Blessed Lanfranc | |
|---|---|
| Archbishop of Canterbury | |
 Statue of Lanfranc from the exterior ofCanterbury Cathedral | |
| Appointed | August 1070 |
| Term ended | 24 May 1089 |
| Predecessor | Stigand |
| Successor | Anselm of Canterbury |
| Other post | Abbot ofSaint-Étienne, Caen |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | 15 August 1070 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | between 1005 and 1010 |
| Died | 24 May 1089 (aged 79-84) |
| Buried | Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury, England |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Parents | Hanbald |
| Sainthood | |
| Feast day | 28 May |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church, Anglican Communion[1] |
| Title as Saint | Bishop, Monk, Scholar |
| Beatified | After the Council of Trent |
| Attributes | book, cross, episcopal vestments |
| Shrines | Canterbury Cathedral |
LanfrancOSB (1005 x 1010 – 24 May 1089) was an Italian-born English churchman, monk and scholar. Born in Italy, he moved toNormandy to become aBenedictinemonk atBec. He served successively asprior of Bec Abbey andabbot ofSt Stephen's Abbey in Caen, Normandy and then asArchbishop of Canterbury inEngland, following itsconquest byWilliam the Conqueror.[2] He is also variously known asLanfranc of Pavia (Italian:Lanfranco di Pavia),Lanfranc of Bec (French:Lanfranc du Bec), andLanfranc of Canterbury (Latin:Lanfrancus Cantuariensis). In his lifetime, he was regarded as the greatest theologian of his generation.
Lanfranc was born in the early years of the 11th century atPavia, where later tradition held that his father, Hanbald, held a rank broadly equivalent to magistrate. He was orphaned at an early age.[3]
Lanfranc was trained in the liberal arts, at that time a field in which northern Italy was famous. There is little or no evidence to support the myth that his education included much in the way of Civil Law, and none that links him withIrnerius of Bologna as a pioneer in the renaissance of its study. For unknown reasons at an uncertain date, he crossed theAlps, soon taking up the role of teacher in France and eventually inNormandy. About 1039 he became the master of the cathedral school atAvranches, where he taught for three years with conspicuous success. But in 1042 he embraced the monastic profession in the newly foundedBec Abbey. Until 1045 he lived at Bec in absolute seclusion.[4][5]
Lanfranc was then persuaded by AbbotHerluin to open a school at Bec to relieve the monastery's poverty. From the first he was celebrated (totius Latinitatis magister). His pupils were drawn not only from France and Normandy, but also fromGascony,Flanders, Germany and Italy.[6] Many of them afterwards attained high positions in the Church; one possible student, Anselm of Badagio, became pope under the title ofAlexander II;[7] another,Anselm of Bec, succeeded Lanfranc as theArchbishop of Canterbury. The favourite subjects of his lectures were thetrivium of grammar, logic and rhetoric and the application of these principles to theological elucidation. In one of Lanfranc's most important works,The Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul, he is said to have "expoundedPaul the Apostle; and, wherever opportunity offered, he stated the premises, whether principal or secondary, and the conclusions of Paul's arguments in accordance with the rules of Logic".[8]
As a result of his growing reputation Lanfranc was invited to defend the doctrine oftransubstantiation against the attacks ofBerengar of Tours. He took up the task with the greatest zeal, although Berengar had been his personal friend; he was the protagonist of orthodoxy at the Church Councils ofVercelli (1050),Tours (1054) and Rome (1059). To Lanfranc's influence is attributed the desertion of Berengar's cause byHildebrand and the more broad-minded of the cardinals. Our knowledge of Lanfranc's polemics is chiefly derived from the tractDe corpore et sanguine Domini, probably writtenc. 1060–63.[9] Though betraying no signs ofmetaphysical ability, his work was regarded as conclusive and became for a while a text-book in the schools. It is often said to be the place where theAristotelian distinction betweensubstance andaccident was first applied to explain Eucharistic change. It is the most important of the surviving works attributed to Lanfranc.[10]
In the midst of Lanfranc's scholastic and controversial activities Lanfranc became a political force. Later tradition told that while he wasPrior of Bec he opposed the non-canonical marriage ofDuke William withMatilda of Flanders (1053) and carried matters so far that he incurred a sentence of exile. Apparently, their relationship was within the prohibited degrees of kindred.[3] But the 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 council which witnessed his third victory over Berengar (1059), and he thus acquired a lasting claim on William's gratitude. In 1066 Lanfranc became the firstAbbot of theAbbey of Saint-Étienne atCaen in Normandy, a monastery dedicated toSaint Stephen which the duke had supposedly been enjoined to found as a penance for his disobedience to the Holy See.[10]
Henceforward Lanfranc exercised a perceptible influence on his master's policy. William adopted theCluniac programme of ecclesiastical reform, and obtained the support of Rome for his English expedition by assuming the attitude of a crusader against schism and corruption. It was Alexander II, possibly a pupil of Lanfranc's and certainly a close friend, who gave theNorman Conquest the papal benediction—a notable advantage to William at the moment, but subsequently the cause of serious embarrassments.[10]
When thesee 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 Englishprimatial see asArchbishop of Canterbury as soon asStigand had been canonically deposed on 15 August 1070. He was speedily consecrated on 29 August 1070.[11] The new archbishop at once began a policy of reorganisation and reform. His first difficulties were withThomas of Bayeux, Archbishop-elect of York, (another former pupil) who asserted that his see was independent ofCanterbury and claimed jurisdiction over the greater part of the English Midlands.[10] This was the beginning of a long running dispute between the sees of Canterbury and York, usually known as theCanterbury–York dispute.[12]
Lanfranc, during a visit which he paid the pope for the purpose of receiving hispallium, obtained an order from Alexander that the disputed points should be settled by a council of the English Church. This was held atWinchester in 1072.[10] 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 ofPope 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 enforcecelibacy upon the secular clergy.[10]
Lanfranc obtained the king's permission to deal with the affairs of the Church insynods. In the cases ofOdo of Bayeux (1082) (seeTrial of Penenden Heath) and ofWilliam of St Calais,Bishop of Durham (1088), he used his legal ingenuity to justify the trial of bishops before a lay tribunal.[10]
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.[10]
Lanfranc's greatest political service to the Conqueror was rendered in 1075, when he detected and foiledthe 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 urgedRoger, 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 BishopWulfstan of Worcester.[10]
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On the death of the Conqueror in 1087 Lanfranc secured the succession forWilliam 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 ofDuke 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[11] 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 asPope 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.[10]
The efforts of Christ Church Canterbury to secure him the status of saint seem to have had only spasmodic and limited effect beyond English Benedictine circles. However, in the period after the Council of Trent, Lanfranc's name was included in theRoman Martyrology, and in the current edition is commemorated as a'Blessed' (beatus) on 28 May.[13][14]
In 1931, the Archbishop Lanfranc School (nowThe Archbishop Lanfranc Academy) was opened inCroydon, where he had resided atCroydon Palace.Canterbury Christ Church University have named their accommodation block Lanfranc House. He is also remembered in road names in London andWorthing,West Sussex, as well as in the Normandy cities ofCaen,Avranches andLe Bec Hellouin.
Lanfranc isremembered in theChurch of England with acommemoration on 28 May.[1]
The chief authority is theVita Lanfranci by the monkMilo Crispin, who was precentor at Bec and died in 1149. Milo drew largely upon theVita Herluini, composed byGilbert Crispin, Abbot of Westminster. TheChronicon Beccensis abbatiae, a 14th-century compilation, should also be consulted. The first edition of these two sources, and of Lanfranc's writings, is that of L. d'Achery,Beati Lanfranci opera omnia (Paris, 1648). Another edition, slightly enlarged, is that ofJ. A. Giles,Lanfranci opera (2 volumes, Oxford, 1844). A more recent edition of the Vita Lanfranci was provided by Margaret Gibson.[15] The correspondence between Lanfranc andPope Gregory VII is given in theMonumenta Gregoriana (ed. P. Jaffi, Berlin, 1865).[10] A more modern edition (and translation) of Lanfranc's correspondence is to be found in H. Clover and M. Gibson (eds),The Letters of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury (Oxford, 1979). HisOn the Body and Blood of the Lord is translated (along withGuitmund of Aversa's tract on the same matter) in volume 10 of theFathers of the Church Medieval Continuation (Washington, DC, 2009).
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Davis, Henry William Carless (1911). "Lanfranc".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). pp. 169–170.| Catholic Church titles | ||
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| Preceded by | Archbishop of Canterbury 1070–1089 | Succeeded by Anselm of Canterbury (in 1093) |
