The Norman Church & Monasticism Flashcards
All 37 cards in this deck
Who was Lanfranc?
An Italian monk, abbot of Caen in Normandy, made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1070, replacing Stigand. He led the Normanisation and reform of the English Church.
True or false? In Norman England the Church was completely separate from royal government.
False. Bishops and abbots were tenants-in-chief who held land from the king, advised him and, being literate, helped run his administration.
Who was Stigand?
The Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury, deposed by William I in 1070 and replaced by Lanfranc.
Give one way Lanfranc reformed the Church in England under William I.
He set up separate Church courts so that churchmen were tried by the Church rather than in the king's courts.
Give one reason the Church had political influence in Anglo-Saxon England.
Any one of: leading bishops always sat in the Witan, advising the king; very few people could read or write, so churchmen acted as the king's clerks and kept his records.
Why was Stigand criticised as Archbishop of Canterbury?
He was a pluralist, holding the bishopric of Winchester as well as Canterbury, and was accused of simony: giving out Church posts in return for money.
Which language replaced English for royal writs after the Norman Conquest?
Latin. Before 1066 writs were often written in English; under the Normans official documents were written in Latin, while the ruling elite spoke Norman French.
What was the Investiture Controversy?
The dispute over whether the king or the Pope had the right to appoint (invest) bishops — at heart, whether Church or state was superior.
Who was Anselm?
A pupil of Lanfranc, appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by William II in 1093 after the king fell seriously ill; he was exiled in 1097.
Why did William II leave Canterbury without an archbishop after Lanfranc died in 1089?
So he could keep the income from the archbishopric's Church lands for himself.
What was Peter's Pence?
A tax of one penny per household paid to the Pope, which William I continued and enforced in England.
How did relations with the Papacy change after 1073?
They deteriorated when Pope Gregory VII became Pope and insisted the Church was superior to the king; Lanfranc helped William resist this claim.
Give two features of Norman Romanesque cathedral architecture.
Any two of: rounded arches, thick round columns, high ceilings, wide aisles and transepts, rib vaulting (as at Durham).
Give one way Norman cathedrals helped the Normans control England.
They were huge stone buildings placed near centres of population, symbolising Norman power and helping to pacify the conquered.
What did William I do with much of the wealth of the English Church?
He sent large amounts back to Normandy to reward monasteries for their prayers and support in the Conquest, while also spending heavily on rebuilding English cathedrals.
What did Norman kings expect of newly appointed bishops?
That they pay homage to the king, keeping the national Church under royal rather than papal control.
Which monastic rule did the Normans reinforce in English monasteries?
The Rule of St Benedict, demanding poverty, chastity and obedience.
Which new monastic order did the Normans introduce to England, known for strict and elaborate services?
The Cluniacs, whose first English house was Lewes Priory, founded by William de Warenne.
Who founded Lewes Priory, and when?
William de Warenne, who persuaded the Cluniacs to set up a priory near his castle at Lewes between 1078 and 1082.
Give one religious reason Norman lords founded monasteries and priories.
The monks' prayers and masses would save the founder's soul and atone for the killing of the Conquest; he could also be buried there.
Give one political reason the Normans built monasteries and priories.
Castle, town and priory together showed Norman military power and spiritual authority, so rebels were defying God as well as an army.
How did Lanfranc change the daily life of monks in England?
He made it stricter and more pious, with a set routine of services under his Monastic Constitutions, bringing English houses up to European standards.
True or false? All English monks accepted Lanfranc's monastic reforms without objection.
False. Some resisted: at Glastonbury in 1083 monks who refused a new Norman style of chanting were attacked by the abbot's soldiers, and the changes were enforced.
Where did education increasingly take place after the Norman monastic reforms?
In grammar schools, for example at Northampton, Exeter, Lincoln and Oxford.
What was taught in Norman grammar schools, and to whom?
Latin grammar, writing and speaking Latin, to boys from about age 10 for around four years.
Which subjects did the Church-controlled schools teach, and why?
Latin, music, mathematics and law — to train priests and monks, provide music for services and work out the church calendar.
What was Anglo-Norman?
The language of the upper classes: Norman-French that gradually absorbed Anglo-Saxon words. Peasants still spoke English.
Give one abuse Lanfranc tried to stamp out in the English Church.
Any one of: simony, pluralism, nepotism, married clergy.
What was the Primacy of Canterbury?
Lanfranc's reform, backed by William I and agreed at Winchester in 1072, which made the Archbishop of Canterbury head of the whole English Church, above the Archbishop of York.
By 1087, how many bishops in England were Anglo-Saxons?
Only one, Wulfstan of Worcester. William had replaced the others with Normans and other continental churchmen, although most parish priests stayed English.
Roughly how much of England's land did the Church hold by 1086?
About a quarter, as Domesday Book recorded. That made leading churchmen among the richest and most powerful landholders in the kingdom.
What happened at the Council of Rockingham (1095)?
It met to settle William II's quarrel with Archbishop Anselm, who had recognised Urban II as Pope without the king's consent. The bishops sided with the king, but Anselm would not give up his obedience to the Pope.
How did William I change who ran England's monasteries?
As English abbots died or were removed, he replaced them with Normans, such as Lanfranc's nephew Paul of Caen at St Albans (1077). Most ordinary monks stayed English.
Who were the Augustinian canons?
Priests who lived together in a community under the Rule of St Augustine rather than the Rule of St Benedict. Their first houses in England appeared around 1100.
What work did monastic scribes do?
They copied books by hand, such as Bibles and service books, in the monastery's writing room (scriptorium), and wrote records such as chronicles.
Which major text did English monks keep writing in Old English after 1066?
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a record of events kept year by year. Monks went on adding to it in English, even though royal documents had switched to Latin.
Who received an education in Norman England?
Only a small minority, mainly sons of wealthy families taught by monks or clergy, many of them training to be monks or royal clerks. Almost all peasants could not read.