Lanfranc

Lore & Background

Lanfranc was born in the early years of the 11th century at Pavia, where later tradition held that his father, Hanbald, held a rank broadly equivalent to magistrate. He was trained in the liberal arts, a field in which northern Italy was famous. For unknown reasons at an uncertain date, he crossed the Alps, soon taking up the role of teacher in France and eventually in Normandy. About 1039 he became the master of the cathedral school at Avranches, where he taught for three years.

In 1042 he embraced the monastic profession at Bec Abbey. Until 1045 he lived at Bec in absolute seclusion. He was then persuaded by Abbot Herluin to open a school at Bec.

His pupils were drawn from France, Normandy, Gascony, Flanders, Germany, and Italy. One possible student, Anselm of Baggio, became pope under the title of Alexander II; another, Anselm of Bec, succeeded Lanfranc as Archbishop of Canterbury. Lanfranc was invited to defend the doctrine of transubstantiation against Berengar of Tours. He was the protagonist of orthodoxy at the Church Councils of Vercelli (1050), Tours (1054), and Rome (1059).

Our knowledge of Lanfranc's polemics is chiefly derived from the tract De corpore et sanguine Domini, probably written 1062–63. It is the most important of the surviving works attributed to Lanfranc. While prior of Bec, he opposed the non-canonical marriage of Duke William with Matilda of Flanders (1053) and later obtained the pope's approval of the marriage. In 1066 he became the first abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Étienne at Caen.

He declined the see of Rouen and was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1070. He obtained an order from Pope Alexander II that the disputed points between Canterbury and York should be settled by a council of the English Church, held at Winchester in 1072. He assisted William in maintaining the independence of the English Church.

He endeavoured to enforce celibacy upon the secular clergy. He detected and foiled the conspiracy of the earls of Norfolk and Hereford in 1075. On the death of the Conqueror in 1087, he secured the succession for William Rufus. He died on 24 May 1089.

From Pavia to the Monastic Life

Lanfranc entered the world in the first decade of the eleventh century in Pavia, where his father Hanbald occupied a position roughly equivalent to that of a magistrate. Orphaned young, he was educated in the liberal arts, a discipline for which northern Italy already enjoyed a strong reputation. Contrary to later legend, there is no credible evidence he studied Civil Law or that he was connected with Irnerius of Bologna. For reasons that remain unclear, he eventually crossed the Alps and settled in France, where he took up teaching in Normandy.

Master of the Schools and Defender of Orthodoxy

At the urging of Abbot Herluin, Lanfranc opened a school at Bec to ease the community's financial strain, and his reputation grew so rapidly that he was hailed as the master of all Latin Christendom. Students flocked to him from Gascony, Flanders, Germany, Italy, and across France and Normandy; among them were figures who would later occupy the highest offices in the Church, including the man who became Pope Alexander II and Anselm of Bec, who would one day succeed Lanfranc himself at Canterbury.

His teaching centred on the trivium—grammar, logic, and rhetoric—and their application to theological questions. His Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul is remembered for laying out the apostle's arguments with rigorous logical structure. Yet his most consequential work was polemical: he rose to defend the doctrine of transubstantiation against his own friend Berengar of Tours, emerging as the chief voice of orthodoxy at the councils of Vercelli, Tours, and Rome.

Political Influence and the Norman Conquest

Lanfranc's intellectual authority soon translated into political weight. The confrontation escalated to the point where Lanfranc faced a sentence of exile, but the dispute was resolved just as he was preparing to leave.

This achievement earned him a permanent place in William's gratitude. From that position Lanfranc shaped the duke's ecclesiastical strategy: William embraced the Cluniac reform programme and presented his planned invasion of England as a crusade against schism and corruption. It was Alexander II—possibly a former pupil and certainly a close friend of Lanfranc—who granted the papal benediction that gave the Norman Conquest its crucial legitimacy, an advantage that would later prove a source of serious complications.

Archbishop of Canterbury and the Struggle for Primacy

Almost immediately he set about a programme of reorganisation and reform across the English Church. His first major confrontation came with Thomas of Bayeux, a former pupil who had been elected Archbishop of York and who claimed that his see was wholly independent of Canterbury, asserting jurisdiction over much of the English Midlands.

This ignited the long-running Canterbury–York dispute. Lanfranc travelled to Rome to receive his pallium and secured a papal order from Alexander for an English council to settle the matter. Throughout, Lanfranc worked alongside William to preserve the independence of the English Church and at times favoured a neutral stance in the broader papacy-empire conflict.

Reader's Guide

Lanfranc's life and career are documented primarily through his roles as a scholar, prior, abbot, and archbishop. Key events include his teaching at Avranches and Bec, his theological disputes with Berengar of Tours, his political service to William the Conqueror, and his primacy dispute with York.