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392 MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
Salisbury, Thetford (later Norwich), and Chichester; a little
later two others made a somewhat different move, which did
not extinguish the ancient cathedral but added Bath and
Coventry to the titles of Wells and Lichfield. When all per/
sonal
irregularities had been adjusted the number of diocesan
bishops was fifteen, and the dioceses thus established remained
unchanged till 1540 save for the creation under Henry I ofthe
two small sees of Ely and Carlisle, the latter in
territory never
effectively controlled by William I. With similar papal ap/
proval and questionable documentary support Lanfranc sue/
ceeded in winning, if the expression may be allowed, the first
round in the long contest between Canterbury and York, and
obtained from his opponent the canonical oath of obedience.
This was only part of a very ambitious programme, closely
linked with the designs of William I in the secular sphere,
which aimed at making the British Isles into a single ecclesi/
astical area, a kind of patriarchate of Canterbury. Wales was
easily and permanently included; York was encouraged to
claim metropolitan rights over southern Scotland, and English/
educated monks were consecrated in England for more than one
Irish see, while from one of them, the archbishop of Dublin,
Lanfranc had no difficulty in obtaining an oath of obedience.
This grandiose scheme of Lanfranc's died with him; besides
its intrinsic impracticability, it was outmoded by papal policy
and by the new canon law, which did not recognize metro/
politans with vast provinces; but while the primate lived his
energy and prestige made him the arbiter wherever Norman
arms or English influence made themselves felt.
Lanfranc's pontificate was distinguished by a series of impor/
tant national councils held (with some intervals) annually.
In these he made a number of important reforms, including
a decree in which he reaffirmed the traditional obligation of
married were not
celibacy upon all ordinands. Priests already
to be disturbed, but future
transgressors were to forfeit their
benefice or their married status. It was a compromise: but,
if effective, this legislation would have produced a celibate
clergy in little more than a generation. As it was, the result was