DEPOSITION OF BISHOPS

15

high offices in the Church, and by keeping some of the wealthiest monastic houses in his own hands. Amongst other costly treasures of the deposed primate, discovered after his death, was a large silver cross, together with two images (probably the blessed Virgin and St. John), which the king presented to the Cathedral Church of Winchester, where they were erected on the top of the rood-screen between the choir and nave.

Æthelwine
Bishop of

Durham

outlawed.

It

The fall of Stigand involved that of his brother Æthelmær, for whom he had procured the bishopric of the East Angles. No reason is recorded for his deposition, but probably he was found guilty of a simoniacal transaction. Æthelric, a former Bishop of Durham who had given up his see and retired into the seclusion of the monastery at Peterborough, was now seized and imprisoned at Westminster his offence is not stated, but as his brother Æthelwine, who had succeeded him at Durham, was outlawed at the same time, we are led to suppose that they were suspected of some treasonable designs. There is one offence however, on the part of Ethelwine which is recorded. will be remembered that he and his chapter had fled from Durham to Lindisfarne on the approach of William with his army. They left the great crucifix of the Church behind them, partly because it was too ponderous to be easily carried away, and partly because they hoped that the sight of the cross would inspire the invaders with feelings of reverence for the church. The Norman soldiers, however, threw it down and despoiled it of the ornaments with which it had been adorned by Earl Tostig and his wife Judith. The king expressed great indignation at this act of sacrilege, and when he had discovered the perpetrators of it, he sent them to the bishop and canons at Lindisfarne to receive due punishment. They, however, were either intimidated or bribed into inaction, and the offenders escaped without suffering excommunication or any other penalty. In the following Lent the bishop and canons returned to Durham, solemly "reconciled" the desecrated minster, and restored the body of St. Cuthbert's to its resting-place. Then at the Easter council at Winchester 1070, the sentence of outlawry was passed on the bishop. It would suit William's policy well to punish an English bishop

for lack of zeal in defending his own church; but he may also have suspected him of disaffection, a suspicion which subsequent events confirmed. Ethelwine sought safety in flight. He sailed for Germany, taking some of the treasures of his church with him but his ship was driven back by stress of weather, and the bishop retreated into Scotland, where he remained to the following year, 1071, when we find him taking part in the insurrection which had Hereward for its leader, and the isle of Ely for its centre. After the capture of Ely and the suppression of the revolt he was imprisoned in the Abbey of Abingdon, but after a time he was committed to the care of Walkelin, Bishop of Winchester, where he died in the following year 1072.

Flight of

Another prelate who sought safety in flight after the council at Winchester was Æthelsige, Abbot of Ramsey and of St. Augustine's, Canterbury. The double office had Abbot been conferred upon him by Eadward the Confessor, Æthelsige. and hitherto he had enjoyed the confidence of William, who had even employed him as the envoy to the court of Swend, King of Denmark, to whom his abbot now fled for protection. William forthwith appointed a Norman, named Scotland, to the vacant post at St. Augustine's. The monks resented the intrusion of a foreigner, but dared not resist. Scotland, however, justified his appointment by adding to the buildings of the monastery and recovering many of the estates which had been forcibly seized by the Normans, or surrendered to them through fear. Some years afterwards Æthelsige was taken back into favour and reinstated as Abbot of Ramsey.

Wulfstan,

The severe sentences passed upon so many prelates in the council at Winchester struck the whole assembly with terror, for no man knew whether he might not be himself Bishop of the next victim. Nevertheless there was one English Worcester. bishop who dared to assert the rights of his see in the face of the king. Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, was distinguished for the most guileless simplicity of character and saintliness of life, but he had also that intrepid courage which naturally accompanies honesty of purpose and single-minded devotion to duty. Ealdred, the late Archbishop of York, on his translation from the bishopric of Worcester, had deprived

Council

17

at Windsor.

that see of some of its estates. After his death these lands had passed, during the vacancy of the see of York, into the hands of the king, and Wulfstan now demanded their restitution. It was part of the king's policy to redress abuses and irregularities in the Church, and Wulfstan's claim was patiently heard; but the king and the legate prudently declined to judge the question until a new archbishop should be appointed and both sides could be heard. As yet the Church of York was dumb, being without a shepherd to speak for her. The appointments to the vacant sees were deferred until the Whitsuntide council, which was held this year at Windsor. The see of York was then bestowed on Thomas, the treasurer of the Church of Bayeux and a chaplain 1 of the king—a man of high reputation for 1 integrity and learning, having studied in Germany and Spain. Winchester, vacant by the deprivation of Stigand, was given to Walkelin, who is said to have been a kinsman, as well as a chaplain, of the king. The council had been held on Whitsunday, and on the following day Ermenfrid, the papal legate, held a synod in which several abbots were deposed, and also Æthelric, the bishop of the South Saxon see of Selsey. The nature of his offence is not stated, and Florence of Worcester says that his deprivation was uncanonical; but perhaps his consecration by Stigand was considered a sufficient ground for a sentence. His place was filled by another Stigand, also a royal chaplain, and yet another chaplain was promoted to the East Anglian see of Elmham, vacant by the deprivation of Æthelmær, brother of the deposed primate. Walkelin was consecrated by the legate Ermenfrid; but the consecration of Thomas to York was deferred until he could receive it at the hands of the Primate of Canterbury, who had yet to be appointed.

Lanfranc

No one who knew the Conqueror's mind could doubt that for this high office his friend and counsellor Lanfranc, the Abbot of St. Stephen's, Caen, was destined; and he was now formally nominated for it by the king elected Abp. with the unanimous approval of the whole assembly, of Canter which consisted, according to Florence of Worcester, of the senior members of the Church of Canterbury, bishops,

bury.

1 It must be remembered that the king's chaplains were clerks of the royal treasury. See vol. i. p. 395, and J. R. Green's Conquest of England, p. 544.

C

nobles, clergy, and people. Ermenfrid the legate, and another legate named Hubert, who now appears for the first time, were sent to convey to Lanfranc the news of his election, and to obtain his consent to it. They summoned a great meeting of bishops, abbots, and nobles of the duchy, and urged Lanfranc, by virtue of his obedience to the apostolic see, to accept the office to which he had been called. He was in all probability well aware that William had destined him for the post, but he was reluctant to accept it. He pleaded his insufficiency for so weighty a charge, and in particular his ignorance of the English language and of the barbarous inhabitants of the island. To exchange the calm and studious retirement of the cloister which he loved for the harassing labours and anxieties of episcopacy in a strange land, was indeed a plunge from which he might well shrink; and although the Queen Matilda and her son Robert added their entreaties to those of the assembly, he only yielded at last to Herluin, Abbot of Bec, who had been his spiritual father, and who enjoined him, as one that had a right to be obeyed, not to resist the call of duty.

AUTHORITIES.-For the life of William the Conqueror, Ordericus Vitalis, ed. Migne; William of Poitiers to end of 1067, ed. Giles; William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum; The Saxon Chronicle; Henry of Huntingdon, William of Newburgh (all in Rolls series); Florence of Worcester, ed. Hist. Society. For affairs in the North, Simeon of Durham (Rolls series). For lives of Archbishops Stigand and Ealdred, William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum; Annals of Winchester; Simeon of Durham; Roger of Hoveden (all in Rolls series); Fasti Eboracenses, ed. Raine; E. A. Freeman, Hist. of Norman Conquest, vols. iii. and iv.

CHAPTER II

THE EARLY YEARS OF LANFRANC

Lanfranc

consecrated

Abp. of Canterbury.

LANFRANC landed in England on the August 15, 1070, and on the 29th of the same month, the feast of the decollation of St. John the Baptist, he was consecrated in the Metropolitan Church of Canterbury by the Bishop of London, assisted by eight other bishops. It is significant that only one of these, Siward of Rochester, was of English birth. William, Bishop of London, was a Norman, who had been appointed by King Eadward, and enjoyed the respect of Normans and English alike; and, after the expulsion of the Normans in 1052, his popularity had regained him his see. Walkelin of Winchester, Remigius of Dorchester, Herfast of Elmham, and Stigand of Selsey, were all Normans; Gisa of Wells, Walter of Hereford,1 and Herman of Sherborne were Lotharingians. Four bishops, including the English Wulfstan of Worcester, were absent, but they all signified their assent to the appointment of Lanfranc, and explained the reasons of their absence by messengers or letters. The greater part of the Cathedral at Canterbury had been destroyed by fire about three years before, and although it had been patched up for the services. of the monks, the ceremony of consecration must have been deprived of much of its dignity by the ruinous condition of the building, but any lack of splendour was compensated by the hearty welcome given to the archbishop-elect. He had been met on his way to Canterbury and honourably conducted into the city not only by the whole body of monks from the

1 Florence of Worcester is the only chronicler who mentions Walter of Hereford as one of the assistant bishops.