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Anselm of Laon 47

GODon rational grounds. He used two arguments: To
make any comparative judgment, it is necessary to have a
superlative, or the best against which everything else can
be judged. For Anselm, God is that highest good. Anselm
also used the argument of contingency: Everything must
enter into existence through the agency of something
prior. It is thus necessary to posit a first cause or being on
which everything else depends. If there was nothing on
which something depended, it could not exist. That first
cause, for Anselm, is God.
More revolutionary was the work that Anselm enti-
tled Proslogionin about 1078. This extremely influential
ontological argument was based on a definition that
seemed to Anselm to be convincing by its very logical
simplicity. God was that being, a greater than which
could not be conceived. Using that definition as the basic
content of his idea of God, Anselm then argued that such
a being necessarily existed, both as an idea in the mind
and in external reality. This ontological argument or med-
itation greatly influenced the course of philosophical and
theological thought. In 1078 Anselm was elected abbot of
Bec, a position he held until 1093. Anselm found time to
complete several works on grammar and truth and trea-
tises on free will and the DEVIL.

TWO CONTROVERSIES:

THEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL

From 1090 to 1093 Anselm was drawn into two contro-
versies that influenced his career. The first concerned the
understanding of the Incarnation of Christ and the doc-
trine of the Atonement of Christ for the sins of
humankind or REDEMPTION. Beginning in 1092, Anselm
wrote two letters on this subject, soon published in Cur
Deus homo(Why God became human). His method of
presentation and the precision of his arguments make
this work one of the most influential in the history of
theology.
The second controversy that dominated Anselm’s life
during this period concerned the political and ecclesiasti-
cal situation in England. After the death of the arch-
bishop of CANTERBURYin 1089, King WILLIAMII RUFUS
allowed the position to remain vacant to prevent creating
a strong ecclesiastical rival and to collect ecclesiastical
revenues. The king sought royal control of the English
church. Illness and fear of eternal retribution, however,
finally caused William to appoint a successor, Anselm.
Despite initial reluctance, Anselm was consecrated arch-
bishop of Canterbury on December 4, 1093. Anselm’s
advocacy of church reform and the recognition of URBAN
II as the rightful pope quickly produced a conflict with
the king, whose growing animosity forced Anselm to flee
England in 1097.

EXILE AND RETURN

Anselm went to central and southern Italy, where he
remained for several years as a close associate of the

papacy. After the death of William II Rufus in 1100, his

brother and successor, HENRY I, summoned Anselm

back to England. Lay INVESTITUREand Henry’s demand

that Anselm renew his oath of feudal homage to the

Crown quickly led to more conflict. The hostility of

the king soon forced Anselm to remain away from

England until 1106. A compromise was finally worked

out whereby King Henry gave up the right of investiture

in return for a guarantee that Anselm would consecrate

all the candidates for episcopal and monastic office

who had taken an oath of homage to the Crown and

had already been appointed by the king. Anselm

returned to England as archbishop and remained there

for the last three years of his life, writing works on the

sacraments and on foreknowledge of God. He died on

April 21, 1109.

Further reading:Anselm, St. Anselm: Basic Writings,

2d ed., trans. S. N. Deane (1st ed., 1962; La Salle, Ill.:

Open Court, 1981); Eadmer, The Life of St. Anselm, Arch-

bishop of Canterbury,ed. and trans. Richard W. Southern

(London: T. Nelson, 1962); Gillian R. Evans, “Anselm of

Canterbury,” EMA,1.68–69; Richard W. Southern, Saint

Anselm: A Portrait in a Landscape(Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1990); Sally N. Vaughn, Anselm of Bec

and Robert of Meulan: The Innocence of the Dove and the

Wisdom of the Serpent(Berkeley: University of California

Press, 1987).

Anselm of Laon (Laudunensis)(ca. 1050–1117)the-

ologian, biblical scholar, and teacher

It is not known where he studied, perhaps at Bec under

Saint ANSELM OFCANTERBURY. Toward the end of the 11th

century, Anselm had established and was teaching at the

cathedral school at LAON, where he was joined by his

brother, Ralph (d. 1133). Anselm seems to have been

both the chancellor and the dean of the cathedral

between 1106 and 1114, and eventually archdeacon by

1115. He was famous as a teacher of the liberal arts as
      well as of theology, especially on the books of the BIBLE.
      After his death his works on the authority of the church
      fathers and the Bible were collected into a systematic
      study. Traditional in his interpretations, Anselm stuck
      close to the fathers, but his Scholastic methods were new.
      In his lectures on the substance of the texts of the Bible,
      he opened the way for more systematic inquiry. He was
      an important and influential teacher of William of Cham-
      peaux (ca. 1070–ca. 1121), GILBERT OFPOITIERS, and
      Peter ABÉLARD. He died in 1117.
      See also SCHOLASTICISM AND THE SCHOLASTIC
      METHOD.
      Further reading:Mary Dove, ed., Glossa Ordinaria
      (Turnhout: Brepols, 1997); Seamus P. Heaney, The Devel-
      opment of the Sacramentality of Marriage from Anselm of
      Laon to Thomas Aquinas (Washington, D.C.: Catholic
      University of America Press, 1963).