A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

For the moment free from military difficulties, William proceeded to the regulation of his Conquest. He is said now to have re-enacted the laws of Edward, and although it is probably a legend that he issued a complete code of laws, it is likely that he took the opportunity of declaring the re-enactment of existing laws, with such changes as he chose to introduce. Two ordinances which seem to belong to this period exist. One, ordaining that peace and security should be kept between English and Normans, and the laws of Edward, with regard to land and other matters, upheld, with the addition of such as the King had added for the advantage of the English people. The second, enacting a heavy fine for the death of any one of his soldiers, which fine is to be made good by the Hundred in which the murder was committed; this was for the defence of his troops against lawless patriotism, and grew into the law of Englishry, by which an unknown corpse was always presumed to be that of a Frenchman, and the fine inflicted, unless the English nationality of the murdered man was proved.

His reform of the Church. Appointment of foreign Bishops.

Stigand deposed.

But William had always kept before him, as an object, the change and reform of the English Church, which till this time had been strictly national, its laws having been enacted by the mixed secular and ecclesiastical Witan, and the bishop having presided side by side with the secular judges in the shire gemot. The intention of William, whose enterprise had been undertaken with the full concurrence of the Roman See, whose interests he, as well as the Normans of Sicily, had much at heart, was to Romanize this national Church. For carrying out that scheme he looked to the gradual displacement of bishops of English birth, whose places could be filled with foreigners. This connection with Rome is marked by the re-coronation of the King in 1070 by the Papal Legates, immediately after which the attack upon the English Church began. The Primate Stigand was the first victim. With him the King had hitherto temporized; when he was charged with holding the See of Winchester with his own archbishopric, with having obtained the Pallium from the false Pope Benedict X., and with having accepted his bishopric during the lifetime of his predecessor Robert. He was deprived of both his bishoprics, and kept a prisoner at Winchester. His brother Æthelmær was removed from the bishopric of the East Angles. Æthelwine of Durham was also deprived and outlawed, and Ethelric, Bishop of Selsey, deposed. The Archbishopric of York, too, was vacant by the death of Ealdred, so that William had here a good opportunity for carrying out his plans.

Lanfranc made Archbishop.

Lanfranc’s legislation connects the Church with Rome.

The most important appointments were the two archbishoprics. For his new Primate he selected Lanfranc, an Italian priest, at this time Abbot of the little monastery at Bec, whose learning and importance were such that he had already been offered and had refused the Primacy of Normandy. It was not without much show of opposition on his part that he accepted the Archbishopric of Canterbury; but, when once appointed, he proved himself a most efficient instrument in carrying out the plans of the King. To the other vacant bishoprics, in almost every case, chaplains of the King were appointed. The changes thus begun were carried out gradually during the whole reign, and were in fact an offshoot of the great movement for the revival of the Papacy being carried out in Europe by Hildebrand. Having first, for the purposes of centralization, established the supremacy of the See of Canterbury over that of York, Lanfranc set on foot the habit of holding separate ecclesiastical councils after the great National Meetings had been dissolved; the bishops withdrew from the county court, and established ecclesiastical courts of their own; as far as possible regular canons were put in the place of the secular canons, of whom many of the chapters consisted; and although the archbishop had sufficient sense to tolerate those of the clergy who were already married, for the future such marriages were strictly prohibited.

But William still head of the Church.

The change good on the whole.

The effect of such legislation was to separate the clergy from the laity, and to connect the Church much more nearly with Rome. This policy, which in after times was the source of so much evil, was rendered harmless during the reign of William by his great power and decision. He always claimed the position of supreme head of the Church in England, nor would he suffer any encroachments from the Papal See. On more than one occasion he exhibited this determination. To the end of his reign he insisted upon giving the ring and staff to his bishops. He would not allow any of his soldiers to be excommunicated without his leave, and when Hildebrand, occupying the Papal throne as Gregory VII., demanded that he should both pay Peter’s pence and declare himself the Pope’s man, he replied, the money he would pay, as his predecessors had, that the homage he would refuse, as he had neither himself promised it, nor had his predecessors paid it. In many respects the change was doubtless for the better. The bishops were on the whole more learned men, and education was improved. The spirit of self-denial for the sake of the Church, and the consequent establishment of foundations and cathedrals, was revived, and the Church, brought into better discipline, was more able to play its proper part of mediator and peace-maker in an age of violence. The distribution of patronage was not, however, without its dark side. In many instances ecclesiastical position was given in reward of services to men qualified rather to be soldiers than clergymen; and complaints exist of the tyrannical manner in which these soldier-abbots or bishops behaved to their English inferiors.