Anselm of Canterbury

Biographical Details:
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Biography:
Anselm of Canterbury (1033 – 1109), also called Anselm of Bec after his monastery, was an Italian Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and theologian of the Catholic Church, who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. After his death, he was canonized as a saint and later declared a Doctor of the Church.
As archbishop, he defended the church’s interests in England amid the Investiture Controversy, a conflict between the church and the state in medieval Europe, which began in 1076 as a power struggle between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV (then King, later Holy Roman Emperor) over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture). For his resistance to the English kings William II and Henry I, he was exiled twice. While in exile, he helped guide the Greek bishops of southern Italy to adopt Roman rites at the Council of Bari. He also worked for the primacy of Canterbury over the bishops of York and Wales, which was later reversed by Pope Paschal II, who restored York’s independence.
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church has referred to Anselm as “the most luminous and penetrating intellect between St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas.” He has also been called “the father of scholasticism“, which was a medieval school of philosophy that employed a critical method of philosophical analysis, due to his philosophical and theological work endeavoring to render Christian tenets of faith, traditionally taken as a revealed truth, into a rational system. Anselm studiously analyzed the language used in his subjects, carefully distinguishing the meaning of the terms employed from the verbal forms, which he found at times wholly inadequate. He inaugurated one of the most brilliant periods of Western philosophy, innovating logic, semantics, ethics, metaphysics, and other areas of philosophical theology.
Extant Writings:
While at Bec, Anselm composed:
- De Grammatico
- Monologion
- Proslogion
- De Veritate
- De Libertate Arbitrii
- De Casu Diaboli
- De Incarnatione Verbi
While archbishop of Canterbury, he composed:
- Cur Deus Homo
- De Conceptu Virginali
- De Processione Spiritus Sancti
- De Sacrificio Azymi et Fermentati
- De Sacramentis Ecclesiae
- De Concordia
Quotes and Excerpts:
On Mary’s Immaculate Conception:
“While it is quite true that the Son of God was conceived by one who was totally virgin, nevertheless this did not happen of necessity, as if reason dictated that a just offspring could not be generated from a sinful parent through a sinful kind of propagation. Rather, it happened because it was fitting that the conception of this human nature should happen in a totally pure mother. For it was fitting that this Virgin should shine with a purity so great that, except for God, no greater purity could be conceived. And it was to her that God the Father decided to give his only Son, whom he loved as his very self, since he had been brought forth from his own heart, as his equal. God the Father did this so that one and the same [Christ] might be the common Son of God the Father and, on a natural level, Son of the Virgin.” –De conceptu originali, 18; PL 158, 451AB; Schmitt, 2:159
On Our Mother Mary, the Mother of God:
“There is no salvation except the salvation whom you bore, O Virgin. Wherefore, O Lady, you are the Mother of justification and of the justified; you are the Bearer of reconciliation and of the reconciled; you are the Parent of salvation and of the saved. O blessed confidence! O safe refuge! The Mother of God is our Mother; the Mother of him in whom alone we hope and whom alone we fear is our Mother.” –Oratio 52; PL 158, 959A; Schmitt, 3:25.
On the Veneration of Mary:
“Holy are you, O Mary, and among all the holy ones, you are the most holy, after God. Mother of admirable virginity, Virgin of precious fruitfulness, who gave birth to the Son of the Most High, who gave birth to a Savior for the lost human race. O Lady, resplendent with such great holiness and outstanding with such great dignity, it is certain that you have been endowed with power and kindness that are no less than your holiness and dignity. To you, O Bearer of life, O Mother of salvation, O Temple of kindness and mercy, to you my wretched soul attempts to present itself.” –Oratio 50; PL 158, 948C; Schmitt, 3:13.