A View of Archbishop Lanfranc1

Frank Barlow

doi:10.1017/S0022046900053999

A View of Archbishop Lanfranc1

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011

Frank Barlow

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Frank Barlow: Affiliation:
Professor of History in the University of Exeter

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Lanfranc was born at Pavia early in the eleventh century, became a monk of Bee in Normandy about 1041, was promoted prior three years later, and was appointed abbot of Caen in 1063 and archbishop of Canterbury in 1070. He died in William Rufus's reign in 1089. He had three distinct careers, first as a wandering scholar, second as a cloistered monk, and finally as a prelate. One obstacle to viewing Lanfranc as a whole is the nature and form of the sources for his life. And I propose in this paper first to look briefly at the sources, then to comment on the various phases of his curriculum vitae and, in conclusion, to make a few rash observations on his character and manners.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , October 1965 , pp. 163 - 177

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046900053999 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1965

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References

^{page 163 note 2} Gesta Pontificum, ed. Hamilton, N. E. S. A. (Rolls Series 1870), 73Google Scholar.

^{page 163 note 3} Questioms Lanfranci and Lantfrancus de dialectica, Becker, G., Catalog! Bibliothecarum Antiqui, Bonn 1885Google Scholar, nos. 54 and 68; for Lanfranc's gloss on the Psalms, see Smalley, Beryl, ‘La Glossa ordinaria: quelques prédécesseurs d'Anselme de Laon’, Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale, ix (1937), 374–89Google Scholar; for his glosses on Job, Priscian, and Cicero's Rhetorica ad Herennium, see Hunt, Richard, ‘Studies on Priscian in the eleventh and twelfth centuries’, Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies, ed. R. Hunt and R. Klibansky (1943), i, 206–8, 224Google Scholar. Sigebert of Gembloux (Lib. de Script, eccles., P.L., clx, 583) maintains that ‘Scripsit laudes, triumphos et res gestas Guillelmi Northmannorum comitis’. This may be a wrong attribution of William of Poitiers's work.

^{page 163 note 4} Beati Lanfranci … Opera Omnia, ed. D'Achery, L., Paris 1648, 45–229Google Scholar. A few glosses on Cassian's Collationes are printed ibid., 252. Cf. Southern, R. W., ‘Lanfranc of Bee and Berengar of Tours’, Studies in Medieval History presented to F. M. Powicke (1948), 36 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 163 note 5} Opera Omnia, 231–51.

^{page 163 note 6} The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc, ed. Knowles, David, London/Edinburgh 1951Google Scholar.

^{page 164 note 1} Opera Omnia, 299–329; councils: Wilkins, Concilia, i, 324–5, 363–5, 367; professions: Wharton, H., Anglia Sacra, i, London 1691, 80–1Google Scholar.

^{page 164 note 2} Mentioned in ‘Acta Lanfranci’, Two of the Saxon Chronicles parallel, ed. Earle, J. (1865), 274Google Scholar.

^{page 164 note 3} Ed. Martin Rule (Rolls Series 1884), 14 ff.

^{page 164 note 4} Two of the Saxon Chronicles, 271–5. Cf. Eadmer, Historia Novorum, 13: ‘et ipsemet de rebus ecclesiasticis quae suo tempore gesta sunt veracissimo et compendioso calamo scripserit’.

^{page 164 note 5} Ed. cit., 37–80.

^{page 164 note 6} Robinson, J. Armitage, Gilbert Crispin, abbot of Westminster, Cambridge 1911, 87–110Google Scholar.

^{page 165 note 1} Lanfranc, Opera Omnia, appendix, 41–51.

^{page 165 note 2} Ibid., 1–16. The prologue to the lives of the third and fourth abbots is linked stylistically with the prologue and epilogue to the life of Lanfranc. All three lives seem to be by the same hand.

^{page 165 note 3} Catalogus Codicum Hagiograph. in Bibl. Nat. Parisiensi, Brussels 1890, ii, 405–31.

^{page 165 note 4} Chapters vi-xii, 408–11.

^{page 165 note 5} The prologue, which introduces the Bari and Crusading miracles, was written after 1136. But, according to chap, xxv (421), the writer, a monk of Bee, in the middle of August 1135 was himself convinced by a miracle of the truth of those things ‘quae scribebat dubitanter’. The dated miracles, both Norman and foreign, run from 1103–1129.

^{page 165 note 6} Lanfranc, Opera Omnia, 1b–2a, 2a–2b. There is also a reminiscence of Gilbert Crispin (95, 96–7) at 411, lines 11–16.

^{page 165 note 7} Ibid., appendix, 2–5.

^{page 166 note 1} He quotes Italian custom inEpist., 13 (D'Achery). Guitmund of Aversaremembered a story which Lanfranc told him from his boyhood j De corporis et sanguinis Christi veritate in Eucharistia: P.L., cxlix, 1449.

^{page 166 note 2} Cf. his letter to the bishop of Dublin, Epist., 33 (D'Achery).

^{page 166 note 3} Historia Ecclesiastica, Bk. iv, chap, x: P.L., clxxxviii, 326, written in 1125.

^{page 166 note 4} The English Church and the Papacy, Cambridge 1931, 57.

^{page 166 note 5} Miles, op. cit. 2a; Mirac. S. Nicolai, 408; cf. Gilbert Crispin, op. cit., 95.

^{page 166 note 6} Lanfranc, 1 n.

^{page 166 note 7} Knowles, Dom David, The Monastic Order in England, Cambridge 1949, 107 nGoogle Scholar.

^{page 167 note 1} Gilbert Crispin, 95–6, adapted by Miles, 2a; Mirac. S. Nicolai, 409.

^{page 167 note 2} Mirac. S. Nicolai, 409.

^{page 167 note 3} Miles, 2a.

^{page 167 note 4} Lanfranc studied secular law intention laica, Orderic, 326; ‘Teneriorem aetatem in saecularibus deterens’ (cf. Lanfranc, Epist., 33), Malmesbury, Gest. Pont., 37.

^{page 167 note 5} Mirac. S. Nicolai, 410.

^{page 167 note 6} Cf. Richard Hunt, ‘Studies on Priscian’, 223: ‘Finally one thing deserves to be emphasized, that is the unity of the artes. The same masters appear in each subject. Lanfranc, Anselm and Manegold appear in the glosses on rhetoric as well as on grammar’.

^{page 167 note 7} Opera Omnia, 202. For Lanfranc's school at Bee, see Gilbert Crispin, 97, copied by Miles, 3a; Orderic, 327; Miles, 6a; cf. Chron. Beccense, 3, Malmesbury, Gest. Pont., 38.

^{page 168 note 1} Cf. ‘Sunt etiam de hac re plurimae sanctorum patrum authoritates, sed ubi sol lucet, candelam ad proferendum lucem proferri minime oportet’: Epist., 10 (306a).

^{page 168 note 2} Op. cit., 96.

^{page 168 note 3} Miles, 3; Mirac. S. Nicolai, 409–10, Chron. Beccense, 2.

^{page 168 note 4} Gilbert Crispin, 96, copied by Miles, 2b; Mirac. S. Nicolai, 410.

^{page 168 note 5} Miles, 3–4, on the authority of William, abbot of Cormeilles, who had the story under pledge of secrecy from Lanfranc and sent it to Bee after the archbishop's death.

^{page 169 note 1} Gilbert Crispin, 96–7, copied by Miles, 3a.

^{page 169 note 2} Lanfranc, 151–2.

^{page 169 note 3} Gilbert Crispin, 101–2, copied by Miles, 8b–9; Gilbert, 106–8, amplified by Miles, 9b–10.

^{page 163 note 4} Op. cit., 104.

^{page 170 note 1} MS. Trinity College, Cambridge, no. 405 (B. 16.44), a collection of papal decrees and conciliar canons, has on its last folio: ‘Hunc librum dato precio emptum ego Lanfrancus archiepiscopus de Beccensi cenobio in Anglicam terrain deferri fed et ecclesie Christi dedi’. The wording suggests more that Lanfranc bought the book while at Bee than that he bought it from Bee.

^{page 170 note 2} Miles, 15a.

^{page 170 note 3} Knowles, The Monastic Order, 110.

^{page 170 note 4} The story seems to be based on the respect which Alexander showed Laniranc when he visited Rome in 1071 for his pallium. Malmesbury, Gest. Pont., 65, has, ‘Alexander … venienti.… dignanter assurgeret, professus hanc venerationem non se illius archiepiscopatui sed magisterio litterarum deferre’. Miles (Opera Omnia, 11b) was possibly elaborating this passage when he ascribed to Alexander the words, ‘Non ideo assurexi ei quia archiepiscopus Cantuariae est, sed quia Becci ad scholam eius fui et ad pedes eius cum aliis auditor consedi’. If Alexander had, indeed, been Lanfranc's pupil, the date must be before 1057, for by then the future bishop and pope had already been active in Milan.

^{page 170 note 5} Lanfranc, Epist., 1 (300a), where the archbishop makes no reference to Alexander's pupillage.

^{page 171 note 1} Opera Omnia, 7. Cf. Epist, 3, to pope Alexander II: ‘uobis quoque quibus sanctam totius mundi ecclesiam constat esse commissam … de fideli ac [… ] seruo beati Petri ac uestro sanctaeque Romanae ecclesiae’.

^{page 171 note 2} Miles, 4b, inserted into Gilbert Crispin's account.

^{page 171 note 3} Gilbert Crispin, 97; Malmesbury, Gest. Pont., 38 and 150–1, in an account of Herfast.

^{page 171 note 4} Cf. Lanfranc, Epist., 13 (DéAchery).

^{page 171 note 5} Gilbert Crispin, 97–8, copied by Miles, 4.

^{page 171 note 6} Miles, 5b.

^{page 172 note 1} Guillaume de Poitiers: histoire de Guillaume le Conquérant, ed. Foreville, Raymonde (1952), 126–8, 234Google Scholar, adapted by Miles, 7b; Gilbert Crispin, 97, copied by Miles, 4a.

^{page 172 note 2} Lanfranc, Epist., 1.

^{page 172 note 3} Orderic, 308; Miles, 7a.

^{page 173 note 1} Epist., 19, 21; 29. When, however, Herfast consulted him about awarding penance, Lanfranc showed his joy by writing: ‘Dilectissimo … salutem et amicitiam cum orationibus’: ibid., 22.

^{page 173 note 2} Epist., 18.

^{page 173 note 3} ‘… venerabili episcopo G., salutem et servitium. … dulcissima paternitas vestra’: Epist., 32. Although the contents of the letter do not perfectly suit Geoffrey of Coutances, it is difficult to suggest an alternative recipient.

^{page 173 note 4} Epist., 34–5.

^{page 173 note 5} Winchester (1076), cap. i (Wilkins, Concilia, i, 367a), possibly repeating the lost text of Winchester (1072), cap. iii, Lisieux (1064), caps, ii-iii, and Rouen (1072), cap. xv, referring to Rouen (1063). Delisle, L., ‘Canons du concile tenu à Lisieux en 1064’ Journal des Savants, Paris 1901Google Scholar, suggested that the MS. which contains the canons came from Bee. For Lanfranc's legislation against clerical marriage, see also his letter to archbishop John of Rouen, Epist., 17 (D'Achery).

^{page 174 note 1} Cf. Epist., 25, to bishop Walcher of Durham.

^{page 174 note 2} Cf. Epist., 54, to (?) Suain of Essex. See Barlow, F., ‘Domesday Book: a Letter of Lanfranc’, Eng. Hist. Rev, lxxviii (1963), 284–9CrossRef Google Scholar. Professor V. H. Galbraith believes that Lanfranc's correspondent was not Suain but Samson, the royal clerk who was later appointed bishop of Worcester. If so, my point here is strengthened.

^{page 174 note 3} Epist., 34; cf. 35.

^{page 174 note 4} Epist., 52.

^{page 174 note 5} Epist., 53.

^{page 174 note 6} Epist., 32.

^{page 174 note 7} ‘De injusta vexatione Willelmi I,Symeonis monachi opera omnia, ed. T. Arnold (Rolls Series 1882), i, 179 ff. H. S. Offler's criticism of this document (‘The Tractate De Iniusta vexacione Willelmi episcopi prim’, E.H.R, lxvi (1951), 321 ffCrossRef Google Scholar.) does not shake my confidence that it was at least based on an eye-witness account of the trial. To mention one point, the author never pretends to know what went on in the royal court while the bishop was dismissed from it. The informant was presumably one of the bishop's suite.

^{page 175 note 1} Guitmund, archbishop of Aversa: ‘cumque per … Lanfrancum, virum … doctissimum, liberates artes deus recalescere atque optime revivescere fecisset’, De corporis et sanguinis Chrisli veritate in Eucharistia, P.L., cxlix, 1428;pope Clement III (Wibert): ‘Benedictus sit deus.… qui, sicuti trivii ac quadrivii, iam prorsus neglecto discipline studio, in desuetudinem traditorum atque in profundam obscuritatem lapsorum rimatorem verumque illuminatorem ad edocendas Latinorum mentes constituit, sic etiam magistrum atque doctorem sollertissimum novi ac veteris Testament sua inestimabili providentia ordinavit teque munus incomparabile, stellam splendidissimam Europe attribuit. Cuius splendore innumerabilis multitudo illuminata est et cotidie illuminatur, vitam et mores a doctrina non discrepantes contemplando’: Liebermann, F., ‘Lanfranc and the Antipope’, E.H.R., xvi (1901), 331Google Scholar; Gilbert Crispin: ‘quem Latinitas, in antiquum ab eo restituta scientiae statum, tota supremum debito cum amore et honore agnoscit magistrum’, Vita Herluini, 95.

^{page 175 note 2} Eng. Chron., s.a. 1089.

^{page 175 note 3} ‘Bene enim loquitur iste vetulus ligaminarius’: De injusta vexatione, 187.

^{page 175 note 4} Cf. William of Poitiers, 126: ‘de quo. venit in litem plusne sit meritus reverentiam atque gloriam secularium ac divinarum literarum singulari peritia, an ordinis monachici singulari observantia’.

^{page 175 note 5} R. W. Southern (‘Lanfranc of Bee and Berengar of Tours’, 31–2) holds that in many ways Berengar was the conservative and Lanfranc the innovator. Yet Berengar was the disturber and Lanfranc appeared for the defence.

^{page 176 note 1} Mahnesbury, Gest. Pont., 73.

^{page 176 note 2} Cf. Epist., 1, 43.

^{page 176 note 3} ‘Cordis sui novalia … irrigans … dulci, quam saepe obtinebat, lachrimarum compunctione’: Miles, 3a.

^{page 176 note 4} Lk. xi. 41; Gest. Pont., 68; Miles 15b.

^{page 176 note 5} ‘Acta Lanfranci’, 274; Eadmer, Historia Nooorum, 14–15; Gest. Pont., 71–2; Miles, 15.

^{page 176 note 6} Op. cit., 105.

^{page 176 note 7} Osbern, ‘Miracula S. Dunstani’, Memorials of St. Dunstan, ed. Stubbs, W. (Rolls Series 1874), 144–50Google Scholar; Eadmer, ibid., 234–7; Miles, 14–15.

^{page 177 note 1} Lanfranc, Constitutions, ed. cit., 112.

^{page 177 note 2} ‘Miracula S. Dunstani’, loc. cit., 155, 241.

^{page 177 note 3} Epist., 60.

^{page 177 note 4} ‘Nullus est enim a me aut per me in hac terra animanun profectus, aut, si ullus existit, tam paruus est ut detrimentis meis comparari non possit’: Epist., I.

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