The Church

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X is the archbishops (of Canterbury and York) and Y is the archdeacons.

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The Accord of Winchester was important because it gave the English Church a single leader. When Thomas of Bayeux became Archbishop of York in 1070 he refused to swear obedience to Lanfranc. Both men went to Rome in 1071, and Pope Alexander II sent the dispute back to be settled in England. At Winchester at Easter 1072, confirmed at Windsor at Whitsun, it was agreed that Canterbury was superior to York, and Thomas made his profession of obedience. The disputed sees of Worcester, Lichfield and Dorchester stayed in Canterbury's province, leaving York with the north.

First, this unity made reform possible. As the undisputed head of the Church, Lanfranc could call councils for the whole English Church, such as London in 1075 and Winchester in 1076, which moved sees to towns, condemned simony and restricted clerical marriage. Without the Accord, York could have ignored these decisions.

Second, the Accord helped William's political security. Lanfranc argued that if the Archbishop of York were independent he might crown a rival king of the north with the help of the Danes or the Scots. This was a real danger: the north had rebelled in 1069 with Danish help, and William had answered with the Harrying of the North. By binding York to Canterbury, the Accord tied the northern Church to the king and his closest ally.

Third, it increased royal control of the Church as a whole. Lanfranc worked hand in hand with William, so a powerful Canterbury meant a Church that followed the king's wishes. Lanfranc even claimed authority over 'the whole of Britain' and consecrated a bishop for Dublin in 1074. The Accord's weakness was that it rested on Thomas's personal submission, and the rivalry revived after Lanfranc's death in 1089, but in the 1070s and 1080s it was the foundation of both reform and Norman control of the Church.

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Interpretation A is convincing about the way William Rufus treated the Church's wealth. After Lanfranc died in May 1089 Rufus kept Canterbury vacant until March 1093, almost four years, and took its revenues. Ranulf Flambard managed vacant bishoprics and abbeys to raise money for the king, and according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, when Rufus died he held the archbishopric of Canterbury, the bishoprics of Winchester and Salisbury and eleven abbeys. He sold Church offices: Herbert de Losinga bought the bishopric of Thetford, and Flambard became Bishop of Durham in 1099. A is also right that Rufus quarrelled with Anselm. He refused Anselm's gift of 500 pounds as too small, clashed with him at Rockingham in 1095 and, after Anselm went into exile in 1097, seized Canterbury's lands. Rufus was killed in the New Forest in 1100 and buried at Winchester with little ceremony, and some writers saw his death as God's judgement.

However, A is less convincing in calling Rufus 'the most irreligious king ever'. Our evidence comes from monks such as Eadmer, Anselm's friend and biographer, and William of Malmesbury, who had every reason to present him badly. Taking the revenues of vacant churches was seen as a royal right, and William I had also made the Church pay, through knight service. Rufus did appoint Anselm, a famous and holy scholar, and he recognised Urban II as pope in 1095. He attended the consecration of Battle Abbey in 1094 and supported the new abbey of St Mary's, York. His quarrel with Anselm was mainly about royal rights and authority rather than about religion itself.

Overall, A is convincing about Rufus's exploitation of the Church and his poor relations with churchmen, but its picture of extreme irreligion comes from hostile monastic writers, and as a popular history it exaggerates for effect.

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The building of new cathedrals and churches was the most visible consequence of the Conquest for the English Church, but I do not think it was the main one. The building was itself the result of a deeper change: the replacement of the English leaders of the Church by Normans, who reorganised and reformed the Church under the king's control.

The building programme was certainly enormous. Lanfranc began a new Canterbury Cathedral in 1070, modelled on St Stephen's at Caen. Within thirty years almost every English cathedral had been rebuilt or begun again: Lincoln in about 1072, Winchester in 1079, Rochester and York in about 1080, Worcester in 1084, St Paul's in 1087, Durham in 1093 and Norwich in 1096. Great abbeys such as St Albans and Gloucester were rebuilt too, and Norman lords put up stone parish churches on their manors. The massive Romanesque style, with round arches, thick walls and, at Durham, stone rib vaults, transformed the look of England, and many old English churches were demolished, which upset Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester. Because cathedrals often stood beside castles, at Lincoln, Old Sarum and Durham, they became symbols of Norman rule.

However, this building happened because of the change of leadership. After the rebellions were crushed, the councils of 1070 deposed Stigand and other English bishops, and as others died Normans replaced them, until by 1087 Wulfstan was the only English bishop left. Abbots were replaced too, such as Turold at Peterborough and Paul of Caen at St Albans. These new leaders were the ones who ordered the rebuilding, brought Norman customs and Latin learning, and owed their positions and their loyalty to William. Without this change there would have been no building programme.

The new leadership also reorganised the Church in ways that went deeper than its buildings. Lanfranc secured Canterbury's primacy over York in 1072 and held councils that moved sees to towns (1075), condemned simony and restricted clerical marriage (1076). Archdeacons were appointed to supervise the clergy, and in the 1070s William separated Church courts from lay courts. These changes affected how the Church was run and how the clergy behaved, not just how churches looked.

Another major consequence was royal control. William chose every bishop and abbot, required knight service from Church lands from about 1070, and laid down that no pope could be recognised, no papal letter received and no baron excommunicated without his permission. In 1080 he refused fealty to Gregory VII. Under William II this control turned into exploitation: Canterbury was left vacant from 1089 to 1093 and Ranulf Flambard collected the revenues of empty bishoprics and abbeys. The Church also lost wealth: the monasteries were plundered in 1070 and English estates were given to Norman abbeys.

Overall, the building of cathedrals and churches was the most visible and lasting consequence, and it is what most people would have noticed. But the main consequence was the takeover of the Church's leadership by Normans loyal to the king. That takeover caused the building programme, made reform possible and placed the Church firmly under royal control.