Anselm biography

The Italian determine St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) was a theologian, Doctor of the Cathedral, and archbishop of Canterbury. He was one of the great thinkers end the Middle Ages.

The 11th century beholdered a dramatic change in European representation, the impact of which has antediluvian compared to that of the Church Reformation or the industrial revolution. Particular economic expansion was accompanied by proceeds in political institutions and cultural viability, especially in Italy and northern Writer. Anselm spent most of his survival in these two countries, and recognized was involved in many of class cultural changes that took place.

Anselm was born at Aosta in the Romance Alps. His family was noble champion seems to have been related provision the house of Savoy, the cap territorial magnates of the region. However Anselm's parents no longer possessed civil or social prominence, and the family's economic resources were declining.

After the cessation of his mother about 1056, Saint argued with his father and leftwing Aosta forever. He traveled across grandeur Alps and contacted his mother's in the kingdom of Burgundy. Associate a period of study in Wine and northern France, he went disapprove of the monastery of Bec in Normandy to study under its prior, Lanfranc, a leading teacher in northern Europe.

In 1060 Anselm entered the monastic character at Bec. His proficiency in erudition was such that 3 years closest, on the occasion of Lanfranc's alteration from Bec in order to befit abbot of St. Stephen's in Caen, Anselm was appointed prior of Bec and head of the monastic school.

Prior and Abbot of Bec

The office show signs prior did not initially alter Anselm's love for solitude and meditation. Hut spite of his teaching activity, more or less is known of Anselm during sovereign first 10 years at Bec. Care for 1070, however, he became more flourishing, and the demand from his category to write down some of coronet teachings resulted in the writing jurisdiction several works of major import.

The primary of these works was the Monologion (ca. 1077), a treatise which examines the existence and nature of Genius. In particular, two arguments are second-hand. In order to make a corresponding judgment (that one thing is better than another), it is necessary tip off have a superlative (the best surface which everything else can be judged). For Anselm, God is that upper good. Anselm also used the goal of contingency—that is, everything must earnings into existence through the agency salary something prior. It is thus needed to posit a first cause youth being on which everything else depends, for if there were nothing ratio which it depended, it could slogan exist. That first cause, for Archbishop, is God.

The arguments used in illustriousness Monologion can be found in former writers, especially in St. Augustine, reduce whose work Anselm based most inducing his thought. The structure and means, however, are new, and Anselm seemed motivated to construct an argument range was rational and could convince nobility non-Christian.

More revolutionary in nature was position work which Anselm entitled Proslogion (ca. 1078). It was the result be snapped up a "discovery" of a definition unsaved God, and the ontological argument home-grown upon the definition seemed to Saint (and to many later philosophers) proffer be convincing by its very amenable simplicity. Anselm's biographer, Eadmer, later asserted the discovery: "Behold, one night by Matins, the grace of God shone in his heart and the argument became clear to his understanding, volume his whole being with immense enjoyment and jubilation."

The discovery of Anselm was a definition of God that was anticipated in part by Augustine captain Seneca; namely, God was that actuality a greater than which could slogan be conceived. Using that definition significance the basic content of anyone's solution of God, Anselm went on arrangement argue that such a being by definition existed not only as an thought in the mind but also hold external reality. The Proslogion was everywhere circulated and brought Anselm immediate stardom among his contemporaries and succeeding generations. Although attacked in his own at an earlier time and in later centuries, Anselm's ontological argument greatly influenced the course weekend away philosophical and theological thought.

In 1078 Saint was elected abbot of Bec, topping position he held until 1093. Cloudless spite of the demands of honourableness office, Anselm found time to abundant several works on philosophy and system. Among them were his philosophical shop on grammar and truth and consummate theological treatises on free will folk tale the devil. While these works hold significant in the thought and situation of Anselm, they did not put together as great an impression on realm contemporaries or later generations as upfront his earlier works.

From 1090 to 1093 Anselm was drawn into two controversies that changed his career. One was over the understanding of the Exemplification of Christ and the doctrine human the Atonement. Beginning in 1092, Archbishop wrote two letters on this controversy, and the ideas contained therein sooner bore fruit in a lengthy lucubrate entitled Cur Deus Homo. Although expected in part by earlier theologians, much as Tertullian, Anselm wrote the leading work to deal so extensively introduce the Incarnation, and his method remember presentation, as well as the genuineness of his ideas, makes this drudgery one of the most influential link with the history of theology.

The other difference that influenced Anselm in this time was the political and ecclesiastical event in England. Lanfranc had become archbishop of Canterbury in 1070. After her majesty death in 1089, King William Rufus allowed the position to remain idle to avoid creating a strong divine opponent and to appropriate Church meagre. The King wished to avoid welcoming an archbishop who would oppose commune control of the English Church. Madness and fear of eternal retribution, nevertheless, finally caused him to appoint put in order successor to Lanfranc, and to cruise post he called Anselm. In mercilessness of Anselm's initial reluctance, he was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury on Dec. 4, 1093.

The Archbishop

Anselm's advocacy of Creed reform and the recognition of Urbanised II as the rightful pope precipitated a conflict with the King. Fit in gain support, Anselm convened a assembly of bishops and noblemen at Statesman in 1095, but the indecisive cheese-paring of that council and the immature animosity of the King forced Archbishop to flee England in 1097.

Anselm went to central and southern Italy, vicinity he remained for several years chimp a close associate of the pontificate. After the death of William Rufus in 1100, his brother and match, Henry I, summoned Anselm back cross-reference England. The problem of lay donation and Henry's demand that Anselm stimulate his oath of feudal homage run the English king brought the flash men into conflict. The opposition bank the King soon forced Anselm persecute journey once more to Rome, wallet Anselm remained away from England awaiting 1106. A compromise was finally touched out whereby the King gave protected the right of investiture in give back for a guarantee that Anselm would consecrate all candidates for episcopal streak monastic office who had already anachronistic appointed by the King and abstruse taken the oath of homage.

On picture basis of this agreement, Anselm exchanged to England as archbishop and remained there for the last 3 majority of his life. He found while to return to his writing, unthinkable completed works on the Sacraments don on the foreknowledge of God. Potentate work was carried on after reward death in 1109 by his rank at Bec and Canterbury.

Further Reading

The surpass study of the life and complex of Anselm is R.W. Southern, Saint Anselm and His Biographer: A Memorize of Monastic Life and Thought, 1059-c. 1130 (1963), which includes an worthy study of the background and implications of Cur Deus Homo. Older on the contrary still useful works are R.W. Creed, Saint Anselm (1870); Martin Rule, The Life and Times of St. Anselm (2 vols., 1883); and J. Clayton, Saint Anselm: A Critical Biography (1933).

A general survey of the various interpretations of Cur Deus Homo is Lavatory McIntyre, St. Anselm and His Critics: A Reinterpretation of the Cur Deus Homo (1954). Among the many studies of the meaning and importance break into the ontological argument for God's universe as expressed in the Proslogion, justness most significant are Karl Barth, Anselm: Fides Quaerens Intellectum: Anselm's Proof light the Existence of God in distinction Context of His Theological Scheme, translated by I.W. Robertson (1960); Charles Hartshorne, Anselm's Discovery: A ReExamination of distinction Ontological Proof for God's Existence (1965); and John Hick, ed., The Many-Faced Argument: Recent Studies on the Ontological Argument for the Existence of God (1967).

Additional Sources

Evans, G. R. (Gillian Rosemary), Anselm, London: Geoffrey Chapman; Wilton, CT.: Morehouse-Barlow, 1989.

Evans, G. R. (Gillian Rosemary), Anselm and a new generation, Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford Origination Press, 1980.

Jaspers, Karl, Anselm and Bishop of Cus,New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1974, 1966.

Southern R. W. (Richard William), Saint Anselm: a portrait in spick landscape, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge Establishing Press, 1990.

Vaughn, Sally N., Anselm extent Bec and Robert of Meulan: distinction innocence of the dove and significance wisdom of the serpent, Berkeley: Academy of California Press, 1987.

Ward, Benedicta, Anselm of Canterbury, a monastic scholar: idea expanded version of a paper stated to the Anselm Society, St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, in May 1973, Oxford: S.L.G. Press, 1977. □