Anselm of Canterbury

Life events

1. Born

   Anselm was born in or around Aosta in Upper Burgundy sometime between April 1033 and April 1034. His father Gundulph was a Lombard noble; his mother Ermenberge was almost certainly the granddaughter of Conrad the Peaceful.

2. Tonsured — 1060

   Drawn by the reputation of Lanfranc of Pavia, Anselm reached Normandy in 1059 and, after consultation with Archbishop Maurilius of Rouen, entered the Benedictine Abbey of Bec as a novice at approximately age 27.

3. Other — 1078

   Following the death of Bec's founder Herluin, Anselm was unanimously elected abbot and blessed in that office by Gilbert d'Arques, Bishop of Évreux, on 22 February 1079. Under his direction the abbey became the foremost seat of learning in Europe.

4. Wrote

   Anselm composed the Proslogion while at Bec, presenting what later became known as the ontological argument for the existence of God: that the greatest conceivable being must necessarily exist, and that being is God.

5. Consecrated — 1093

   On 25 September 1093, Anselm was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral as Archbishop of Canterbury after months of resistance; he was formally consecrated on 4 December 1093, without the papal pallium, amid the ongoing Investiture Controversy.

6. Exiled — 1097

   In October 1097, after William II refused to permit church reform and forced Anselm to choose between exile and total submission, Anselm departed for the continent; he attended the Council of Bari in October 1098 and was not permitted to return until William's death in August 1100.

7. Exiled — 1103

   A second exile followed Anselm's 1103 embassy to Rome, after which Henry I forbade his return; a compromise was concluded at L'Aigle on 22 July 1105, and the Concordat of London in 1107 formalized Henry's renunciation of lay investiture.

8. Died — 1109

   Anselm died on Holy Wednesday, 21 April 1109. His remains were translated to Canterbury Cathedral and laid near Lanfranc; their subsequent location became uncertain after the cathedral's reconstruction following the fire of the 1170s.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Anselm originated the ontological argument for the existence of God in the Proslogion (1077–1078): that the greatest conceivable being must necessarily exist, a formula later named by Kant and debated by scholastics as ratio Anselmi. (certain)
• His Cur Deus Homo (1095–1098) developed the satisfaction theory of atonement, arguing that Christ's crucifixion provided infinite restitution for human sin, largely supplanting the earlier Origenist ransom theory in Western theology. (certain)
• Pope Clement XI proclaimed Anselm a Doctor of the Church in 1720; he is known by the titles doctor magnificus ('Magnificent Doctor') and doctor Marianus ('Marian Doctor'). (certain)
• At his 1102 London church council, Anselm secured a resolution condemning the British slave trade alongside other Gregorian reforms, making him an early ecclesiastical voice against the practice. (likely)
• Anselm's most common iconographic attribute is a ship, representing the spiritual independence of the church from royal authority — a direct reference to his two exiles from England under William II and Henry I. (likely)

Sources

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