assert the primacy of Canterbury was one aspect of Lanfranc's renewal of the mother church of the kingdom, a second and complementary concern was with the primatial see itself. In addition to his building work in the cathedral and cathedral monastery of Christ Church, Lanfranc was remembered for his foundation, construction, and endowment near the city of three charitable institutions: the hospital of St. John the Baptist, the priory of St. Gregory the Great, and the leper hospital of St. Nicholas. Upon the death in 1075 of Bishop Siward of Rochester, Lanfranc began to use the Norman bishops of that see as his episcopal assistants; for their support he endowed and reordered their see in a manner that imitated his renewal of the see of Canterbury itself. This chapter also discusses Lanfranc's administration of the lands and income of Canterbury and his securing of Canterbury's lands and privileges.

The effects of Lanfranc's reordering of the English church as Archbishop of Canterbury were profound and lasting. With the support of King William, Lanfranc sought to revive the spiritual authority and jurisdiction of the church at every level. The holding of councils and synods, primatial and episcopal, was a means to this end, and the quickening of church life in the localities and parishes was to consolidate it. The rapid appearance of archdeacons who played a prominent role testifies to a purpose of intensifying pastoral and judicial oversight. The introduction and dissemination by Lanfranc of a version of the Pseudo-Isidorian decrees effectively introduced canon law to the country as a normative and educative medium for reform and guidance. He also helped the king maintain the separation, at least in part, of ecclesiastical jurisdiction from the secular.

This chapter shows that Duke William's claim to be Edward the Confessor's designated, direct successor shaped the way in which the conquest of England was implemented. The kingdom was deemed to be William's, and William's alone, by force of Edward's bequest. This novel argument is attributed to Lanfranc, whom William made archbishop of Canterbury. To treat the kingdom in this way marked an abrupt rupture from the practice of royal succession in Old England. It also meant that any landholder, whether co-conqueror or surviving Englishman, had to acknowledge that he held, ultimately, by the king's favour. The kingdom was therefore William's in a way in which it had never been Edward's, and it was so because of, not despite, the elaborate show of continuity with the Old English past. The transforming nature of William's claim is explored in official documentation, particularly the land pleas, and culminates in Domesday Book.