28
September 1066 A.D. William
the Conqueror Lands in England—Conquering England and Its Church
No
author. “William Conquered England and Its Church.” Christianity.com.
Apr 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/901-1200/william-conquered-england-and-its-church-11629787.html. Accessed 24 May 2014.
When William the Conqueror landed in England on
this day, September 28, 1066, his
invasion had the approval of Pope Alexander II who gave him a banner to crusade
under. Its repercussions on the church in England were enormous, going far
beyond the stone architecture of the great Norman cathedrals that we still
admire.
William claimed authority over the church in the
entire region that he ruled. He ousted almost all of the English-born bishops
and abbots, replacing them with Normans. He installed tough-minded Lanfranc as
Archbishop of Canterbury; and Lanfranc's rules became the law of the English
church.
William worked closely with Lanfranc, who organized
the church and, using English precedents (some of them forged), brought the
Archbishop of York under the authority of Canterbury. William preferred to deal
with one church hierarchy, not two.
Bishops became part of the feudal military
structure. Each one was required to send a certain number of knights to
William's armies. The justice dispensed by many small church courts was shifted
to a few bishops and administered by archdeacons that the bishops had to
appoint. The conquering king retained the right to overrule the decisions of
church courts and to hear all cases in which a layman was in conflict with the
church.
William personally attended the local church
councils which now became more frequent. He acted as master of all they did.
Under the Norman reforms, bishops' seats were moved
to cities. For example, Dorchester was moved to Lincoln. Priests were required
to be celibate. Until then, their marriage had been tolerated. Now marriage was
"grand-fathered" out, with parish priests allowed to keep their
wives, but not the higher clergy; and no new priest could be ordained without
swearing to be celibate. William laid down three rules: no pope would be
recognized in his kingdom and no letter from a pope received unless first
approved by him. No church council might enact a ruling without his sanction,
and the church better not reprimand any of his noblemen without his consent.
Late in William's reign, Pope Gregory VII demanded
that William swear fealty to him (that is, accept the pope as his feudal lord).
Apparently Gregory believed that since William had sought a pope's permission
to invade England, he owed his kingdom to the pope. William indignantly rejected
the idea. The pope and the king also clashed because the king appointed bishops
whom he expected to be loyal to him, whereas the pope considered that bishops
owed their first loyalty to Rome.
These differences never came to a head and William
was always a strong supporter of the church in his dominions. His policy fought
pluralism (churchmen holding more than one position) and simony (buying church
positions). Whether he did more harm than good to the church in England is
debated to this day. But no one doubts that he drastically changed it.
Bibliography:
1. Douglas, David C. William the
Conqueror; the Norman impact upon England. Berkeley: University of California,
1964.
2. Thurston, Herbert. "William
the Conqueror." The Catholic Encyclopedia, edited by F. L. Cross and E. A.
Livingstone. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
3. "William the
Conqueror." The Dictionary of National Biography, founded in 1882 by
George Smith; edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. London: Oxford
University Press, 1921 - 1996.
4. Various internet articles.
Last updated July, 2007
No comments:
Post a Comment