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LANFRANC (d. 1089)

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 170 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LANFRANC (d. 1089) , See also:archbishop of See also:Canterbury, was a Lombard by extraction. He was See also:born in the See also:early years of the 11th See also:century at See also:Pavia, where his See also:father, Hanbald, held the See also:rank of a See also:magistrate. Lanfranc was trained in the legal studies for which See also:northern See also:Italy was then becoming famous, and acquired such proficiency that tradition links him with See also:Irnerius of See also:Bologna as a See also:pioneer in the See also:renaissance of See also:Roman See also:law. Though designed for a public career Lanfranc had the tastes of a student. After his father's See also:death he crossed the See also:Alps to found a school in See also:France; but in a See also:short while he decided that See also:Normandy would afford him a better See also:field. About 1039 he became the See also:master of the See also:cathedral school at See also:Avranches, where he taught for three 'years with conspicuous success. But in 1142 he embraced the monastic profession in the newly founded See also:house of Bec. Until 1145 he lived at Bec in See also:absolute seclusion. He was then persuaded by See also:Abbot Herluin to open a school in the monastery. From the first he was celebrated (totius Latinitatis magister). His pupils were See also:drawn not only from France and Normandy, but also from See also:Gascony, See also:Flanders, See also:Germany and Italy.

Many of them afterwards attained high positions in the See also:

Church; one, See also:Anselm of Badagio, became See also:pope under the See also:title of See also:Alexander II. In this way Lanfranc set the See also:seal of intellectual activity on the reform See also:movement of which Bec was the centre. The favourite subjects of his lectures were See also:logic and dogmatic See also:theology. He was therefore naturally invited to defend the See also:doctrine of See also:transubstantiation against the attacks of Berengar of See also:Tours. He took up the task with the greatest zeal, although Berengar had been his See also:personal friend; he was the protagonist of orthodoxy at the See also:councils of See also:Vercelli (1050), Tours (1054) and See also:Rome (10J9). To his See also:influence we may attribute the See also:desertion of Berengar's cause by See also:Hildebrand and the more broad-minded of the cardinals. Our knowledge of Lanfranc's polemics is chiefly derived from the See also:tract De See also:cor See also:pore et sanguine Domini which he wrote many years later (after 1079) when Berengar had been finally condemned. Though betraying no signs of metaphysical ability, his See also:work was regarded as conclusive and became a See also:text-See also:book in the See also:schools. It is the most important of the See also:works attributed to Lanfranc; which, considering his reputation, are slight and disappointing. In the midst of his scholastic and controversial activities Lanfranc became a See also:political lei-cc. While merely a See also:prior of Bec he led the opposition to the uncanonical See also:marriage of See also:Duke See also:William with See also:Matilda of Flanders (1053) and carried matters so far that he incurred a See also:sentence of See also:exile. But the See also:quarrel was settled when he was on the point of departure, and he undertook the difficult task of obtaining the pope's approval of the marriage.

In this he was successful at the same See also:

council which witnessed his third victory over Berengar (1059), and he thus acquired a lasting claim on William's gratitude. In 1066 he became the first abbot of St See also:Stephen's at See also:Caen, a house which the duke had been enjoined to found as a See also:penance fol his disobedience to the See also:Holy See. Henceforward Lanfranc exercised a perceptible influence on his master's policy. William adopted the Cluniac See also:programme of ecclesiastical reform, and obtained the support of Rome for his See also:English expedition by assuming the attitude of a crusader against See also:schism and corruption. It was Alexander II., the former See also:pupil of Lanfranc, who gave the See also:Norman See also:Conquest the papal See also:benediction—a notable See also:advantage to William at the moment, but subsequently the cause of serious embarrassments. Naturally, when the see of See also:Rouen next See also:fell vacant (1067), the thoughts of the See also:electors turned to Lanfranc. But he declined the See also:honour, and he was nominated to the English primacy as soon as See also:Stigand had been canonically deposed (1070). The new archbishop at once began a policy of reorganization and reform. His first difficulties were with See also:Thomas of See also:Bayeux, archbishop-elect of See also:York, who asserted that his see was See also:independent of Canterbury and claimed See also:jurisdiction over the greater See also:part of midland See also:England. Lanfranc, during a visit which he paid the pope for the purpose of receiving his See also:pallium, obtained an See also:order from Alexander that the disputed points should be settled by a council of the English Church. This was held at See also:Winchester in 1072. Thanks to a skilful use of forged documents, the See also:primate carried the council's See also:verdict upon every point.

Even if he were not the author of the forgeries he can scarcely have been the dupe of his own partisans. But the political dangers to be apprehended from the disruption of the English Church were sufficiently serious to palliate the See also:

fraud. This was not the only occasion on which Lanfranc allowed his See also:judgment to be warped by considerations of expediency. Although the school of Bec was firmly attached to the doctrine of papal See also:sovereignty, he still assisted William in maintaining the See also:independence of the English Church; and appears at one See also:time to have favoured the See also:idea of maintaining a neutral attitude on the subject of the quarrels between papacy and See also:empire. In the domestic affairs of England the archbishop showed more spiritual zeal. His See also:grand aim was to extricate the Church from the fetters of the See also:state and of See also:secular interests. He was a generous See also:patron ofmonasticism. He endeavoured to enforce See also:celibacy upon the secular See also:clergy. He obtained the See also:king's permission to See also:deal with the affairs of the Church in synods which met apart from the See also:Great Council, and were exclusively composed of ecclesiastics. Nor can we doubt that it was his influence which shaped the famous See also:ordinance separating the ecclesiastical from the secular courts (c. 1076). But even in such questions he allowed some See also:weight to political considerations and the wishes of his See also:sovereign.

He acknowledged the royal right to See also:

veto the legislation of See also:national synods. In the cases of See also:Odo of Bayeux (ro82) and of William of St See also:Calais, See also:bishop of See also:Durham (io88), he used his legal ingenuity to justify the trial of bishops before a See also:lay tribunal. He accelerated the See also:process of •substituting See also: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. For this admixture of secular with spiritual aims there was considerable excuse. By See also: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 See also:power in a manner not displeasing to the king. On several occasions when William I. was absent from England Lanfranc acted as his vicegerent; he then had opportunities of realizing the See also:close connexion between religious and secular affairs. Lanfranc's greatest political service to the Conqueror was rendered in 1075, when he detected and foiled the See also:conspiracy which had been formed by the earls of See also:Norfolk and See also:Hereford. But this was not the only occasion on which he turned to See also:good See also:account his influence with the native English. Although he regarded them as an inferior See also:race he was just and See also:honourable towards their leaders. He interceded for See also:Waltheof's See also:life and to the last spoke of the See also:earl as an See also:innocent sufferer for the crimes of others; he lived on terms of friendship with Bishop See also:Wulfstan. On the death of the Conqueror (1087) he secured the See also:succession for William See also:Rufus, in spite of the discontent of the Anglo-Norman baronage; and in 1088 his exhortations induced the English See also:militia to fight on the See also:side of the new sovereign against Odo of Bayeux and the other partisans of Duke See also:Robert. He exacted promises of just See also: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 See also:

administration. But his restraining See also:hand was too soon removed. In 1089 he was stricken with See also:fever and he died on the 24th of May amidst universal See also: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 See also:rule upon the English Church and See also:people. As a statesman he did something to uphold the traditional ideal of his See also:office; as a primate he elevated the See also:standards of clerical discipline and See also:education. Conceived in the Hildebrandine spirit, his reforms led by a natural sequence to strained relations between Church and State; the See also:equilibrium which he established was unstable, and depended too much upon his personal influence with the Conqueror. But of all the Hildebrandine statesmen who applied their teacher's ideas within the See also:sphere of a particular national church he was the most successful. The See also:chief authority is the Vita Lanfranci by See also:Milo, See also:Crispin, who was See also:precentor at Bec and died in 1149. Milo See also:drew largely upon the Vita Herluini, composed by See also:Gilbert Crispin, abbot of . See also:Westminster. The Chronicon Beccensis abbatiae, a 14th-century compilation, should also be consulted. The first edition of these two See also:sources, and of Lanfranc's writings, is that of L. d'Achery, Beall Lanfranci See also:opera omnia (See also:Paris, 1648).

Another edition, slightly enlarged, is that of J. A. See also:

Giles, Lanfranci opera (2 vols., See also:Oxford, 1844). The See also:correspondence between Lanfranc and See also:Gregory VII. is given in the Monumenta Gregoriana (ed. P. Jaffe, See also:Berlin, 1865). Of See also:modern works A. Charma's Lanfranc (Paris, 1849), H. Boehmer's See also:Die Fdlschungen Erzbischof Lanfranks von Canterbury (See also:Leipzig, 1902), and the same author's Kirche una Staat in England and in der Normandie (Leipzig, 1899) are useful. See also the authorities cited in the articles on WILLIAM I. and WILLIAM II. (H. W.

C.

End of Article: LANFRANC (d. 1089)

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