Question 1
Evaluate the interpretations in both of the two passages.
Explain which you think is more convincing as an explanation of Henry I’s relationship with the
English Church.
Passage A
It was on the observance of this ‘custom of his ancestors’ that Henry I now insisted. It was essential from the king’s point of view that he should have some control over the appointment and loyalty of bishops and abbots. The original struggle was for the freedom of the Church from secular interference and for free elections. Henry may have admitted that elections should be free, but in fact they took place under royal influence. The king took care that it became the custom that the bishop-elect should give homage before he was consecrated as bishop. The royal influence in elections was decisive. Moreover the character of the bishops did not materially change as a result of the compromise of Bec.
In spite of the settlement of the investiture question in 1107, the reform movement made slow progress. The king was at heart against it and clung to the ‘ancient custom’. The promises in his coronation charter were made when his position on the throne was not secure. Now that he was firmly seated upon it, he could afford to forget his undertakings. The Church was anything but free. In one respect Henry went even further than his brother William in that he continued to make a financial matter out of the marriage of clergy. Henry’s government of the Church was far from acceptable at Rome. The pope was effectively prevented from exercising any real control over the government of the Church in England.
A. L. Poole, From Domesday Book to Magna Carta 1087–1216, published in 1955.
Passage B
Historians have always assumed that Henry I was the despoiler of churches, but all the evidence is to the contrary. He was no tyrant. Despite the difficult years at the beginning of the reign, when Henry discovered that the rules of Church-state relations had changed, the remainder of his years passed with the Church enjoying a long period of calm during which it flourished. Henry learned early that he could not win by making an enemy of the Church. What Henry offered the Church is patronage, wealth, justice, and peace.
He demonstrated to the Anglo-Norman Church and the papacy that the man in charge was clever enough to make concessions when necessary, to seek the practical middle road, to treat the Church as the vital element of the realm that it was. Throughout his long reign, Henry admittedly ‘managed’ the Church, but he did so according to accepted rules. He was extremely generous, helping to make possible the spiritual role of the Church. He sought the support of all elements of the Church. He seems to have been particularly proud of providing justice for his churchmen. In the eyes of his contemporaries, he was an effective guardian of the Church. He might have reflected with pleasure on his achievement: the Church in capable hands; his relations with the papacy friendly and on the king’s terms.
C. Warren Hollister, Henry I, published in 2003.
[30]
Answer
