Confessor Anselm

Anselm, commemorated in the Western liturgical tradition as a confessor and later honoured as a doctor of the Church, was born in or about 1033 at Aosta in the Kingdom of Burgundy, in the western Alps. His father Gundulf was a Lombard landholder; his mother Ermenberga is described by the monk Eadmer, Anselm's companion and biographer, as devout. In youth he received a grammatical education and, according to Eadmer, wished to become a monk, which his father refused to allow. After Ermenberga's death he left home, crossed the Alps, and spent time in Burgundy and the French kingdom before coming to the Benedictine abbey of Bec in Normandy, drawn by the teaching of Lanfranc. He took the habit there, most probably in 1060. When Lanfranc left in 1063 to govern Saint-Étienne at Caen, Anselm was chosen prior of Bec.

As prior and, from 1078, as abbot, he made Bec a leading school of sacred learning. He wrote the Monologion, a meditation on the divine essence, and the Proslogion, which contains the argument that God is that than which nothing greater can be thought, later called the ontological argument. Other Bec-period treatises include De veritate, De libertate arbitrii, and De casu diaboli. He maintained a large correspondence and, after the Norman Conquest, oversaw Bec's English dependencies. Contemporaries noted his speculative power, monastic observance, and gentleness of manner.

In 1093, after a long vacancy following Lanfranc's death as archbishop of Canterbury, King William II of England nominated Anselm to that see. He accepted reluctantly and was consecrated the same year. Conflict followed over the temporalities of Canterbury, recognition of Pope Urban II, and lay investiture. In 1097 he left England; the departure became exile. He met Urban II in Italy and took part in the Council of Bari in 1098, defending the Latin doctrine of the Filioque. He remained abroad until William II died in 1100.

Henry I recalled him, but dispute over homage and investiture, part of the wider Gregorian reform struggle, produced a second exile from 1103 to 1107. A compromise of 1107 left the king homage for temporalities but ended investiture with ring and staff. Anselm returned, held reforming councils, and continued to write; Cur Deus Homo, his principal work on the Incarnation and atonement, belongs to these years. He died at Canterbury on 21 April 1109 and was buried in the cathedral. His cult grew in England and among Benedictines. Pope Alexander VI canonized him in 1494; Pope Clement XI declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1720. He is invoked as patron of philosophers and theologians, and his principle of faith seeking understanding remains central to medieval intellectual history.