Anselm tangled with many people
St. Anselm of Canterbury was a leading medieval scholar. He was born in the early 11th century to Italian nobility at Aosta, Piedmont.
At age 15, he decided to enter religious life against his father’s wishes. Eleven years later, after becoming estranged from his father, Anselm entered the Benedictine abbey at Bec, Normandy. He became prior four years later, despite objections about his young age from some monks. He won them over and, 15 years later, was elected abbot.
This was shortly after the Norman Conquest of England, which gave Anselm numerous contacts with the church in England. In 1092, he was elected Archbishop of Canterbury despite his objections.
He got into a dispute with William the Conqueror, who exiled him after Anselm refused to give the king authority over him. Anselm went to Rome to advise Pope Urban II and participate in the Council of Bari.
In 1100, the new King Henry II invited Anselm back to England, but again exiled him when Anselm refused to let the king install him as archbishop. Anselm returned in 1106 when Henry agreed not to interfere with appointing church officials and Anselm agreed to pay taxes on church properties.
As archbishop, he opposed slavery and helped pass a law banning the sale of people. He supported celibate clergy and proposed several saints.
Anselm is the “Father of Scholasticism” and seen as a bridge between Sts. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas because he used reason to explain the faith. He was named a doctor of the church in 1720.
In “Cur Deus Homo?,” on why Jesus became man, Anselm said that, if God had merely forgiven humanity’s sins, that would have conflicted with the need for justice that only Jesus’ death on the cross as God-made-man could have achieved.
Anselm devised a simple proof for God’s existence: Think of the greatest thing you can. God is greater than that because “God is that which nothing greater can be thought.”
Anselm was popular and Dante placed him among the spirits of light and power in the sphere of the sun in “The Divine Comedy.”
Sources: americancatholic.org; “Butler’s Lives of the Saints”; “The Catholic Encyclopedia”; catholic.org; saintpatrickdc.org; and saints.sqpn.com.
Staley is a retired editor of The Compass.
St Anselm of Canterbury
When: 1033-1109
Where: England
What: Archbishop
Feast: April 21
Related Posts:
- Lent comes ‘to reawaken us,’ pope says at Ash Wednesday Mass
- Oh, what a tangled web can do
- Pope Francis: A new chapter
- If life has become a bit knotted, turn to Mary
- A positive family influence
The post Anselm tangled with many people appeared first on The Compass – Official Newspaper of the Diocese of Green Bay.
