of flatterers. Neither prelate would gave way. Lanfranc, therefore, bade the assisting bishops take off their robes; the assembly was dissolved, and Thomas went away unconsecrated. He appealed to the king. At first the king was indignant with Lanfranc, thinking that he had exceeded his legitimate rights, but in the course of a few days the primate had an audience with the king, and pleaded his own cause. The Normans who heard him were convinced by his arguments, and the English, who knew the ancient laws of the realm, bore testimony to the justice of his claim.

promise.

The king, however, proceeded with caution. He required Thomas to return to Canterbury and make a profession of personal obedience to Lanfranc, but he was not to A com- be bound to renew the profession to any of Lanfranc's successors, unless the supremacy of Canterbury should be declared in the meantime by a competent tribunal. To this compromise Thomas with some reluctance assented; he came back to Canterbury, made the required profession, and returned to his province a consecrated bishop.

Soon after this event, Lanfranc required and received profession of obedience from those bishops who had been consecrated by Stigand, or by other archbishops, or by the pope himself. Remigius of Dorchester, the first Norman appointed by William to an English bishopric, now made the singular statement that he had gone for consecration to Stigand as the existing metropolitan, not being wholly ignorant, nor yet fully aware of his uncanonical position.

The arch

Rome.

In the following year the two archbishops repaired to Rome to receive their palls, and were accompanied by Remigius. The Pope Alexander II. treated Lanbishops visit franc with peculiar honour, rising to meet him, contrary to the usual custom. He explained, however, that this honour was paid to Lanfranc not as archbishop, but as his former master at Bec; at whose feet he had sat as a humble learner. Lanfranc in his turn humbly prostrated himself before the pope, who raised him up and embraced him. Two palls were presented to him, one which was taken off the altar, the customary badge of archiepiscopal rank; the other as a mark of personal friendship, being one

II

LANFRANC AT ROME

31

which the pope was in the habit of wearing when he celebrated

mass.

A singular

scene.

The next day, when business of various kinds was being transacted, it was represented to the pope that both Thomas and Remigius were disqualified for the office of bishop, the former because he was the son of a priest, the latter because he had made gifts to King William when he was about to invade England, for which he had been rewarded with the bishopric of Dorchester, and was thus involved in a simoniacal transaction. The accused bishops surrendered their rings and staves to the pope, and cast themselves upon his mercy. Lanfranc interceded for them, pleading that they were both of them men of learning and eloquence, acceptable and even necessary to the king in the work of reorganising his kingdom. The pope, thereupon, gave the rings and staves into Lanfranc's hands, to be disposed of in the way that he might deem most conducive to the welfare of the Church over which he presided, and Lanfranc straightway reinvested the bishops with them. The account of the incident reads as if the whole scene had been

preconcerted between the pope and Lanfranc. The pope's credit was saved by a display of courageous zeal for ecclesiastical discipline, in threatening to cancel the acts of such a powerful and loyal son of the Church as William, while by prudently abstaining from the execution of his threat in deference to the mediation of Lanfranc, he retained the favour of the king, and placed him and his archbishop under a certain degree of obligation to himself.

An English national

synod.

A more remarkable concession to the independent spirit of the English Church was the decision of the pope, that the question as to the respective rights of the two metropolitan sees should be heard and determined in a national council of bishops and abbots. The question was discussed in the first instance in 1072, at the great Easter council, held according to custom at Winchester in the royal castle. This council of course included laymen of high rank; but the final decision was given at a synod of ecclesiastics held at Windsor at Whitsuntide in the same year. The king presided at the Winchester council, and adjured all present by virtue of their oaths of fealty to devote their

earnest attention to the question, and to give an impartial judgment.

The cause was argued at great length, evidence being produced from Bede, and a long series of papal letters 1 to prove that from the days of Augustine the Archbishops of Supremacy of Canterbury Canterbury had exercised metropolitan jurisdiction confirmed. over the whole Church in Britain; that they had held ordinations and councils at York, and that Archbishops of York had been summoned to councils in Canterbury. The final decision was entirely in favour of Canterbury. Archbishop Thomas had also contended that the three sees of Worcester, Lichfield, and Dorchester belonged to his jurisdiction, but this claim was rejected, and the Humber was fixed as the boundary of the two provinces. In councils, Canterbury was to preside, York to sit on his right hand, London on his left, Winchester was to sit next to York, and the other bishops in the order of their consecration. The Archbishop of York might receive profession of obedience from the Bishop of Durham, and from the Scottish bishops when it could be obtained. The see of Carlisle was not yet in existence.

submits.

Thus the supremacy of Canterbury was distinctly established, the profession of obedience was to be made not merely to Lanfranc personally, but to him and his successors. Archbp. Thomas A letter from Archbishop Thomas to Lanfranc, written soon after this decision, is couched in terms of obsequious humility: "To the most pious and reverend Archbishop of Canterbury, chief pastor of all Britain Lanfranc, Thomas his faithful servant and, if it do not seem presumptuous to his holiness, Archbishop of York. Behold most reverend father thy son crieth unto thee, or rather the daughter Church of York; and repairing to that Church over which thou presidest, as to a maternal bosom, dutifully makes request," etc. The request was that Lanfranc would permit two of his suffragans to assist Thomas in consecrating a

1 Ten letters were produced, purporting to be addressed by successive popes to English kings or prelates from the beginning of the seventh century to the latter part of the tenth. They are given in William of Malmesbury, vol. i. pp. 47-61, but in reference to the question at issue, they have clearly received interpolation. Some are based on letters in Bede, with additions of manifestly later date; others ascribe supremacy to Canterbury in terms which could not have been used when the dispute had not arisen.

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LANFRANC AT CANTERBURY

33

bishop for the Orkneys, and he is solemnly assured that compliance with this request will not lead to any renewal of the claim that Thomas had recently made to jurisdiction south of the Humber. Lanfranc addressed a letter to the Bishops of Worcester and Lichfield-Wulfstan and Peter-directing them to repair to York without delay, and forwarding to them at the same time the letter of Archbishop Thomas to relieve them from any doubts that they might entertain as to his good faith.

Cathedral.

In his own diocese Lanfranc was concerned with the threefold task of rebuilding the cathedral church, reforming the monastery, which was in a very disorganised con- Lanfranc dition, and recovering certain lands and liberties rebuilds his which the church had lost through the cupidity and violence of Odo, Earl of Kent, half-brother of the king. Lanfranc swept away the remains of the ruined church and substituted a minster of the regular Norman type, a great cross church with an apse at the east end and two towers at the west end. The nave was supported by eight arches on either side, and there was an ascent by steps from the nave to the choir, which was under the central tower. Immediately west of the choir was a great pulpitum or rood loft. The ceilings were adorned with frescoes, and the richest gold-embroidered vestments were provided for the clergy. The whole fabric was completed in seven years, and men knew not which most to admire, the beauty of the structure or the rapidity with which it had been erected.

bury.

Outside the north gate at Canterbury he built a goodly hospital of stone for the sick poor, and surrounded it with a spacious court. The hospital was constructed in His hospital two divisions, one for men and one for women. at CanterThe inmates were provided with food and clothing, and a staff of servants was appointed to attend to their wants and see that the rules of the hospital were observed. On the opposite side of the way he built a church in honour of Pope Gregory the Great, which was served by a body of regular canons, whom he amply endowed with land and tithes. Their duties were to minister to the spiritual wants of the sick folk in the hospital and to bury the dead.

Outside the west gate, on the slope of the hill, he erected

D

some wooden houses for lepers of both sexes (the two being kept strictly separate), with a church, also served by canons and other officials, on whose skill, kindness, and patience he could rely to minister to the spiritual and bodily needs of the sufferers.

His private liberality was large; clergy or monks rarely appealed in vain to him for help, and generally received more than they asked. Often his bounty was bestowed without having been asked for, and in the most secret manner, in obedience to the rule of his divine Master.

Trial on

With generosity in almsgiving Lanfranc combined a scrupulous care for the property of his see. One memorable instance of his recovery of certain lands and Penenden privileges connected with them, which had been Heath. usurped by Odo, Earl of Kent, is recorded by all the Chroniclers of the time, and furnishes an interesting example of judicial procedure in the age of the Conqueror. The king ordered that the case should be tried according to ancient English forms before the Scirgemot of Kent, and that Englishmen known to be well versed in the laws of the country should be summoned to give evidence. The assembly was convened on Penenden Heath, the customary place of the gemot. The regular presidents would have been the primate and the earl, but as they were the litigants, Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances, acted in that capacity. The assembly was composed of English and Normans, and the pleadings occupied three days. Æthelric, the deposed Bishop of Selsey, was summoned as an expert in the ancient laws of England. was a very aged man, and was conveyed from his place of confinement at Marlborough, by the king's express command, in a waggon drawn by four horses. The proofs adduced by him and other witnesses of the claims of Canterbury to the property and the rights of which it had been despoiled, are said to have been so clear and convincing, and were ratified by the gemot in such positive terms, that no one henceforth dared to question the decision.

He

Not only was the property of the see recovered from usurping occupants, but the archbishop succeeded in limiting the king's rights over the archiepiscopal lands, and establishing certain rights of his own over the lands of the king and