York also claimed
supremacy over the northern bishops of the Isles and Scotland. They
certainly visited and consecrated in these dioceses. After many
quarrels, these pretensions were finally disposed of at Rome. In 1154
the sees of Man and Orkney were placed under the Archbishop of
Drontheim, and in 1188 the whole Scottish Church was released from any
subjection to York and placed under the direct control of the Pope. Only
one Scottish prelate, the Bishop of Whithorn, remained a suffragan to
York, but in the fourteenth century Whithorn also was lost to the
archbishops, and became a part of the Scottish Church.

The Bishop of Durham remained nominally in subjection to the see of
York, but in reality he was often a greater man than his superior. In
1134 the Bishopric of Carlisle was founded and placed under the
authority of the archbishops. Sodor and Man afterwards fell again under
his jurisdiction, and in 1542 the diocese of Chester was founded. The
archbishop has now authority over nine bishoprics. But to return to
Thomas. In 1071 he went with Lanfranc to Rome to receive the pall. The
question of precedence was there argued, and the Pope decided in favour
of Canterbury. Afterwards, at a synod held by William, it was decided
that the Archbishop of York should swear allegiance to Canterbury, and
must be consecrated in Canterbury Cathedral, that the diocese of York
from that time should not extend south of the Humber, and that the
archbishop should lose his authority over the see of Worcester. On the
death of Lanfranc, however, the dispute broke out again. For four years
there was a vacancy to the see of Canterbury; Anselm, the new
archbishop, was consecrated by Thomas, who took the opportunity to
insist that Anselm should not be styled Primate of all England. The
quarrel with Canterbury remained in abeyance until Thurstan was
appointed Archbishop of York (1114 A.D.). He refused to make submission
to Canterbury, and the Archbishop of Canterbury was determined not to
consecrate him until he submitted. There was, therefore, a deadlock.
Thurstan had the support of the Pope, but he was not consecrated until
1119, when the Pope Calixtus himself performed the ceremony at Rheims.
Thurstan obtained a Bull from the Pope releasing him and his successors
for ever from supremacy of Canterbury, and for a time York was
triumphant.

In the reign of Henry II. the quarrel again broke out. This time the
Archbishop of York, Roger Pont L'Ev