130 The Norman Conquest
remain. But it became clear to him and to Lanfranc
that a general overhauling of the church was needed.
Probably they did not at first realise how serious were
the differences between the English church and that
which they had always known; its ignorance and its mar-
ried clergy must have surprised them as much as its
archaic customs and its isolation. About Easter of 1070
a council met, at which three papal legates were present.
The removal of Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, whose
irregular supersession of Robert of JumiŁges had helped
win the pope to the support of William, was its first
work. From this beginning, the process of displacement
and filling of vacancies went on rapidly until, at the end
of the year, only two or three English bishops were left.
While the reign of William covered the period of the
great conflict between Gregory VII. and the Emperor
Henry IV. over the manner of investing prelates, Wil-
liam did not abate in the least his part in the ceremony.1
With this wholesale creation of Norman bishops and the
consecration of Lanfranc as archbishop of Canterbury
in August of the same year, the transformation of the
English church was well under way.
In the early years of William's reign there was some-
what the same merging of church synod in state council
that prevailed during much of the Anglo-Saxon period.
But such a confusion was contrary to the continental
distinction between church and state, and one marked
change is to be seen from the start: whereas the assem-
bly might be summoned by the king, and barons as well
as clergy attend, the final decision in church matters
lay with the clergy. The church made its own laws. In
the course of time this real legislative independence
TThe compromise on the ceremony reached between Henry I. and
Anselm in 1106 did not mean that the king gave up at all his power really
to determine who the bishops should be. In this connection should be
remembered the double position of bishops who were now not only great
prelates but also vassals of the king holding baronies from him. Many of
the abbots were his feudal tenants-in-chief also, but the king did not so
generally interfere in their choice. They were usually chosen canonically
by the monks.