ON BLESSED LANFRANC
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY IN ENGLAND.
IN THE YEAR MLXXXIX
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On the Life, written by Milo and Eadmer, both to be given here; and on the other Authors who treated of Lanfranc, and his cult.
Bl. Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury in England.
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
Cardinal Baronius, when at the year of Christ one thousand seventieth number 16, he had treated of the ordination of Bl. Lanfranc into the Archbishop of Canterbury, calls him a celebrated light of this century in the Catholic Church, raised upon so great a candlestick, as one who in knowledge excellently availed and in sanctity of life. The books published by him. A specimen of his knowledge appears in the elaboration of the works written by him, which all, just as they could be found, together with the Life and copious Notes to it, published at Paris in the year MDCXLVIII Lucas Acherius the Benedictine, of the Congregation of St. Maur, and to them in the fourth Tome of the Spicilegium adjoined a Sermon or eight Sentences, which he desired to be diligently observed by the Religious. His other works
are hitherto wanting, as are the Commentary on the Psalms, the Ecclesiastical History, and the Life of William the Conqueror the King.
[2] Of his sanctity and deeds wrote among others Milo Crispinus, Cantor of Bec, whom to have composed the Lives of the Abbots of Bec next following St. Anselm, The Life written by Milo Crispinus Lucas Acherius proves from the index of a Manuscript codex, of which he asserts these to be the words: The Life of St. Herluinus published Gilbertus Crispinus Monk of Bec, and Abbot of Westminster, the Life of St. Anselm published Edmer a Monk of Canterbury, the Life of others, namely Lanfranc, William, Boso, Theobald, Letardus wrote Milo Crispinus, Cantor of Bec. Hence it is established that Milo lived long: for below at number 54 writing of a demoniac he says, that he heard this Bl. Anselm the Archbishop narrating it. But St. Anselm died in the year MCIX, on the day XXI of April, on which his Life we published: but forty years later departed from Life Letardus the sixth Abbot of Bec, namely in the year MCXLIX, as is read in the Chronicle of Bec, together with the works of Bl. Lanfranc printed. Which however of Theobald and Letardus are had are only small compendia, referring the age of the author now wearied with writing, who could long before have written the Life of Bl. Lanfranc, and then of William and Boso, the third and fourth Abbot. After the said compendia there is treated of the noble family of the Crispini, of which were born both Milo and Gilbertus, the writer of the Life of St. Herluinus the Abbot and founder of the monastery of Bec; whence Milo confesses in the Prologue that he transferred various things into this narration, which Acherius in publishing the Life of St. Herluinus omitted, because they were extant in the Life of Bl. Lanfranc. We give this Life from the Acherian edition, in our manner illustrated, in the first place, because in it the deeds are referred from the very nativity even to his death. To this we subjoin another Life, in which the Archiepiscopal acts are set forth by Eadmer or Edmer a Monk of Canterbury, another by Eadmer. who below at number 18 testifies that he was present with Lanfranc, when to him the death of King William in the year MLXXXVII was indicated. But these we excerpt from the History of New Things, by him in the year MCXXII written, and by Selden in London printed in the year MDCXXIII published. More of the same author we indicated in our preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Anselm.
[3] Of him treat Osbern, and others in the 12th century, Older than both is Osbern, who with Bl. Lanfranc lived in the Church of Canterbury. He in the Life of St. Dunstan which hitherto unpublished from Manuscripts we gave on May XIX, in chapter 3 of book 2, refers the Translation of the body of St. Dunstan made by Bl. Lanfranc, and adds various benefits afforded to the same Lanfranc, and among others health conferred on him dying: by whose command also Osbern the same said some miracles of St. Dunstan in a sermon to the people: which since they can be seen there, we here omit. The same Lanfranc's eminent knowledge and sanctity of life, as with one mouth testify as many as wrote the English affairs: of whom the first can be reckoned the Author of the Saxon Chronology, in the old Saxon and Latin tongue printed with the History of Bede at Cambridge in the year MDCXLIV: for that Chronology is produced even to the Archiepiscopate of Bl. Lanfranc, and there is annexed only in Latin the Life of the same Lanfranc, digested by the years of the Episcopate, but at what time it was so written is not clear. Florentius the Monk of Worcester, the said Chronology often describes, and deduces to the year MCXVII, two years later dead. Next follow Simeon the Monk of Durham, who described the Deeds of the Kings of the English deduced to the year MCXXX; and William of Malmesbury, who at length declares the Acts of Lanfranc, both in William I the King, and especially in book 1 on the Deeds of the Kings of the English, where he brings forth many things in the same words, in which Milo described the same: but he flourished about the year MCL. There flourished about the year MCC five others, namely Gervasius the Monk of Canterbury, who in the book on the burning and reparation of the Church of Canterbury treats of the finding of Lanfranc's burial, and the replacing of his bones at the altar of St. Martin; and about its end and afterward, the same has his Life quite prolix in the Acts of the Pontiffs of Canterbury; Rogerius Hovedenus, who almost describes Simeon of Durham; Radulfus de Diceto, Dean of St. Paul's in London, in the Chronicles or Images of histories; the Author of the Chronicle, published under the name of John Bromton Abbot of Jervaulx, and deduced to the year MCXCIX; and finally Guilielmus of Newburgh chapters 1 and 2 of the first book.
[4] Others then followed: Matthaeus of Paris, a Monk in England at St. Alban's, who died in the year MCCLIX; Matthaeus of Westminster in the Flowers of Histories, who wrote about the year MCCCXXX; Ranulphus of Chester in our Manuscript Chronicle deduced to the year MCCCXXXIV, which Henricus de Knychton Canon of Leicester described: then Petrus de Natalibus completed the Catalogue of the Saints in the year MCCCLXXXI, Petrus de Natalibus, and in book 6 chapter 47 has a compendium of the Life of Lanfranc. Joannes Capgravius, flourished about the year MCCCCL, and among the Lives of the Saints of England, Scotland, Capgravius, and Ireland published also the Life of Lanfranc. The Author of the Chronicle of Bec, deduced to the year MCCCCLXVIII. Joannes Trithemius on Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict written in the year MDV, who treats of Lanfranc in book 2 chapter 99, book 3 chapter 325 and book 4 chapter 119. In the same XVI century flourished Nicolaus Harpsfeldius, who in his English Ecclesiastical History has the Life of Lanfranc in the eleventh century chapter 12 and 24. Then finally in this our age the Acts of the same digested Edovardus Maihew, in the Trophies of the English Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict, on the day XXVIII of May, and Michael Alfordus in Tome 4 of the Annals of the English Church. So many and so great writers most highly praising Lanfranc, The writings of the Augustinians contrary to Lanfranc how they are to be taken, I know not whether William Thorn is to be heard, in the Chronicle of the monastery of St. Augustine at Canterbury, the deeds of the same Lanfranc with the Augustinians most invidiously stabbing in chapters 7 and 8. All however on both sides being weighed, that matter seems to conduce somewhat to history, nor will it detract anything from the fame of Lanfranc with the prudent reader, about to judge discreetly between the best intention of the Archbishop, wishing it consulted for ecclesiastical peace by conciliating and to a certain extent subjecting the Augustinians to himself; and the bitter passion of the English Monks, grieving that they and the kingdom had yielded to the Norman dominion. For that Augustinian Chronographer, not so much from his own sense ought such things to be deemed to have written, since he lived and flourished at the end of the XIV century, as from the commentaries of those, who committed to letters the deeds of their own time each in the monastery of St. Augustine, as hostile to the new Kings and Bishops from Normandy, as swollen with the memory of the old liberty, and bearing most indignantly any however small diminution of it.
[5] Meanwhile both from this Author, and from all the aforepraised writers it is established, made Archbishop in the year 1070, that Bl. Lanfranc was named Archbishop of Canterbury in the year MLXX on the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary the Mother of God, and then consecrated on the feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist XXIX August on a Sunday, in the cycle of the Sun XV, with the Dominical letter C. Besides it is established that the same migrated to the Lord in the year MLXXXIX, in the month of May; of the day only there is dissension. Milo Crispinus, in his Life number 59 has, that he in the nineteenth year of his Archiepiscopate, on the V Kalends of June, closed his last day. That is the day XXVIII of May. In the same manner Gervasius the Monk of Canterbury, 28 May, as many; in his Life says, he closed his last day on the V Kalends of June, on the second feria after the Octaves of Pentecost, at the first hour of the day: which agree excellently: for in the year MLXXXIX in the cycle of the Moon VII, of the Sun VI, with the Dominical letter G, Easter was celebrated on the very Kalends of April, and the feast of Pentecost on the XX of May, and the second feria after the Octave of Pentecost or the feast of the Most Holy Trinity was this XXVIII of May. In the Chronicle likewise of John Bromton Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury, the most brilliant Doctor of Monks, is said to have died on the fifth Kalends of June. After the example of these the birthday of Bl. Lanfranc the above-cited Capgravius and Edoardus Maihew celebrate on the day XXVIII of May, others assign other days. which also we determine to do. If however any prefer to refer it to the day XXIV, with them a contentious rope we do not draw. For the Worcester one, the Durham one, and Hovedenus write the Saint to have died on the IX Kalends of June on the V feria. But in our judgment the above-cited Milo Crispinus and Gervasius of Canterbury seem to have examined the matter better. In the Appendix of the Saxon Chronology, he is said to have sat in the Pontifical See eighteen years, nine months, two days: and so the day XXXI of May would be had, unless one prefer to read "less by two days," and then the day XXVIII of the Month could be had. But the Westminster one referred him to have died on the IX Kalends of April, which is the day XXIV of March, and on it the memory of Lanfranc is inscribed in the English Martyrology of Wilson. But as far back as the Westminster one goes, so far forward runs Petrus de Natalibus, when he writes, the Saint to have rested on the fifth Nones of July, and Petrus was followed by Hermannus Greven, Maurolycus, Canisius, Ghinius, Wion, Menardus, Dorganius, Bucelinus, Ferrarius, Saussajus: but the authority of Petrus de Natalibus in many things wavers, as one who with too great speed within two years completed his Catalogue, and therefore could not confer due diligence sufficiently on single things.
[6] The Title of Saint is attributed to Lanfranc by Capgravius, among the other CLX, whose Lives he has, and who all commonly are held such; and the same is done by Petrus de Natalibus, Trithemius, and others already cited Martyrologists. Called Saint by many, Some cult of him is hinted in the cited Appendix of the Saxon Chronology in these words: Of whose acts, buildings, alms; the writing, which is read on his Anniversary, in part commemorates. But it seems that an anniversary memory of this kind was observed among the Monks of the said Church. The double translation also of the body and bones, and the deposition at the altar of St. Martin, hint also a common estimation of his sanctity. But that an Ecclesiastical Office was read of him, hitherto we could not attain. We also curiously inquired, but without an Ecclesiastical Office. whether at Caen, where he was Abbot, his memory is celebrated; and we received the answer, that there seems a certain statue, which they say is his, and that some in baptism receive the name of Lanfranc, and that this is done from of old, and this seems an argument, that the fame of his sanctity is ancient; but in the Ecclesiastical Office no mention is made of him. Hence we believed that only the Title of Blessed is to be used.
LIFE
By the Author Milo Crispinus, Cantor of Bec.
From a very old Manuscript codex of the Monastery of Bec.
Bl. Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury in England.
BHL Number: 4719
BY MILO CRISPINUS.
PROLOGUE.
Since by many the life of the Venerable Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, is sought, Whence the Author collected this Life. and is not found; I wished to write something of him, according to the slenderness of my talent; lest altogether the memory of so great a man be deleted by silence. A work indeed, as it seems to me,
hitherto intermitted; for rare is it found that anyone wrote anything of him. For which cause in the Life of our blessed Father Herluinus, the venerable Abbot of Westminster Gislebertus, as it were on occasion, inserted as much as seemed to pertain to the history: which thence borrowing, and transferring into this narration, I have added whatever I could find, or what from venerable and truthful men I heard. But this I was zealous to do, that (as far as in me was) it should not be hidden, who was to be proposed to others for imitation; but should become known to all, to the honor of God and the utility of readers: and that they may know, who wish to know, who or whence he was, what institution of living he had, how to religion, and then to the Abbey, and afterward to the Archiepiscopate he came, or how from this light he migrated. And of these indeed not all things, which were to be said, could I hear. Nor ought anyone to be angry with me, that, unskilled in speech and knowledge, I dared to undertake a matter so worthy: because I judged it rather to speak in whatever way, than that none. But if to anyone the rusticity of the style and the uncultivated speech displease, and he wish to say the same more ornately, I pray that by changing the words, he take not away the sense of the matter done, unless perchance he find something of falsity to be in it.
CHAPTER I.
Birth, studies, monastic life, the office of Prior.
There was a certain great man, born in Italy, whom a Latinity, restored by him to the ancient state of knowledge, the whole acknowledges as its supreme Master with due love and honor, by name Lanfranc: and Greece herself, the mistress of the nations in liberal studies, gladly heard and admired his disciples. He was originating from the city of Pavia. b His parents, citizens of the same city, were held great and honorable among their fellow-citizens. For, as is reported, his Father was of c the order of those, who preserved the rights and laws of the city.
[3] he applies himself to the studies of letters, Lanfranc in his earliest age being bereaved of his father, when he ought to succeed him in honor and dignity, the city being left, for love of learning, to the studies of letters d he proceeded. Where having tarried a very long time, perfectly imbued with all secular knowledge he returned. Then his fatherland being departed, and the Alps being crossed, into Gaul he came in the time of e Henry King of the Franks, and the glorious Duke of the Normans f William, who subdued England to himself by arms. And passing through France, very many scholars of great name having with him, into Normandy he came; and in g the city of Avranches having tarried, for some time he taught. in the city of Avranches he teaches, But the most learned man considering, that to catch the breath of mortals is vanity; and that to non-existence tend all things, except Him who made all, who always is, and who attend to Him; to obtaining His love, he turned his mind and zeal. What therefore in letters more perfectly he found the counsel of salvation and of pleasing God, he resolved to seize: that all things being left, his own right also being abdicated, he might follow Him who said: If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Matt. 16, 24. And because the greater he had been, so much the more he desired to become humbler; he was unwilling to go to a place where the lettered would hold him in honor and reverence.
[4] Meanwhile when he wished to go to Rouen, he was making his journey, the day now declining, through a wood beyond the river h Risle, and fell among robbers; who taking all that he had i his hands being bound behind, and the hood of his cape being drawn before his eyes, he seeks Rouen, and falls among robbers: led him away from the way, and among the thick thickets of the forest left him. Held in such straits, not knowing what to do, he lamented his misfortune. At length in the nocturnal silence returned to himself, he wished to render due praises to the Lord, and could not: because for this before he had not been free. And turned to the Lord: after vows and prayers, Lord God, said he, so great a time in learning I have spent, and body and mind in the studies of letters I have worn; and still how I ought to pray to Thee, and to render Thee the offices of praise I have not learned. Free me from this tribulation; and I, Thou aiding, so to correct and institute my life will take care; that I may avail and know to serve Thee. The dawn rising, in the very twilight he heard wayfarers taking their journey; and began by crying out to ask aid of them. They hearing first were afraid; then perceiving the voice of a man, to the sound of the voice they proceeded; and who he was, what he had, he indicated. Then loosing him they led him back to the way. freed: He asked indeed that they would show him a viler and poorer monastery, which in the region they knew. They answered; k A viler and more abject monastery we know none, than that which near by a certain man of God is building: and showing the way, they departed.
[5] But he turning his step thither, came to Bec; than which nowhere then was esteemed a poorer or more abject monastery. he comes to Bec: By chance then the Abbot occupied in building a furnace, was himself working with his own hands: and approaching him he said: God save thee. And the Abbot; God bless thee, said he: Art thou a Lombard? But he; I am. But the Abbot; What dost thou wish? A Monk, said he, I wish to become. Then the Abbot ordered a certain Monk, by name Rogerius, who in a part was doing his work, to show him the book of the Rule; which read through he answered, he is made a Monk: he would gladly observe all things God aiding him. These things hearing the Abbot, and knowing who he was and whence, granted him what he asked. But he through the mouth of the furnace falling on his face, kissed his feet. Lanfranc venerating and loving the humility of mind and gravity of speech in the Abbot very much, l is there made a Monk.
[6] Which done the venerable Father Herluinus was filled with no small joy, esteemed by Abbot Herluinus, because he believed his prayers to have been heard by God. For because the necessity of procuring provisions compelled him to tarry outside the cloister, nor was there one who should preside within and preserve religion; many times when he had besought God, the divine mercy accommodated him aid, a sufficient support for all things which were to be done. Thou wouldst see therefore between them a pious contest: the Abbot, from an aged layman lately promoted into the Clergy, feared the loftiness of so great a Doctor subject to him: he, bearing no insolence for his eminent knowledge, most humbly obeyed all things, attended, admired and proclaimed, and he himself acknowledges the Spirit of God in him: what grace God had granted him in understanding the Scriptures, and said: When I attend to this layman, I know not, what I should say, except that the Spirit breathes where it will. Ioan. 3, 8. The Abbot toward him with due veneration, he toward him with all submission strove, both made a model of living to the flock. One of the active, the other of the contemplative; the Abbot humble, of the highest patience, in the care of the body most continent, bearing no care of secular pomp, most knowing of the laws of the fatherland, was a protection to his own against iniquitous exactors, for treating the business of secular causes, most skilled in disposing external things, in building or procuring necessary things neither more prudent, nor more efficacious, religion being safe, could there be.
[7] But that greatest Doctor in the cloister expended all his pains on quiet and silence, cultivating the fallow-lands of his heart with the assiduous reading of the sacred word; he is eminent in regular observance: watering them with the sweet compunction of tears, which he often obtained. Nor forgetting what he had promised God in the nocturnal captivity, after he was made a Monk, in learning the diurnal and nocturnal Offices he wished to expend the greatest care, that he might know to render to God the sacrifice of praise, as he had known. m Thus for three years he lived solitary, rejoicing that he was not known; after a triennium he becomes known: except a few, to whom sometimes he spoke, to all unknown. As soon as report brought forth this deed, far and wide it carried it; and the most illustrious fame of the man soon through the orb of the earth extolled Bec and Abbot Herluinus. Clerics run up, the sons of Dukes, the most renowned of the schools, the masters of Latinity, powerful laymen, and many noble men, for love of him conferred many things on the same church n. This Lanfranc therefore, who for God had abdicated himself to himself, content with all vileness and extremity, took care to submit himself in all obedience to a greater: finally, as is reported, he would not read a lection in the church, unless first the Cantor had heard it. he obeys even one correcting wrongly: On a certain day while at table he read, he said something in reading just as he ought to say, which did not please the one presiding, and he ordered him to say it otherwise: as if he had said "docere," the middle long, as it is; and this one the same middle short being emended "docere," which is not: for that Prior was not lettered. But the wise man, knowing that obedience is more owed to Christ than to Donatus, dismissed what he had well pronounced, and said what he was bidden not rightly to say. For to lengthen a short, or to shorten a long syllable, he knew was not a capital crime: but not to obey one commanding on God's part, he knew was no light fault.
[8] A certain secular gave to the Church of Bec land, to which Lanfranc was sent, that he might keep and restore it. One of the days while from the monastery to that place he returned, he carries a cat to a distant village, he carried a cat wrapped in a cloth, bound behind him to the saddle. While he made his journey, a certain one joined himself to him: and when together they proceeded, the fellow-traveler heard the voice of the cat, and began to wonder and look about where was the cat, whose voice he heard. At length he observed Master Lanfranc, to carry it bound behind him, and said to him: Lord, what dost thou carry? He answered, mice and rats are very hostile to us, and therefore now I bring a cat, to repress their fury. Behold to how great humility so great a man for God took care to submit himself: and because he greatly humbled himself, God did not delay to exalt him in the present.
[9] But the Brethren, who now were gathered in that place, on account of the envy of others, were held not much lettered, nor much instructed in religion. Lanfranc perceiving the inertia of the Brethren, the depravity of morals, the transgression of order; beholding also some to envy him, who feared he would be set over them; knew not what to do, whither to betake himself. The dishonorable conversation wearied him, he gaped ardently for the sweetness of the solitary o life. A sickness of the stomach therefore being feigned, he asked Fulcrannus the gardener, that he would bring him daily the roots of certain thistles, which he asserted brought to him the remedy of loosening. But this he did, that he might accustom his body to such food, he meditates flight: such as he disposed to live on in the desert. When therefore now he was preparing his mind and body for the flight of a nocturnal slipping-away, to the Lord Herluinus the Abbot, suspecting nothing of this matter, while he rested in bed, a boy of excellent disposition Hugo, who very lately had died, in white garment appeared, the son
of Baldricus de Sawarvilla, which to Bl. Herluinus, detected by a dead Monk, nephew of the same Abbot: at whose aspect in nothing disturbed, amiably thus the Abbot addresses him: What is it, son? How dost thou fare? And the boy briskly; I, said he, good Father, fare well: because by the mercy of God and thy intercession, I am freed from all torment. But God sent me to thee, to tell thee, that if thou wilt not look out for thyself, Master Lanfranc thou wilt not have near. The Abbot wondering, How, said he, son? The boy to this: Because he desires the solitary life, and deliberates to go out of the monastery, since the morals of the Brethren and the life please him not: see therefore what thou doest; for it is not expedient for thee, that he desert thee. These things being said the boy disappeared. The Abbot astonished at the things which he had heard, passed the rest of the night in vigils and prayers sleepless. But at early morning, as soon as the hour of speaking gave itself, he called Lanfranc, made him sit with him singularly; the heart of the Abbot is shaken with inmost grief, the voice is pressed within the jaws, the bursting tears open the grief of the heart. Lanfranc seeing this is prostrated on the ground, suppliantly prays that it be opened to him why the Abbot thus weeps. At length the Abbot bursts into these words: Woe to me, to whom God threatens such a loss! learning from him, Woe to me, who have lost my counsel, lost my help. Many times by great groanings I asked God, with most copious tears I besought the divine mercy, that He would grant me such a man, by whose counsel and aid I might amend this place, and the things which were pleasing to God restore for the uses of the Monks: and when, Brother Lanfranc, hither God brought thee, I believed the prayers of my humility heard. I thought to transfer my burden upon thee: I hoped that thou wouldst support the load of all my burden. But now, I know not for what cause, hence to depart, me being left, thou art busy, and to the deserts to go thou desirest.
[10] Lanfranc, understanding his will detected, and the purpose of his heart, which he thought hidden, evidently revealed; is forthwith cast at the feet of the Abbot; and how such things had become known to him, humbly inquires. Then the Abbot with bland voice opened to him the vision, he resolves to remain in the monastery: and what to him had been divinely revealed through the boy, as above we have set forth, in order he explained. Lanfranc more wonderful to say astonished, and the grace of God in the Abbot vehemently admiring, prostrate on the ground, by confession to the Father forthwith whatever he had had in will, pricked in heart, set forth: and penance being received, and absolution obtained, he promised that he would never depart from him, and would obey his precepts in all things. The Abbot rendering huge thanks to omnipotent God, he is instituted Prior. as quickly as he could constituted Lanfranc Prior: and whatever lay subject to the dominion of the monastery, within and without committed to his care: whom the divine protection granted to be so unanimous, that no occasion of dissension ever arose between them. This vision Lanfranc neither wishing to divulge, nor altogether to conceal, indicated to a certain Monk by name [p] Willelmus, whom he himself had nourished and taught from a boy, and greatly loved; charging, that he should tell it to no one, as long as he himself lived in the body. Which he kept even to extreme old age: but after the death of Lanfranc, when now by no prohibition he was urged, he wrote the matter as he had heard it; and to the Abbot and Monks of Bec written, as above we have digested, directed it. The same Willelmus was Abbot of the monastery of Cormeilles [q].
ANNOTATA.
p To this Willelmus that he wrote Epistle 48 Acherius judges.
q Cormeilles is dedicated to the Mother of God in the Lisieux diocese of Normandy. Consult the Sammarthani, in whom there is mention of this Abbot.
CHAPTER II.
Deeds with Duke William and Berengarius the heretic. The monastery of Bec restored. The Abbey of Caen conferred on Lanfranc.
[11] For administering also the affairs of the whole fatherland, the chief Counsellor by the Duke of the Normans William himself [A] is taken. By whose grace an exceeding perturbation, Made the Duke's Counsellor which suddenly rushed in, unexpectedly God gladdened with serenity. For by the accusations of certain informers the Duke vehemently embittered against him, commands that Lanfranc be driven from the monastery, depart from the country. Nor able by this vengeance to settle the motion of his mind, he commanded the village of the monastery's right, which is called Parcus, to be cut down by flames. by the same unjustly alienated he is sent away, So fierce a command is obeyed. He departing, who was all joy and consolation to the Brethren, a deep grief remains. Because no better was had, a three-footed horse, the fourth foot useless, is given him and one servant. The Brethren therefore are instant in prayer, according to that of Jeremiah, Awaiting with silence the salvation of the Lord. Thr. 3, 26. Forthwith by the way he was departing, meeting the Duke coming and approaching, the horse at every step submitting its head to the ground, he salutes the Lord: conscious indeed of innocence, if place of speaking were given, he did not distrust his cause. The Duke first turned away his countenance, but the divine clemency working, soon pityingly he looked back, and with a nod of benevolence grants entrance of speaking. Then Lanfranc with becoming jest says: By thy command I depart from thy province on foot, occupied with this useless quadruped: or that I may be able to obey thy command, give me a better horse. but by him soon appeased he is received into grace. To whom the Duke smiling; Who, said he, from an offended judge, the business of the alleged crime not done, demands gifts? At length the most eloquent orator asked an audience, and God ministering him aid the cause being begun, briefly to the desired end he perorated. Into the amplest grace forthwith received, he receives a promise, that he should henceforth undergo by no accusation the prejudice of purging himself. Most grateful soon follow embraces and kisses: with much augmentation also the things are promised to be restored, which the Duke very lately had ordered to be devastated. Most briskly someone running before announces to the Brethren that he returns. The tears are changed, there resounds not once, but through the whole day everywhere with heart and mouth from all the pious, We praise Thee, O God. The Abbot could not give faith to the unexpected matter, on account of the ferocity, which in the Lord he knew, until the desired one came. The joy is heaped, because there is made an entire restitution of the burnt things; and of the lands also granted to the same church, by the same Lord a confirmation is obtained.
[12] The cause of this so improvident command they say; that the same Lanfranc contradicted the marriage of the daughter of the Count of Flanders, whom the Duke himself had coupled to himself in matrimony, because by a near consanguinity of the flesh she was joined to him: for the cause of Berengarius, he goes to Rome: whence by the authority of the Roman Pope, all Neustria had been suspended from the office of Christianity and interdicted. Wherefore Lanfranc again went to the Roman Pope: for now before he had gone to Rome for the cause of a certain Cleric, by name b Berengarius, who concerning the Sacrament of the Altar dogmatized otherwise than the Church holds: for he said, that the bread and wine, after the Consecration, were a Sacrament only, but not the true Body and Blood of Christ. That Cleric had sent to Lanfranc, as to his familiar, letters c, sprinkled with that error itself: those who read them, thought Lanfranc to feel such things, and defamed him as a companion of the error. But then by chance Lanfranc had set out for the City, Leo the d Eighth then occupying the See of Bl. Peter. Friends who heard the infamy contrived for him, sent those letters after him to Rome; and there bred for some a suspicion concerning Lanfranc. The Pope summoned Berengarius to a day. But he fearing to come, deferred; but sent for himself two Clerics as responsals: who coming before the Pope, and failing in the cause, were reproved and seized. Lanfranc being ordered rose, the crime imposed on him he refutes before the Pontiff: the stain of the depraved rumor from himself he wiped away: he set forth his faith, the set forth proved more by sacred authorities than by arguments. What he said and proved, pleased all, displeased none.
[13] These same things in the Synod e of Vercelli were retold, and the sentence of Berengarius heard and reproved: but the faith of the Church, which Lanfranc held and asserted, set forth and by the concordant assent of all confirmed. Which sentence did not escape this Pope Leo's successor f Victor. Finally in the Council g of Tours, at which the Legates of Victor himself were present and presided, after the deeds in the Council of Tours, against Berengarius, there was given to Berengarius himself the option of defending his part: which when he dared not undertake to be defended, he confessed before all the common faith of the Church, and swore that from that hour he would so believe, as the Church holds. Which oath transgressing, he nonetheless did not omit to scatter his first dogma among the people. Which when h Nicholas the Second had heard, he called him. Who coming to Rome and distrusting his cause, and little confiding in the patronage of those, whom by bestowed benefits he had conciliated to himself; when he dared not defend his sentence: he asked Nicholas the Second and his Council, that the faith, which they wished him to hold, they would set forth to him in words, confirm in writing. And so the Pope commanding, the faith set forth in words and written, and confirmed by the assent of all, was delivered to Berengarius
to read. He received it, read it, and swore that he held it, and with his own hand subscribed it. Which done the Pope rejoiced and many others at his return and conversion, who before grieved at his aversion. The sacrilegious transgressor of this oath against the aforesaid Synod, against the Catholic truth, and the faith of all the Ecclesiastical Doctors, afterward composed a writing: to which Lanfranc answering, he answers his writings: under the name of an Epistle composed an elegant little book, supported by Catholic truth, and corroborated everywhere by the authorities of the holy Fathers; in which are found those things which we have said.
[14] He obtains a dispensation for the Duke joined to a kinswoman. At these deeds Lanfranc was present; who for the cause of this dispute had come to Rome, and to act for the Duke of the Normans and his wife with the Apostolic one; for which matter, as we have said, thither he had gone. Therefore having spoken with Pope Nicholas, he showed, that his sentence burdened only those, who had neither joined them, nor could separate them: for the Duke would by no pact wish to dismiss the girl, whom he had taken. This hearing and perceiving it to be true the Supreme Pontiff, a dispensation being had, granted the marriage: in this manner however, that the Duke and his wife should build two monasteries, in which they should gather single congregations of men and of women; who there under the norm of holy religion day and night should serve God, and for their salvation should supplicate. The Duke obeyed the Apostolic dispensation, and they built two monasteries, in the estate which antiquity called i Caen. The Duke one of Monks, in the name of k St. Stephen the Proto-martyr; and his wife the other of Nuns, in the name and honor of the holy Trinity; on which they conferred so much of their things and revenues, as would suffice for those dwelling there both for food and for clothing.
[15] About the same time the congregation of Bec growing, in that place l there happened that saying said by the Lord through Isaiah the Prophet; The place is narrow for me; make space that I may dwell. Ob loci angustias, & the situation unhealthful Is. 49, 20. For the smallness of the spaciousness of the houses could no longer hold the multitude of Brethren gathered: but the situation of the place was contrary to the soundness of those dwelling. And so the venerable Lanfranc began to address the holy Father Herluinus, concerning the building of a greater monastery. He feared the mere commotion of so great a work, very much distrusting the strength of his now failing age. he persuades that a monastery be built elsewhere, To comfort, to exhort, and often to urge the same thing, he who had begun did not omit; saying, that a watery place was not apt for the habitation of Monks. The Abbot by no means acquiescing, Lanfranc is reported to have said to certain noble men, with whom he was speaking: The Lord Abbot consumes his time and labor in this watery place, nor will he believe me, that he desist from that work, and begin another work in a healthier place: may God omnipotent give him such an impediment, that he may hear me, and in so unfitting a place to expend his pains desist. Nor much after the right part of the Presbytery fell, in which was the oratory and the altar of St. Benedict. The Abbot being anxious about this and much disturbed, his consoler in all his desolation came, beseeching that even now acquiescing he should begin greater buildings. At length conquered, bearing a most certain hope in God, and very much confiding in the help of his counsellor, and at length obtains it. by whose work all good things came to him; in a much healthier and more convenient place he began a new monastery and offices, a very great work; which not his own things, which still were very moderate, but firm faith in God and certain hope, conferring all things, accumulated. Lanfranc also by the leave of his Abbot again held a school, and the things which from the scholastics he received he conferred on the Abbot, the Abbot gave to the workmen.
[16] After the completion of a triennium, the basilica alone not yet completed, Made Abbot of Caen, the venerable Lanfranc the institutor of the begun work, at the supplication both of the Duke of Normandy and of the Chiefs, to the monastery of Caen, which the Duke at the exhortation of Pope Nicholas had built, m is set as Abbot. Who from the monastery of Bec going out to this work, led one with him, who lately had received the habit, but had not yet made profession, by name Radulphus; who afterward in that place made profession, and as time proceeded, was Prior of the same Church of Caen; at last he died Abbot of Battle. At the coming of Lanfranc soon to that very place to conversion began to come noble men and excellent Clerics, among whom was the excellent and venerable Willelmus, n the son of Rabodus, who after Lanfranc presided over the Church of Caen, among many novices he receives Willelmus afterward Archbishop of Rouen. and afterward was Archbishop of Rouen. This Willelmus when he had received the habit of religion at Caen, was sent to Bec, that he might learn the order there: because the new plantation of that place could not yet perfectly instruct others. This man, born of generous birth, simple, adorned with good morals, religious, when he had passed some time there as claustral Prior, afterward as Abbot; thence taken, was consecrated o Archbishop of Rouen: in which place for a long time he lived, and in good old age closed his last day. In that monastery of Caen in the time of Lanfranc, and of those who leaving the world took up the monastic life under him; began a great religion, which endures even today.
[17] Meanwhile the Duke of the Normans William, invading the kingdom of [p] England hereditary to himself, disposed of whatever rights he wished: he is called into England by William the Conqueror. then to bettering the state of the Church, he turned his mind. Therefore by the counsel and request of Alexander the Supreme Pontiff of the universal Church, a man most excellent in life and knowledge; and with the most willing assent also of all the Magnates of the English and Norman empire, King William, what he chiefly and only accepted as counsel, the Doctor above mentioned, namely Lanfranc, chose for undertaking this business.
ANNOTATA.
A Guilielmus of Poitiers on the Deeds of William in Duchesne page 194: Lanfranc, says he, Duke William cultivated with intimate familiarity, venerating him as a father, revering him as a preceptor, loving him as a brother or offspring. To him he committed the counsels of his soul, to him a certain watchtower, whence the Ecclesiastical Orders through all Normandy might be looked to, &c.
p In the year 1066, England was occupied by William, hence called the Conqueror, by the testament of St. Edward the King, whose kinsman he was; Harold the Dane being expelled, who had invaded the kingdom.
CHAPTER III.
The Archbishopric of Rouen being refused, Lanfranc is compelled to admit that of Canterbury.
[19] It now pleases us, as if from another beginning, to direct the series of our narration, and to insert certain things omitted, and thus to pursue all things concerning the same Lanfranc as we shall be able. This man therefore, memorable in every age for religion and wisdom, sprung from a noble lineage, from his boyhood years was educated in the schools of the liberal arts and of secular laws, according to the custom of his country. As a young man, an orator, he frequently overcame veteran adversaries in the pleading of causes, A jurist and orator, speaking accurately with a torrent of eloquence. At that very age he knew how to bring forth opinions, which the Jurists or the Judges or the Praetors of the city gratefully received. Of these things Papia makes mention. But when he was philosophizing in exile, the divine fire kindled his soul, and the love of true wisdom shone into his heart: for he perceived that the prosperity and glory of this world is vanity. Therefore by a sudden motion of soul, denying himself, and renouncing the world, he took the religious habit of Bec, and began to live by rule.
[19] The same monk was zealous to destroy with the sword of the word the sects, fervent for the Catholic faith, if he had observed any to injure the Catholic faith. The same most excellent man also, in the fullness of charity, strove to raise up, through the rectitude of faith, those dead in heresy. Wise and religious Metropolitan Pontiffs, and likewise Abbots, trembled at the wisdom of Lanfranc, and at his religiousness and authority, and rejoiced to submit themselves to his correction. Many Churches also sought him for themselves as Pontiff or Abbot, with incredible desire. Rome, the head of the world, solicited him with letters, attempting by entreaty to retain him, and even by force: for she had known him most skilled in discerning whatever was honorable and the contraries thereof, most diligent in rendering to each his own by the plumb-line of reasonableness, endowed with singular prudence, most ready to undertake and endure arduous and hard things for the cause of the true good: she had known also this life of his, which deservedly may be called a kind of most direct and safest way to the port of eternal life. But he deemed it too lofty for himself to be set over others, not deserting in heart and affection the lowest extremity. The glorious Duke of the Normans William cherished him with heartfelt familiarity: wherefore he set him, unwilling, over the monastery of Caen.
[20] At that time the city of Rouen was widowed of its holy and venerable Archbishop, by a Maurilius. Then b all the Clergy and people gathered, He refuses the Archbishopric of Rouen. wished to elect Lanfranc as the one to be substituted: but with all his effort he avoided undergoing such a burden, humbly desiring rather to be under than over: for the Abbey of Caen, which he had unwillingly taken up, he would gladly have laid down, if he had been able to do it without grave injury to his soul. The King, perceiving this, provided to subrogate c John, whom he had constituted Pontiff of the Avranchin: but that this might be done canonically, A fourth time he goes to Rome: for the sake of seeking license he directed the same Abbot of Caen Lanfranc to Rome: who, briskly carrying out the burden of this legation, just as he desired counsel to be taken for the Churches, obtained it from Pope d Alexander; he also carried back the sacred Pallium, with license of this promotion: whence there was joy to all Neustria itself.
[21] After these things there came to the King in England three legates together, e Ermenfred Bishop of the Sedunenses, and two Cardinal f Clerics, sent at his own petition by Pope Alexander, who at Easter, placing the crown of the Kingdom upon his head, confirmed him as King of England. A great Synod therefore was gathered g at Windsor; in which, the King presiding, certain Bishops unworthy of the Episcopate were cast down by those very Legates, on account of a criminal life and ignorance of the Pastoral care. Among whom they deposed h Stigand, condemned with anathema, after Stigand was deposed, defiled with many crimes; who with two Bishoprics had by unspeakable ambition invaded the Archbishopric of Canterbury. With suitable Rectors therefore substituted in the place of those cast down, the See of Dover remained vacant, in which the precious Confessor of Christ Augustine had been set over all the Bishops of Britain. But while the King was pondering this matter, and consulting the Nobles of the kingdom, it came to rest by a most fitting conclusion in Lanfranc: that so most copious a luminary, raised in this citadel, might dissolve the clouds and mists of depravity on every side, ennobling all things with most salutary brightness: wherefore he sent the aforesaid legates into Normandy, to accomplish this work. When therefore the Bishop of Sion invited him to the Pontifical government, announcing in the Council of the Bishops and Abbots of Normandy the petition of the King, and at the same time his own will and that of the rest of the Legates of the Apostolic See, and as it were of those commanding, concerning this Prelacy, they found him so disturbed with holy anger and holy sadness, that they thought he would altogether contradict it, asking a respite for deliberation. For he held it perceived and undoubted, that the business of an Archbishop and the leisure of a Monk could not go together: besides this, he despised, as was his custom, his own advancement, and dreaded the most burdensome helm. The Queen with her son entreats, invited to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, the Abbot Herluin, though unwilling, commands, whom he was accustomed to obey as Christ: the Elders gathered for this also studiously exhort: for this violence urgent on every side the mandate of the King had dictated, knowing the obstinacy of the Father most dear to him, when he was invited to higher things. He did not refuse by a precipitate judgment, as the rule of discretion directed his every deed and word: he takes care not to offend obedience, and at the same time so many who ask, favor, exhort. Sad therefore he goes across the sea to excuse himself, hoping for joy in his return: for the singular man, the form of perfect humility, could not estimate that he was being drawn unwilling to the Archbishopric. he strives to excuse himself to the King who offers him: But by what counsel can the divine disposition be resisted? The King with joy and with worthy reverence received the helper of the Christian religion; he overcame the reluctant excuse, fighting beautifully with humility and majesty. The Chief Men of the Church of Canterbury are summoned by cheerful and festive command, and much Ecclesiastical and Secular dignity of the kingdom.
[22] This man therefore the King always cherished with intimate familiarity; both for his eminent skill in secular and divine letters, and for his singular observance of the monastic order; bestowing on him reverence and glory; venerating him as a father, fearing him as a teacher, loving him as a son or brother. To him he committed the counsels of his soul, to him a certain watchtower, whence the rule of living might be looked out for the Ecclesiastical Orders throughout all Normandy and England. But if anyone wondering asks why so great a man so greatly wished to decline the Episcopal office, or why the Abbot unwilling commanded this to him, but compelled by Abbot Herluin, let him first know concerning the Abbot, that he by no means did this envying his promotion, since beyond others he sought his honor and exaltation. He commanded it therefore to him, because to the will of God and the election of holy Church calling him, he dared not contradict. But he commanded unwilling, who, preferring to lie hidden, had shone forth at Bec by his teaching, because he most grievously bore to lack the fellowship of so great and so sweet a friend, who chose the monastery of Bec, lately begun, dreadful in site and poverty, which by his prudence and most vigilant care he enriched, and advanced into the state of a most beautiful order, while he governed the College of Brothers with severe and mild discipline, and the holy Abbot also with humble and useful counsel. For when Lanfranc desired only to give inglorious labor to his own mortification; while he was still at Bec, God the inspector of thoughts apprehended him and made him public, that the lamp, gathering itself, might be diffused into the valley through the heights. Under that master, by the constraint of obedience, there shone forth a library of philosophical and divine letters, most powerful to loosen the knots of questions in both. May I deserve no credit for my writings, unless the breadth of Europe asserts what I write: nor do I think it should be silenced concerning the same things in Africa or Asia. But Lanfranc himself for this reason yearned to escape the Pontifical burden; because, full of wisdom, he foresaw that the leisure of the monastic order, amid the most frequent tumults of Episcopal occupations, can by no means be had entire. May that example terrify those condemned with Simon Magus by the zeal of the Prince of the Apostles: hence let the most lost understand their madness. The most inept buy with gifts, what such a man, offered according to God, trembles at: they offer monies, they promise greater things, now by themselves, now by friends, to whom they promise the summits of dignities, if they shall be able to attain to honor of this kind.
[23] at last he admits the burden, and is made Archbishop. Lanfranc therefore the Abbot of Caen, overcome as much by the will of God as he understood concerning himself, as also by Apostolic authority, and the precept of Lord Herluin, and the assent of the Magnates of Normandy: thus by manifold reason is led over into England; and he undertook the i Prelacy of the Church of Canterbury, which obtains the primacy of the islands beyond the sea. He, exalted with so great honor, enriched with the amplitude of many lands, made wealthy with gold and silver; not unmindful of that divine mandate, Honor thy Father and Mother; was in every way benign and liberal toward his spiritual father Abbot Herluin, and his mother the Church of Bec: whose migration to those parts, a few days before the summons came thence, was shown to the venerable Abbot Herluin as had been foreshown to Abbot Herluin, through a vision in this manner. He saw that in his thicket he had an apple tree, the spaciousness of whose branches was great, and great the abundance of fruits, the appearance also of the apples delightful and the taste excellent. Exod. 20:12. This the aforesaid King asked of the Abbot, wishing to transfer it to a certain thicket of his own, the Abbot resisting, and objecting that by it alone he was sustained: but, because he was lord, he prevailed, and carried off the tree: but the roots could not be entirely torn away; from which sprouting shoots forthwith grew into great trees. After a small interval finally under that vision, under the figure of a tree sought and transferred by the King. the aforementioned King rejoiced before him at the excessive fructification of that very tree; and he answered, rejoicing with him, that from it he had most joyful offshoots: he was invited by the King, to go and see the very increase of the transferred tree, but I know not what cause hindered him from going. All these things, just as the vision arranged them, the event of things unfolded, except that he truly went, and saw what he had heard. The thicket of the Abbot was the Church of Bec, whose greatest tree, that Doctor, sustained not only it, but all the other Churches throughout the country by his example and teaching. Who, for the institution of the sacred Religion to be handed on to the English, being requested by the aforesaid King through his own Abbot, whom alone he obeyed as God, to migrate to parts beyond the sea; very unwilling, with obedience preserved, and commanded by an unwilling Abbot, obeyed.
[24] Whence writing to Pope Alexander, after the salutation he says: He, writing to Pope Alexander When, having been drawn from the Congregation of Bec, in which I assumed the habit of Religion, by William Prince of the Normans, I was set over the monastery of Caen, and was unequal to the governance of a few Monks; I hold it uncertain by what judgment of omnipotent God I was made, at your command, the watchman of many and numberless peoples. Which when the aforesaid Prince, now made King of the English, labored to effect in many and various ways, yet his labors being frustrated he could in no way obtain it from me; until your Legates, namely Hermenfred Bishop of Sion and Hubert Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, came into Normandy, and in their presence, by the authority of the Apostolic See, commanded that I should take up the Church of Canterbury to be governed. Against these the weakness of my powers and the unworthiness of my character
brought forward into the midst availed nothing, the excuse of an unknown language and of barbarous nations was unable to find any place with them. What more? I gave assent, I came, I undertook it: in which I sustain so many troubles, so many wearinesses, and so great a falling away from almost every good; so many disturbances, tribulations, losses, hardenings, cupidities, filthinesses of others in diverse persons, and so great a fall of holy Church I incessantly hear, see, feel; that I am weary of my life, and grieve very much that I have come even to these times. For evil are the things that are discerned in the present, but much worse things from the consideration of these are conjectured in the future. And lest I should long protract Your Highness, he urgently asks to be absolved from the Episcopate occupied with many and great affairs, with the circuit of a prolix oration; I ask that, for God's sake and for your soul's sake, just as by your authority, which it was not lawful to gainsay, you have bound me, so also, the bond of this necessity being broken off by the same authority, you would absolve me; and grant license of seeking again the monastic life, which above all things I love. Nor ought I to be spurned in the petition of this matter, which so piously, so necessarily, from causes so just, I beg to be granted to me by you. For you ought to remember, nor should it be given over to oblivion, how kindly your kinsmen and others bearing writings from Rome, while I was yet constituted in the aforesaid monasteries, I often received; how studiously I instructed them, according to my capacity and their own talent, both in sacred and in secular letters; to say nothing of many other things, in which I have sometimes served you and your predecessors, according to the quality of affairs and times. Nor do I say this boasting or upbraiding, conscience being witness; nor as if seeking, by the approved compliances of my obedience, to catch a greater favor of your grace under the pretext of his slight fruit among the English. than usual; this only I am eager for, and this alone is my purpose in these letters, that I may be able to show a fitting reason and a just cause, by which I may be able to obtain, Christ inspiring, that which I ask from your munificence. But if perhaps, the utility of others being considered, you decree that it must be done otherwise and that this must be denied me; you must greatly beware and fear, lest, whence you think to have a reward with God, thence (which may always be far from your acts) you incur the peril of sin. For there is no progress of souls by me or through me in this land; or if any exists, it is so small that it cannot be compared with my detriments. By these words it can be perceived how unwilling he had taken up the Pastoral care; and how gladly he would have laid it down, had the Pope been willing to grant it: for he feared his own failing, nor did he yet discern in those committed to him progress according to his wish.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER IV.
The Church of Bec consecrated, that of Canterbury restored, its rights vindicated.
[25] But how great was the fruit of him there afterwards, the renewed state everywhere of Ecclesiastical institution most amply attests; Excellently fructifying in the Church of Canterbury, and the Monastic order, which had altogether lapsed into a lay dissolution, was reformed to the discipline of the most approved monasteries. The Clerics are restrained under the Canonical rule: the People, the vanity of barbarous rites being interdicted, are instructed in the right form of believing and living. This fragrance of fruits most sweet to God, by whose odor the house of God throughout the world was filled, which the Abbot himself absent had most pleasantly perceived; afterwards present, the nearer, the more pleasantly he perceived, having journeyed to him in England. And when he had come to the Archbishop, what then was that pious contention between them of submitting themselves to one another? The Supreme Prelate, and bearing the Apostolic offices in the Churches beyond the sea, He receives Abbot Herluin honorably, submitted himself to him who had once been his Abbot, like any other Monk; everywhere sitting second to him at the solemnities of the Masses; and kissing his hand, when he received anything from him, unless he hastily withdrew it. To him was attributed the more eminent seat, and all right of commanding: he forgave the guilt of delinquent servants, and did the rest in the house at his pleasure. The other bore the name of Lord, he the authority. The more frequented his court, the more numerous the assembly of excellent persons of both orders of the whole kingdom became; the greater the compliance with which before all the Archbishop preferred him. All wondered greatly, especially the English, and with admirable submission, that the Archbishop of Canterbury thus submitted himself to any mortal. But the Abbot strove to discharge the submission which he owed to so great a dignity, but was in no way permitted. Behold what the most opulent hand of God renders in this life to those serving him. He who, assuming the poverty of Christ, was once held by all in contempt and derision; has now one who complies with him, the Primate of the whole kingdom of England, the Pontiff, with all things committed to him. The same return of God's benignity he too had received; who, denying himself, sees now the one who once for God had handed over his liberty to him, rolling at his feet, not to say many Consulars, nay even the whole greatest Kingdom inclined to him.
[26] his distinguished disciples at Bec: From the roots of that great tree, which had remained in his garden, as he had seen through his dream, the man worthy to be preached, Herluin, saw afterwards certain shoots sprouting, grown into great trees; namely many to have come through his institution to great increases of good works. A tree rich in fruits was the Venerable Anselm, Cleric of the Church of a Aosta, who, following Lanfranc to the monastic state, after him was Prior, after Abbot Herluin Abbot of Bec, then Archbishop of Canterbury after the same Lanfranc: concerning whom all things were greater than can be referred in our discourse. Trees delightful by the pleasantness of good fruits were the Abbot of Westminster, b Gilbert Crispin; the Abbot of Cormeilles, c William; d Henry, Dean of the Church of Canterbury; e Hernost, Bishop of the Church of Rochester; and he who succeeded him in the same office there, a man very reverend for sanctity of character, Gundulf. These, with the help of God's grace, taught in the Church of Bec by Master Lanfranc, and instructed in holy religion by the holy Father Herluin; were afterwards constituted honorable Fathers in other Churches.
[27] by whom, having passed over into the new church, The new church of Bec was not yet consecrated, by whom Herluin was awaiting it to be consecrated, by him by whose counsel he began it, and by whose help he completed it, urgently begging this from God: to whose petition God, who in other things had been benign to him, granted the wished-for effect, fulfilling in all things his desire in this matter. Meanwhile, all things being prepared which were necessary for the uses of the inhabitants, after the refection, on the Vigil of All Saints, the Brothers leaving the old habitation, a Procession ordered, singing the Responsory, O Blessed Trinity, f came into the new church, entering the new dwellings, henceforth to inhabit them; and there celebrated the festivity of All Saints, with joy and alacrity of all. On the morrow, while Mass was being sung, the holy Father ordered the gathered multitude of the poor to be led into the new workshops, and most abundantly to be refreshed with food and drink. In the fourth year thereafter g the church was dedicated, with great glory, and by him whom the Father desired. For on account of certain affairs, both secular and ecclesiastical, of the nations beyond the sea, Lanfranc received, the often-mentioned supreme Pontiff Lanfranc, coming to the Court of the most eminent King of the English William, then dwelling in Normandy, first came to that very monastery; and was received by the Brothers with the greatest decency he could; but he himself behaved with them with the greatest humility he could; according to what is written: The greater thou art, humble thyself in all things. Eccl. 3:20 But the monastery of Bec is situated between two mountains, over a brook which is called Bec, from which it also took its h name. When therefore he had come to the descent of the mountain, which overlooks that monastery, he is said to have drawn the ring from his finger; nor afterwards, as long as he stayed at Bec, and reverently treated. did he resume it, except at the solemnities of the Masses. Coming to the kiss of the Abbot now bent with age, so great a Prelate strove to roll himself at his feet: but with the other on the contrary striving for the very same thing, with a long struggle indeed, while each supported the other, neither accomplished what he was striving for. After many and long-desired embraces, the Archbishop sat with the Brothers in the cloister, like any other of them; addressing the young, the old, and the children, each one singly, and according to the quality of each exhorting with due comfort. Who could sufficiently narrate, and behaving courteously to all, how great humility and benignity he exhibited in condescending to all? At table the Brothers are constrained to sit with the Archbishop on the right and on the left, and to take food with him from a common cup and one dish. Nor did he bestow on the Brothers only the consolations of edification, but lodged a hospitality with munificence worthy of so great a guest, so that from the remains the octaves could festively be doubled. In the church he would not have an Episcopal chair prepared for himself, but entered into the seat of the Prior; saying that he was still Prior, and had not yet laid down the Priorate.
[28] at their request Importuned by all concerning the consecration of that same church, ready to comply with their will, about to set out for the Court he asked a respite, until he should know thence the will of the King. Then commended by the prayers of the Brothers, he came to the King, having spoken with him, whence he had departed at request, he received the day of the Dedication, and forthwith sent back not only one who should pronounce it, but also whence it should be done. Therefore on the tenth of the Kalends of November, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1077, Lanfranc, venerable to all holy Church, the Primate and supreme Pontiff of the nations beyond the sea, came, he consecrates the church in the year 1077. about to complete by consecrating the church, which by God's inspiration he began; and in whose foundations to be built he himself with his own hand placed the second stone. All the Bishops of Normandy assembled, the Abbots, and other religious men whoever were present, and the Nobles of the kingdom. The King and Queen, intent on other things, were not present; but sent the benefits of their largesse. The Dedication is conducted with most joyful solemnity, and with solemn alacrity of all
: the most pure air itself and the most lucid day smiled upon the alacrity of men. The languor which for eight days before had held the Father himself of the monastery, then released him, and by God's mercy he most fully recovered by the day. The solemnity is ended with greater joy than it had been begun.
[29] and thence he departs with the weeping of all, On the third day the often-mentioned Archbishop of the men of Canterbury, to be remembered through the ages, asked of all the Brothers leave to go. Who could behold with dry eyes so great a man of so great benignity among them departing? All burst into tears: the little ones could not be consoled. With deliberation he hastened his departure, that they might contain themselves from weeping at least after his departure. The venerable Herluin, loving him above all mortals, and loved by him, accompanied his departing friend for two miles, never to return again to their sight in this life. For before the annual revolution of the very day of the Dedication, i he closed his last day. What bitterness of heart! what weeping at that last farewell, and last departure from one another!
[30] These things being thus premised by way of anticipation, let us now return to the order. After the translation into England, Lanfranc, not forgetting that for which he had come, turned his whole intention to correcting the manners of men, and to composing the state of the Church. And first he was eager to renew the Church of Dover, the Mother Church of the kingdom: and because some years before He builds the Church of Canterbury and the workshops; it had been consumed by fire, he was eager to rebuild it from the foundations, a great and spacious work. He built also the workshops, necessary for the uses of the Monks: and what is exceedingly wonderful, from Caen, where he had been Abbot, he caused squared stones to be conveyed across the sea by sail-winged ships for building. He also constructed houses near the church for himself to dwell in: all which buildings he girded with a great and high wall. Having sufficiently disposed the things which are necessary for regular food and clothing, he enriched the church itself with precious and many ornaments. and he restores other things. But the dignities of the Church of Canterbury, which had fallen by age or negligence or had been diminished, he reformed by renewing. Many lands, which had been taken away, he recalled into the right of the Church, and restored to the Church twenty-five manors. He built two Hospices or Poorhouses outside the city, one to the North, the other to the West, with all necessaries: to which he assigned annual revenues from his own, as much as seemed enough. In his manors he instituted prebends to be given to the poor through the year. In several of those manors he constructed stone houses for himself to dwell in.
[31] he defends the liberty of his people against Odo brother of the King. Odo Bishop of Bayeux, brother of King William, was Count of Kent at that time, when Lanfranc came to the Archbishopric. He wore down the men of that province with many grievances, and at the same time the men of the Church of Dover: whom Lanfranc resisted to the face, and before all by the testimony of the ancient English, who were skilled in the laws of the country, k vindicated by argument the liberty of his land, and freed his men from the evil customs, which Odo wished to impose on them. There still survive several, who know both the place of the plea, and the name of the place, and report the manner and end of the suit, by which the contention was terminated. What he wrote to the Bishop of Chichester concerning the Clerics of his vills, we have deemed worthy to be annexed below. l Lanfranc by the grace of God Archbishop to his most beloved Brother Stigand, Bishop of Chichester, greeting. The Clerics of our vills, who exist in your diocese, have complained to us, that your Archdeacons, occasions being found, demand monies from them, and from some have already received them. and against the Bishop of Chichester. Your Fraternity ought to remember, that against the custom of our predecessors and of yours we conceded to you, and commanded them, that they should go to your Synods, and should hear from you, without any interpellation or discussion, those things which can profit toward the knowledge of the Christian religion; but if any faults should be found in them, the vengeance being meanwhile suspended, they should be reserved for our examination, and should be held subject to us, either in showing mercy or in avenging, as was always the custom. We therefore command you, that you order what was wrongly received to be restored without delay, and that you prohibit your ministers, by the zeal of preserving charity, from presuming this further. But we altogether command our Presbyters, constituted outside Kent, that they go no more to your or any other Bishop's Synod, nor answer further to you or any of your ministers for any fault whatsoever: for we, when we shall come to our vills, ought by pastoral authority to investigate what they are either in manners or in the knowledge of their order. Yet let them receive Chrism from you, and pay those things which were anciently instituted in the reception of Chrism. For just as we desire to preserve inviolate, with careful vigilance, those things which anciently up to our times our predecessors held; so also to others we would not deny their dues by any (which be far off) usurpation.
[32] Many followed him going to the Archbishopric, thus he vindicated his own Primacy against the Archbishop of York, of whom he retained several, whom he enriched with honors and lands, as their posterity attest, remaining up to the present. But that I may go back, at his first coming into England, by the authority of the supreme Pontiff Alexander and of the glorious King William, he convoked the Bishops and Princes of the land, the Clergy and People, to renew the decrees and institutes of the holy Fathers concerning the celebrating of Synods, and concerning ecclesiastical customs. In this assembly it was shown against Thomas the Elect, who contradicted this, that the Archbishop of York ought to be subject to the Prelate of Canterbury: how which was done, whoever wishes to know more fully, will be able to know from these things which are subjoined m. In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1070, Lanfranc, Abbot of the monastery of Caen, entered the English land, William the glorious King of the English, and Alexander of happy memory supreme Pontiff of all holy Church, admonishing and commanding. He after a few days of his entrance took up the Church of Dover to be governed: but he was consecrated on the 4th of the Kalends of September, in the metropolitan See by the Suffragans of that See, William, Bishop of London; Walchelin n, of Winchester; Remigius o, of Dorchester or Lincoln; Siward, of Rochester; Herfast [p], of Elmham or Thetford; Stigand [q], of Selsey; Herman, of Sherborne [r]; Giso, [s] of Wells. The rest who were absent, showed the causes of their absence, both by legates and by letters.
[33] In that year Thomas, the elect Prelate of the Church of York, at the beginning of his entering the See had vindicated, came to Canterbury by ancient custom to be consecrated by him: from whom when Lanfranc, the custom of his predecessors being kept, demanded a written profession concerning his obedience, with the addition of an oath; Thomas answered, that he would never do it, unless he first read written authorities concerning this matter, unless he beheld witnesses asserting this antiquity, finally unless he heard fitting reasons concerning this matter, by which he ought justly and reasonably to do it without prejudice to his own Church. But this he did rather from ignorance, than from the pertinacity of an elated spirit: for a new man and utterly inexperienced of English custom, he gave more credence than was right and good to the words of flatterers. Lanfranc however in the presence of a few Bishops, who had come to him for this consecration, showed what he demanded. But he, spurning all things, departed unconsecrated. Which the King hearing took it grievously, thinking Lanfranc to ask unjust things, and to trust more in the knowledge of letters than in reason and truth; although neither was Thomas himself lacking in skill of the scriptures, acquired with much talent, much study. A space of a few days having elapsed, Lanfranc came to the Court, asked an audience of the King, by reasons given mitigated his mind, persuaded and convinced those from beyond the sea who were present that justice was on his side: for the English who knew the matter most constantly bore testimony to his assertions in all things. And so by royal edict and the common decree of all it was for the present established, the King commanding that he should profess obedience to him. that Thomas ought to return to the Mother Church of the whole kingdom, to write a profession, to read the written one, the one read, while it was being examined, in the presence of the Bishops by ecclesiastical custom, to hand to Lanfranc: in which he should promise that he would absolutely obey his precepts, in all things which pertain to the worship of the Christian religion, no condition interposed; but not so to his successors, unless first either in person or in an Episcopal Council, a competent reason were rendered to him, by which it should be most evidently shown that his predecessors had done so and ought to do so to the Primates of the Church of Dover. Therefore he returned, fulfilled what was commanded, and departed consecrated. Not many days after Lanfranc asked and received a profession from all the Bishops of the English kingdom, who at diverse times, in diverse places, were consecrated by other Archbishops or by the Pope in the time of Stigand.
ANNOTATA.
p. Lanfranc wrote to Bishop Herfast epistles 19, 21, and 22. This man, by the testimony of the writer of Malmesbury, transferred the Bishopric from Elmham to Thetford, and not long afterward Herbert transferred it to Norwich. These are cities of Norfolk.
q. The writer of Malmesbury, of Selsey, commonly Selsey, from which place this here-indicated Stigand transferred the See to Chichester. These places are in Sussex, or in South Saxony.
r. The same writer of Malmesbury, of Sherborne, thence the See was transferred by this Herman to Salisbury or Sarisbury. But the place is in Wessex in the County of Wilton.
s. Wells next to Bath in the County of Somerset. Hence the later Bishops were more often called Bishops of Bath.
CHAPTER V.
The decision of the controversy concerning the Primacy of the Church of Canterbury over that of York.
[34] In the following year he went with the aforesaid Archbishop to Rome, received benevolently at Rome by the Pope, and was honorably received by the Apostolic See: for the Pope is said to have risen up to him as he came, both for his great religion and eminent knowledge, and because, while he was in Normandy, he honorably received the ministers of the Roman Church coming, and had studiously taught certain kinsmen of the Pope. The Pope is also said to have said: I have not risen up to him for this reason, that he is Archbishop of Canterbury; but because at Bec I was at his school, and sat as a hearer at his feet with others. And so he gave him two Pallia, one which he received from the altar by Roman custom; but the other, namely in token of his love, with which he was accustomed to celebrate Mass, Pope Alexander handed to him with his own hand. In whose presence Thomas raised a calumny concerning the primacy of the Church of Dover; and concerning the subjection of three Bishops, of Dorchester or Lincoln, of Worcester, and of Lichfield which is now of Chester; saying, that the Church of Canterbury and that of York have equal honor toward one another, nor ought the one to be subject to the other in any way, according to the constitution of B. Gregory; except that the Archbishop of one or the other and ordered to terminate in England the controversy raised by York, ought to be prior and worthier than him who shall be established to have been ordained later: but that the aforesaid three Bishops had from ancient times been subject to his See and his predecessors. Lanfranc hearing this, although he bore it ill, yet with modest discretion answered that his words altogether lacked truth: asserting that the Gregorian constitution was not promulgated concerning Canterbury and York. Concerning which matter and concerning the three Bishops, many words being brought forth on both sides, Pope Alexander decreed that this cause ought to be heard in the English land, and there to be defined by the testimony and judgment of the Bishops and Abbots of the whole kingdom.
[35] Lanfranc, although he held him bound for his own time by the profession made by him; yet preferred to labor for his successors, than to reserve to them hereafter this so great calumny undiscussed to be discussed. Each therefore at the Paschal solemnity came to the King: and there, the reasons of the parties being brought forth into the midst, the royal Court gave a sentence concerning the business. he obtains the cause, It was then ordered that a writing be made, containing the end of the whole cause. Lanfranc directed an Epistle to Pope Alexander, in which he briefly and truthfully narrated to him the management of the whole business. Both writings are annexed below, the profession being premised, which Thomas handed to Lanfranc, before the King and his Court, hand into hand. It becomes every Christian to be subject to Christian laws, nor by any reasons whatsoever to go against those things which by the holy Fathers were salubriously instituted: for hence proceed angers, dissensions, envies, contentions, and the rest, which plunge their lovers into eternal punishments: and the higher anyone is of order, to whom he professes obedience in writing, the more earnestly ought he to obey the divine precepts. Therefore I Thomas, now ordained Metropolitan Prelate of the Church of York, the reasons having been heard and known, make to Thee, Lanfranc Archbishop of Dover, and to thy successors, an absolute profession concerning canonical obedience: and whatsoever shall have been justly and canonically enjoined upon me by thee or by them, I promise that I will observe. But concerning this before, when I was to be ordained by thee, I was doubtful; and therefore I promised that I would obey thee indeed without condition, but thy successors conditionally. The Decree of the Court was of this kind.
[36] In the year from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 1072, but of the Pontificate according to the decree of the Council, of Lord Pope Alexander the eleventh, and of the reign of William the glorious King of the English and Duke of the Normans the sixth, by the precept of the same Pope Alexander, the same King consenting, in the presence of him and of the Bishops and Abbots, the cause was ventilated concerning the Primacy, which Lanfranc Archbishop of Dover proclaimed over the Church of York by the right of his own Church: and concerning the ordinations of certain Bishops, concerning whom, to whom they specially pertained, it was by no means certain. And at last at length by diverse authorities of diverse scriptures it was proved and shown, that the Church of York ought to be subject to that of Canterbury; and to obey in all things the dispositions of its Archbishop, as the Primate of all Britain, in those things which pertain to the Christian religion. But the subjection of the Bishop of Durham, that is a of Lindisfarne, and of all the regions, from the bounds of the Bishopric of Lichfield, and of the great river Humber, up to the farthest bounds of Scotland, and whatsoever on this side of the aforesaid river by right belongs to the Parish of the Church of York, the Metropolitan of Canterbury granted to the Archbishop of York and his successors to obtain in perpetuity: so that if the Archbishop of Canterbury should wish to convene a Council, wheresoever it should seem good, the Archbishop of York should exhibit his presence, with all the Bishops subject to him, at his nod, and be obedient to his canonical dispositions. But that the Archbishop of York Lanfranc remitting the oath: ought to make a profession to the Archbishop of Canterbury, even with an oath, Lanfranc Archbishop of Dover showed from the ancient custom of his predecessors. But for love of the King, he relaxed the oath to Thomas Archbishop of York: and received only the written profession, not prejudicing his successors, who shall wish to exact the oath with the profession from the successors of Thomas. If the Archbishop of Canterbury shall end his life, the Archbishop of York shall come to Dover; and shall consecrate by right him who shall have been elected, with the other Bishops of the aforesaid Church, as his own Primate. But if the Archbishop of York shall die, he who is elected to succeed him, the gift of the Archbishopric being received from the King, shall come to Canterbury or where it shall seem good to the Archbishop of Canterbury; and shall receive ordination from him by canonical custom.
[37] who writes to the Romans, To this constitution consented the aforesaid King, and the Archbishops Lanfranc of Canterbury and Thomas of York, and Hubert Subdeacon of the holy Roman Church and Legate of the aforesaid Pope Alexander, and the rest of the Bishops and Abbots who were present. These things, as they were done, Lanfranc notified to Alexander by the subscribed Epistle. To the Lord, the supreme watchman of the whole Christian Religion, Pope Alexander, Lanfranc. Your humbly excellent and excellently humble Beatitude ought to remember, that at the time when we were with you, the Prelate of the Church of York openly murmured against me, secretly detracted, in the presence of Your Highness stirred up a calumny, saying that I wished to act unjustly, in that I strove to obtain over him and his Church the primacy by the right of our Church; how, ordered to plead the cause in England, concerning the subjection also of certain Bishops, whom he attempted to aggregate to his own Church, he did not fear by his complaint to violate the ancient custom: concerning which matters you, as became and behooved a holy and prudent Pastor, promulgated a sentence in writing, that the Assembly of the English land of Bishops, Abbots, and other persons of the religious order, should hear, discuss, and define the reasons of both parties. And so it was done. For there assembled at the Royal Court at the city of Winchester in the Paschal solemnity, the King's Court sitting at Winchester, Bishops, Abbots, and others from the sacred and lay order, whom it had been fitting to assemble for faith and action and probity of character. First they were adjured by us from your authority through holy obedience; then the Royal power by itself attested them, by the faith and oath by which they were bound to it, that they should hear this cause most intently, and the one heard should bring it to a certain and right end without favor of parties. Both all concordantly undertook: they pledged that they would so do under the aforesaid obligation.
[38] he had proved it from Bede's History of the English There was therefore brought the Ecclesiastical History of the English nation, which Bede, Presbyter of the Church of York and Doctor of the English, composed: the sentences were read, by which with the peace of all it was demonstrated, that from the time of B. Augustine, first Bishop of Dover, up to the last old age of Bede himself, which is terminated by a space of about a hundred and forty years, my Predecessors had borne the Primacy over the Church of York, and the whole island which they call Britain, and also b Ireland, had bestowed Pastoral care on all, in the very city of York very often and in neighboring places (where it seemed good to them) had celebrated Episcopal Ordinations and Councils, from the Synodal Acts, had called the Prelates of York to those Councils, and when the matter required had compelled them to render account of their acts: that the Bishops also, whose subjection he had brought into question, within that space of a hundred and forty years had been consecrated by the Archbishops of Dover, called to Councils, and some also, faults requiring it, deposed by them with the authority of the Roman See; and many things in this manner, which Epistolary modesty cannot explain singly: diverse Councils were brought forth to be read, which at diverse times, for diverse causes, were celebrated by my Predecessors: which although they had not the same matter of their institution, from the Episcopal professions, yet held the same sentence concerning the Primacy and the subjections of Bishops: there were recited the elections of the same Bishops, concerning whom the question turned, made before my Predecessors, and the ordinations by them, who left to the Church of Dover written professions of their obedience: for the city, which is named Canterbury, in ancient times was called Dover by the inhabitants of that very land.
[39] There were added the testimonies of all, who most constantly affirmed that they had seen and heard, each in his own times, all the things which the writings sounded forth: from the excommunication of a certain Simoniac of York, nor were there lacking deeds, by which it was unlocked, that when England was divided among Petty-kings, the King of the Northumbrians c; where the city of York is situated, a price being received, had sold the Bishopric to a certain Simoniac; for which fault he had been called by the Archbishop of Dover to a Council, and not willing to come for his disobedience had borne the sentence of excommunication: from whose communion and fellowship all the Churches of those parts abstained so long, until he presented himself to the Council, confessed the fault, corrected what was ill done, pledged that he would amend for the rest: which matter bore no slight indication, and from the rescripts of the Roman Pontiffs, that my Predecessors had the primacy over that very land and that Church. As a last as it were strength and firmament of the whole cause, there were brought forth the privileges and writings of your Predecessors Gregory, Boniface, Honorius, Vitalian, Sergius, again Gregory, again the last Leo; which were given or transmitted to the Prelates of the Church of Dover and the Kings of the English, at one and another time, for various causes: for the rest both authentic and the copies of them,
in that burning and abolition, which our church suffered four years ago, were entirely consumed.
[40] These and other things, which cannot be explained particularly and briefly, he then narrates how he refuted the arguments of his adversary, being recited on the part of the primacy of our Church; against so great an evidence of so great authorities, he opposed very few contradictions; bringing especially into the midst that Epistle, by which B. Gregory instituted that the Church of London and that of York be equal, nor the one subject to the other. Which writing when all forthwith determined by a concordant sentence to make nothing to the purpose, for the reason that neither was I Bishop of London, nor was the question instituted concerning the Church of London; he turned himself to other needy and infirm arguments, which after a little delay, Christ revealing, were abolished by a few objections. Whom when the King chid with sweet and fatherly reprehension, that against so great an abundance of arguments he had presumed to come so destitute of reasons; he answered that he had before been ignorant, that the Church of Dover was fortified by so many and so great authorities and reasons so perspicuous. and granted peace to him yielding, And so he turned himself to entreaties: for he asked the King, that he should ask me, that I would lay aside all rancor of mind conceived against him for this cause, would love peace, would make concord, would by zeal of charity concede to him some things which were of my own right. To which petition I gladly and with thanksgiving gave my consent; because, God showing mercy, not I, but he, the violator of ancient custom, was the cause of that scandal. There was therefore made by the common stipulation of all concerning this matter a certain writing, whose copies were distributed through the principal Churches of the English, that they may always bear testimony in future times, to what end that cause was brought. Whose copy I have taken care to transmit also to you, but he asks that the Acts be confirmed by the Pontiff: to whom it is established that the holy Church of the whole world is committed: that from this and other things which are transmitted you may perspicuously know, from the custom of my Predecessors, what you ought to concede to me and to the Church of Christ, which I have undertaken to govern: which I ask, honorably and without delay, by the indult of the Apostolic See, to be made a privilege, that from this also how much you love me, may be evidently shown.
[41] Concerning the same matter Lanfranc also wrote to Hildebrand, Archdeacon of the Roman Church, thus: To the Lord Hildebrand, Archdeacon of the Holy Roman Church, his Lanfranc, to join a holy end to holy beginnings. My mind cannot explain in letters, with how great love it is connected to your sincerity, and with how great sweetness it incessantly remembers your favors, which to me both present and absent your benignity has always exhibited. Therefore if, God granting, in any kinds of things I do any good, he commends himself to Cardinal Hildebrand, I cannot give over to oblivion your salvation, both temporal and that lacking time; and this I pray to omnipotent God, that he would make your life prolonged in this world, to the honor and firmament of his holy Church, would keep it undefiled from all contagion of sin, and in the future, your works being centupled, would as a copious rewarder render to you a permanent life. Moreover the calumny, which the Prelate of the Church of York moved against me, concerning the primacy and the subjection of certain Bishops, was heard and determined according to the precept of the Apostolic See: the management of which business, briefly written in order, I have transmitted to our Lord the Pope: which I wish and ask to be read by you with competent diligence, that your charity may hold most certain, what the Apostolic See ought to concede to me and to my Church, and by conceding to confirm by privilege.
[42] To these things Hildebrand answered Lanfranc. The words of your Legates we have received gratefully: but that to your will, in sending a privilege to your absent person, as they asked, we could not duly satisfy, who excuses that it ought to be done in his very presence. we have greatly grieved. Nor let your prudence bear this ill: for if we had seen this to have been conceded to any of the Archbishops in your times being absent, assuredly to your religion with most ready charity we would bestow this honor, without your fatiguing. Whence it seems necessary to us, that you visit the thresholds of the Apostles d: that concerning this and other things together with you we may be able more efficaciously to consult and establish what shall be needful. For the rest, if it happen that our legates come to you, receive them with your wonted charity; and what they shall say to you in the ear, study to procure, as becomes a most dear son of the holy Roman Church and a religious Priest.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER VI.
The remaining acts of Lanfranc, his death, his translation.
[43] In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1075, the glorious King William of the English reigning, in the ninth year of his reign, In the year 1075, in the Council of London, there was gathered at London in the church of B. Paul the Apostle a Council of the whole English region, of Bishops, Abbots, and also of many persons of the religious order; Lanfranc, Archbishop of the holy church of Dover, and Primate of all Britain, commanding and presiding over the same Council; there sitting with him the Venerable men, Thomas Archbishop of York, William Bishop of London, Goisfrid b of Coutances (who, although he was a Bishop from beyond the sea, twelve Bishops sitting together, having many possessions in England, sat with the rest in the Council), Walchelin of Winchester, Herman of Sherborne, Wulfstan c of Worcester, Walter of Hereford, Giso of Wells that is of Bath, Remigius of Dorchester or Lincoln, Herfast of Elmham or Norwich, Stigand of Selsey, Osbern of Exeter, Peter of Lichfield. The church of Rochester at that time was lacking a Pastor. The Bishop of Lindisfarne, who is also of Durham, having a canonical excuse, could not be present at the Council. And because for many years back in the English kingdom the use of Councils had become obsolete, there were renewed several things, which are known to have been defined even by the ancient Canons.
[44] From the fourth Council of Toledo d, the Milevitan, and the Bracaran it was established, that each should sit according to the times of his ordination, Lanfranc decrees many useful things, except those who by ancient custom, or by the privileges of their Churches, have worthier Seats. Concerning which matter the old men and those advanced in age were interrogated, what either they themselves had seen, or had truly and probably received from their elders and the more ancient. Upon which answer a respite was asked, and granted until the morrow. But on the morrow they concordantly testified, that the Archbishop of York ought to sit at the right hand of him of Dover, concerning the Sitting of the Bishops, him of London at the left, him of Winchester next to him of York; but if him of York is absent, him of London at the right, him of Winchester at the left.
[45] From the Rule of B. Benedict, from the Dialogue of Gregory, and the ancient custom of regular places; that the Monks should keep the due order; especially the children and the young, by monastic statutes, in all places should have the custody of masters appointed to them; at night let all generally carry lights, unless by the Prelates they lack a granted property. But if anyone shall be apprehended at death having anything of his own without the aforesaid license, nor before death shall have rendered it, having confessed his sin with penitence and grief; neither let the bells be tolled for him, nor the salutary Host be immolated for his absolution, nor let him be buried in the cemetery.
[46] From the Decrees of the supreme Pontiffs, namely of Damasus, and of Leo, by transferring Episcopal Sees, and also from the Councils of Sardica and Laodicea, in which it is prohibited for Episcopal Sees to exist in vills; it was conceded by royal munificence and the authority of the Synod, to the aforesaid three Bishops, to pass from vills to cities, Herman from Sherborne to Salisbury, Stigand from Selsey to Chichester, Peter from Lichfield to Chester. Concerning certain ones who still dwelt in vills or villages it was deferred until the audience of the King, who in lands beyond the sea was at that time waging war.
[47] foreigners not to be ordained, by silence in Synods, From many decrees of the Roman Prelates, and diverse authorities of the sacred Canons; that no one retain or ordain another's Cleric, or a Monk without commendatory letters. To repress the insolence of certain indiscreet men, by common decree it was sanctioned, that no one speak in the Council, except license taken from the Metropolitan, the Bishops and Abbots excepted.
[48] From the Decrees of Gregory the Greater e and also the Less; that no one take a wife of his own kindred, or of a deceased wife, or whom a kinsman had; until the kinship on either side reach to the seventh degree: that no one buy or sell sacred Orders or an Ecclesiastical office, which pertains to the cure of souls: for this crime by Peter the Apostle in Simon Magus was first condemned, afterward by the holy Fathers forbidden and excommunicated. That the bones of dead animals, by sorceries, as if for averting the pest of animals, be not hung up anywhere. That lots, or auspices, or divinations, or any diabolical works of this kind, be not exercised by anyone: for all these things the sacred Canons prohibited, and excommunicated by a given sentence those who exercise such things.
[49] and by the judgment of the guilty. From the Councils of Elvira and the eleventh of Toledo; that no Bishop or Abbot, or anyone of the Clergy, judge a man to be killed, or to be mutilated in his members; or accommodate the favor of his authority to those judging.
I Lanfranc, Archbishop of Dover, have subscribed.
I Thomas, Archbishop of York, have subscribed.
There subscribed also the other Bishops and Abbots, who were present.
[50] After these things Thomas of York humbly asked by an Epistle f Lanfranc, that he would send him two Bishops, of Dorchester and of Worcester, He sends those who should consecrate the Bishop of the Orkneys: to consecrate a certain Cleric, whom Paul Count of the Orkney Islands had sent to him, to ordain a Bishop for those parts; affirming that he would not hereafter for this cause seek any subjection of these Bishops. To whose petition Lanfranc consenting; wrote g to the Bishops Wulfstan of Worcester and Peter of Chester, that they should meet Thomas, as he asked, for the consecration of the aforesaid Cleric, on the day which he himself should name.
[51] In the suburb of the city of Canterbury is a certain Church of S. Martin, he avoids having a Bishop in a private church, in which, as is reported, in ancient times there was an Episcopal See; and, as they say, it had a Bishop, before Lanfranc passed over to those parts. But because by the authority of the Canons it is established as a precept, that two Pontiffs be not had together in one city; Lanfranc established, that no longer should a Bishop be ordained for that place.
[52] On a certain festivity, of the three great ones, on which the King crowned was accustomed to hold his Court; on the day of the festivity, when the King adorned with the diadem and royal garments sat at table, and Lanfranc next to him: he restrains an insolent buffoon: a certain buffoon, seeing the King radiant with gold and gems
, exclaimed in the hall, with a great voice of adulation, and said: Behold I see a God, behold I see a God. Lanfranc, turned to the King, said: Do not suffer such things to be imposed on you: these are not of a man, but of God: order him to be sharply beaten, that he dare never repeat such things: which the King according to his word ordered to be done. The most prudent man had known, that the third Herod for this reason was smitten by an Angel and perished; because the words of flatterers, which acclaimed to him as if to God, he did not spurn, but received.
[53] He himself restored the Church of Rochester, and ordained in it as Bishop a Monk of Bec, he restores the Church of Rochester, named Hernost. In his consecration, there was found the verse of the Gospel: Quickly bring forth the first robe, &c. Which when Lanfranc had heard, he foretold that he would soon die, and so it happened. For to him in the Episcopate, the year not yet completed, dying, there succeeded h Gundulf, himself also a Monk of Bec, a man amiable to God and religious, and the Abbey of S. Alban. who persevered up to the times of S. Anselm and King Henry. He also restored the Abbey of S. Alban to its pristine state; in which he placed as Abbot i Paul a Monk of Caen, who there instituted the order and the use of the ecclesiastical Office, as may be seen up to this day.
[54] On a certain day while he was celebrating Mass, and it had come to the hour, at which he received the Body of the Lord in his hands; he restrains an energumen, the Deacon, who ministered to him at Mass, possessed by a demon, seized the Archbishop with his hands by the shoulders. The venerable Prelate, in no way disturbed, his right hand being bent back, held him by the hair, and brought him before his feet. Mass being completed, he ordered him to be led into the house of the sick; where for some days he remained in the same insanity. But the possessed one did not vex him much, except that he held him in madness: but he laughed at those present, answering with a guffaw to the things which were said. They saw moreover a certain swelling leaping about through his members: and if anyone wished to lay a hand upon it, it immediately leaped into another place. It happened moreover that the venerable aforesaid Gundulf, Prelate of the men of Rochester, was present; who when he wished to lay his hand upon that swelling, it leaped away elsewhere: and the Bishop said: Truly it leaps like a cat. The demon answered: Not like a cat, accustomed to accuse hidden sins, but like a kitten. But he said certain unspeakable things concerning certain Brothers of the same place. Then they named a certain one, saying: that concerning him he would have nothing to say. But he began to affirm, that never would he, whom they had named, dare to come into his presence. Which when the Brother had heard, he feared lest perhaps he might upbraid him with something done wrongly by him. Then the wise Brothers gave counsel, that, speaking with the Archbishop, he should make a pure Confession, revealing to him his whole life: and so confidently, with his absolution and benediction, he should go to the demoniac. Without delay: he did what was counseled to him, and soon entering stood before him. absolution being bestowed on the guilty. Then those who were present said to the demoniac: Behold he is present whom thou didst threaten: say, if thou knowest anything of him. But he, looking upon him with a grim eye, said, guffawing; Alas! by evil omen, how art thou now scoured clean and clad in white? Who hath thus scoured and whitened thee? And when he was urged by others, to say what before he threatened that he would say, he said nothing more. Whence it is given to understand, that the virtue of Confession and Absolution takes away from the devil either the memory of the sin, concerning which a pure Confession has been made; or certainly the power of accusing the man. Whence B. Augustine says: If thou shalt be the accuser of thyself, and the Lord the deliverer; what shall he be but a slanderer? After some days, God showing mercy and the great Prelate Lanfranc with the prayers of the Brothers of the holy See helping, he was freed from that pest, and was restored to his pristine health. This, with B. Anselm the Archbishop relating it, I heard with several others.
[55] k When the glorious King William stayed in Normandy; Lanfranc was the prince and guardian of England, all the Princes being subject to him, He acts as deputy for the absent King, and helping in those things which pertained to the defense and disposition or peace of the kingdom, according to the laws of the country. He was assiduous in reading, both before the Episcopate, and in the Episcopate, as much as he could. And because the Scriptures were too much corrupted by the fault of the copyists; he was eager to correct, according to the orthodox faith, all the books both of the Old and the New Testament, and also the writings of the holy Fathers. He corrects the sacred codices: And also many of those things, which we use night and day in the service of the Church, he amended to a nicety: and this he did not only by himself, but also through his disciples. For which cause, as was already said in the beginning, deservedly does Latinity with honor and love venerate him as a Master. By the brightness of this commendation all the Church of the Western world, both the Gallican and the English, rejoices that it is illuminated.
[56] He was so liberal, that it was said, no Lombard so generous l had gone forth from Italy. There was at that time the region beyond the sea full and abounding in all good things, which God created for the use of men: the Archbishop himself also, enriched with many possessions, was wealthy: but how much he valued these things, appeared in this, that as much as he could he retained poverty in the vileness of his habit, keeping parsimony amid manifold delicacies. He bestows alms abundantly, Many also and great gifts were offered to him, which he cheerfully bestowed on those asking him or on the needy. To the poor also he was so bountiful, that he is said to have disbursed five hundred pounds yearly in alms. And deservedly: for in his consecration there was found, over his head, the Gospel saying: Give alms; and behold all things are clean unto you: m which he himself with all devotion was eager to do. Luke 11:41 To the needy kinsmen of his Monks, how kindly, how sufficiently he bestowed benefits. Truly he could say: From my youth compassion grew up with me. Job 31:18
[57] Meanwhile it happened that the holy Abbot of Bec Anselm, who had succeeded B. Herluin, He receives S. Anselm kindly: passed over into England; both for the utilities of his Church, and that he might speak with the Archbishop: whose discourse and counsel he much loved. And coming to him, he was received with great love and due honor. And when they spoke together, and conferred more concerning diverse things with one another; the Prelate of Canterbury intimated to the Abbot, as if complaining, that the men of that country venerated certain Saints, whom he did not esteem, and especially, he said, a certain Elphege n Archbishop of this See; whom they contend to number not only among the Saints, but also among the Martyrs; and is instructed by him concerning the cult of S. Elphege, although it is established that he was slain not for the faith of Christ, but because he would not redeem himself from the enemies, by whom he was held captive. To these things Anselm rendered a reason of this kind: It is certain, he said, that he who, lest by lightly sinning he offend God, does not hesitate to die; much more would not hesitate to die, before he should provoke God by any grave sin. And truly it is graver to deny Christ, than to burden one's men a little, for one's own redemption, by the taking away of their money: but what is less Elphege would not do; much less therefore would he deny Christ, if the mad populace should constrain him to this by threatening death: whence it is given to understand, how great a force of justice possessed his breast, when he preferred to give his life, rather than, charity being spurned, to scandalize his neighbors. Nor undeservedly, as I think, is he reckoned among the Martyrs; who is preached to have voluntarily undergone death for justice. For also B. John the Baptist, whom the whole Church of God believes and venerates as a chief Martyr; was beheaded at the wish of a dancing-girl, not because he would deny Christ, but because for the defense of the divine law he would not be silent about the truth. and who is proved ought to be called a Martyr, And what difference is there to die for justice, or to die for truth? It is established, the sacred eloquence witnessing, that truth and justice is Christ. John 14:6, 1 Cor. 1 For he himself says: I am the truth. And the Apostle: Christ was made for us by God wisdom and justice. He therefore who dies for truth and justice, dies for Christ; but he who dies for Christ, the Church witnessing, is held a Martyr. But Blessed Elphege, equally for justice, as S. John for truth, suffered. Why therefore should anyone doubt more of the true and holy martyrdom of the one, than of the other; when an equal cause holds both in the enduring of death? Lanfranc hearing this, gratefully approving the reason received it, praising the man's wisdom, and the perspicacious subtlety of his talent supported by firm truth: and thenceforth venerated B. Elphege devoutly, as truly great and a glorious Martyr.
[58] but he foretells that he himself would succeed him, Meanwhile it was related to Lanfranc himself, that the aforementioned Abbot Anselm, one night after Matins coming to his bed, found in it a golden ring; and first signing it with the cross of Christ, lest perchance it should be an illusion of demons, took it as truly a ring, and showed it to all, through whose hands the things of the monastery passed; and no one confessed that he had lost it: then the ring was sold, and expended for the use of the Brothers. Which when the Archbishop had heard, he answered to the one relating it to him: Know most certainly, that he will be Archbishop after me. As he foretold, so we know it came to pass.
[59] Let these very few things concerning so great a man be said in unpolished speech. But both the things which we have said concerning him we believe to be true, and that he did more than these by the grace of God, Renowned in every kind of virtue, we do not doubt. For from the time of his conversion, he gave his whole soul to religion; and always tending toward better things he was eager to advance from virtue to virtue. Who can worthily narrate the brightness of his wisdom, the subtlety of his talent, the benignity of his heart, the probity of his industry, the purity of his soul? For he was joyful in alacrity, submissive in humility, in alms liberal, Catholic in faith, a repairer of the Christian religion, a sustainer of the poor, a protector of orphans, a consoler of widows. Adorned with these and other and other virtues, he kept the faith by living rightly, terminated his course by dying well: for he cannot die ill, who shall have lived well: nor is that death to be thought ill, B. Augustine witnessing, which a good life has preceded. For as the term of his life approached, he dies on the 5th of the Kalends of June, he fell into a sickness: which day by day growing heavier, in the 19th year of his Archbishopric, on the 5th of the Kalends of June, he closed his last day, William the son of King William reigning. The grief was incomparable to all and the mourning inconsolable. He was buried in the Church of Christ, which he himself built.
[60] And because that very Church seemed to have a small head, B. Anselm his successor, before his decease, was eager to augment the head of the same Church. Which begun by him, and after
his death built through several years, at last completed, a great and beautiful work, was dedicated by William, who after Rodulf the successor of Anselm was Archbishop, with great glory, and abundance of all things o: as the Clergy and people of the kingdom attest, who were present. And so when the day of the Dedication itself was at hand, as is the custom, all the bodies were carried out of the church. Then a certain Brother, either from curiosity, or, what is more credible, to have it for Relics, cut off from the chasuble of the glorious Lanfranc a little particle, from which a sweetness of wondrous odor breathed forth: in the translation of the body his chasuble emits a sweet odor. and he showed it to others, who themselves also perceived the fragrance of the odor. From which matter it is given to understand, that the soul of him rests in great sweetness, the garments of whose body smell with so great an odor. Which grace doubtless is granted chiefly to those, who while they lived in the body, were eager to keep purity of heart, and incorruption of the flesh, up to the end of life. [p] May the loving Christ our Lord deign to grant to his soul the quiet of eternal beatitude, who is blessed forever. Amen.
ANNOTATA.
p. Another translation was made in the year 1180, concerning which Gervase On the Burning and Repair of the Church of Dover, among the ten ancient writers of English history, column 1302 has these things: Lanfranc was raised from his sarcophagus on a leaden tablet: in which he had lain from the day of his first burial intact up to that day, namely 69 years. For which cause also his bones, consumed by much rottenness, were almost all reduced to dust. Yet the larger bones with the rest of the dust being collected, were deposited in a leaden box at the altar of S. Martin.
ANOTHER LIFE by the Author Eadmer, Monk of Canterbury.
from book I of the History of New Things.
Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury in England (B.)
BY EADMER.
CHAPTER I.
Lanfranc's liberality in the Episcopate toward churches, monks, the poor; and his felicity in recovering the rights of the Church of Canterbury.
[1] the King instituting Bishops and Abbots from the Normans, William made King, on the nativity of the Lord was anointed at Westminster by Ealred Archbishop of York of blessed memory, and several Bishops of England. Which consecration although the King himself and all others knew very well ought specially to be made, and properly by the Pontiff of Canterbury; yet because many evil and horrible crimes were preached concerning Stigand, who at that time was there Pontiff, he would not receive it from him, lest he should seem to put on a curse instead of a blessing. Wishing therefore to keep in England the usages and laws, which his fathers and he himself were accustomed to have in Normandy, he instituted from persons of this kind Bishops, Abbots, and other Princes throughout the whole land, of whom it would be judged unworthy, if in all things they did not obey his laws, all other consideration being set aside; and if any of them, for any power of earthly honor, should dare to raise his head against him; all knowing whence, who, for what they had been taken.
[2] All things therefore, divine together and human, awaited his nod: and prescribing new laws even to ecclesiastics, which that they may be observed in few words, I will set down certain of those things which he established as new to be observed throughout England, esteeming those things necessary to be known, for the knowledge of those, for whose cause we have chiefly undertaken this burden of writing. He would not therefore suffer anyone, constituted in all his dominion, to receive the Pontiff of the city of Rome, for Apostolic, unless he himself commanding; or to receive his letters in any way, if they had not first been shown to himself. The Primate also of his kingdom, I mean the Archbishop of Canterbury or Dover, if he presided over a general Council of Bishops being convened, he did not allow to establish or prohibit anything, except those things which were accommodated to his will, and had been first ordained by himself. Nevertheless he permitted that it should be conceded to none of his Bishops, to publicly implead or excommunicate any of his Barons or Ministers, denoted either with incest, or adultery, or any capital crime, or to constrain him by any penalty of ecclesiastical rigor, except by his precept. But what he promulgated in secular matters, we forbear to hand to the memory of letters, because both it makes nothing of our office to write it, and from the divine matters, which according to what we have touched on he ordained, the quality of those, as I think, can be perceived. That we may so accomplish the begun journey, enough has been said of these things.
[3] B. Lanfranc is consecrated Archbishop on the 29th of August In the fifth year of this Reign Lanfranc, Abbot of the Monastery of Caen, a strenuous man, and endowed in divine and human things with excellent knowledge, came to England by the precept of the Lord Pope Alexander and the aforesaid King, and a little time after took up the Archbishopric of Canterbury to be governed. But he was consecrated in the very metropolitan See, on the fourth of the Kalends of September, by almost all the Bishops of England. He, going to Rome for the Pallium due to him, had as companions of the journey Thomas Archbishop of York, whom he himself, the Canonical profession concerning his subjection being made to him, had consecrated at Canterbury, and Remigius Bishop of Lincoln. Who arriving at Rome together, were urbanely received, with honor fitting to each. After which, on the appointed day Father Lanfranc is presented to Alexander Pontiff of the Apostolic See; to whom, what to those knowing the Roman custom may perhaps seem wonderful, the Pope himself rising up to him entering, sweetly exhorted him to fix his step. who, kindly received at Rome by the Pope, And then subjoining, We have exhibited honor, he said, not which we owed to thy Archbishopric, but which to the master, by whose study we are imbued in those things which we know. Hence what pertains to thee, for the reverence of B. Peter it is fitting that thou perform. He therefore sitting, Lanfranc going forward humbles himself at his feet, but soon is raised by him to his kiss: they sit together and that day is spent joyfully between them. Bishops not duly promoted,
[4] On the following light, when now diverse affairs were being brought into the midst, he accused before the Pope the aforementioned Thomas with the aforesaid Remigius, that neither of them had been promoted to the Pontificate by right. The first, namely for this reason, that the sacred Canons remove from the promotion of sacred Orders the sons of Presbyters, whom the order of Religion does not adorn. But the second for this, that, a compact being made, he had bought that Order from William, afterward made King, namely by the service by which, to him hastening to the destruction of England, he had served with manifold contention and manifold expenses. the Pope indulging, To these things they, having no probable cause by which they could be excused, the staffs and rings being rendered with the Pontifical cure, turned to ask mercy. To whose prayers Lanfranc casting himself between, as he was a man powerful in piety and wisdom, showed that they, supported by the knowledge of many things, renders the staff and ring, most necessary to the new King in the new dispositions of the kingdom, were of great service by oratorical faculty. Which heard, the supreme Pontiff turned to him: Thou seest, he said: Thou art the Father of that country, and through this let thy industry consider what is expedient. The pastoral rods which they have rendered, behold here they are, take them and dispense, as thou shalt be able to recognize more useful to the Christianity of that region. But he, having received them, forthwith in the presence of the Pope reinvested the aforesaid men, each with his own. Then Lanfranc, the Stole of the supreme Pontificate being received from the Pope, returned to the journey, was conveyed to England with his companions briskly; and received by the men of Canterbury with due reverence, was confirmed Primate of all Britain. After these things, a brief space of time elapsed, the fame of his name and the greatness of his prudence resounded everywhere, and made him renowned and notable among the minds of men.
[5] He among others, nay before others, he promotes the sacred worship: was acceptable to the aforementioned King William; and intent in all things on the things of God, with no slight care. Wherefore he always gave great labor, both to make the King devoted to God, and to renew the religion of good manners, in all orders of men, throughout the whole kingdom. Nor was he deprived of his desire; for by his instance and doctrine religion was much increased throughout that whole land, and everywhere new buildings of monasteries, as appears today, were constructed. To the constructors of which buildings he himself first giving an example, built the church of Christ of Canterbury, with all the workshops, which are within the wall of that court, with the wall itself. he reforms and protects the monks: But with what prudence, and with what office of paternity he raised up the Monks, dwelling in the same church, from the secular life, in which he found them conversant more than was right, and imbued them with every path of holy conversation, and, their number being multiplied, with what benignity he cherished them while he lived, to whom will it ever be possible to declare fully? Whom, that meanwhile I be silent about other things, because he desired that they should always attend to the service of God without penury and solicitude; he wrought with the King by his sagacity and industry, that he should restore to that very church almost all the lands, which the Normans had invaded of the right of that church, when they first took the land, and
also certain others, which before their entrance had been lost on account of diverse mischances, to that very church. But concerning these and innumerable other good things, with which, sweating, he consummated his life, although indeed it is not necessary for me to write, both because his works so appear, that they show themselves more evidently by the deed itself than by writing, and because he himself b wrote with a most truthful and compendious pen concerning the ecclesiastical matters, which were done in his time; yet for the sweetness of his memory, we have deemed it pleasing to explain in few words the things we have foretasted.
[6] he restores and adorns the church and monastery. This Lanfranc therefore, when he had first come to Canterbury, and had found the church of the Savior, which he had undertaken to govern, made almost nothing by fire and ruins, was confounded in mind. But when the greatness of the evil compelled him to despair, he returned to himself; and trusting in fortitude of soul, his own convenience set aside, with hastened work consummated the houses necessary for the work of the Monks. Which when they had used for several years, their convent being increased, they seemed very small. And so those being destroyed, he built others, much surpassing the former in beauty and greatness. He built also a court for himself; the church besides, which in the space of seven years he rendered almost wholly perfected from the foundations; he nobly adorned it with copes, chasubles, dalmatics, tunics magnificently marked with gold, palls, and other ornaments many and precious. beneficent also toward the kinsmen of the monks, But toward the Brothers of that church how good, how loving, how beneficent he was, thence may somewhat be gathered, that he could not bear that anyone from their parents or brothers should be afflicted by any penury. And what perhaps you may wonder at more, he had taken into use not to wait until he should be asked to succor; but full in the bowels of mercy, now to this one, now to that one he of his own accord offered, what could be of help to a needy kinsman for very much time. In which yet he was always led by special discretion, namely the merit and necessity of each being considered with himself.
[7] To this, a certain Brother of that monastery was accustomed every year to receive thirty shillings of pennies, sometimes bestowing more than was hoped for, for the work of his mother, from the Father himself. To this man on a certain occasion five shillings of those (for they were conferred divided according to the turns of times) were given by his precept; which he, tied in a cloth, speaking with his mother, gave into her hand, as he thought, secretly. But she, her mind intent on other things, did not notice what her son did; and so, the coins falling, the mother and son were divided from one another. After these things the woman sent word to her son, wishing to know, what had been done with the coins, which he had pledged that he would give her. He, wondering, made her come to him: and hearing the event of the matter became sad, not so much for the loss which had happened to his mother, but lest the Archbishop knowing this, irritated for his carelessness, should somewhat deprive him of his grace. Amid these things the loving Father, by custom entering the cloister, sat, and the Brother returning from the maternal colloquy, beholding him sad, others being removed, secretly asked the cause of his sadness; he hears, and with a most benign countenance, as he was continually toward the afflicted, so he answered: And art thou for that, my dearest son, but not wishing it to be known. saddened? Those pennies God predestined and conferred on another, who perhaps needed them more than thy mother. Be silent; and, that thou speak to no one thereof, diligently attend. And lest what is done burden thy mind even a little, I will order seven shillings for those five to be given thee today for the utility of thy mother: but, as I said, let no one know thereof. For he had this very use in giving, that he should give the things to be given cheerfully, and grant to no one to reveal either the gift or the person of the giver to anyone.
[8] And these things indeed concerning the monks of the Mother Church itself let it be said. liberal to all the needy, But what poor man ever cried to him and was despised? What of the pilgrims of whatever order of men sought his help, and did not obtain it? What Congregation of Monks or Clerics ever sent to him, asking subsidy, and did not experience the abundance of his liberality beyond what was hoped? Witness of these things which we say is Italy, Gaul, Britain, which up to this day bewails the death of Lanfranc with a pitying sigh. What shall I relate concerning the Abbey of S. Alban, which within and without devolved almost to nothing, he himself as his own, Paul Abbot of good memory being instituted for it, he enriches the Abbey of S. Alban, rebuilt from the foundations, and within with great religion, without with the donation of many things increased, honored, enriched. In the Bishopric of Rochester he found not much more than four Canons, and these living a wretched life, under Bishop Siward; which Bishop when with Ernost, whom Lanfranc had established as his successor, he was taken from the present life, a Monk of pious recollection, Gundulf by name, was by the same subrogated there as Bishop. Through this man he subverted the old church of the Bishopric with the adjacent fabric, and built up new things: and the Church of Rochester: the Clerics who there, as we said, were leading life, either in the same place he raised to the summit of religion; or, other things being given, from which they should have more abundantly than usual food and clothing, he changed into other places. For he instituted the Episcopal See with the cult of the monastic Order, and, lands being assigned and other things which belonged to the sustentation of those serving God there, made it rich from poor, sublime from humble, as it is held at present c.
[9] But what he did concerning the poor outside the walls of the city of Canterbury, he constructs a double hospital: I think I ought not to omit in this work. Outside the North gate of that city finally he constructed a stone house decent and ample, and added to it for the diverse necessities and conveniences of men several habitations with a spacious courtyard. This palace he divided in two; appointing namely men oppressed by various qualities of infirmities to one; but to the other part women being ill. He ordained also for them from his own clothing and daily food; ministers also and guardians, who in all ways should observe, that nothing should be lacking to them, nor should there be any faculty for the men to approach the women, or the women the men. But on the other side of the road he built a church in honor of B. Pope Gregory, in which he placed Canons, who lived regularly, and should minister to the aforesaid sick those things which befitted the salvation of their souls together with burial: to whom also, in lands, in tithes, and in other revenues he gave so much, that they seemed to be sufficient for their sustentation. But farther from the Western gate of the city than from the Northern, building wooden houses on the sloping side of the mountain, he assigned them for the work of the lepers, the men in these, and a leper-house. just as in the others, being separated from the society of women. To these nevertheless according to the quality of their disease he established that all things, which they needed, should be ministered from his own; such men being instituted for performing this, of whose skill, benignity, and patience, as indeed it seemed to him, no one should doubt. Besides these, in the vills pertaining to the Pontificate he built many and decent houses, partly of stone, partly of wood, for himself and his successors.
[10] he subjects the Archbishop of York to himself: But for the dignity of the Church of Canterbury, which certain of the Bishops, but chiefly Thomas Archbishop of York, as a new citizen of England, exceedingly attempted to humble for the exaltation of his own Church; how great labors he endured, and in what manner he humbled Thomas himself to the measure of his predecessors, it is superfluous and irrelevant here to write anything. For he himself thereof, the truth being full and confirmed by the assent of the whole kingdom, under the testimony of the Royal seal d left writings. Who labored the more indeed in these things, because the ancient privileges of that very church, in that conflagration, which consumed the same church three years before his entrance, and he protects the rights of his Church had almost all perished. Other customs also, which in ancient times the kings of England by their munificence conferred on the Church of Canterbury, that it might be most free in all things, and by a most sacred sanction established to remain stable in perpetuity, lost by the imprudence of certain ones, he recovered by his prudence.
[11] For Odo Bishop of Bayeux, that I be silent about others, brother of the aforesaid King William and Count of Kent, before Lanfranc had entered England, was held great and very powerful throughout the whole kingdom. He, by the dominion by which he was immensely exalted, had in manifold ways invaded, oppressed, held, not only the lands, but also the liberty of the named Church, no one resisting him. Which, when Lanfranc learned, as they were, he treated of them with the King, as he knew it behooved. Whence the King ordered, that, the Chief Men and upright men being assembled, not only from the County of Kent but also from other Counties of England, the complaints of Lanfranc should be brought into the midst, examined, determined. An Assembly of Princes therefore being arranged at Pinnenden e, Goffrid Bishop of Coutances, a man at that time very rich in England, ordered in the King's stead to do justice most strenuously to Lanfranc concerning his complaints, did so. For Lanfranc, supported by valid reason, by the common stipulation and judgment of all, there recovered all things, which were shown anciently to have pertained to the rights of the Church of Christ of Canterbury, both in lands and in diverse customs.
[12] Likewise at another time the same Odo, the King permitting, and again adjudged instituted a plea against the often-mentioned Church, and its guardian Father Lanfranc, and brought thither all, whom he knew more skilled in the laws and usages of the English Kingdom, ignorant. When therefore it had come to the ventilation of the causes, all who had assembled from every side for defending the causes of the Church, in the first encounter were so convicted, that they at the same time lost that in which they should defend them: for Lanfranc himself was not present: for it was not his custom to be present at such things, unless the highest necessity urged. To him therefore in his chamber occupied with divine reading, what had been done is announced. But he, in nothing terrified at heart, asserted that the words of the adversaries had not rightly proceeded, and therefore ordered all things to be put off until the morrow. The following night B. Dunstan f is present in a vision to the Prelate, admonishing that the multitude should not disturb him; but secure of his presence, he should himself cheerful enter the plea in the morning; which he also did. And so beginning his causes by a certain exordium, comforted by S. Dunstan he recovers. as if utterly alien from the things which had been treated or were to be treated, all being astonished, he so proceeded, that the things which were said against him the day before, he so vanquished and showed to be empty, that as long as he survived in the present life, no one arose who thence opened his mouth against him. Concerning these things thus.
ANNOTATA.
furnished to William, he had been made Bishop, having trafficked the divine gift by warlike labors.
CHAPTER II.
The stability of the Monks procured. The ecclesiastical rights defended. The succession in the kingdom of William the second.
[13] Besides these things in his own and almost the same days, almost all, He hinders the Bishops from substituting Clerics for Monks: who from the Clerical order had been constituted Pontiffs in England by King William, attempted to eliminate thence the Monks, who in several Bishoprics of England from of old were leading life; and made the King himself consenting to them in this; in which they were so certain that they would obtain the effect, that Bishop Walchelin had assembled almost forty Clerics, after the manner of Canons, girded with tonsure and vesture, whom, the Monks being ejected, he should soon introduce into the Church of Winchester, over which he presided. The only delay of accomplishing this was, that the license had not yet been requested from the Archbishop Lanfranc: but that he should obtain it even quicker than said, no doubt was in his mind. But otherwise than his mind had pledged to itself, the issue of the matter came out. For when what the Bishop was attempting resounded in his ears, he forthwith abhorred the crime; nor asserted that he would consent, while he lived, that he should in any way obtain the effect of such a will. So therefore both the Clerics, who had been gathered by Walchelin to succeed the Monks, were dismissed to their own; and the Monks, who by a certain prejudice were condemned to yield to the Clerics, by the grace of God and the instance of the good Lanfranc, were made possessors of their pristine conversation in their own Church.
[14] Nor could these things suffice for calming the animosities of certain ones, which they had conceived for the dejection of the Monks. For with equal vow, similar endeavor, one consent, concordant mind, the Pontiffs, whom the order of Religion had not bound to itself, began to strive, that at least from the Primacy of Canterbury they might eradicate the Monks, intending that by this deed they would most easily exclude the others from elsewhere. For concerning those, by reasons better, as it seemed to them, they were supported for doing this; partly for the sublimity of the primatial See, and that lest even after his death it be done at Canterbury, which has to watch over the disposition and correction of the Churches by its persons everywhere throughout England; partly for other manifold causes, the execution of which, according to what they touched on, regards rather the office of Clerics than of Monks. The King was led into that opinion and the other Princes of the kingdom, Lanfranc as was his custom striving against with all his strength, and manfully resisting the endeavor and envy of all. Yet lest after his death there should be done, what while he survived he knew by the help of God would by no means be accomplished; not knowing the day or hour of his death, he wrought with the sagacity and industry by which he was powerful, that, by the authority of the Roman and Apostolic See, the habitation of the Monks in the same church should be confirmed, and unshaken while the world should last be stabilized in perpetuity. Which by such a privilege the supreme Prelate of the Apostolic See Alexander thus corroborated by his writing a.
[15] Alexander Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God; to the most Reverend Brother in Christ Lanfranc, he provides by a privilege obtained from Pope Alexander, Venerable Archbishop of the men of Canterbury, Greeting and Apostolic benediction. We have received from certain ones, coming from your parts to the thresholds of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, that certain Clerics, the aid of the earthly power, namely of laymen, being associated to themselves, filled with a diabolical spirit, are attempting to expel the Monks from the church of the Holy Savior at Dover, which is the Metropolis of all Britain, and to establish Clerics there. To which nefarious work of their endeavor they attempt to add this, that in every Episcopal See the order of Monks be extirpated, as though in them the authority of Religion did not flourish. Concerning which matter, compelled by the zeal of God, in which the statutes of S. Gregory the Great we ordered a scrutiny to be made concerning the privileges of the Churches, and there came to hand the statute of our Predecessor Gregory the Greater of blessed memory, concerning the Churches of England, namely how he commanded Augustine, the Apostle of your nation, that he should place in the aforesaid Metropolitan See men of the same order, of which he himself is known to be. To whose precept, among other things, these things are subjoined b. Because thy Fraternity, he says, instructed in the rules of a monastery, in the Church of the English, which lately by the authorship of God has been led to the faith, ought to institute this conversation, which in the beginning of the nascent Church was to our Fathers, among whom none of them said anything of those things which they possessed to be his own, but all things were common to them; which rule of communion to agree most fully with the order of Monks, there is no one who doubts: hence is had the Epistle of Boniface c, who fourth from B. Gregory was set over the Roman Church, and of Boniface IV concerning that matter are alleged over which (God being author) we preside, which he sent to Athelbert King of the English and Laurence Archbishop your Predecessor, in which certain things being premised he used this censure of anathema: Glorious son, he says, what from the Apostolic see through our Co-bishop Mellitus you have requested we concede with willing mind, that is, that your Benignity in the monastery, constituted in the city of Dover, which your holy Doctor Augustine, disciple of Gregory of blessed memory, consecrated to the name of the Holy Savior (over which at present is known to preside our most beloved Brother Laurence) may freely in all things establish the habitation of Monks living regularly; by Apostolic authority decreeing, that the very Preachers of your salvation Monks should associate to themselves a flock of Monks, and adorn their life with the manners of sanctities. Which our decrees if any of our successors, of Kings, and are confirmed. or of Bishops, of Clerics or of Laymen, shall attempt to make void, let him be subject to the bond of anathema by the Prince of the Apostles Peter, and by all his successors; until what he has done with rash daring he repent by satisfaction pleasing to God, and promise the amendment of this your disquiet. Whence because, reason dictating, we have perceived it to be useful to the quiet of the Churches, we confirm the present decree of the above-named Fathers, and in the stead of the Apostles under the same anathema we constrain whosoever shall strive to oppose this.
[16] But with how secure liberty and free security the often-mentioned Father Lanfranc strove to possess the things pertaining to the rights of the Church of Canterbury, Lanfranc protects the rights of his Church, both from these things which we have designated in few words, and from the Epistle which behold we shall subscribe, it will be enough plain to anyone wishing to know; which Epistle, written concerning ecclesiastical causes, for this reason chiefly it has pleased, others being omitted, to mingle with the present work; that those who are altogether inexperienced of the knowledge of such affairs, from the customs of other Churches may perceive, with what dignity that very Church is established to be eminent among others. The Epistle therefore is this. Lanfranc, by the grace of God Archbishop, to his most beloved Brother Stigand Bishop of Chichester, greeting. The Clerics of our vills, who exist in your diocese, have complained to us, that your Archdeacons, occasions being found, exact monies from them, and from some have already received them d &c.
[17] and he causes the lands taken from it to be restored to it: To these things with what sagacity (for this, mentioned a little before, we think it not from the purpose to repeat in few words) with what, I say, sagacity the memorable Father Lanfranc wrought with King William, that, by the inspiration of the grace of God, while he was at the point of death, he should be led to this, that he should restore for the redemption of his soul very many lands, taken from the named Church of Canterbury by diverse causes and violences of men; both I have esteemed it long to relate and not necessary. For both the number and the names of those very lands are most well known to that same Church; and the revenues of those, from which they who under the Lord serve that place are sustained, for the eternal salvation of the King, to be considered day and night before the eyes of the just judge, are presented by those same. What therefore should be done concerning the other lands of that very Church, which remain in the same injury of plunder by which formerly they were taken, by the successors of so great a provider of the servants of God, the fruit which this man obtained from the things which he restored will teach them, according to what care they shall have of themselves: for in very truth, he would have restored those also, if he had survived somewhat longer than he lived: for to this the knowing prudence of Prince Lanfranc had led him, and he had pledged that at a prefixed term he would do it. But while he did not deserve to obtain the effect of his promise; with how great study one ought, while he can, to insist on good things, he forewarned by his own example. These things and things of this kind, which the glorious Father Lanfranc magnificently wrought, if anyone shall wish to describe them as they are, there is copious matter, and sufficient for a great work: but I, because by probable and firm reason, as I began, I am led to other things; only thus far concerning him I briefly say, that he in very truth was a great and insuperable defender of the Church of Christ, and a loving Prince of all England, and as far as it was permitted him a good Pastor, to all dwelling in it, while he lived.
[18] At the same time there was a certain Abbot of Bec, named Anselm e, a man indeed good and magnificently powerful in the knowledge of letters, with S. Anselm who wholly attended to the contemplative life. He, known, dear and acceptable to all Normandy and France, for the merit of his excellent sanctity, was held also of great fame in England, and was joined to the aforesaid King and to Lanfranc the Archbishop by a most holy familiarity… This man therefore and Lanfranc, namely men supported by divine and human prudence together, the King always held in great esteem before himself, he usefully counsels the King, and heard them in all things, which were to be done by him, as far as it concerned their office, with a sweeter study than the rest. Whence also by their counsel he very much and often descended from the severity of his mind against certain ones; and that in his dominion monasteries should rise to the observance of religion, he studiously gave labor. Which religion lest, born, it should fail, he procured to protect the peace of the Churches everywhere; and to bestow from his own on those things which profited to the use of those serving God, in lands, in tithes, in other revenues… This William therefore the King, and grieves much for the death of this man; in the vill of Ermentrude, which is opposite Rouen, on the other side of the river f died… But how great grief the death of him struck Lanfranc, who could say? when we, who were about him when his death was announced, immediately feared that he would die from anguish of heart.
[19] The King William therefore being dead, there succeeded him in the kingdom William his son: not afterward having experienced such a successor, who when the heights of the kingdom
yearned to snatch beforehand from his brother Robert g, and found Lanfranc, without whose assent he could by no means be admitted to the kingdom, not altogether consenting to him in this for the fulfillment of his desire; fearing lest the delay of his Consecration should bring him loss of the desired honor, he began both by himself, and through all whom he could, by faith and oath to promise to Lanfranc that he would keep justice, equity, and mercy throughout the whole kingdom, if he were King, in every affair; would defend the peace, liberty, security of the Churches against all, and also would obey his precepts and counsels in all things and in everything h. But when afterward he had been confirmed in the kingdom, his promise being set aside, he lapsed into contrary things. whom he reproved for promises not performed: Concerning which when he was modestly reproved by Lanfranc, and the pledge of faith not kept was opposed to him, kindled with fury; Who, he said, is there, who can fulfill all the things which he promises? From this therefore he could not look upon the Pontiff with right eyes, although in some things, to which his will drew him, out of respect for him, while he survived he tempered himself. For Lanfranc was that man, most skilled in the divine and human law together, and at his nod the regard of the whole kingdom looked. become worse upon his death. Who when he was translated from this life, how grave a calamity from his decease devastated the Churches of England, omitting many things it has pleased to show in few. For forthwith the King expressed outwardly, what in his breast, while he lived, he had cherished. For soon he invaded the very mother of all England, Scotland, and Ireland, and also of the adjacent islands, namely the Church of Canterbury; he ordered all things which were of its right, within and without, to be described by his clients; and the food of the Monks serving God there being taxed, took care that the rest should be reduced under a tax and into his own Dominion. He made therefore the Church of Christ venal, attributing the right of lording in it before others to him, who, to its detriment, in giving a price, surpassed another i.
ANNOTATA.
ANTILANFRANCUS
of William Thorn, Monk of St. Augustine's,
refuting himself by his own maledicence.
Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury in England (B.)
the Kingdom being translated to the Normans The kingdom is transferred from nation to nation, on account of injustices, and injuries, and contumelies, and diverse deceits, says by the Ecclesiasticus chapter X the Holy Spirit. How often Britain has experienced this, all know, who have read the histories of the nation; and they know the Empire of the island translated from the Romans to the Anglo-Saxons, from these to the Danes, and again from the English to the Normans. Yet however often this was done, it was always done with the highest feeling of those, who held being subjected to the dominion of an alien nation for servitude. Hence that bitterness of minds, shining out sometimes even in the writings of Religious Historians, even after several centuries. We have an example in William Thorn, Chronicler of the monastery of St. Augustine of Canterbury. For after he had gloriously narrated in chapter 6 §9, the English hold them odious, even the Monks: how William Duke of Normandy, called the Conqueror from the deed, Harold the Dane being conquered (who himself also after the death of S. Edward the last of the English Kings aspired to the kingdom), crowned at London, and having passed over into Kent, surrounded by the whole armed people of that Province, was induced to confirm to it the liberty and the country's laws and customs, of which Kent alone thenceforth enjoyed; and that with Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury and Egelsin Abbot of St. Augustine's acting, from these the men of St. Augustine's, accusing the King of tyranny, who, choosing rather to die in war than to see the evils of their nation, and animated by the examples of the holy Maccabees, had been made leaders of the army: after, I say, he had narrated these things at length and no less gloriously, then in the following §10, as enviously as he can he carps at the counsel of the new King, in transferring the Bishoprics and Abbeys to the Normans. Nor does he accuse the King alone of tyranny, but holds Lanfranc the Archbishop of Canterbury constituted by him no whit more clemently: in whom, if he had wished to confess the truth, he ought to have praised the zeal of restoring ecclesiastical discipline, no less collapsed among the Monks than among the English Clerics, and that too which he strove to obtain among the men of St. Augustine's in the gentlest ways he could.
[2] The beginning of the complaints was, that in the year 1067 Egelsin the Abbot, perceiving that he had incurred the hatred of the King for the liberties of Kent preserved by him, and consulting more for his own safety than for that of the flock committed to him, the precious treasures whatsoever of his monastery being exhausted, fled away by ships into Denmark, nor anywhere appeared: the Archbishop imposed on them by him, and so the Lord's flock, the shepherd fleeing, is exposed to the voracity of the wolves, and the chosen vineyard of the Lord is demolished on every side by the little foxes. But in the year of the Lord 1070 there was celebrated at Winchester a Council of the English Church, in which, the King ordaining, Stigand the Archbishop ignominiously degraded, is consigned to perpetual chains, and Lanfranc forthwith is subrogated. These things being premised, without any mention of the faults of Stigand, excommunicated by the Roman Pontiff for the Archiepiscopal See invaded against the Canons, and of the merits of Lanfranc known to all, whence an excuse, nay an approbation of the deed could and ought to have been taken, since he was praised by all the Bishops and Abbots of England in that National Synod; the Chronographer begins in chapter 7 the Prelacy of Abbot Scotland in this manner. and the Abbot, In the year of the Lord as above, namely 1070, it being learned that Egelsin had thus fled into Denmark, and had abandoned his Church, without the license of the King asked or obtained; the aforesaid King confiscated the monastery of S. Augustine, with all internal and external appendages; and set over the same monastery a certain Monk, named Scotland, by nation a Norman, as Abbot, the Monks of St. Augustine's both for the King's tyrannical power, and for the manifold depression on every part of their monastery, although not without bitterness of mind, for the time tolerating this.
[3] There was indeed nothing for which the men of St. Augustine's should repent of the new, although foreign, Abbot: for hence up to §8 the Chronographer does nothing else, though he deserved very well of the temporal state of the monastery, than to describe one by one the deeds of Scotland worthy of memory, by which he strove both to recover the rights and possessions of the monastery taken away, and to enlarge them with newly acquired ones: nay also to build from the foundations a church far greater and more august than it had been before, as has been abundantly explained on the 26th of May in the books on the Translation of S. Augustine and others, made for that reason. But that in all those good things to be procured for the monastery the Archbishop Lanfranc had a great part, no prudent man will doubt, on account of the supreme friendship of each between themselves and the communion of counsels. Yet this profited nothing toward so binding the minds of the English Monks to the Norman Archbishop and Abbot, that, the state of the commonwealth being changed, even in their own private matter they could patiently tolerate anything to be changed by them, yet on account of some things restricted with whatever intuition of good it might be done by them; nay they took all things in the worst part, and most grievously calumniated both, having become even judges of the cogitation of iniquities, concerning the very intention of the mind, known to God alone. Let us hear the Chronographer §8, explaining, as he found it in writings, how the ordinary Jurisdiction was lost in the time of Scotland.
[4] certain ancient privileges of it, Since, he says, the Philosopher of the world witnessing, no mortal is so blessed with felicity, but that from some part of himself he is left subject to miseries; the aforesaid venerable Abbot Scotland, although he powerfully defended everywhere the possessions and temporal rights of the monastery committed to him, as a friend of the King and of the Princes of the land; yet the spiritual rights and liberties, to the detriment of this Church, he less providently procured, as from the things to be said it will more fully shine forth. For from the time of Blessed Pope Gregory and the holy Father Augustine, that is from the six hundredth year of the Lord's Incarnation up to the thousand and eightieth, this special daughter of that supreme Mother of Churches, and spiritual nursling of the Kingdom of the English, the Archbishop of crafty cupidity, primary in monastic dignity and monastic religion, by the grace of omnipotent God, who wills his sons to enjoy liberty, and not that they be made tributary with servants; and by the sanction of the holy Father Gregory and of the other Roman Pontiffs and also of B. Augustine, enjoyed all ecclesiastical peace, honor, and liberty… But in the year 1070 Lanfranc, having obtained the Archiepiscopal Pallium at Canterbury, began to persecute this Apostolic Church; and the dominion which over it he could not justly have, that he might in some way obtain it, by himself and his accomplices he did not cease to machinate.
[5] He therefore, after he had for some years functioned in the Archiepiscopal dignity, associated to himself in guile the Abbot Scotland, as into the familiarity of great friendship, they accuse the Abbot of base collusion, that under the shadow of this mutual love, what he more often desired he might more quickly obtain. But they were as it were fellow-countrymen and neighbors, and with the said Duke William, a little before promoted to the Kingdom, had followed from parts beyond the sea, and therefore to each other more pleasing and more faithful friends. By this bond therefore of mutual love the Archbishop strengthened, by himself and other honest persons more often sought of the Abbot, that
he should furnish him his Priests, only for hearing his sermon, and that his Synod might appear more splendid. Which when the Abbot more often denied, and said that against the Apostolic right and the usage of his Apostolic Church he could in no way do it; at last not taking precaution for the same monastery, less provident of so great a craftiness, nay fearing to offend so familiar a friend to himself, he compelled all his Priests to go to the synod of the Archbishop, his Monks contradicting, not to plead concerning any matter, but only to hear the sermon of the Archbishop for their own utility, who suffered his Presbyters to be invited, then also summoned, to his Synod, without any evil device and perverse cause. Again and again the Archbishop assails the Abbot, that he should transmit his Presbyters to the Synod for the utility of their souls: which when he had frequently asked, and the Abbot from fear or love did not deny, the Archbishop customarily, and as if they were under the honor and dignity of his right and jurisdiction, compelled all the Presbyters and their Parishioners to come to his Synod and Chapter: and so he cautiously withdrew from the monastery of S. Augustine the dignity and honor, which from the beginning of the nascent Church in England, freely, peacefully, and without any wrong-doer it had always obtained…
[6] In the year of the Lord 1085 died William King of the English, and yielded the free use of bells, called the Conqueror… In the following year Lanfranc, by the instigation of his Monks, not content with the aforesaid evils, interdicted the Monks of that Church, that they should not ring their bells at any Canonical hour, unless first it should be rung in the Bishop's church: not attending, Where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty. Hence therefore angers, brawls, murmurings, disorders most often were made in the house of God, because, an injury being done to the Roman Church, they exercised the service of God frequently late, and indecently, and irregularly with tearful sighs. Concerning so great an ignominy therefore and so unspeakable an irreverence, inflicted on the Lord Apostolic and the Roman Church, whose that is the proper and special chapel, with tearful voices and heartfelt groans the Monks approach their Abbot, beseech and argue, that he should more quickly announce to the Lord Pope this so great a crime and his greatest disgrace. Whom he despising, and favoring the Archbishop against God and the dignity of the holy Roman Church, and the sanction of the above-said Fathers sufficiently noted; ordered the Monks to be restrained, and that they should in no way go out of the court or the cloister, altogether to be confined. For he doubtless suspected and feared, lest they should in some way insinuate to the Lord Pope the damage and disgrace inflicted on him, and manifest the arrogance of the Archbishop and the base consent of the Abbot himself…
[7] In the year of the Lord 1087, on the third of the Nones of September, died Scotland: he being dead Lanfranc the Archbishop, him likewise, because, the Abbot being dead, seeing the fixed and opportune time, in which he might subject the Church of St. Augustine to his jurisdiction, strove to set over that monastery one of his Monks as Abbot: whence he also approached King William, son of William the Conqueror, and urgently asked that he should give him the donation of the aforesaid Abbey: but did not obtain it; for the reason that the Monks of St. Augustine's exhibited to the King their privileges, namely of Augustine the Archbishop, of Ethelbert the King, of Pope Boniface IV, of Agatho and Adeodatus the supreme Pontiffs, from which it clearly appeared to the King, that the election of the Abbot of that place, both by common right and by special privilege, he attempted to introduce one of his Monks, pertained to them. Whence Lanfranc, foreseeing that his wish would be frustrated on the part of the King, devising new contrivances of guile, used the impudent prudence of Simon Magus; and that the Monks of St. Augustine's should elect one of his Monks and accomplices of his fraud as Abbot of this place, he most instantly demanded, not so much by preceding prayers, as by promised prices of monies; and feigning peace in guile, pledged that he would be a most excellent future friend of the monastery of St. Augustine, if his wishes were fulfilled. But the Monks of St. Augustine's, prudently perceiving the snake lurking in the grass, fearing lest the venom of asps and incurable poison should be proffered to them in a golden cup under the sweet voice of the Sirens; from the past deeds of Lanfranc dreading most certain issues of future ones; nor did he consecrate, except hesitatingly, the one Elected by others. spurned his money so offered, like an anathema, unto the perdition of the offerer: but also they elected a certain Monk from this bosom, distinguished in manners and letters, and most beloved to the younger King, named Wydo, Christ going before. The Archbishop Lanfranc, the hope conceived being frustrated on every part, affected within not so much by grief of heart, as carried away by the fury of wrath against the Monks of S. Augustine, for some time refused to bless the aforesaid elected Wydo, according to the tenor of his privileges: but overcome by the instance of King William, blessed the aforesaid Elect at the major altar of his monastery, on the day of S. Thomas the Apostle, and in the following year died.
[7] In which exceeding all measure of modesty, Thus far the Monk of St. Augustine's William Thorn, writing indeed at the end of the 14th century, but putting on the sense of his Brothers, who then lived and wrote such things; which if alone they were extant concerning Lanfranc, who would not believe him to have been a most ambitious and most covetous man; and to have had a mind sewn together from guile and frauds and agitated by the furies of wrath in administering the Archbishopric; and what could seem consequent, to have concluded an evil life with an unhappy death, deserving that his memory be held in perpetual malediction, as also this author has no word at all of his so many praises, which others celebrate. But well! that God judged otherwise of him, and not only the Normans, but also the other English, and all posterity judged otherwise. It was lawful for the Monks to stand for their privileges and liberties even against the Archbishop, nor for those abuses which perhaps had crept in ought they to lay aside their usages, except by command of the Apostolic See, to which they were immediately subjected: but a man otherwise most holy ought not to be painted in so black colors, and acted by good zeal in that which grieved them; perhaps also supported by the best reason and a better right, concerning which it is not ready to judge from the relation of the adverse party alone, they prejudice their own cause, they detract nothing from Lanfranc's fame. so much the more suspect, as it presents more patent signs of vehement hatred, neither permitting those Monks, who esteemed Lanfranc their adversary, peacefully to think or write anything of him: whose cause meanwhile is also thereby burdened, that it could seem unjust to a man, in all his other actions a Saint. The same may they hope will befall them, as many as henceforth for justice or truth shall happen to incur the hatred of some community, even religious, and for that cause to be defamed in famous writings or libels among the vulgar; provided the universal approbation of others not preoccupied protects them, giving testimony of the equity and veracity of the other deeds and sayings of the same; which testimony will always be so much the graver, the better known it shall be, that those, who seem to oppose immodest murmurers of this kind, could and would have favored the same to their own greater advantage, if they had believed it lawful.