Anselm, St

Anselm, St (1033–1109). Archbishop of Canterbury (1093–1109). Anselm was born at Aosta in northern Italy. He travelled to northern France in the late 1050s, where he became a monk at Le Bec and a pupil of Lanfranc. Thereafter he rose to be both prior and abbot of the monastery. A great philosopher whose works include the Monologion, the Proslogion, and Cur Deus homo, he was promoted to Canterbury in March 1093. Anselm subsequently quarrelled bitterly with both William II and Henry I. His disputes ultimately focused on his belief that obedience was owed first and foremost to the papacy. By 1097 the breach between Rufus and Anselm was irreparable and the archbishop went into voluntary exile. Recalled in 1100 by Henry I, Anselm was for a time able to hold ecclesiastical councils and rule the church as he wished. Fresh quarrels developed about lay investiture of bishops, still practised in England, although prohibited by the papacy since the 1070s, and in 1103 Anselm again went into exile. A settlement was not finally reached until 1106–7. Anselm was in some respects representative of a changing intellectual and political climate, in which notions of authority were being redefined. His preference for the quiet world of the monk masked a robust personality who saw it as his duty to engage with the world.