His burial at Christ Church. nearly nineteen years ended in the May of the year following the rebellion.[1] He was buried in the metropolitan church of his own rebuilding, and, when his shorter choir gave way to the grander conceptions of the days of his successor, the sweet savour that came from his tomb made all men sure that the pious hope of the Chronicler had been fulfilled.[2]
Change for the worse in the King's character. Lanfranc was borne to his grave amid general sorrow.[3] But the sorrow might have been yet deeper, if men had known the effect which his death would have on the character of the King and his reign. Up to this time the worst features of the character of William Rufus had not shown themselves in their fulness. As long as his father lived, as long as Lanfranc lived, he had in some measure kept them in check. We need not suppose any sudden or violent change. It is the manifest exaggeration of a writer who had his own reasons for drawing as favourable a picture as he could of the Red King, when we are told that, as long as Lanfranc lived, he showed himself, under that wholesome influence, the perfect model of a ruler.[4] There
- ↑ The exact date comes from his Life, 52 (i. 312, ed. Giles); "anno
archiepiscopatus xix, v. calendas Junii diem clausit extremum." The
Latin Chronicler gives us the exact measure of his primacy; "In sede
pontificali sedit annis decem et octo, mensibus ix. duobus diebus." The
Life gives us his epitaph, which begins;
"Hic tumulus claudit quem nulla sub orbe Latino
Gens ignoravit."See N. C. vol. ii. p. 636.
- ↑ Vita Lanfranci, 52 (i. 312, ed. Giles). "Cum immineret dies ipsius dedicationis, sicut mos est, omnia corpora de ecclesia elata fuerunt. Tunc quidam frater, sive curiositate, seu quod magis credibile est, pro reliquiis habendam de casula gloriosi Lanfranci abscidit particulam; de qua miri odoris suavitas efflagrabat. Ostendit aliis, qui et ipsi senserunt odoris fragrantiam. Qua de re intellegi datur, quod anima illius in magna suavitate requiescit; cujus corporis indumenta tanto odore redolent."
- ↑ Vita Lanf.ib. "Doloromnibus incomparabilis, et luctus inconsolabilis suis."
- ↑ See the passages from William of Malmesbury quoted in Appendix G.
