Lanfranc: Scholar, Monk, and Archbishop (review)

This is the third modern biography of Lanfranc, prior of Bec (c.1045-63), abbot of St-Étienne, Caen (1063-70), and archbishop of Canterbury (1070-89). A. J. Macdonald's pioneering study, published in 1926, emphasised Lanfranc's place in the history of his archbishopric and of the English kingdom, largely dismissing his career prior to 1070. His contribution to the defeat of Berengar was of no great significance and out of necessity he was a monastic reformer, 'but he loved other things more – a strong administration and the episcopal organization'! Margaret Gibson's biography, published in 1978, positioned Lanfranc in the history of learning and ideas. She could not deny that his career as a prelate looked backwards to the Carolingian era rather than forwards to the post-Gregorian world, but by emphasizing his earlier achievements as a teacher and as a dialectician she still managed to present Lanfranc as a forerunner of the twelfth-century Renaissance. In terms of its coverage, Cowdrey's new biography offers the most comprehensive and balanced treatment to date. He sets Lanfranc's career in a broad landscape, endeavouring to give appropriate weight to both the Continental and the English phases of his career and to treat its many different dimensions – scholastic, monastic and ecclesiastical – with due depth; but like Macdonald, he is primarily interested in the churchman rather than the intellectual.

It needs to be stressed that this is not an 'uncritical' biography. Cowdrey admits that Lanfranc was often harsh towards his enemies and towards those of his duke and king. He notes, for example, that he 'gave a less than fair account of Berengar's teaching' (p. 73), and that 'Lanfranc carried his animus against Stigand beyond the bounds of fact and of acceptability' (pp. 81-82). Though he follows Gibson in evaluating Lanfranc's career in the light of wider trends in the Latin Church, he is careful not to overstate his position in the history of Christian thought. He admits, for example, that his contribution to 'the opposition to Berengar… was episodic rather than sustained' (p. 67). Many chapters incorporate, moreover, subtle and acute analyses of the sources and their limitations. He neatly disposes, for example, of the claim that Pope Alexander II had been a pupil of Lanfranc. This biography is driven, however, by a powerful urge to eulogise and defend its hero, a tendency which is most apparent in its treatment of Lanfranc's reign as archbishop. In essence, Cowdrey's view of this phase hinges on three key points.

The first is that the programme for Lanfranc's pontificate was determined, not by the prelate himself, but by the legatine councils that took place in 1070, some four months before he took office. In essence these councils initiated two programmes, one of which was of royal origin, the other of papal origin. Cowdrey argues that the judicial work of the legatine councils was merely an addendum to the main proceedings. The main business of the councils was to inaugurate a papally inspired programme of reform. Pope Alexander had supported the Conquest, Cowdrey argues, because he was genuinely perplexed by the morals of Archbishop Stigand and by the condition of the English Church, and in the heady aftermath of its success, his legates enacted a legislative programme which was intended 'to renew the morality and social order of the whole English people' (p. 85).

Cowdrey's second point is that Lanfranc took over and saw through this papal programme essentially because he shared the pope's view that the English Church was in need of reform and because he was driven by a strong sense of pastoral duty – something which was apparent from his time as a teacher at Bec. Many facets of his archiepiscopate derive, Cowdrey argues, from this central aim. Again, Cowdrey argues that the main business of these councils was this programme of reform, not their 'judicial side' (that is, the work of deposing yet more hapless English...