Council of Winchester (1070)

It also promulgated a large number of measures relating to ecclesiastical practice in England, of which some parallel aspects of the Gregorian Reforms advocated by the Papacy in the late 11th century.

[3] During the years 1068 to 1070 William was much occupied in establishing his rule over England against the opposition of many of his Anglo-Saxon subjects, culminating in an abortive uprising in Yorkshire and the consequent Harrying of the North, and an attempted invasion by king Sweyn Estrithson of Denmark.

[5] One especially thorny problem was the position of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stigand, whose legitimacy in that office was for several reasons doubtful and who before the Conquest had in secular affairs been a supporter of the House of Godwin.

[12] There is no mention of any swearing of oaths by or to the king, and William's legitimacy continued to rest on his first coronation,[13] the ceremony's purpose being not to establish but to reaffirm his authority and his status as a favoured son of the Church.

[15] William's intention, John of Worcester tells us, was to "appoint men of his own race [to] strengthen his position in the newly acquired kingdom", and in order to achieve this he "stripped of their offices many bishops and abbots who had not been condemned for any obvious reason, whether of conciliar or secular law".

[22] The overall policy observable here is the one followed in English church legislation for the next seventy years: to enforce celibacy, fight simony, and so far as possible remove churchmen from secular affairs.

[23] Unsurprisingly, when William came to appoint replacements for the purged Anglo-Saxon bishops he mainly chose Normans, for the most part chaplains in the chapel royal or churchmen otherwise well known to him.