Lesson video

Hello, welcome to History here at Oak National Academy.

My name's Mr. Newton, and I will be your teacher today, guiding you through the entire lesson.

Right, let's get started.

Over the next few lessons, we'll be thinking about our big inquiry question, "How different was the English church by 1100?" This is the question we will use to investigate the nature of Norman England and the church.

We know that Anglo-Saxons were deeply religious people, and the church was a powerful institution in people's lives and in England's government, and that the Christian Church was led by the Pope in Rome.

However, it was hugely influenced by England and its laws.

The Normans had particular ideas on Christianity and how the church should operate.

Therefore, the Normans wanted to reform the English church.

But the question is, how much did the English Church change? By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to describe the most important reforms carried out by Lanfranc.

So before we begin, there are few key words we need to understand.

A pluralist is someone who holds more than one position within the Church.

The clergy are members of the Church who have been ordained, which means they are permitted to carry out religious services.

Dioceses are areas controlled by bishops.

And primacy is the state of being the most important thing.

Today's lesson is split up into three parts.

We'll first look at Archbishop Lanfranc before moving into the reforms that he will introduce to the Church organisation.

And finally, the Church and the courts.

Okay, let's start the lesson by looking at Archbishop Lanfranc.

So let's first look at the person who held the position before Lanfranc.

From 1066 to 1070, King William I had kept on Stigand as Archbishop of Canterbury.

This was despite the fact that Stigand had taken the position of Archbishop without the Pope's permission and had been excommunicated as a pluralist.

He was Archbishop of Canterbury, but also Bishop of Winchester.

In 1070, at the Council of Winchester, Stigand was deposed, sacked as Archbishop, by William, and imprisoned until his death in 1072.

William appointed Lanfranc as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1070.

Lanfranc was an Italian Benedictine monk.

Lanfranc's mission as Archbishop of Canterbury was clear: to reform the English Church.

This meant bringing the English Church in line with the Pope's reforms of Christianity.

William fully supported the reforms, too.

The Church was powerful and influential in England, and William wanted Lanfranc to centralise control over the Church and ensure it was loyal to the king.

Both sides to the reforms would help the Normans control England.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Why had Stigand been excommunicated? A, nepotism, B, pluralism, C, simony.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew the correct answer was B, pluralism.

To communicate his reforms, Lanfranc held a series of councils.

These were meetings of Church leaders, where he set up decrees that standardised Church practises and increased discipline.

In other words, Lanfranc standardised Church practises across England.

Three of the most important councils were in 1072, 1075, and 1076.

The King was present at most of them, as his agreement was needed for all high-level changes to how the church was organised.

The map on the left shows Lanfranc using his councils to centralise his power, ensuring that his reforms from the centre are being standardised and enforced across England.

So let's use this slide to summarise the problems in Anglo-Saxon Church.

The English Church was criticised for corruption.

Simony involved important posts in the church being sold to wealthy men rather than given to more deserving and spiritual candidates.

And nepotism involved people getting important jobs because of who they were related to, or who they were friends with.

And Lanfranc wanted to eliminate these abuses of Church power.

Clergy having wives.

Lanfranc was deeply concerned about the lack of spiritual discipline in English churches and monasteries, and one sign of this was clerical marriage, meaning priests and other clergy having wives.

At the Council of Winchester in 1070, clergy were banned from getting married, and celibacy was made compulsory for monks.

Clergy who were already married did not have to get divorced, however.

And finally, it was claimed that there was a lack of spiritual discipline, including in English monasticism.

Lanfranc was horrified by the poor state of English monasticism.

Monasteries were criticised for not following their religious rules strictly enough.

Therefore, Lanfranc introduced wide-ranging monastic reforms. As a former Benedictine Abbott himself, he was determined to revitalise monasteries in England, and ensure the monks there lived spiritual lives that closely followed the rules of St.

Benedict.

The painting on the left shows St.

Benedict writing his rules.

He was an Italian Christian monk, who founded many communities of monks, which followed a specific set of rules, which was widely adopted.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Who did William appoint as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1070? A, Lanfranc.

B, Stigand.

C, Thomas.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew it was A, Lanfranc.

Okay, great.

Let's move on to task A.

What I want you to do here is complete the following sentence starters.

And you can see I've provided you with three sentence starters.

So pause the video, complete the sentences, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

So there's many ways you could have completed those sentences, but check your answers with what I have here.

So for the first one, Stigand was deposed as Archbishop because he had taken the position of Archbishop without the Pope's permission, and had been excommunicated as a pluralist.

And the second sentence starter? Lanfranc's mission was to reform the English Church, take control, use councils to standardise practises, and increase discipline.

And finally, the English Church was criticised for corruption, simony, nepotism, clerical marriage, and monks not following the rules of Saint Benedict.

Okay, great.

Let's now move on to the second part of the lesson, reforms to Church organisation.

So Lanfranc reorganised the Church's organisational structure.

This started at the top.

There were Archbishops of Canterbury and York in Anglo-Saxon England, but Lanfranc wanted one head of the Church in England, and that should be the Archbishop of Canterbury.

William agreed, especially given the rebellions in the north.

In 1070, at the Council of Winchester, Thomas, the Archbishop of York, formally recognised the primacy of Canterbury, which meant that he swore to obey Lanfranc as the head of the English Church.

If you have a look at the image on the left, this is the actual accord of Winchester from 1072.

The large crosses towards the top left are the signatures of William I and his wife, Queen Matilda.

And the one under theirs is Lanfranc's, and other bishops are under his.

Next, bishops were given more authority over their dioceses, but in turn, they were now all directly answerable to the Archbishop, and had to swear to obey him, just like in the feudal system.

And we can see how Lanfranc was trying to tighten up control of the Church hierarchy by looking at the diagram.

Archdeacons were introduced in dioceses by the council of 1072.

They were responsible for making sure bishops' orders were carried out.

Under the archdeacon came the rural deans, who were then in charge of individual parishes.

This hierarchy, with its clear chain of command, gave the Normans more central control over the Church, and made it easier to transfer instructions from Lanfranc all the way down to the individual parish priests at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Okay, let's check your understanding.

What I want you to do here is complete the names of the positions introduced by Lanfranc.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's check those answers.

So first one, A, was archdeacons, and the second one, B, was rural deans.

Okay, let's continue.

So Lanfranc's reforms also involved Anglo-Saxon prelates, that's the senior Churchmen, bishops and abbots, being replaced by Normans.

This helped Lanfranc to achieve his reforms, as Normans were much more likely to make the changes he wanted to see.

William also wanted to have prelates that he could trust to help him control Norman England.

Unlike the Anglo-Saxon bishops and abbots who have supported and encouraged the rebellion against his rule between 1067 and 1070.

So in 1072, other bishops were deposed alongside Stigand, including his brother, Æthelmær, and one resigned because he was married.

Ealdred, the Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of York, had already died in 1069 and been replaced by a Norman, Thomas of Bayeux.

The process of replacing Anglo-Saxons with Normans continued, and by 1080, only one Anglo-Saxon Bishop remained, Wulfstan of Worcester.

He was a strong supporter of the Norman reforms, and had helped Lanfranc as Regent, and William defeat the Revolt of the Earls in 1075.

Okay, let's check your understanding.

Select two reforms of the English Church made by Lanfranc.

A, a clear chain of command was implemented to gain central control over the Church.

B, clergy were allowed to get married.

C, prelates were replaced with Anglo-Saxons.

D, the primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury was recognised.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew the correct answer was A and D.

Okay, let's move on to task B.

What I want you to do here is discuss why Lanfranc made the following reforms. Primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, stricter Church hierarchy, and Anglo-Saxon prelates replaced by Normans.

Pause the video, have a discussion, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you had some great discussions there, and there's many things you could have talked about, and you may have discussed some of the following.

So firstly, for the primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, he may have said that Lanfranc wanted one person in charge of the Church in England, rather than control being split between the north and the south.

And he argued that person should be the Archbishop of Canterbury.

And for church hierarchy, he might have said that Lanfranc increased control of the Church from the centre, since bishops now swore to obey their Archbishop.

Bishops were given more authority, and archdeacons and rural deans were in place, so orders from the centre could definitely be carried out in each diocese.

And finally, Anglo-Saxon prelates being replaced by Normans.

You could have said that having Normans in senior positions ensured Lanfranc's reforms were carried out and removed the threat of Anglo-Saxon bishops and abbots, who had supported and encouraged rebellions against William.

Okay, great.

Let's move on to the final part of the lesson, the Church and the courts.

So in 1072, William decreed that all legal cases involving clergy should not go to the secular or non-religious courts, such as the hundred courts, but instead should go to church courts.

William's decree gave bishops and archdeacons the authority to set up their own courts, called synods or episcopal courts.

These courts would then be able to base their decisions on Church laws, instead of having to put up with judgments about Church affairs being made by men who did not understand ecclesiastical or Church law.

Williams decree separating church cases from secular, non-religious cases, helped Lanfranc's reforms, because bishops and archdeacons could now hear cases against members of the clergy who were not obeying the new laws.

Lanfranc ordered that these synods should be held regularly in each diocese.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What major reform did Lanfranc make to the legal system? A, allowed priests to take cases to secular courts.

B, established church courts for the clergy.

C, removed secular courts, such as the a hundred courts.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew it was B.

In 1082, Bishop Odo of Bayeux was arrested by William himself.

And in the illustration on the left, we can see William arresting his half-brother, Odo.

Odo was kept in prison for five years, apparently for planning a military expedition to Rome to make himself Pope.

As a bishop, Odo should have been tried by his peers in a church court, but clearly William did not consider that his decree of 1072 applied when someone acted against him.

Something similar happened in 1088, when William Rufus was king.

In this case, the King's court, not a church court, took away all the estates of the Bishop of Durham, after the Bishop, William St.

Calais, had rebelled against the king.

Pope Urban II said this was wrong, as the bishop should have been tried in a church court.

Tensions between the Church and the monarch increased as a result.

Why did church courts increase tensions between the Church and Norman kings? Is it A, because it meant dioceses spent all their time hearing cases against clergy rather than carrying out reforms? B, because it meant a king did not get to pass judgement on clergy who committed crimes against him? C, because church courts tended to forgive crimes committed by clergy rather than punish the guilty? Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew the correct answer was B.

Okay, great.

Let's move on to the final task, task C.

What I want you to do here is explain ways in which the English Church changed under Lanfranc.

And to help you to do that, I want you to try and use the following in your answer.

Primacy, church courts, clergy, diocese.

So use all the knowledge you've gained in today's lesson to help you to fully explain the ways in which the English Church changed under Archbishop Lanfranc.

Pause the video, have a go at the task, and then come right back.

Okay, great.

So there's many ways you could have answered that question, but compare what you've got with my example answer here.

Lanfranc reformed the English Church to bring it in line with the Pope's reforms of Christianity and to increase spiritual discipline across the clergy and monasteries.

Lanfranc used councils to standardise practises across England.

The introduction of church courts helped tackle corruption and separated church and secular cases.

Lanfranc's reorganisation of the Church hierarchy also centralised control over the Church, and ensured it was loyal to William, with bishops swearing to obey their archbishop.

In turn, bishops had more authority over their dioceses, and were assisted by archdeacons, ensuring that reforms and orders were carried out.

Lanfranc achieved primacy as the head of the Church, replacing the situation in Anglo-Saxon England, where the archbishops of Canterbury and York shared power.

Okay, great.

Let's summarise today's lesson, "Lanfranc's reforms".

So Lanfranc's mission was to reform the English Church, take control, standardise practises, and increase discipline.

The English Church was criticised for corruption, simony, nepotism, clergy having wives, monks not following the rules of St.

Benedict, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stigand, being a pluralist.

Lanfranc used councils to standardise practises across England, and church courts to enforce the implementation of his reforms. Lanfranc gained primacy for the Archbishop of Canterbury.

He also increased authority in dioceses, which provided a centralised chain of command.

Anglo-Saxon prelates were replaced by Normans, to remove a threat to William's rule.

Well done on a brilliant lesson, and I hope you've learned a lot about some of the changes taking place within the English Church.

And this puts you in a great position to understand the extent of change the Church went through under the Normans.

I'll see you next time, when we continue our inquiry.

See you in the next lesson.