3

was consecrated by Bishop Herbert, who at the same time (1037) ordained Herlwin a priest, and gave him the usual benediction as Abbot of the new society.1 About the same time he for the first time learned to read, and that to such good purpose that he gradually became mighty in the Scriptures, and that without ever neglecting the daily toil which his austere discipline imposed upon himself.2 His mother Heloise also, struck by the example of her son, gave up her dower-lands, and became a sort of serving-sister to the brotherhood, washing their clothes, and doing for them other menial services. But after a while it was found that the site of Burneville was unsuited for a religious establishment; it seems not to have been well supplied with the two great monastic necessities of wood and water. Herlwin therefore determined to remove his infant colony to a spot better suited to his purpose, a spot to which his own name has ever since been inseparably attached. A wooded hill divides the valley of the Risle, with the town and castle of Brionne, from another valley watered by a small stream, or, in the old Teutonic speech of the Normans, a beck. That stream gave its name to the most famous of Norman religious houses, and to this day the name of Bec is never uttered to denote that spot without the distinguishing addition of the name of Herlwin. The hills are still thickly wooded; the beck still flows, through

above, p. 97. In somewhat the same spirit Edward the First worked personally in making the ditch at Berwick in 1296. Rishanger, ed. Riley, p. 375.

1 Will. Gem. u. s. "Ab eodem præsule sacerdos ordinatus atque Abbas constitutus est. Cf. Milo, i. 267. The last writer seems to make Herlwin delay his monastic profession till the consecration of the church, but it seems from William of Jumièges and Orderic (549 A) that an interval of three years passed between his first profession and his ordination and benediction as Abbot. Milo himself, though in a confused way, recognizes an interval of three years.

2 Will. Gem. vi. 9; Milo, i. 265. "Prima literarum elementa didicit, quum jam exsisteret annorum prope quadraginta, et, divinâ opitulante gratiâ, eo usque processit ut etiam ipsis apprime eruditis grammaticâ in exponendis ac intelligendis divinarum scripturarum sententiis merito haberetur admirabil s." With this plain testimony before me, I do not understand the remarks of Dean Milman, Latin Christianity, iii. 436, and Dean Hook, Archbishops, ii. 85.

3 Milo, i. 268. "Simili se inibi propter Deum servituti nobilis mater ejus addixit, et concessis Deo prædiis, quæ habebat, ancillæ fungebatur officio."

66

Chron. Becc. ap. Giles, i. 194. Quia campestris et inaquosus est locus." On the necessity of wood and water for monks, we have the witness of Orderic (461 A) in the case of his own house. "Locus iste," says William the son of Geroy, "ubi cœpistis ædificare, habitationi monachorum aptus non est, quia ibi aqua deest et nemus longe est. Certum est quod absque his duobus elementis monachi esse non possunt." The description of Bec in William of Jumièges enlarges on the advantages of the spot. It is "omni opportunitate humano usui commodus. Propter densitatem ac rivi recreationem, ferarum illic multus erat accursus."

5 Will. Gem. vi. 9. "Locus, qui a rivo illic mananti Beccus appellatur." So Chron. Becc. ap. Giles, i. 194. "Locus qui dicitur Beccus, et ita vocitatus a rivulo ibi decurrente, qui adhuc hodiernis temporibus decurrit juxta muros prati."

HERLWIN REMOVES TO BEC

145

rich meadows and under trees planted by the water-side, by the walls of what once was the renowned monastery to which it gave its name. But of the days of Herlwin no trace remains besides these imperishable works of nature. A tall tower, of rich and fanciful design, one of the latest works of medieval skill, still attracts the traveller from a distance; but of the mighty minster itself all traces, save a few small fragments, have perished.1 The monastic buildings, like those of so many other monasteries in Normandy and elsewhere in Gaul, had been rebuilt in the worst days of art, and they are now applied to the degrading purposes of a receptacle of French cavalry. The gateway also remains, but it is, like the rest of the buildings, of a date far later than the days of Herlwin. The truest memorial of that illustrious Abbey is now to be found in the parish church of the neighbouring village. In that lowly shelter is still preserved the effigy with which after times had marked the resting-place of the Founder. Such are all the relics which now remain of the house which once owned Lanfranc and Anselm as its inmates.

In this valley it was that Herlwin finally fixed his infant settlement, devoting to it his own small possessions in the valley itself, and obtaining from Count Gilbert a grant of the adjoining wood, one of the most precious possessions of the lordship of Brionne." There Herlwin built his first church, and added a wooden cloister, which he afterwards exchanged for one of stone.3 There he ruled his house in peace and wisdom, his knowledge of the outer world, and especially his familiarity with the laws of Normandy, standing him, we are told, in good stead. Bec seemed destined to the ordinary lot of a monastic house-to a short succession of men of primitive zeal and primitive virtue, followed by a period of worldly prosperity, leading to its usual results of coldness and laxity. And such doubtless would have been its fate, the glory of Bec would have been as transitory as that of other monastic houses, but for the appearance of one illustrious man, who came to be enrolled as a private member of the brotherhood, and who gave Bec for a while a special and honourable character with which hardly any other monastery in Christendom could compare.

1 his

Abbot Herlwin survived his first conversion for forty-four years;1 first humble church was pulled down and rebuilt, and the new fabric was hallowed in his presence by one whom he had himself received to the monastic order, one who had made Bec the light of the world, and who then returned to his old home in all the greatness of the Patriarch of the nations beyond the sea.2 If the first origin of the house was owing to the simple devotion of its founder and Abbot Herlwin, its lasting fame and splendour were no less owing to the varied learning and soaring genius of its renowned Prior Lanfranc.

The future Primate of England was one of the most illustrious witnesses to that feature in the Norman character which made the men of that race welcome strangers from every quarter, and which led to the settlement of so many eminent men of various nations, both in Normandy itself and in the conquered lands of Britain and Sicily.3 In the days of Richard the Good, monks and priests had flocked into Normandy, even from such distant lands as Greece and Armenia, and the Norman Duke had kept up a close intercourse even with the monks of Mount Sinai. The first great teacher of Bec came from a nearer, though still a distant, region. Lanfranc, Prior of Bec, Abbot of Saint Stephen's, Archbishop of Canterbury, was a native of the Lombard city of Pavia, and was born (1005) of a family which, though perhaps not technically noble, was at any rate eminent and honourable. He was full of all the secular learning of the time, and his range of study seems to have taken in the unusual accomplishment of a knowledge of Greek. A knowledge of that tongue was

5

1 Will. Gem. vi. 9; Ord. Vit. 549 A. 2 Will. Gem. u. s. "Gentium transmarinarum summus Pontifex." Milo, i. 275. "Gentium transmarinarum Apostolicus.' Ib. 272. "Summus antistes et in ecclesiis transmarinis vices apostolicas gerens." See vol. i. pp. 90, 376.

3 Will. Malms. iii. 246. "Omnium gentium benignissimi advenas æquali secum honore colunt."

Milo's

Pont. 1166) says only, "non adeo abjectâ et obscurâ progenie oriundus erat.' description (i. 281) points to a sort of nobility of the robe; "Parentes illius, ejusdem urbis cives, magni et honorabiles habebantur inter suos concives. Nam, ut fertur, pater ejus de ordine illorum qui jura et leges civitatis asservabant fuit." Dr. Hook (Archbishops, ii. 74) refers to his letter to Queen Margaret of Scotland (Giles, i. 59),

4 Chron. Fontanellense (Saint Wand- in which he calls himself "hominem exrille), ap. D'Achery, iii. 286.

5 Orderic's description of him (519 A) begins, "Hic ex nobili parentelâ ortus, Papiæ urbis Italiæ civibus, ab annis infantiæ in scholis liberalium artium studuit, et secularium legum peritiam ad patriæ suæ morem intentione laicâ fervidus edidicit." Gervase (X Scriptt. 1652), from whom we get the names of his parents, says, "natus in urbe Papiensi civibus egregiis et honestâ conditione; pater ipsius Hanbaldus, mater Roza vocabatur." William of Malmesbury (Gest.

traneum, vilem, ignobilem." A sort of civic nobility seems to reconcile the different descriptions.

6 I suppose that a knowledge of Greek is implied in the description given by William of Jumièges (vi. 9); "Ortus Italiâ quidam vir erat, quem Latinitas, in antiquum ab eo restituta scientiæ statum, tota supremum debito cum amore et honore agnoscit, nomine Lanfrancus. Ipsa quoque in liberalibus studiis gentium magistra Græcia discipulos illius libenter audiebat, et

EARLY DAYS OF LANFRANC.

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then probably less rare than it became somewhat later, and it is an accomplishment which might be looked for in Italy, even in the northern part of the peninsula, more naturally than in any country north of the Alps. At the time of Lanfranc's birth and youth, a large part of Southern Italy was still subject to the Eastern Emperors, and the use of the Greek language survived, both in Sicily and on the main land, long after the establishment of the Norman dynasty. A knowledge of that tongue must therefore have been highly useful for those who were likely to have any intercourse, diplomatic or commercial, with the parts of Italy where it was spoken; still we cannot suppose that its acquirement formed any part of the ordinary course of study of a Lombard scholar. But the great object of Lanfranc's study was one especially adapted to the Imperialist city where he was born, the study of the Civil Law. It was an hereditary calling in his family; his father Hanbald was a lawyer of distinction,1 and his son more than maintained the credit of his house. As a pleader, he was eminently successful; the veterans of the courts could not resist the learning and the eloquence with which he spoke, and his legal opinions were accepted as decisive by the magistrates of his native city. His father died while Lanfranc was still young, and his honours and offices were offered to his son.3 Why a man who had such fair prospects at home should have forsaken that home for the distant and barbarous Normandy, it is not easy to guess. We are told only that he heard that Normandy was a land which lacked learning, and that its young Duke was disposed to give encouragement to learned men. At all events, early in the period of anarchy which formed the early years of the reign of William, Lanfranc came into Normandy with a following of scholars, and opened a school (1039) in the episcopal city of Avranches. The cathedral church of that city beheld in after times the penance by which the greatest successor of William atoned for his share in the death of the most renowned among

5

admirabatur." The word "Latinitas OCcurs also in the passage in the Saint Wandrille Chronicle just referred to; "Potestas secundi Richardi, velut amore diluculi, in toto Latinitatis orbe serena refulsit." See also Will. Malms. Prol. in Lib. v.; Orderic, B, 779 D.

tores civitatis acceptabant."

3 Milo, i. 282. "In primævâ ætate patre orbatus, quum ei in honorem et dignitatem succedere deberet." Was Hanbald's post, whatever it was, hereditary?

* Dr. Hook (ii. 76, 80) discusses the question at length. I cannot infer from

753 Be7 the quotation from Orderic just the use of the word "exsilium" by Orderic

above, and Dr. Hook's (ii. 75) discussion (519 A) that Lanfranc was driven from

as to his exact position.

2 Ord. Vit. 519 A.

"Adolescentulus orator veteranos adversantes in actionibus caussarum frequenter præcipitavit, torrente facundiâ apposite dicendo senes superavit. In ipsâ ætate sententias promere statuit quas gratanter juris periti aut judices aut præ

Pavia by any political revolution, any more than Orderic himself, when "tenellus exsul" in Normandy. See above, p. 141.

5 Chron. Becc. i. 195; Hook, ii, 77. 6 The sojourn at Avranches comes from Milo, i. 282. The other accounts seem to bring him to Bec at once,

the successors of Lanfranc. But the glory of Avranches has passed away. From it, alone among the seven episcopal towns of Normandy, minster and Bishoprick have wholly vanished.' But, during those few years of the life of Lanfranc, Avranches must have been an intellectual centre without a rival on this side of the Alps. The fame of the great teacher was spread abroad, and scholars flocked to him from all quarters. But as yet his learning was wholly secular; his pursuits were peaceful, but he thought perhaps less of divine things than Herlwin had thought when he rode after Count Gilbert to battle. At last divine grace touched his heart; a sudden conversion made him resolve to embrace the monastic profession. He left Avranches suddenly, without giving any notice to his friends and scholars, and set forth to seek for the poorest and most lowly monastery that could be found, for one which his own fame had never reached.2 A happy accident led him to Bec, which then fully answered his ideal.3 Received as a monk by Abbot Herlwin (1042), he strove to hide himself from the world; he even at one time thought of leaving the monastery, and leading a life of utter solitude in the wilderness. But the Abbot required him on his obedience to remain, and he was advanced (1045) to the dignity of Prior. He had already proved his fitness to command by his readiness to obey. His predecessor in the Priorship, an unlearned man, had bidden him, when reading in the refectory, to shorten the second syllable of docere. The great scholar did as he was bid, deeming holy obedience to be something higher than the rules of Donatus. But such necessity was not long laid upon him; such a

1 The Bishoprick of Avranches is now merged in that of Coutances, and the cathedral is destroyed; Lisieux is also merged in Bayeux, but the cathedral remaius.

...

2 Will. Gem. vi. 9. "Beccum itaque adiit, quo nullum usquam pauperius æstimabatur vel abjectius coenobium." Ord. Vit. 519 B. "Cœnobiolum Beccense loci situ et paupertate elegit." Milo, i. 282, 283. "Locum adire nolebat, ubi litterati qui eum honori ac reverentiæ haberent. . . . Rogavit sane ut vilius et pauperius cœnobium quod in regione nossent sibi demonstrarent." Will. Malms. Gest. Pont. 116 b. "Multis diu locis curcumspectis, ex omni abbatiarum copiâ Beccum apud Normanniam potissimum elegit, paupertate loci et monachorum religione captus."

The legend is found in a simpler form in Milo, i. 282, 283, and in a fuller shape in the Chronicon Beccense, i. 195, 196, followed by Hook, i. 81, 82. I do not see

4

the chronological difference spoken of by the Dean, except that the Chronicler, like most of the other writers, leaves out the sojourn at Avranches. The two versions are worth comparing, as illustrating the growth of a legend, which is not the less plainly a legend because it contains nothing miraculous. The earlier form is the more consistent with the general story, as it represents Lanfranc as ignorant of Scripture and divine things. The meeting between Lanfranc and Herlwin is well conceived and well told.

+ Milo, i. 285.

5 Ib. 286. "Lanfrancum Priorem constituit, et quidquid ditioni monasterii subjacebat, interius et exterius ipsius curæ commisit."

6 Ib. 284. "Vir sapiens sciens magis obedientiam Christo debere quam Donato, dimisit quod bene pronunciaverat, et dixit quod non recte dicere jubebatur. Nam producere brevem vel longam corripere