THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
quest to Alexander II. to be permitted to resign, he triumphed both over the disorganization of his archdiocese and such powerful enemies as Odo of Bayeux (half-brother of the king). His difficulties arose from two problems, the questions of the primacy and the cathedral monas-
3. Arch- teries. During the last few decades
bishop of the archbishopric of York had not only Canterbury, claimed independence in the north of
1070-89. England, but had asserted jurisdiction over the dioceses of Worcester, Lichfield, and Dorchester. Lanfranc, after considerable controversy, exacted personal submission from Thomas, the new archbishop of York, but was obliged to prove the ancient and legal inferiority of York to Canterbury to secure the continued supremacy of Canterbury. In 1071, when both archbishops appeared at Rome to receive the pallium, Alexander II., declaring himself unable to solve the problem, referred the matter to an English council, at the same time appointing Lanfranc his vicar. The question was considered at Winchester at Easter, 1072, but the historic supremacy of Canterbury was denied. At the same time an attempt, aimed at Lanfranc himself as a monk, was initiated to transform all cathedral monasteries in England into secular cloisters, and the leaders of this scheme found themselves able to win the royal support. In this juncture Lanfranc, who feared that a double defeat would annul all his influence in Church and State, forged, or had forged, ten papal briefs, as well as a legend and three canons of a council, which he produced at Windsor in Whitsuntide, 1072, thus gaining an easy victory, which won him recognition as primate and metropolitan.
After this victory Lanfranc energetically began to reform and reorganize the ecclesiastical condition of England, beginning with Canterbury. He transferred episcopal sees from villages to cities, secured the independence of the ecclesiastical courts, and introduced continental canon law, at the same time gradually filling the monasteries with continental monks and increasing the severity of their rule. Yet he was no radical, as is seen by his attitude on the celibacy of the clergy. Himself an advocate of this principle, he obliged only the cathedral staff to put away their wives, though he directed that henceforth each of the clergy, on taking deacon's orders, should make the vow of celibacy. Despite his exclusion of the English from high positions in churches and monasteries, for which he seems in every case to have had good reason, he regarded himself as an Englishman; and in this spirit he promoted the cult of national English saints and opposed all unnecessary harshness toward the conquered. Since his victory at Windsor, he was the mightiest man in England save the king, whose chief councilor he was and who entrusted him with the administration of the kingdom during his own absences on the continent.
Yet even this power was insufficient for him, and in 1072 he asserted the primacy of Canterbury over Ireland as well as all Britain, actually gaining it permanently in Ireland and Wales, and for a time in Scotland. But the higher he rose, the cooler were his relations with the Curia. From the
very first Gregory VII. was scarcely in sympathy with Lanfranc, who doubtless encouraged William in refusing to take the oath of allegiance to Gregory; while the archbishop seems only to have been waiting for a favorable opportunity to break with the papal court. This chance came with the conquest of Rome by Henry IV., when Lanfranc entered into negotiations with Hugo the Wise the leader of the Guibertines, but his plans came to nought, and England remained neutral. His great friend, William the Conqueror, died Sept. 7, 1087 and William II. repaid the archbishop's loyalty and energy with ingratitude, so that death came as a kindly friend to save him from deeper sorrows.
As in character, so as an author Lanfranc was far inferior to his pupil and successor Anselm of Canterbury (q.v.). His few works, which are almost entirely occasional treatises, are as follows: Liber de corpore et sanguine Domini contra Berengarium,
which consists of two parts, one re- 4. Wri- futing Berengar's attacks on Humtings, bert of Moyenmoutier and the Roman
Church, and the other defending the usual Roman Catholic doctrine of the sacraments, the author's only advance over his predecessors being, his assumption that the body and blood of Christ are received even by the unworthy. The treatise is really identical with the letter addressed by Lanfranc, while abbot of Caen, to Berengar, and was composed in 1069 or 1070. A portion of Lanfranc's correspondence during his primacy has been preserved as Decretales epistulce. The Scripturn de ordinatione sua was written between 1075 and 1087 and treats of his conflict with Thomas, archbishop of York. The Statuta, or Constitutiones, of the cathedral monastery of Canterbury, composed before 1084, fall into two parts, one containing the agenda and remarkably similar to the Concordia regularis of Athelwold of Winchester, thus presupposing an English source; and the second discussing the administration of the monastery and corresponding in part word for word with the Ordo Cluniacensis of St. Bernard. Brief and unimportant works are his Libellus de celanda confessione, serrno sive sentential, and Annotatiunculm (glosses on Cassian's Collationes). The Oratio in concilio habita and the Elucidarium, printed in editions of Lanfranc's works, are not his, and the authenticity of his glosses on the Pauline epistles is questioned, although it may be regarded, on good manuscript evidence, as genuine. The following works ascribed to Lanfranc are lost: De sacramentis eicommunicatorum; Nonnulla scripta contra Berengarium; Laudes, triumphi et res gestce Wilhelmi comitis (possibly identical with the work of Guido of Amiens); and Historia ecclesiastica (probably the same as the Scriptum de ordinatione sua). The influence of Lanfranc was more potent as teacher than as author, although he neither founded nor could found a theological school. Even his most important theological scholar, Anselm, quickly marked out ways of his own, in method following Berengar rather than Lanfranc, who probably taught primarily as a jurist. There is some evidence that he lectured on canon law in Bee, where Ivo of Chartres (q.v.) was his pupil; and it is accordingly