Lanfranc and changes to the church

• Archbishop Lanfranc


  Italian monk, teacher and lawyer

  had run William's monastery's of St Stephens in Normandy

  wanted to separate the church from the everyday aims of money, power and sexual relationship

  believed the whole society should be ran by the church in a strict hierarchy - priest -> Bishop -> Archbishop -> Pope
• Stigand (Anglo Saxon) - power


  appointed by Edward The Confessor - recommended by Earl Godwin

  Archbishop of Canterbury - but had little control over the archbishops and bishops outside of his area

  he was a pluralist (more then one job) - also accused on simony (made money from the church)
• Lanfranc - Norman 


  head of Church of England as well as Archbishop of Canterbury - gave him power to enforce high discipline over the church

  revived the church council - pushed to separate politics from the church

  rebuilt lots of churches

  reinforced the Norman rule

  believed he was appointed by God - not kings

  he wanted the church to separated from the everyday money, politics, power and sexual relationships
• how did Lanfranc reform the church

  • banned marriage of priests - religious - meant they had to focus on God
  • knocked down all the Anglo Saxon churches and rebuilt them as massive Norman-style cathedrals in the centre of towns - control
  • created the archdeacon - ensured priests were preaching that William should be king - control
  • introduced more religious ceremonies - religious
  • withing 50 years of 1066, all the AS churches had been knocked down - both
  • 1070 - only one Anglo Saxon Bishop left - the rest had been fired - control
• the church had been Normanised


  church leaders had to preach that William is the rightful king as it is what God wanted - archdeacons

  knocked down all the churches and only one AS had power in the church
• Anglo Saxon churches were usually isolated in the countryside - Lanfranc knocked them all down and rebuilt them as Norman-style Cathedrals in the centre of town - control but also religious as it made church more accessible