Saint Anselm of Canterbury

Deprived of this shelter of the cloister and the counsel of his mother who died at that time, Anselm could not resist the temptations of youth; he abandoned himself to dissipation and pleasure. This was perhaps the cause of the aversion his father conceived against him. Gondulph was a haughty and violent lord; he went so far as to mistreat his son. The latter, having been unable to sway him by any means, left the paternal home in secret with a faithful servant and went to Burgundy, where he resumed his studies with ardor. He was then twenty-two years old. Three years later, he went to Normandy, where Saint William of Ivrea, his relative, had just built those churches and convents that we still admire, and where Lanfranc, an Italian like him, taught with such a reputation that he made the sc hool of Bec école du Bec Norman monastery where Anselm was a monk, prior, and then abbot. the most famous in Europe at that time. Anselm became his disciple and his friend. Upon the death of his father, hesitating as to the kind of life he should embrace, he opened his soul to Lanfranc and explained to him the two paths between which he was wavering: entering a monastery, where one finds the sure path of obedience; or remaining in the world, to perform good works with his rich inheritance. Lanfranc, not daring to decide such a delicate question, went with his spiritual son to consult Maurilius, Archbishop of Rouen, a prelate renowned for his prudence and holiness, not only in Normandy and France, but also in Italy, where he had been abbot of Saint Mary of Florence. Maurilius advised the monastic life as the least perilous.

Anselm, following this advice, received the holy habit at the monastery of monastère du Bec Norman monastery where Anselm was a monk, prior, and then abbot. Bec, where Lanfranc was prior; Herluin, who had founded this religious house at his own expense, was its abbot. Our Saint was then twenty-seven years old, and he applied himself so well to imitating the most perfect religious that, three years after his profession, he was elected prior in the place of Lanfranc, who had become abbot of the monastery of Saint-Étienne in Caen; and, a few years later, Abbot Herluin having died, Saint Anselm was again put in his place, despite his resistance.

As Abbot, he governed his religious with admirable prudence and holiness; as this monastery possessed great estates in England, Anselm made several journeys there: he undertook them all the more willingly, as his dear master Lanfranc was then Archbishop of Canterbury. The Saint was received on this island with every kind of respect and veneration; the most considerable persons sought his friendship; William the Conqueror himself, so formidable and inaccessible to the English, became humanized with the Abbot of Bec and seemed to be quite another person in his presence.

William Rufus succ eeded his father, Guillaume le Roux King of England in constant conflict with Anselm. William the Conqueror, on the throne of England in 1087. He was a prince "who feared God very little and men not at all." He exercised all kinds of tyrannies. He usurped ecclesiastical goods, he appropriated the revenues of vacant sees; and, in order to enjoy them longer, he did not want new bishops to be elected in place of the deceased.

It was thus that after the death of Lanfranc, the Church of Canterbury remained five years without a pastor. William even swore, by what is most sacred, that this see would not be filled as long as he lived. He had dared to say: "The Archbishop of Canterbury is me!" But he was immediately struck by the hand of God: he fell gravely ill at Gloucester, and, in a few days, he was reduced to the extremity. He then returned to himself; Anselm, having come to see him, persuaded him to make a general confession of his faults. This prince solemnly promised to repair all the evils he had done, to govern his States henceforth according to the laws, to punish injustice, and to restore liberty to the churches. He began by nominating Anselm to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. Everyone approved this choice. The Saint alone opposed it, alleging his great age, the poor state of his health, and his incapacity for ecclesiastical and civil affairs. The king conjured him with tears to yield to his wishes and those of the nation: "Do you then wish," he said to him, "to lose me in the other world? My salvation is in your hands: I am convinced that God will show me no mercy if the see of Canterbury is not filled before my death." The bishops, and all those who were present, joined their entreaties to those of the king: "Your refusal," they said to Anselm, "scandalizes us; if you persist in it, you will be responsible before God for all the evils that will fall upon the Church and the people of England." Then they had the crosier brought, the king placed it in the hands of Anselm, they forced him to keep it; he cried in vain: "But all that you are doing is null!" They seized him, they led him to the church, where they sang the solemn Te Deum in thanksgiving.

It was March 6, 1093. However, as Anselm had predicted, no sooner was the king cured of his illness than he became more of a tyrant than ever: his ferocity resembled frenzy. He nevertheless continued, for some time, his testimonies of respect toward Anselm, whom he invested with all the temporalities of the Church of Canterbury, and who was consecrated on December 4, 1093. William held a plenary court on Christmas Day. Anselm went there and was received with great marks of honor: but these were the last demonstrations of benevolence from the king.

Having formed the plan to strip his brother Robert of the Duchy of Normandy, he needed new subsidies for this war, which was as difficult as it was unjust. Our Saint offered five hundred pounds of silver, a considerable sum for that time. The King initially accepted this offer, but some of his flatterers persuaded him that it was too modest a sum. He therefore demanded at least another five hundred pounds from Anselm. The Saint replied that he could not levy such a considerable sum from the patrimony of the poor. Some time later, he spoke to the King with generous freedom, exhorting him to provide superiors for the vacant abbeys and to allow the bishops to hold councils, as had always been the practice, in order to remedy the disorders that were multiplying day by day.

When William returned from his expedition to Normandy, where he had spent much money without success (1094), Anselm came to ask his permission to go himself to receive the Pallium, the insignia of his metropolitan dignity, from the hands of Pope Urban II, who was also, on a larger st age, defending pape Urbain II Pope who preached the First Crusade. the liberties of the Church against the Emperor of Germany and the antipope Guibert. The King, extremely irritated, told him that he recognized no one's right to recognize a Pope as legitimate before he had recognized him himself, and that this was an attack against his crown; then, not knowing how to answer the arguments that the Archbishop presented to him with gentleness, he said to him in anger that "he could not at the same time keep fidelity to his king and obedience to the Holy See." Anselm replied that he had always believed this possible; but that if an assembly of the bishops and the great men of the kingdom decided otherwise, he would leave England. The King took him at his word. The assembly took place at Rockingham in 1094; the bishops, most of whom had bought their sees with money and were slaves to royal favor, dared neither to pronounce on the question nor to judge their superior. But they promised the King that they would no longer consider Anselm as their archbishop and would no longer obey him as their primate. It was not the same with the barons: they gave the King a memorable answer: "Anselm is our archbishop: it is for him to govern the Church and religion in this kingdom. Thus, as Christians, we cannot, nor do we wish to, withdraw from his authority, especially since we see in him no fault for which you should treat him thus." As for the people, they greeted the courtier bishops with boos, calling them cowards, traitors, and Judases.

The King was in an embarrassment that covered him with confusion and stirred up his highly flammable fury. To get out of it, he resorted to inconsistency, cunning, and means unworthy of a prince. He secretly sent two of his chaplains, Gerard and William, to Rome, charged with recognizing Urban II as the legitimate pope, if he truly was, and obtaining from him the Pallium, which the King was to deliver himself to the Archbishop of Canterbury. They were not to name Anselm. William hoped that upon the return of his envoys, with Anselm absent, they could, in a new assembly, depose him and give both the Pallium and the Archbishopric of Canterbury to a courtier. A historian calls this sleight of hand; but the Pope did not let himself be deceived: he did indeed send the Pallium, but with a legate, Walter, Bishop of Albano. The latter, it is true, went directly to see the King and had no contact with Anselm; William believed that he would obtain everything he wanted, and many complained that the Holy See seemed to be abandoning its defender; but when the King asked Walter to depose Anselm, promising the Pope an annual tribute and a considerable privilege that history does not specify, the legate replied that this was not his mission, having come, on the contrary, to reconcile the King and the Archbishop of Canterbury. William was forced to hide his resentment and to agree to this public reconciliation. Anselm was summoned before the King, who declared before the legate and his entire court that he was restoring him to peace and favor. The constancy of our Saint was admirable in this circumstance: they dared to ask him, for the King, for at least a sum of money equal to the expenses of the trip to Rome, which had been spared him. He refused it; and when they invited him to retract what he had said in the Assembly of Rockingham, he replied: "I have nothing to change there." They asked him to receive the Pallium from the hand of the King: he said that as the Pallium was the insignia of his ecclesiastical authority, he would take it himself from the altar of his cathedral, without any other intermediary, as if he were receiving it from the hands of the Pope; and this is what took place; after which, the Saint celebrated Mass with all the pontifical pomp, surrounded by the bishops, and in the midst of a people happy to see their pastor victorious in so many battles. Anselm wrote to the Pope to thank him for the Pallium: in this letter, he complains of the burden of the episcopate with which he has been charged, and deeply regrets his solitude.

It was soon seen that the king had not been sincere in his reconciliation with Anselm. His malice broke out at the first opportunity; the Saint believed that, in a position as difficult as his, he needed the advice and support of the Sovereign Pontiff. He therefore asked the king for permission to go to Rome; they had long talks on this subject, either in person or through envoys. "I do not believe him," said the king, "guilty of such sins, nor so much in need of advice, that he must have recourse to the Pope. If he dares to make this journey, I will seize his archbishopric." He even demanded that the Archbishop take an oath never to speak to the Pope about it again. Anselm replied that he would never take this oath; that a Christian could not, without apostasy, renounce any appeal to the vicar of Jesus Christ, to the head of the Church.

William finally had him told that he allowed him to leave; but he forbade him to take anything that belonged to the king. Our Saint came to thank him for a permission granted with such bad grace, and then a scene took place that well depicts the unresentful heart of the Archbishop, the respect he inspired, and the prestige that his presence always exerted. "I come," he said to the king, "to thank you and to assure you that I keep all my affection for you. Now, therefore, that I am going to leave, and that it could be that I might not see you again, I commend you to God, and, as your archbishop, as your father, I would wish, before leaving you, to give you my blessing, if indeed it pleases you." — "But certainly," said the king. Then Anselm stood up, made the sign of the cross on the person of the king, while the latter bowed his head and inclined deeply and with much respect. The next day, Anselm said goodbye to his people, in a touching speech, and having taken from the altar of the cathedral the staff and the pilgrim's bag, he left: a large crowd accompanied him very far, weeping. At Dover, a messenger of the king searched the luggage of the illustrious traveler himself, and having found nothing, he said that he could embark. It was October 10, 1097. As soon as they were at sea, a violent storm arose, which the Saint immediately calmed by his prayers. He landed at the port of Wissant. His march was from then on triumphal: his glorious struggles were known. He was received everywhere as an athlete of the Church, an illustrious victor, a doctor, a saint. He first went to the abbey of Saint-Bertin, where he spent a few days. He consecrated the church of the monastery of Saint-Omer, he preached, he administered the sacrament of confirmation, which everyone wanted to receive from his hands. After this rest, he resumed his journey. One day as he was crossing Burgundy, riding peacefully, he saw the duke of the region coming towards him, commanding armed men; this duke, believing that the primate of England was carrying great riches to Rome, came with the intention of robbing him; but, at the sight of this venerable old man, of this noble face, he felt love and respect suddenly born in his heart, as if he had found himself in the presence of an angel. Anselm said to him: "Lord, if you allow it, I will embrace you." — "It is a grace that you will do me, Reverend Father," replied the lord; "in return for this favor, I place myself at your service and greatly congratulate myself on your arrival on my lands and on your happy encounter." Indeed, he had him escorted by one of his vassals. Anselm, having spent some time with Abbot Hugh, at the monastery of Cluny, went to Lyon, where the archbishop, who was also named Hugh, received him with great demonstrations of joy and respect. He prolonged his stay there because of a serious illness, which for a moment made his life desperate. Urban II, to whom he had written, having replied to urge him to come, he set off, although his health was barely restored, on March 16, 1098. In Savoy, the sovereign of this country, Amadeus II, his relative, showered him with honor and veneration. Anselm exhorted him to persevere in his attachment to the Church and the Holy See. Although he traveled as a simple monk, and only stayed in monasteries, often the people, warned of his passage, came to ask for his blessing.

Arrived in Rome, he was very well received and much honored by Pope Urban, who gave him so much praise, in the presence of the cardinals and other Roman lords, that he was quite confused and did not dare to raise his eyes; he could not believe that the Pope was speaking of him. On the order of the Sovereign Pontiff, he gave a public, modest account of what had happened. Urban promised him his protection and wrote strongly to the king of England, to urge him to restore the Archbishop of Canterbury to all the rights that his predecessors had enjoyed. The Saint, on the advice of the Pope, also wrote to the king to try to soften him. As the air of Rome was contrary to Anselm's health, he stayed only ten days in this city, in the palace of the Popes. He retired, with the approval of Urban II, to the religious of the Holy Savior, in the province of Capua, whose Abbot John, a former monk of Bec, was his friend. John led Anselm to an estate that the monastery possessed, in the high mountains of the Apennines, and named Scavia. There, our Saint had fresh and pure air and solitude; he resumed all the practices of monastic life and finished his treatise: *Why God became man*.

He caused, at the prayer of a monk, a miraculous spring to gush forth which still exists today, and to which supernatural effects are attributed. Enamored of this pleasant retreat, and seeing, by the answers of William, that he would never cease to persecute him, the Archbishop of Canterbury asked the Pope to accept his resignation; but the latter ordered him to keep his see, and made him understand that a courageous leader, in the army of Christ, must not abandon his post, however difficult and perilous it may be. He promised him, moreover, to defend him publicly against the king of England, in the Council of Bari.

"This assembly, which was to work for the reunion of the Greeks with the Roman Church, consisted of one hundred and twenty-three bishops: it took place in the month of October 1098. The Pope took Anselm with him. The Greeks sought to prove, by the Gospel, that the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father. The Pope answered them with several reasons, partly drawn from the *Treatise on the Incarnation*, which Anselm had formerly sent him; then, suddenly, he exclaimed: "Anselm, archbishop of the English, our father and our master, where are you? it is now that you must use all your science, all your eloquence. Come, appear in our midst, mount this chair and defend our mother, the holy Church, against the attacks of the Greeks: come to our aid, messenger of God." Anselm rose, all eyes turned towards this unknown bishop who had until then kept in the shadows: the Pope continued to praise him and tell his history, speaking of his writings, his holiness, his struggles for the faith; and although Anselm declared himself ready to refute the Greeks at that instant, as it was late, the discussion was postponed. The next day, Anselm having mounted the chair, pronounced the beautiful speech which has since become a treatise under the title: *On the Procession of the Holy Spirit* against the Greeks. This was the closing of this question. They then began the affair of the king of England; it was proven so well that he had committed such enormous crimes, and that he was incorrigible, that the indignation was universal in the Council: all the Fathers, even the Greeks, begged the Pope to launch excommunication against William. But Saint Anselm, throwing himself at the knees of Urban, begged him, with tears, to defer this sentence, which was granted to him: everyone admired his extreme sweetness and his great kindness.

Back in Rome, the Pope celebrated another Council there, after Easter of the year 1099, still keeping the Archbishop of Canterbury with him, and doing him so many honors that at assemblies, processions, stations and everywhere else, he was always second after him; there was so much veneration for Anselm that, not only Catholics, but infidels, usually called him the *Holy Man*. Several even, after having kissed the feet of the Pope, wanted to render a similar respect to the Archbishop; but, quite confused by these honors, he hid where he could, in order to avoid them. To the decrees of the Council of Rome of the year 1099, one was added carrying the penalty of excommunication against laymen who would arrogate to themselves the right to give investiture of abbeys and bishoprics, and against the persons who would receive them from them. This general formula, without having anything odious or personal, included King William and all the enemies of Anselm. Having therefore obtained the repression of abuses (the only justice he asked for), he took the road to France. To better practice obedience, he had begged the Pope to appoint someone to whom he would submit, in all his actions, like a monk to his abbot. The Pope had designated for this office, Eadmer, intimate companion of our Saint, his disciple and his biographer. Ansel m did Eadmer Monk, disciple, and biographer of Saint Anselm. nothing without his orders. Arrived in Lyon, he was received there with great honors by Archbishop Hugh, who had him celebrate the holy offices pontifically in his cathedral, and exercise

episcopal functions throughout his diocese. It was during this stay that Anselm composed his book on the Conception of the Blessed Virgin and Original Sin. Urban having died in the month of July of the same year, he wrote to Paschal II, his successor, in order to inform him of his case. All the regions neighboring Lyon were all the more eager for the Saint's presence, as the grace of miracles accompanied him. In Vienne, two sick lords were cured by eating crumbs from his table: another obtained the same grace by attending the mass that Anselm celebrated at Saint-Étienne; on the road to Cluny, his blessing delivered a young girl possessed by the demon: upon returning, he joined in the prayers that the people of Mâcon were offering during a disastrous drought, and he obtained abundant rain. At La Chaise-Dieu, he extinguished, by the sign of the cross, a fire that threatened to devour the monastery, and it caused not the slightest damage. However, one day, the holy abbot Hugh told Anselm that, the previous night, he had seen King William brought before the tribunal of God, accused, judged, and condemned to eternal punishment. Two other people had a similar vision. This unfortunate prince had, in fact, been killed while hunting on August 2, 1100, without having had the time to reconcile with God. Two monks, sent expressly from England, brought the news to Anselm, who shed abundant tears over this impenitent death: sobs choked his speech: "Would that I had died myself," he said, "rather than learn of such an end, without any sign of repentance." Henry I, successor to William, having written to him that all of E ngland si Henri Ier Successor to William Rufus, also involved in the investiture controversy. ghed for the happiness of seeing him again, the holy Archbishop departed without delay and arrived at Dover on September 23, 1100.

Henry I had hastened to seize the throne of England before his elder brother, Robert, Duke of Normandy, who was fighting the infidels in the Holy Land; to consolidate his position, he promised a reign full of wisdom and moderation; he gave his barons a charter, which is regarded as the origin of English liberties; he favored the Saxons, until then disinherited and oppressed by the Norman kings; he restored the Church's independence: for the same reason, he received Anselm with much veneration and cordiality. But a grave dispute immediately arose between them, which placed them in mutual embarrassment: Henry invited Anselm to pay him homage according to custom and to receive from his royal hand the investiture of his archbishopric. Our Saint, who was charged by the Holy See to execute the decrees of the last council of Rome, could not violate them himself; he made known to the king these decrees forbidding laymen from giving the investiture of bishoprics and abbeys. The king did not wish to accept this law, contrary, he said, to the rights of his crown; he did not dare, however, to pronounce himself definitively on this question at a moment when his authority was not yet established, and it was agreed to consult the Pope. Meanwhile, Robert, having returned from the Holy Land, landed in England to assert his rights: several lords sided with him, although they had sworn inviolable fidelity to Henry. In danger of losing his crown, Henry declared that he would no longer trust anyone but Anselm; he protested to him that he would henceforth abandon to him, entirely and without any hindrance, the care of the Church and religion throughout the kingdom, and that he, the king, would constantly and faithfully obey the decrees and orders of the sovereign Pontiff. Anselm devoted himself entirely to Henry: he multiplied his efforts despite his great age, harangued the troops, reminded the deserting barons of the fidelity they had sworn, and threatened them with excommunication. He thus prevented the shedding of blood. When the two armies were in each other's presence, the two brothers held conferences where they reconciled and embraced publicly. It is not within our subject to recount how the clauses of the treaty, signed then by the two brothers, were loyally observed by Robert and disloyally violated by Henry; from which followed a new war. Henry did not keep his word to Anselm any better than he did to his brother. The danger passed, he continued to arrogate to himself the right to give the investiture of benefices. Anselm, for his part, continued to remain faithful to the laws of the Church and constantly refused to consecrate bishops appointed by the king in an anti-canonical manner. Henry sent messengers to Rome who implored the Pope, in the name of his own interests and to restore peace, to temper the rigor of the decrees of his predecessors against investitures: they explained that there were no other means to calm the king's anger: "Death rather," replied the Holy Father, "than to yield to threats, to derogate from the decrees of my predecessors." He wrote at the same time two letters: one to the king, the other to the archbishop; he approved the conduct of the latter and exhorted him to continue it. The king would undoubtedly have come to extremities against Anselm, had it not been for public opinion, which declared itself in his favor. He saw no other means of getting rid of him than to invite him to go to Rome to consult the Pope himself on this matter. The Saint, despite his great age, embarked on April 27, 1103. The king had another ambassador leave for Rome at the same time. All that Henry obtained thereby from Pope Paschal was the penalty of excommunication brought against all those who would receive from him the investiture of ecclesiastical dignities.

When his presence was no longer necessary in Rome, Anselm set out for England; but at Lyon he received a prohibition from the English monarch to return to his states, as long as he had not resolved to conform to his wishes. The debates continued; there was an exchange of correspondence that one will read with the keenest interest, but which it would be too long to report here. Our Saint must have been greatly consoled by the care of Hugh, Archbishop of Lyon; by the letters of the good Queen Saint Matilda, wife of the King of England; and by those of Philip Augustus and his son Louis the Fat. Finally, the Pope excommunicated Henry's advisors, who, fearing the wrath of the Church for himself, eventually reconciled with Anselm: the king renounced ecclesiastical investiture; for his part, Anselm consented to pay homage to the king for the fiefs that his archbishopric had received from William the Conqueror. The preliminaries were agreed upon in the small town of L'Aigle. The reconciliation took place at the monastery of Bec, where the king, who was then in Normandy, came to find Anselm, who was ill, on August 15, 1106. The Archbishop of Canterbury immediately returned to England, where he was received as if in triumph by Princess Matilda and by all the Orders of the kingdom. From that moment on, the king and the archbishop lived in perfect understanding: Anselm even administered the kingdom in Henry's absence.

Despite his pastoral, administrative, and political occupations; despite the state of languor in which he spent the last three years of his life, our Saint continued his theological research, which he had never interrupted. He had, in his sufferings, enough strength to put the finishing touches to one of his most remarkable works: the Treatise on the Concord of Foreknowledge, Predestination, and Grace with Free Will. It was his swan song: there reigns in this treatise, to illuminate the obscure knot where divine action mingles with the human action of our deeds, like a glimmer from heaven, for the doctor was already on the threshold of eternity; nowhere does he use clearer expressions, a more logical sequence of ideas.

Six months before his death, he fell into extreme weakness: he had himself carried every day to church to hear Mass, which he could no longer celebrate. The day before his death, he said that he was ready to appear before God, but that he regretted not having the time to write on the origin of the soul, a question on which he had long meditated. He was asked to give his blessing to the kingdom of England and to the royal family: his patriotic sentiments then reawakened and communicated to his failing hand all the strength it would have had in health; he gave this blessing, which was received amidst tears and sobs. It was the Tuesday of Holy Week; the night was advancing: while the monks of the convent were singing Matins and Lauds, one of those who were watching over him had the thought of reading to him the Passion of Jesus Christ, according to Saint John; when he had arrived at these words of the Savior: "Since you have been firm with me in the struggle and in the temptations, behold I am going to prepare for you the kingdom that my Father has prepared for me, so that you may eat and drink with me in my kingdom!", Anselm smiled and raised his eyes to heaven; his breathing became slower; he had himself placed on the ashes. He received the holy Viaticum with the love of a seraph. When they wanted to give him Extreme Unction, they noticed that there were only a few drops of holy oil, barely sufficient for the anointings prescribed by the ritual; but it increased by miracle. The holy Archbishop rendered his beautiful soul to God, on April 21, 1109, in the seventy-sixth year of his age; he was buried in Canterbury Cathedral; several miracles occurred through his intercession. Pop e Clement XI, in 1720, g cathédrale de Cantorbéry Capital of the Kingdom of Kent and center of the Augustinian mission. ave Saint Anselm the title of Doctor of the Church, with the office and proper rite, as observed on the day of his feast, April 21.

Saint Anselm became famous for his great devotion to Mary. He is credited with establishing in the West the feast of the Immaculate Conception, which was long called the Feast of the Normans. Thus, Mary is often depicted with the infant Jesus in her arms, appearing to Saint Anselm, whether he was truly favored with this apparition, or whether it is intended only to recall his tender devotion to Mary. — A famous engraving, known as the patrons of Siena, depicts him with a very frightened hare, huddled in his sleeve. This refers to the following hunting incident: Saint Anselm was riding one day through the flat countryside of England, when suddenly a hare, ardently pursued by a pack of hounds, became entangled in the legs of his horse, causing it to rear, and then it did not move again. The hunters were not far off; having arrived at the scene of the incident, they began to laugh at the Bishop's position: "My friends," he said to them, "this is more serious than you think: this represents the state of the soul upon leaving this world: demons, like so many devouring dogs, set out in pursuit of it; pray to God that each of yours finds protection at that fearful hour." He spoke and returned the hare to its woods. Having encountered, another time, a child who was holding a bird tied by a string, he obtained the freedom of the bird and took advantage of the circumstance to make a very appropriate reflection on the strength of bad habits, which are for the soul what a string is for a bird: a chain almost impossible to break. This truly holy man also said: "I would rather go to hell without sin than to paradise with a sin!" What knowledge of the perfections of God and the ugliness of the offense against infinite perfections! These various traits can serve to characterize Saint Anselm in the arts.

## WRITINGS OF SAINT ANSELM AND EADMER, HIS BIOGRAPHER.

1° The *Monologion*, so titled because the Saint speaks alone in it, composed before the year 1108. It is a treatise that contains metaphysical proofs of the existence and nature of God.

2° The *Proslog Prologion Work containing the ontological proof of the existence of God. ion*, so titled because the author converses in it either with himself or with God regarding the existence and attributes of the Supreme Being. The meditations known as the *Manual of Saint Augustine* are primarily drawn from this work. Gaunilo, a monk of Marmoutier, having criticized it, Saint Anselm provided a solid response.

3° The *Treatise on Faith, the Trinity, and the Incarnation*, composed in 1093 or 1094. It is a refutation of the errors advanced by Roscelin, who, having come to Compiègne, in the diocese of Soissons, was made a canon there and charged with public lectures. This Roscelin, who was more versed in dialectics than in theology, lost his faith by wishing to subject the depth of our mysteries to the weak lights of his reason.

4° The *Treatise on the Procession of the Holy Spirit against the Greeks*, composed around the year 1100. It is divided into twenty-nine chapters, not counting the prologue and epilogue.

5° The *Book on the Fall of the Devil*, in the form of a dialogue, was written by Saint Anselm when he was prior of Bec. It treats the nature and origin of evil.

6° The two books titled: *Why Did God Become Man?* This work is written in the form of a dialogue.

7° The *Treatise on the Virginal Conception and Original Sin*, composed at the request of the monk Boso, like the previous one.

8° The *Treatises on Truth, Will, and Free Choice*. Human freedom is solidly established in the third.

9° The *Treatise on Concord, Prescience, and Predestination*. It is proven therein:

1° that the prescience of God does not harm the free choice of man; 2° that predestination is not repugnant to freedom; 3° that freedom is compatible with the efficacy of grace.

10° The *Treatise on Unleavened and Leavened Bread*, where one finds the refutation of what the Greeks objected to the Latins.

11° The *Treatise on Concubinary Clerics*, where it is decided, in accordance with the ancient canons, that priests whose incontinence has become public must be deprived forever of the functions of their Order.

12° The *Treatise on Marriages between Relatives*, which Saint Anselm says are forbidden up to the sixth degree.

13° The *Treatise of the Grammarian*, which is an introduction to dialectics or the art of reasoning correctly.

14° The *Book on the Will of God*. The holy doctor distinguishes in God various kinds of wills under various relations.

The treatises we have just spoken of compose the first part of the works of Saint Anselm; then come the parenetic or exhortatory, moral, and ascetic works, the details of which follow.

1° *Homilies*, which are sixteen in number.

2° An *Exhortation to the Contempt of Temporal Things*.

3° A *Warning to a Dying Person Frightened at the Sight of His Sins*.

4° A *Poem on the Contempt of the World*. It is not by Saint Anselm, but by Roger of Caen, a monk of Bec. See Mabillon, Annal. I. 65, n. 41.

5° *Meditations*, twenty-one in number. It is believed that they are not all by Saint Anselm. The goal of these meditations is to excite readers to love and fear God, and to help them know themselves well.

6° *Orations* or prayers, seventy-four in number. A great spirit of piety and compunction is noted in them.

7° *Hymns* in honor of the Blessed Virgin for all the hours of the day and night, and a *Psalter*, composed of three parts, and each part of several stanzas, each of four iambic verses. Several authors doubt that this psalter is by Saint Anselm.

The third part of the works of Saint Anselm contains his letters, divided into four books. In the first book are those he wrote before being abbot; in the third and fourth, those he wrote while being Archbishop of Canterbury. These letters are 426 in number in the edition of Fr. Gerberon. Fr. d'Achéry, Spicil. t. IX, Baluze, Misc. t. IV and V, and Ussher, in Epist. Hibern., have published several that Fr. Gerberon had not known.

It has been falsely attributed to Saint Anselm the *Elucidarium*, the *Discourse on the Conception of the Blessed Virgin*, a *Commentary on the Epistles of Saint Paul*, the *Acts of the Martyrs of Ireland*, the *Dialogue on the Passion*, the *Treatise on the Measure of the Cross*, the *Treatise on Stability*, etc.

One notes in the writings of Saint Anselm a profound knowledge of philosophy, metaphysics, and theology. Precision and clarity are combined there with the elevation of thoughts and the solidity of reasoning. Although Saint Anselm had read the Fathers much, and especially Saint Augustine, he rarely makes use of their authority. He almost always establishes revealed truths by the proofs that reason provides, which has caused him to be regarded as the father of scholastic theology. His goal in this was to show that one can, by reasoning founded on natural lights, make credible the truths that God has revealed. As for his ascetic works, they are instructive, edifying, full of unction and a certain tenderness of love for God, which warms the most insensitive hearts. A simple, natural, clear, and concise style makes the principal merit of his letters. One judges, by the verses that remain of him, that he did not have poetic genius in the highest degree.

The works of Saint Anselm have been printed several times. A good edition is that which Fr. Gerberon, a beneficiary of the Congregation of Saint-Maur, gave in Paris in 1675, in-fol. It reappeared in the same city in 1721, at Montalant. It is this latter that Mr. Migne reproduced in volumes CLVIII and CLIX of the Patrologia. D. Joseph Saenz, better known under the name of Cardinal d'Aguirre, gave the theology of Saint Anselm, that is to say, a commentary on the dogmatic works of this Father, which was printed in Salamanca in 1679, 1681, 1685, 3 vol. in-fol. It was reprinted in Rome in 1680, 1689, and 1690, with additions and corrections. Cf. D. Ceillier, t. XIV, 4th ed.

As Fr. Gerberon, and after him Mr. Migne, gave in his edition of the works of Saint Anselm the works of at least Eadmer, we will say something about him here. Eadmer was English by birth. He was first a monk of Bec, then of Canterbury. He became the friend and confidant of Saint Anselm, whom he accompanied in his exile. He was offered the bishopric of Saint Andrews, in Essex. Some say he refused it, others claim he accepted it. If it is true that he was a bishop, he must have abdicated the episcopate, for he died prior of Canterbury in 1137. He must not be confused with Eadmer or Kalmer, prior of Saint-Athan, who died in 980, to whom are attributed letters, homilies, and five books of spiritual exercises. (See Fabricius, Biblioth. latin., t. II, p. 214.) The one of whom we speak composed: 1° *Life of Saint Anselm*, divided into two books. It is found in the editions of the works of Saint Anselm, as well as in Surius and Bollandus; 2° *History of Recent Events*, that is to say, of what happened most considerably in the British Church from the year 1066 to the year 1122; it is divided into six books. Gerberon published this history with the notes of John Selden, who bears the following judgment on it: "In sermone (Eadmeri) nitore ejusmodi reperitur, ut si veteres rerum nostratium scriptores ad unum omnes diliguntius evolveris, hujus fuerit incomparabilis. Stylumque ejus mabilem, gravem, et historico, ut ita dicam, dignum pro se fere, vocabula etiam fere ubique plura. Ceteri quos novimus comitant, sive priores sive recentiores, barbarie, squalore et sordium congerie pro Eadmero plerumque deturpantur. Etiam Malheobaricussem hic noster stylo saltem aequat, in ceteris autem longo plane intervallo superat"; 3° *Book on the Excellence of the Blessed Virgin*; 4° *Treatise on the Four Virtues* (justice, prudence, fortitude, temperance) which were in Mary; 5° *Treatise on Beatitude*, composed according to what Eadmer had heard Saint Anselm say about the state of the blessed in heaven; 6° *Treatise on Similitudes*. The foundation is also by Saint Anselm. It was edited by one of his disciples who is believed to be Eadmer; 7° *Lives of Several Saints of England*. There are still other works by Eadmer which have not been printed. (See Wharton, *Prof. in.* t. II, *Angl. sacr.*) The writings of Eadmer are esteemed for order and accuracy; the style is easy and natural.

We have composed this short account with the *History of the Life and Century of Saint Anselm*, by Canon J. Coust-Monchet, professor of theology at Pignerol. (1 vol. in-8°, 1889, at Casterman.)