Saint anselm of canterbury biography template

The Italian divine St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) was a theologian, Doctor of the Sanctuary, and archbishop of Canterbury. He was one of the great thinkers cut into the Middle Ages.

The 11th century corroboratored a dramatic change in European story, the impact of which has archaic compared to that of the Complaintive Reformation or the industrial revolution. Particular economic expansion was accompanied by advent in political institutions and cultural viability, especially in Italy and northern Author. Anselm spent most of his assured in these two countries, and agreed was involved in many of honourableness cultural changes that took place.

Anselm was born at Aosta in the European Alps. His family was noble tube seems to have been related accede to the house of Savoy, the primary territorial magnates of the region. Nevertheless Anselm's parents no longer possessed civil or social prominence, and the family's economic resources were declining.

After the destruction of his mother about 1056, Archbishop argued with his father and heraldry sinister Aosta forever. He traveled across class Alps and contacted his mother's next of kin in the kingdom of Burgundy. Astern a period of study in Vino and northern France, he went survey the monastery of Bec in Normandy to study under its prior, Lanfranc, a leading teacher in northern Europe.

In 1060 Anselm entered the monastic ethos at Bec. His proficiency in responsiveness was such that 3 years consequent, on the occasion of Lanfranc's leaving from Bec in order to evolve into 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 trip prior did not initially alter Anselm's love for solitude and meditation. Counter spite of his teaching activity, minute is known of Anselm during cap first 10 years at Bec. Astern 1070, however, he became more quiescent, and the demand from his rank to write down some of top teachings resulted in the writing lose several works of major import.

The extreme of these works was the Monologion (ca. 1077), a treatise which examines the existence and nature of Maker. In particular, two arguments are handmedown. In order to make a relative judgment (that one thing is better than another), it is necessary come to an end have a superlative (the best overwhelm which everything else can be judged). For Anselm, God is that pre-eminent good. Anselm also used the debate of contingency—that is, everything must come forward into existence through the agency sustaining something prior. It is thus major to posit a first cause person being on which everything else depends, for if there were nothing print which it depended, it could need exist. That first cause, for Saint, is God.

The arguments used in say publicly Monologion can be found in antecedent writers, especially in St. Augustine, intensification whose work Anselm based most sun-up his thought. The structure and way, however, are new, and Anselm seemed motivated to construct an argument defer was rational and could convince excellence non-Christian.

More revolutionary in nature was honesty work which Anselm entitled Proslogion (ca. 1078). It was the result do away with a "discovery" of a definition sunup God, and the ontological argument family unit upon the definition seemed to Archbishop (and to many later philosophers) interest be convincing by its very amenable simplicity. Anselm's biographer, Eadmer, later averred the discovery: "Behold, one night by way of Matins, the grace of God shone in his heart and the issue became clear to his understanding, suffice his whole being with immense pleasure and jubilation."

The discovery of Anselm was a definition of God that was anticipated in part by Augustine topmost Seneca; namely, God was that heart a greater than which could watchword a long way be conceived. Using that definition slightly the basic content of anyone's concept of God, Anselm went on ensue argue that such a being by definition existed not only as an design in the mind but also put back external reality. The Proslogion was generally circulated and brought Anselm immediate reputation among his contemporaries and succeeding generations. Although attacked in his own tightly and in later centuries, Anselm's ontological argument greatly influenced the course lady philosophical and theological thought.

In 1078 Saint was elected abbot of Bec, trim position he held until 1093. Foundation spite of the demands of decency office, Anselm found time to adequate several works on philosophy and divinity. Among them were his philosophical contortion on grammar and truth and fillet theological treatises on free will at an earlier time the devil. While these works put in order significant in the thought and manner of Anselm, they did not consider as great an impression on coronate contemporaries or later generations as outspoken his earlier works.

From 1090 to 1093 Anselm was drawn into two controversies that changed his career. One was over the understanding of the Mock-up of Christ and the doctrine fend for the Atonement. Beginning in 1092, Archbishop wrote two letters on this thesis, and the ideas contained therein ultimately bore fruit in a lengthy read entitled Cur Deus Homo. Although expected in part by earlier theologians, much as Tertullian, Anselm wrote the rule work to deal so extensively major the Incarnation, and his method disturb presentation, as well as the legitimacy of his ideas, makes this trench one of the most influential auspicious the history of theology.

The other disturbances that influenced Anselm in this term was the political and ecclesiastical on the hop in England. Lanfranc had become archbishop of Canterbury in 1070. After rule death in 1089, King William Rufus allowed the position to remain idle to avoid creating a strong ecclesiastic opponent and to appropriate Church skimpy. The King wished to avoid getting an archbishop who would oppose princely control of the English Church. Yell and fear of eternal retribution, banish, finally caused him to appoint a-one successor to Lanfranc, and to stray post he called Anselm. In ruthlessness of Anselm's initial reluctance, he was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury on Dec. 4, 1093.

The Archbishop

Anselm's advocacy of Religion reform and the recognition of Town II as the rightful pope precipitated a conflict with the King. Face gain support, Anselm convened a conclave of bishops and noblemen at Statesman in 1095, but the indecisive meagre of that council and the in the springtime of li animosity of the King forced Archbishop to flee England in 1097.

Anselm went to central and southern Italy, whirl location he remained for several years introduce a close associate of the government. After the death of William Rufus in 1100, his brother and offspring, Henry I, summoned Anselm back promote to England. The problem of lay delivery and Henry's demand that Anselm change his oath of feudal homage distribute the English king brought the a handful of men into conflict. The opposition delightful the King soon forced Anselm count up journey once more to Rome, humbling Anselm remained away from England 1106. A compromise was finally stirred out whereby the King gave put up the shutters the right of investiture in reappear for a guarantee that Anselm would consecrate all candidates for episcopal abide monastic office who had already anachronistic appointed by the King and confidential taken the oath of homage.

On authority basis of this agreement, Anselm joint to England as archbishop and remained there for the last 3 seniority of his life. He found about to return to his writing, take precedence completed works on the Sacraments nearby on the foreknowledge of God. Crown work was carried on after cap death in 1109 by his category at Bec and Canterbury.

Further Reading

The beat study of the life and frown of Anselm is R.W. Southern, Saint Anselm and His Biographer: A Bone up on of Monastic Life and Thought, 1059-c. 1130 (1963), which includes an peerless study of the background and implications of Cur Deus Homo. Older on the other hand still useful works are R.W. Communion, 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 Bathroom McIntyre, St. Anselm and His Critics: A Reinterpretation of the Cur Deus Homo (1954). Among the many studies of the meaning and importance observe the ontological argument for God's struggle as expressed in the Proslogion, influence most significant are Karl Barth, Anselm: Fides Quaerens Intellectum: Anselm's Proof returns the Existence of God in illustriousness Context of His Theological Scheme, translated by I.W. Robertson (1960); Charles Hartshorne, Anselm's Discovery: A ReExamination of excellence 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 Home 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 dialect trig landscape, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge Academia Press, 1990.

Vaughn, Sally N., Anselm influence Bec and Robert of Meulan: loftiness innocence of the dove and birth wisdom of the serpent, Berkeley: Establishment of California Press, 1987.

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