434 Lakhmid dynasty
(Aldershot: Variorum, 1995); André Vauchez, The Laity in
the Middle Ages: Religious Beliefs and Devotional Practices,
ed. Daniel Bornstein and trans. Margery J. Schneider
(Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press,
1993); André Vauchez, “The Church and the Laity,” in
The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. 5, c. 1198–c.
1300,ed. David Abulafia (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1999), 182–203.
Lakhmid dynasty They were an Arabic tribal federa-
tion founded in the third century by Amr ibn Adi,
who lived in the eastern Arabian and the Syrian
Mesopotamian deserts. For most of that period they were
controlled by the Persians or Sassanians with their capi-
tal at al-Hira. They were frequently embroiled in the
conflicts between the Roman or BYZANTINEEmpire and
the Sassanids. The Byzantines and their allies the GHAS-
SANIDS, another Arabic-federated tribal group, eventually
attacked and took al-Hira in 578. It had been the center
of a pre-Islamic Arabic culture and was well connected
and familiar with Christianity. The Sassanids later exe-
cuted their last leader in 602, and the federation disap-
peared from history. They had served as a buffer between
the Byzantines and the Persians in Syria and
Mesopotamia and the Arabs farther south.
Further reading:al-Tabari, The Sasanids, the Byzan-
tines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen,trans. C. E. Bosworth
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999); Irfan
Shahîd, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century
(Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library,
1984); Irfan Shahîd, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth
Century(Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research
Library, 1989); Irfan Shahîd, Byzantium and the Arabs in
the Sixth Century(Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks
Research Library, 1995). C. E. Bosworth, “Iran and the
Arabs before Islam,” Cambridge History of Iran.Vol. 3,
The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods,ed. Ehsan
Yarshater (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1982).
lamps SeeLIGHTING DEVICES.
Lance, Holy SeeHOLYLANCE.
Lancelot legendary and literary figure in Arthurian
literature
In the various forms of Arthurian literature during the
Middle Ages, Lancelot usually appeared as the son of a
noble king dispossessed of his land and a water fairy (the
Lady of the Lake), who raised him in her mysterious and
splendid domain, training him to be a peerless KNIGHT.In
these stories, he encountered GUINEVERE, the wife of
King ARTHUR, the victim of an abduction that Arthur
could not rectify. Lancelot eventually freed the queen and
killed her abductor. He became attached to Guinevere to
the point of allowing himself to be beaten in a tourna-
ment and committing acts neither honorable or even
moral. He had other numerous adventures and exploits,
but this adulterous love for Guinevere prevented him
from pursuing the Holy GRAIL, a pursuit for which he
had been predestined. Arthur’s ideal ROUND TABLEeventu-
ally disintegrated in great part because of Lancelot’s fail-
ings and the jealousy of others toward him. He eventually
died in peace.
Further reading:Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot, or, The
Knight of the Cart,trans. Ruth Harwood Cline (Athens:
University of Georgia Press, 1990); Frank Brandsma,
“Lancelot,” in A Dictionary of Medieval Heroes: Characters
in Medieval Narrative Traditions and Their Afterlife in Lit-
erature, Theatre and the Visual Arts,ed. Willem P. Gerrit-
sen and Anthony G. Van Melle (1993; reprint, Rochester,
N.Y.: The Boydell Press, 1998), 160–170; Elspeth
Kennedy, Lancelot and the Grail: A Study of the Prose
Lancelot(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986); William W.
Kibler, ed., The Lancelot–Grail Cycle: Text and Transforma-
tions(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994).land tenure SeeFEUDALISM AND THE FEUDAL SYSTEM;
FIEF; KNIGHTS AND KNIGHTHOOD; PEASANTRY.Lanfranc of Bec (ca. 1010–1089)archbishop of Canter-
bury, theologian, monastic reformer
Lanfranc was born in the LOMBARDcity of Pavia, where
he studied the SEVEN LIBERAL ARTSand law. He began his
career as a lawyer but was banished from his hometown.
In 1042 he went to NORMANDY, where he opened a school
at Avranches but soon entered the recently founded
monastery of Bec. He preferred a hermetic life, but the
abbot kept him at Bec and made him director of the
monastic school. That school soon became one of the
most famous in Europe, producing IVO of Chartres,
ANSELM OFCANTERBURY,ANSELM OFLUCCA, the future
Pope Alexander II (r. 1061–72), and a great number of
reforming bishops. He was prior between 1045 and 1063.
Lanfranc taught dialectic and RHETORIC, but also biblical
exegesis. His main work was the Book on the Sacrament of
the Body and Blood of Christ against Berengar.It was the
product of a long controversy with BERENGAR OFTOURS.
Lanfranc defended the doctrine of the transubstantiation
or the change to the real presence of Christ in the
Eucharist. He was denounced by Berengar but defended
himself successfully before the pope. Using dialectic and
LOGIC, Lanfranc demonstrated the incoherence of Beren-
gar’s doctrinal arguments.
From his early career, he had been in contact with
Duke William of NORMANDY, the future WILLIAMI THE
CONQUERORof ENGLAND, whose counselor he became. In
1063, he was appointed abbot of the abbey of Saint Éti-
enne in Caen, as a reward for helping regularize William’s