1570 Edition | Book 4 | Page 240 
bury should appoynt, there to receyue his consecration, makyng hys profession there with an oth of canonicall obedience. Thomas beyng content withall, Lancfrancus the Italian triumpheth with no small ioy: & putteth the matter forthwith in writyng, that the memory therof might remaine to the posteritie of his successors. But yet that decree did not long stand. For shortly after, the same scarre so superficiali cured, brust out againe. In so much that in the reigne of kyng Henry the first. anno domini. 1121. Thurstinus archbishop of Yorke could not be cōpelled to sweare to the archb. of Canterbury: & yet notwithstandyng, by the letters of Calixtus ii. was consecrate without any profession made to the sayd bishop, with much more matter of cōtention: all which to recite it were to longe. But this I thought to commit to history, to the entent men myght see the lamentable decay of true christianitie amongst Christen bishops: who inflamed with glorious ambition, so contended for honor, that without mere forcement of law, no modesty could take place.
[Back to Top]Of such like contentions emong prelates of the clergie, for superioritie, we read of diuers in old chronicles: as in the history intituled Chronicon. Hirsseldense, where is declared a bloudy conflict, whiche twise happened in the churche of Goslaria, betwen Hecelō bishop of Hildesheime, and Wederatus bishop of Fulda: and al for the superiour place, who should sit next to the Emperour, the Emperour hym selfe beyng there present, and lookyng on them, and yet not able to stay them.
[Back to Top]Thus I haue described the troublous contention betwene Lanfrancus, & Thomas Metropolitane of Yorke in the dayes of Alexander, of which controuersye and of the whole discourse therof: Lanfrancus writeth to pope Alexander beginning thus.
MarginaliaA letter of Lancfrācus sēt to Pope Alexander.Domino totius christianæ religionis summo speculatori Alex. papæ. Lancfrancus sanctæ Doroberriensis ecclesiæ antistes debitam cum omni seruitute obedientiam. In concillio quod Angliæ per vestram autoritatem coactum est, vbi querelæ Thomæ Archiepiscopi prolatæ & ventilatæ sunt, allata est ecclesiastica gentis Angloriū historia, quam Eboracensis ecclesiæ præsbyter & Anglorum Doctor Beda composuit. and so forth in a long processe of woordes which follow. Emong which in the middle of the epistle, speaking of Douer & Cāterbury, he hath these wordes. Vrbs namq̀ quæ nunc Cantuarberia nominatur, antiquis tēporibus ab ipsius terræ incolis Dorobernia vocabatur. &c. with many other words in the said epistle, which for breuitie here I ouerpasse.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaByshops seates translated in England.In the story before of king Egelred, was declared, about the yeare of our Lord. M. xvi. how the bishopricke of Lindaffarne otherwise named holy land, in the floude of Twede, was trāslated to Durham: so likewise in the dayes of this Lancfrancus archbishop of Cant. an. M. lxxvi. diuers bishops seates were altered and remoued from towneships to greater cities. As the bishoprike of Selese was remoued to Chichester, out of Cornewall to Exeter, from Welles to Bath: frō Shireburne to Salesbury: from Dorcester to Lincolne, from Lichefield to Chester: which bishoprike of Chester Robert beyng then bishop reduced frō Chester to Couentry. Likewise after that in the raigne of William Rufus, an. M. xcv. Herbert bishop of Thetford, from thēce reduced the seat to Norwige. &c.
[Back to Top]As concerning Douer and Canterbury, whether the see was likewyse translated frō the towne of Douer to the citie of Cant. in the tyme of Theodorus: or whether Canterbury by olde tyme had the name of Dorobernia (as the letter of Lancfrancus to pope Alexander, aboue mētioned, doth pretend) I fynd it not in histories expressely defined. Saue that I read by the wordes of Willyam beyng yet duke of Normandy, chargyng then Harolde to make a welle of water for the kynges vse in the castellof Dorobernia: MarginaliaDorobernia & Canterburye taken both for one.that the said Dorobernia then was takē for that which now we call Douer: but whether Dorobernia and the citie of Cant. bee both one or diuers, the matter is not great. Notwithstand this I read in the epistle of pope Bonifaci9 to king Ethelbert, as also to Iustius Archbishop. Item in the epistle of pope Honorius, to bishop Honorius. Itē of pope Vitalianus, to Theodorus: of pope Sergius to kyng Ethelred, Alfred, and Adulfus, and to the bishops of England: likewise of pope Gregory the 3. to the bishops of England. Item of Pope Leo to Atherlard archb. of Cant. Of Formosus to the bishops of England: and of pope Iohn to Dunstane, that þe name of Dorobernia and of Canterbury indifferently are taken for one matter.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaA councel holden at Londō, and what were the actes therof.In thys tyme (and by þe procuryng of this Lancfrancus) the. ix. yeare of this kyng: a councel was holden at London, where among the actes therof, these were the principall thynges concluded.
1. For the order of sitting: that the archbishop of Yorke should sit on the right hand, & the bishop of Londō of the left hand: or in the absence of Yorke, Londō should haue the right, and Winchester the left hand of the archbish. of Cant. sittyng in counsel.
2. The second, that bishops should translate there sees from villages into cities: Whereupon those sees aboue named were translated.
3. That monkes should haue nothyng in proper: And if any so had, he dying vnconfessed, shoulde not be buried in the churchyard.
4. That no clarke or Monke of an other dioces, should be admitted to orders, or retayned wythout letters commendatory or testimoniall.
5. That none should speak in the councel except bishops and Abbots, without leaue of the archmetropolitane.
6. That none should marry within the seuenth degree, with any either of hys owne kynrede, or of hys wyues departed.
7. That none should eyther bye or sell any office within the church.
8. That no sorcery nor any diuination should be vsed or permitted in holy church.
9. That no bishop nor abbot, nor any of þe clergy: should be at the iudgemēt of any mans death or dismembring, neyther shoulde be any fautor of the sayd iudicantes.
MarginaliaByshops of England about to driue out monkes & to place priestes againe in their steede.Moreouer in the dayes of this Lancfrancus, diuers good bishoppes of the realme began to take part wyth priestes agaynst the monkes, in displacyng these oute of their churches, and to restore the maried priests agayn: in so muche that Walkelmus bishop of Wint. had placed aboue xl. canons in stede of Monkes for his part: but this godly enterprise was stopped by stout Lancfranke the Italian Lombard. This lusty prelate sate xix. yeres, but at latter end he was not so fauored of William Rufus, and died for sorrow. Although this Italian Franke being archbishop: had litle leisure to write, yet somthing he thought to do, to fet out his famous learnīg, & wrote a booke against Berengarius, intitulyng it: Opus Scintillarum. MarginaliaOpus Scintillarū Lancfranci.The old church of Cant. he plucked downe and builded vp the new.
[Back to Top]Marginalia1074.
Hildebrandus seu Gregor. 7.
Hildebrād the cause of al this stournes and pride in prelates.After the death of pope Alexander aboue mentioned, next to him folowed Hildebrād surnamed Gregory þe 7.
CloseAlthough Gregory VII (1073-85) was only one of a number of reforming popes in the late eleventh century who sought to suppress clerical marriage and to end secular jurisdiction over the Church and its clergy, he was the one who most profoundly impressed contempories. Partly this was due to his dramatic conflict with Emperor Henry IV, but partly to his forceful personality and his complete inability to compromise. To Protestant reformers the causes for which Gregory had fought so hard were iniquitous and his spectacular, if ephemeral, triumph over Henry IV at Canossa made him the epitome of the antichristian pope inversing God's natural order. Their ability to demonize Gregory was enhanced by the emnities that Gregory had aroused in many of his contemporaries and the numerous hostile accounts they wrote about him.
[Back to Top]Foxe's account of Gregory first appeared in the 1563 edition and most of it is based on two sources. From Platina's history of the popes Foxe obtained his general narrative background, including the account of Canossa and the events leading up to it as well as the events leading up to Gregory's second excommunication of Henry, the excommunication itself and Gregory's expulsion from Rome. (See Bartomoleo Sacchi Platina, Historia de vitis Pontificum Romanorum, ed. Onuphrio Panvinio [Venice, 1562], fos.131r-135v. Foxe may have drawn on Platina - a writer whom he felt to be biased in favour of the papacy and whom he did not utilize often - not only for his detailed account, but because this material was so controversial that Foxe felt safer relying on, and citing, an account by a Catholic author. This way, if criticized, Foxe could declare that he was merely repeating what an internationally respected Catholic writer had stated. As it was, however, Foxe felt free to insert his own opinions into Platina's text, as when he declared flatly - and baselessly - that Matilda of Tuscany was Gregory VII's lover).
[Back to Top]Almost everything else in this account is drawn from Matthis Flacius's Catalogus testium veritatis (Strausburg, 1562], pp. 205-6, 211-212, 223-4 and 227-8. Because Flacius, while rich in anecdotal detail and documentation, did not providemuch in the way of background information, Foxe also drew on the annals of Lambert of Hersfeld for the synods at Mainz and Erfurt and clerical resistance to Gregory'sdrive for clerical celibacy. (See 'Lamberti Hersefeldenses annales a 1040-1077' inMonumenta Gemaniae Historiae, Scriptorum V [Hanover, 1845], pp. 217-18 and 30.This was an unusual source for Foxe to consult and he followed up references by Baleand Flacius to check it for himself. Again, this scrupulousness and care was probablydue to Foxe's concern about criticism, due to the controversial nature of the material.And Foxe could not resist including an unfounded account by Bale of Gregory VII, on his deathbed, repenting his wickedness; see Bale, Catalogus, p. 160.
[Back to Top]In the 1570 edition, Foxe - who had already printed a letter by Cardinal Benno, a staunch opponent of Gregory VII, describing the pope as a sorcerer - addedfurther letters by the Cardinal, detailing Gregory's crimes, including sacrilege againstthe Host and attempts to assassinate Henry IV. These letters were reprinted fromFlacius, Catalogus testium veritatis, pp. 220-5. No further changes were made to this account in subsequent editions of the Acts and Monuments.
[Back to Top]Thomas S. Freeman
University of Sheffield