Lanfranc of Canterbury

Lanfranc, O.S.B.
Archbishop of Canterbury
Statue of Lanfranc from the exterior of Canterbury Cathedral
Appointed	August 1070
Term ended	24 May 1089
Predecessor	Stigand
Successor	Anselm of Canterbury
Other posts	Abbot of Saint-Étienne, Caen
Orders
Consecration	15 August 1070
Personal details
Born	1005 x 1010 Pavia, Holy Roman Empire
Died	24 May 1089 Canterbury, Kingdom of England
Buried	Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury, England
Nationality	Italian
Denomination	Roman Catholic Church
Parents	Hanbald

Lanfranc (1005 x 1010  — 24 May 1089) was a celebrated Italian jurist who renounced his career to become a Benedictine monk at Bec in Normandy. He served successively as prior of Bec Abbey and abbot of St Stephen in Normandy and then as archbishop of Canterbury in England, following its Conquest by William the Conqueror. He is also variously known as Lanfranc of Pavia (Italian: Lanfranco di Pavia), Lanfranc of Bec (French: Lanfranc du Bec), and Lanfranc of Canterbury (Latin: Lanfrancus Cantuariensis).

Lanfranc was born in the early years of the 11th century at Pavia, where later tradition held that his father, Hanbald, held a rank broadly equivalent to magistrate. He was orphaned at an early age.

Lanfranc was trained in the liberal arts, at that time a field in which northern Italy was famous (there is little or no evidence to support the myth that his education included much in the way of Civil Law, and none that links him with Irnerius of Bologna as a pioneer in the renaissance of its study). For unknown reasons at an uncertain date, he crossed the Alps, soon taking up the role of teacher in France and eventually in Normandy. About 1039 he became the master of the cathedral school at Avranches, where he taught for three years with conspicuous success. But in 1042 he embraced the monastic profession in the newly founded Bec Abbey. Until 1045 he lived at Bec in absolute seclusion.