in 1063 Lanfranc became abbot of Saint-Étienne, Caen (before becoming archbishop of
Canterbury in 1070), Anselm succeeded him as prior at Bec and became abbot after the
death of the monastery’s founder, Herluin, in 1078. As abbot, he paid frequent visits to
England to inspect the lands owned by Bec. While at Bec, Anselm wrote works of a
mixed devotional and philosophical nature: De grammatico (1060–63), a linguistico-
philosophical treatise about the term “grammarian”; Monologion, a soliloquy on proving
the existence of God by reason alone; Proslogion, an improved version of the
Monologion; and three treatises, De veritate, De libertate arbitrii, and De casu diaboli.
During this period, he also wrote his Orationes sive meditationes.
Anselm succeeded Lanfranc as archbishop of Canterbury in 1093. Before long, he
clashed with King William II Rufus over such issues as church property, the right of
appointment to ecclesiastical offices, and the recognition of Urban II as pope. Another
contentious issue was Anselm’s wish to travel to Rome to receive the token of his
episcopal dignity, the pallium, directly from the pope. In the end, Anselm did not go, yet
he did succeed in preventing the king from usurping the right of investiture. There
followed a period of relative calm during which Anselm published his Epistola de
incarnatione verbi in 1094 and started work on his magnum opus, Cur Deus homo. In the
meantime, Anselm’s relations with the king had once more become strained; in 1098, he
went in exile to Rome, where he completed Cur Deus homo. He also attended the
Council of Bari, at which he defended the “double procession” of the Holy Spirit (from
the Father and the Son) against the Greeks (later published as De processione Spiritus
Sanctus).
Following William Rufus’s death in 1100, Anselm returned to England. After a
peaceful interval, he collided with the new king, Henry I, over old issues, such as homage
and investiture. From 1103 until 1106, he lived in exile, mainly in France, and returned to
England only after a compromise had been reached with the king. He died in 1109 at
Canterbury, having completed in 1108 his De concordia (on the concordance of
foreknowledge and predestination and the grace of God with free will).
Anselm’s writings are marked by a balance between rational argumentation and
contemplative intensity. Claiming in his Proslogion to prove the existence of God by one
single argument and by reason alone, he takes his starting point in a negation of that
existence. This negation has to be seen as a dialectical-intellectual game within the
monastic context in which it serves the aim of bringing out the presence of the divine.
The fool who denies the existence of God is met with the argument that God is that than
which no greater can be thought. The logical implications of this formula are such as to
exclude the possibility of God’s nonexistence. As a consequence, God’s presence, which
in the beginning of the treatise had been phrased in terms of monastic desperation,
frustrated by an inaccessible light, gains clarity and offers joy to the meditating mind.
Cur Deus homo follows the same pattern. The accusation by the infidels that the
Christian concept of incarnation is primitive is met by an analysis of the beauty of God’s
order. God is bound by intrinsic necessity to keep his order intact and save humanity,
which for its part is bound to make satisfaction for its sin. The two elements come
together in the necessary appearance of a God-man, who is no other than Christ.
Anselm’s dense style of argumentation is further developed in his treatises on truth, on
the will, and on the fall of the Devil. In conformity with his monastic way of life, it is the
real truth and the real existence of justice that count most. As a result, the freedom of will
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