The Church 129
of continental influence; but it created some conditions,
the results of which to church and state showed them-
selves but slowly. The old problem of the relations of
the two English archbishops1 faced Lanfranc as soon as
he became archbishop of Canterbury. While his author-
ity was questioned in the province of York, he could not
carry out the reorganisation and reform which seemed to
him imperative. That province coincided roughly with
the old Danelaw, the part of England that, under Edwin
and Morcar, had held aloof from Harold, and was the
hardest for William to subdue. It threatened the unity
of the church as well as the state. William naturally
favoured the claim of Canterbury; the question was
referred to Pope Alexander II., who, however, refused to
decide and sent it back to an English council. In 1072,
a council was held that judged unequivocally for Can-
terbury. As the decision was based on historical grounds
and much documentary proof was adduced, it seems
likely that it was intended to be final.3 Though this was
far from the case, yet it settled the matter for Lanfranc's
lifetime3 and gave him his chance to deal with the church
as a whole.
As Norman barons were given the lands of Saxon earls
and thegns, so Norman prelates filled the vacancies in
the English church, and many vacancies were made for
them. During the first three or four years after the
Conquest, the church was left quite undisturbed; here
as elsewhere it was William's disposition to let things
1 See above, p. 60, note 2.
2 The documents were, for the most part, forgeries by Lanfranc. See
Adams, The History of England (1066-1216), p. 44, and Bohmer, Die Fal-
schungen Erzbischof Lanfranks von Canterbury, cited by Professor Adams.
s It was again violently disputed in the reign of Henry I. In 1127, the
real matter at issue was dodged by the archbishop of Canterbury's apply-
ing for, and receiving, the office of papal legate, on the basis of which he
could exercise authority over the archbishop of York, This proved the
final, though logically unsatisfactory, solution of the problem; for in 1221,
Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, succeeded in establishing it
as a principle that the office which he held necessarily carried with it the
legatine power, and that an archbishop of Canterburyt was papal legate
from the moment of the pope's confirmation of Ms election.