born с 1010, Pavia, Lombardy
died May 28, 1089, Canterbury, Kent, Eng.
Archbishop of Canterbury (1070–89).
An Italian scholar who settled in Normandy, he joined the Benedictine monastery of Bec and was made its prior. He became a trusted adviser of William I (the Conqueror), who made Lanfranc the first abbot of St. Stephen's at Caen and nominated him as archbishop of Canterbury after the Norman Conquest of England. Lanfranc reformed and reorganized the English church, asserted the primacy of Canterbury over York, and introduced the moral components of Gregorian reform. He uncovered a conspiracy against the king (1075), and he secured the succession for William II against Robert II (1087). Lanfranc was also a renowned scholar and theologian who was noted for his criticism of Eucharist .