The Role of the Church and Norman Reforms

Why the Church mattered in society

In eleventh-century England, the Church was both a religious institution and a powerful part of government. Parish priests led worship and provided religious guidance within local communities. Bishops supervised larger areas called dioceses, while archbishops held authority over groups of bishoprics. The Pope in Rome was the head of the western Christian Church.

The Church also owned extensive estates. This made bishops and abbots—the heads of monasteries—important landholders, with wealth and responsibilities beyond worship. Monasteries such as Glastonbury, Ely and Peterborough supported education, manuscript production and the management of estates. Their ability to produce and preserve written records was especially valuable to government.

Church leaders helped administer land and finances, recorded what people owed and kept legal documents safe. Bishops and abbots also acted as judges in shire courts. Religion and government were therefore closely connected before the Norman Conquest: William did not create that connection, but he reshaped it.

Why William needed a loyal Church

William’s invasion in 1066 had the support of Pope Alexander II. Religious approval helped strengthen his claim to rule England, but he also needed cooperation from Church leaders within the conquered kingdom.

Priests could pass political messages to their congregations. A Church that supported William could encourage people to accept him as the rightful king. Its estates also provided resources for government and military service: bishops and abbots owed service for their lands, including supplying knights.

Initially, William retained English clergy in important positions. This helped present his rule as a continuation of Edward the Confessor’s reign. During and after the rebellions of 1068–71, however, William increasingly replaced senior English churchmen with people he trusted from Normandy and elsewhere on the continent. Controlling the Church’s leadership helped him control its wealth, administration and influence.

Stigand: an opportunity for replacement

Stigand had been Archbishop of Canterbury since 1052. This was an exceptionally important position, but his authority was open to challenge.

He held the bishopric of Winchester as well as Canterbury. This was pluralism, which Church reformers condemned. He had also received his pallium—the symbol of an archbishop’s authority—from Benedict X, whose claim to be Pope was rejected by the recognised papacy. These irregularities made Stigand vulnerable to removal.

In April 1070, papal representatives deposed Stigand at a council in Winchester. His removal served two purposes: it addressed recognised religious objections to his position and allowed William to replace a leading English churchman. It therefore shows how reform and political control could work together.

Lanfranc: reformer and royal adviser

William appointed Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury in 1070. Lanfranc was an Italian-born scholar who had led religious communities in Normandy, including the abbey of Saint-Stephen at Caen. He brought experience of continental religious organisation and enjoyed William’s trust.

Lanfranc became William’s chief Church adviser and helped govern England during the king’s absences in Normandy. His importance was therefore political as well as religious. He wanted a more disciplined Church with a clearer hierarchy, while William wanted dependable leaders who would support royal government.

In 1072, Lanfranc secured an acknowledgement from Thomas, Archbishop of York, of Canterbury’s senior position. This strengthened Lanfranc’s authority and his ability to coordinate reform across the English Church.

Reforming discipline and organisation

Lanfranc sought to make clergy live according to stricter religious standards. At the Council of Winchester in 1076, rules on clerical celibacy were tightened. Cathedral clergy faced stricter requirements, while already-married rural priests were allowed to remain married. New appointments were expected to follow the celibacy rules. Reform was therefore a process, not an immediate transformation of every parish.

More archdeacons were appointed to help bishops supervise parish priests. They enforced discipline and assisted Church courts. This gave senior Church leaders a stronger means of checking whether local clergy followed their instructions.

Under William, Church courts were separated from ordinary secular courts. These courts dealt with Church matters and cases involving clergy according to Church law. This created a clearer distinction between religious and secular justice and increased the Church’s legal independence. It did not, however, make the Church independent of the king in every respect.

Lanfranc also worked to improve religious discipline in monasteries, including those in northern England. His reforms aimed to strengthen organised religious life, rather than merely replace the people at the top.

Moving and rebuilding cathedrals

Bishops’ seats were moved from smaller settlements to important urban centres. Examples included the move from Lichfield to Chester in 1075 and from Sherborne to Old Sarum in the same year.

Urban locations gave bishops greater security and made their dioceses easier to administer. Building large cathedrals also made the authority and wealth of the new Church leadership visible. Norman rebuilding used the Romanesque style, with round arches, thick walls and substantial supporting pillars. Building programmes begun under William continued beyond his reign.

The king, the Church and the Pope

Church reform did not mean that William surrendered control to Rome. He chose bishops, required their loyalty for the estates they held and expected major Church decisions to receive royal approval.

According to the later chronicler Eadmer, William would not allow a pope to be recognised in England without his approval, required inspection of papal letters and restricted the excommunication of his barons and royal servants without permission. Excommunication meant exclusion from the Church’s religious community and was a powerful sanction.

Lanfranc consequently had to balance obligations to the Pope with loyalty to William. The king could support religious reform while resisting papal intervention in English political affairs.

How far did the Church change?

The greatest change was at the top. By 1087, Wulfstan of Worcester was the only English bishop remaining in office. His survival mattered: he supported reform and was loyal to William, showing that English identity alone did not always lead to removal. Most local priests also remained English, although they now worked under a largely continental leadership.

Church government became more closely supervised, religious discipline tightened, courts were reorganised and cathedral building visibly changed important towns. Yet the Church remained a major landowner, a source of educated administrators and a central part of community religious life.

Overall, Normanisation transformed the Church’s senior leadership, while reform changed how it was organised and disciplined. These changes strengthened William’s government, but they built on an institution that had already been powerful before 1066.