Editing Lanfranc (section)

==Archbishop of Canterbury==
When the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rouen|see of Rouen]] next fell vacant (1067), the thoughts of the electors turned to Lanfranc. But he declined the honour, and he was appointed to the English [[primate (bishop)|primatial see]] as [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] as soon as [[Stigand]] had been canonically deposed on 15 August 1070. He was speedily consecrated on 29 August 1070.<ref name=Handbook232>{{cite book |author1=Fryde, E. B. |author2=Greenway, D. E. |author3=Porter, S. |author4=Roy, I. |title=Handbook of British Chronology|edition=Third revised |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=1996 |isbn=0-521-56350-X |pages=232}}</ref> The new archbishop at once began a policy of reorganisation and reform. His first difficulties were with [[Thomas of Bayeux]], Archbishop-elect of York, (another former pupil) who asserted that his see was independent of [[Archbishop of Canterbury|Canterbury]] and claimed jurisdiction over the greater part of the English Midlands.{{sfn|Davis|1911|p=170}} This was the beginning of a long running dispute between the sees of Canterbury and York, usually known as the [[Canterbury–York dispute]].<ref name=Church39>{{cite book |author=Barlow, Frank |title=The English Church 1066–1154: A History of the Anglo-Norman Church |author-link=Frank Barlow (historian)|publisher=Longman |location=New York |year=1979|isbn=0-582-50236-5 |pages=39–42}}</ref>

[[File:Acrdwnch.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Signatures at the [[council of Winchester (1072)]]. The large crosses are the signatures of William and Matilda, the one under theirs is Lanfranc's, and the other bishops' are under his.]]

Lanfranc, during a visit which he paid the pope for the purpose of receiving his [[pallium]], obtained an order from Alexander that the disputed points should be settled by a council of the English Church. This was held at [[Winchester]] in 1072.{{sfn|Davis|1911|p=170}} At this council Lanfranc obtained the confirmation of his primacy that he sought; nonetheless he was never able to secure its formal confirmation by the papacy, possibly as a result of the succession of [[Pope Gregory VII]] to the papal throne in 1073.

Lanfranc assisted William in maintaining the independence of the English Church; and appears at one time to have favoured the idea of maintaining a neutral attitude on the subject of the quarrels between papacy and empire. In the domestic affairs of England the archbishop showed more spiritual zeal. His grand aim was to extricate the Church from the fetters of corruption. He was a generous patron of monasticism. He endeavoured to enforce [[celibacy]] upon the secular clergy.{{sfn|Davis|1911|p=170}}

Lanfranc obtained the king's permission to deal with the affairs of the Church in [[synod]]s. In the cases of [[Odo of Bayeux]] (1082) (see [[Trial of Penenden Heath]]) and of [[William of St Calais]], [[Diocese of Durham|Bishop of Durham]] (1088), he used his legal ingenuity to justify the trial of bishops before a lay tribunal.{{sfn|Davis|1911|p=170}}

Lanfranc accelerated the process of substituting Normans for Englishmen in all preferments of importance; and although his nominees were usually respectable, it cannot be said that all of them were better than the men whom they superseded. There was a considerable mixture for this admixture of secular with spiritual aims. By long tradition, the primate was entitled to a leading position in the king's councils, and the interests of the Church demanded that Lanfranc should use his power in a manner not displeasing to the king. On several occasions when William I was absent from England Lanfranc acted as his vicegerent.{{sfn|Davis|1911|p=170}}

Lanfranc's greatest political service to the Conqueror was rendered in 1075, when he detected and foiled [[Revolt of the Earls|the conspiracy]] which had been formed by the earls of Norfolk and Hereford. [[Waltheof, 1st Earl of Northumberland]], one of the rebels, soon lost heart and confessed the conspiracy to Lanfranc, who urged [[Roger de Breteuil, 2nd Earl of Hereford|Roger, the earl of Hereford]] to return to his allegiance, and finally excommunicated him and his adherents. He interceded for Waltheof's life and to the last spoke of the earl as an innocent sufferer for the crimes of others; he lived on terms of friendship with Bishop [[Wulfstan (died 1095)|Wulfstan of Worcester]].{{sfn|Davis|1911|p=170}}

[[File:Lanfranc (Bodleian Library MS Bodley 569, folio 1r).jpg|thumb|upright|Near-contemporary depiction of Lanfranc in Oxford Bodleian Library MS Bodley 569]]

On the death of the Conqueror in 1087 Lanfranc secured the succession for [[William Rufus]], in spite of the discontent of the Anglo-Norman baronage; and in 1088 his exhortations induced the English militia to fight on the side of the new sovereign against Odo of Bayeux and the other partisans of [[Robert Curthose|Duke Robert]]. He exacted promises of just government from Rufus, and was not afraid to remonstrate when the promises were disregarded. So long as he lived he was a check upon the worst propensities of the king's administration. But his restraining hand was too soon removed. In 1089 he was stricken with fever and he died on 24 May<ref name=Handbook232/> amidst universal lamentations. Notwithstanding some obvious moral and intellectual defects, he was the most eminent and the most disinterested of those who had co-operated with William I in riveting Norman rule upon the English Church and people. As a statesman he did something to uphold the traditional ideal of his office; as a primate he elevated the standards of clerical discipline and education. Conceived in the spirit of popes such as [[Pope Leo IX]], his reforms led by a natural sequence to strained relations between Church and State; the equilibrium which he established was unstable, and depended too much upon his personal influence with the Conqueror.{{sfn|Davis|1911|p=170}}