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THE WORLD'S EPOCH-MAKERSEDITED BY

OLIPHANT SMEATON

Anselm andHis Work

By Rev. A. C. Welch, M.A., B.D,


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Previous Volumes in this Series:

CRANMER AND THE ENGLISH REFORMATION.By A. D. Innes, M.A.WESLEY AND METHODISM.

By F. J. Snell, M.A.LUTHER AND THE GERMAN REFORMATION.

By Prof. T. M. Lindsay, D.D.BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM.By Arthur Lillie, M.A.WILLIAM HERSCHEL AND HIS WORK.

By James Sime, M.A., F.R.S.E.FRANCIS AND DOMINIC.

By Prof. J. Herkless, D.D.SAVONAROLA.

By Rev. G. M 'Hardy, D.D.For Complete List see End.


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THE WORLD'S EPOCH-MAKERS

Anselm andHis WorkBy

Rev. A. C. Welch, M.A., B.D.

New York. Charles Scribner's Sons1901


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THE INSTITUTE OF WEDIAFVAL STbUitS10 EL^:?:LEy placeTOnONiO 5, CANADA,

0CT2 4tD31


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ToThe Memory ofA. C. W.

E'en as he trod that day to God so walked he from his birthIn simpleness and gentleness and honour and clean mirth


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PREFACE

4 VOLUME of the size of the present does not permitthe insertion of references to authorities within thetext. It may be useful to indicate here the sourcesfrom which I have drawn the view of Anselm's Lifeand Times which is now presented. The classicbiography on which all later ones are based is thatby Eadmer. A monk of Canterbury, he becameAnselm's private secretary and confessor. He hasleft to the world a study of his superior's privatelife in the Be Vita et Conversatione Ansehni, and ofhis public conduct as archbishop in the HistoriaNovomiTYi in Anglia. I have been obliged to studythese in Gerberon's edition (Paris, 1675), and inMigne's Patrologia: the best edition is that contri-buted by Mr. Rule to the Eolls Series. Anselm wasalso a voluminous correspondent, and over 400 ofhis letters, private and official, have been preserved.These I have consulted in Migne's Patrologia (clviii.-ix.). It is unnecessary to catalogue the earlj^ chron-iclers, Henry of Huntingdon, Orderic, and the rest.They are the same for this period as for an^;^ otherin early English history. I would only single outa contemporary Life of Gondulf of Rochester by an

vif


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viii PREFACEunknown lumd (Migue clix.), and the " Lives of theAbbots of Lc Bee," by G. and M. Crispin in PatresEcctesice Anglicance, Oxford 1845.For the historical background and the general positionof affairs in Europe I have found of special value therelative sections in Mihnan's Latin Christianity,Gregorovius' Geschichte der Stadt Rom ini Mittelalter,Giesebrecht's Geschichte der Deiitschen Kaiserzeit, andMontalembert's Monks of the West. The Life of GregoryVII. is still however a desideratum. There are manyvaluable facts relative to Normandy and especially tothe condition of education there in LAhhaye du Bee etses coles, by Abbe Poree (Evreux, 1892). On thehistory of England nothing more is necessary thanwhat our own historian has given; and Freeman inhis Norr)ian Conquest and the Reign of Williami Rufiishas paid special attention to the ecclesiastical situationand to the work of Anselm. Palgrave's unfinishedNormandy and England contains many brilliant sug-gestions. And some facts of value can be gleanedfrom H. Bohmer's Kirche und Staat in Englandnnd in der NormandAe im xi. ttnd xii. Jahrliundert(Leipzig, 1899).Of monographs on Anselm there is no lack ; and

these are written from several points of view. Theearly volumes, YMsr, Dissertatio de Anselmo Can-tuariensi (Lugduni Batavorum, 1832), Mohlgr, Anselm(I have only seen a remarkably poor translation,London, 1842), and Franck, Anselm von Canterbury(Tubingen, 1842), are slight and inadequate sketches.Charma's St. Anselme (Paris, 1853) consists for themost part of extracts and of a bibliography whichthough out of date is still valuable. Hook treats


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PREFACE ixof Anselm in his Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, but the High Church Anglican is too muchirritated to be quite fair. Remusat has a very brilliantlife, St. Anselme d'Aoste (Paris, 1859), to which Iacknowledge special indebtedness. Dean Church'sSt. Anselm almost ignores the theologian and thinker,but devotes special attention to the man and theecclesiastic. Hasse's Anselm von Canterbury (Leipzig,1852) contains in its volume on Lie Lehre an elaborateand patient analysis of the doctrine. Martin ,liwlehas published a voluminous Life and Tim.es of St.Anselm (London, 1883). j^igg's St. Anselm of Canter-bury (London, 1896) is marked by the virility ofthought and individuality of judgment which char-acterise all his work. Finally a history of St.Anselm has been written by Pere Ragey (Paris, N.D.).To this last I acknowledge a special debt. Theauthor's acquaintance with the details of the ecclesi-astical history makes his book a valuable commentaryon the letters.

It is unnecessary to mention the treatises on philo-sophy and theology which deal with the Anselmicdoctrine. It exercised so deep an influence that nolater student has been able to ignore it.

I have to thank here Mr. G. W. Alexander, M.A.,who has read the proofs, for this new evidence of anold kindness. ADAM C. WELCH.Helensbukgh.


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CONTENTSPAGB

Preface viiINTRODUCTION

Revival of Religion in the lOth and llth CenturiesIts ThreeDirectionsMonasticismInvestiture Question Scholasti-cismAnselm's part in these ...,., 1

CHAPTER IThe Val d'Aosta : 1033 or 1034-1057

Aosta's PositionAnselm's ParentageEducationDreamEarlyVowHe leaves Home 12CHAPTER II

Sainte Marie du Bec : 1034Early Normandy Its ReligionFoundations during llth CenturyTheir WeaknessSignificance of Le BecStory of Herlwin,

the First AbbotLanfrauc enters the ConventHis Influencethere 21

CHAPTER IIIMonk, Prior, and Abbot : 1059-1092

Monastic SchoolsAnselm's Profession as MonkPromotion tobe PriorEnvy excited by itStory of OsbernAnselm asTeacherHis Letters and Growing InfluenceHis Love ofPovertyElection as AbbotHis Interest in TheologyHisPreachingThe Narrowness of Convent Life The Medita-tionsTales to illustrate the Opinion of his Intimates . . 38


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xii CONTENTSCHAPTER IV

The Monologium and rROSLOoiuMI'AOB

Their CauseInterest in TheologyAnselm's Power as a TeaclierWant of BooksUse of Socratic Method in ConventsAnselm's Eeligious ToneHis General Attitude on Faith andKnowledge MonologiumIts Monistic PositionOrigin ofProslogmmIts ArgumentGauniloAnselm and AugustineHis Effort to transcend Dualism 61

CHAPTER VThe Church in England: 1062-1087

Struggle between Church and FeudalismValue of MonksWilliam the Conqueror and LanfrancCondition of Churchin EnglandWilliam's Ecclesiastical PolicyWithin andWithoutIts ResultsLanfranc reforms MonasticismFindsHelp at Le BeeAnselm's First Relations with England . 76

CHAPTER VIElection as Archbishop : 1092-1093

Death of Hildebrandand the ConquerorRufus in EnglandHis CharacterHis Ecclesiastical PolicyIts ResultsHughthe WolfSends for AnselmAnselm in EnglandRufus'IllnessPermits Anselm's ElectionIrregularities in itDifl&culties with the KingConsecration .... 91

CHAPTER VIIRockingham : 1093-1095

Anselm's Present to the KingScene at HastingsIts SignificanceUrban ii. PopeThe PalliumIts MeaningAnselm asksLeave to go to Rome for itCouncil at RockinghamPolicyof RufusAttitude of the BishopsAnselm stands there forEnglish LibertySupport of the Commonsand NoblesTruce 116


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CONTENTS xiiiCHAPTER VIII

The Ruptuee at Winchester: 1095-1097 PAGBAnselm's Solitudeand HelplessnessHis Self-denialRufus

sends to RoiueWalter the LegateSecures Recognition ofUrbanRebellion in the NorthAnselm receives PalliumPeace with RufusTroubles with the LegateAims andMethods of the LatterClermont and the CrusadeEufusin Norm inlyWelsh WarAnselm's ContingentAnselmdemands to go to RomeSignificance of the ClaimCouncilat WinchesterLeaves England 140

CHAPTER IXThe Eiest Exile and "Cun Deus Homo" : 1097-1098

Anselm in Flandersand LyonsWishes to resignIs summonedto RomeConvent Life on the WayUrban's AttitudeSclavia becomes Anselm's Retreat Cur Dcus HomoItsTheory; Weakness and Strength 165

CHAPTER XCouncils of Baki and Rome: 1098-1100

Synod at BariAnselm and the Greek BishopsThe De ProcessioneSjiritus SaihctiExcommunication of Rufus proposed and re-jectedSynod at RomeCanons on Investiture and HomageReinger of Lucca protests against Treatment of AnselmAnselm at LyonsMiraclesDeath of Urbanand Rufus , 185

CHAPTER XIThe Investiture QuestionAnselm and Beauclerk : 1100-1103Accession of HenryHis PolicyHis Dangers from RobertHe

summons AnselmRequires HomageAnselm's RefusalEmbassy to RomeHenry's MarriageRobert invades Eng-landAnselm's Help to KingSecond Embassy to RomeCouncil at LondonContradiction between Bishops andLettersThird EmbassyHenry's Appointments to SeesMeeting of SynodAnsolm 83nt to Rome .... 197


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xiv CONTENTSCHAPTER XII

The Cokcoudat: 1103-1107PAGE

Anselni at RomeAttitude of PaschalCountess MatildaAnselmat LyonsDifiiculty of his PositionNegotiationsHenryconfiscates Property of SeeAnselm resolves to Excommuni-cateMeeting at LaigleConcordatAnselm's Letter toHughTinchebrayCouncil at LondonAcceptance ofConcordat 220

CHAPTER XIIIConclusion : 1107-1109

SynodAnselm checks Licence of CourtThreatens to interdictArchbishop of YorkHis DeathSignificance of his Con-cordatHe gave a Voice and Right of Speech to Church inEnglandand to RomeHis Limits to Rome's InterferenceHis Character in his WorkHis Trnst in Christian Methodsand Influences ......... 237

Index 249


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ANSELM AND HIS WORKINTRODUCTION

Europe in the early half of that eleventh century intowhich Anselm was born was renewing itself under theinfluence of a quickened religious spirit. Christianityin the Western world had two great outward struggleswith paganism, the first with a paganism which wasalready in possession and was rich in the accumulatedtreasures of an older civilisation, the second with apaganism which sought to repossess itself of Europeand to overwhelm in barbarism the new order almostbefore it had struck root. The early incursions whichbroke down the Roman Empire had hardly been sur-vived, and their influence had not been assimilated,before an equally heavy storm burst upon the West.The Avars from Asia, ever fertile of men, thrust them-selves into the centre of Europe, and wasting every-thing on their way penetrated through Austria. TheSaracens already possessed North Africa, and had withdifficulty been restricted within the limits of Spain

;

they had captured Sicily and were not unknownbefore the walls of Rome. The Danes had seized on


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2 ANSELM AND HIS WORKEngland : the last of England's missionaries to theContinent were fugitives from wrecked monasteries.From heathen Scandinavia the Normans had carveda cantle out of France, and were in no way contentwith the rich lands which they had won.

Durino* several o-cnerations Christendom had seenone province after another of her territory torn awayby aliens to her civilisation, her law, and her faith.The circle within which the light of a better ordershone was small. And the light itself within thecircle inevitably burned more dimly. Men needed alltheir strength for war. They were compelled to fightfor standing-ground on behalf of the truths and in-stitutions which they had already made their own.They had neither time nor energy left to rethink thosetruths or to reshape those institutions. To protectthemselves against the enemy from without was theirprime concern, and all their effort in thought as wellas in deed was turned in that direction. Society hadcome to be constituted on a basis of war. Its recog-nition was given to those who could fight, its rewardsto those who had fought well. Even the institutionswhich owed their inception to a different purpose wereinfluenced by the same spirit. The Church was secu-larised. The bishops often became ministers of State,partly because there were no others who had thecapacity to fulfil that necessary function, still morebecause it was the most obvious Christian duty tosupport the civil power in its struggle with heathenism.Sometimes the Church dignitaries became warriors,because the State had as much need of their swords asof their prayers. Nor is it necessary to conclude thatthe motive which drove them to buckle on their


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INTRODUCTION 3armour was base. When the Avars were at the gatea priest might be pardoned for leaving his oratory andjoining battle. But the inevitable result followed in adeeper secularisation. Men were chosen to ecclesiasticaloffice, not for their religious but for their secularprowess. That they had the capacity for affairs, orwere strong men of their hands, became a reason whythey were chosen to fulfil religious duties. And themen who were so chosen were compelled by circum-stances to think most about that side of their workfor their generation. What was an additional advan-tage in a Churchman became his chief qualification.Necessary it might be, inevitable in the circumstancesof the time it certainly was. But, had it continued,the result would have been that the Church wouldhave lost sight of its spiritual functions and thatsociety, thinking only of the necessities of the hourand engrossed in present needs, would have failed toreceive the stimulus and vivifying breath whichonly the Church of Christ, conscious of higher endsthan those of the present hour, can give.With the indomitable power of recovery and of

returning for fresh inspiration to its Founder, whichis one of the best proofs of the eternal power inChristianity, the tenth and eleventh centuries saw arevival of religion break across Europe. So soon asChristendom had won a clear space in which to prayand think, the Church returned to its specific task.There was abundance of work calling for attention.It had to recast its own thoughts about God and man.The brutalised manners which a long-continued stateof war had brought on Christian Europe must betempered by the spirit of the Crucified. The new


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4 ANSELM AND HIS WORKstrong-blooded nations which had found a lodgmentwithin the Christian pale needed to be disciplined.Some of them were outwardly subdued. But, thoughNorman dukes and Danish earls accepted Christianity

> for themselves and forced its forms on their reluctantsubjects, the conversion was only skin-deep. Even theprinces did not greatly understand and could notheartily obey the faith they compelled their subjectsto profess. Pagans, not merely in inward inclinationbut in outward practice, were found among thepeasantry of Normandy for a century or two afterAnselm had written his argument for the being ofGod in one of its convents. Because there was somuch and so varied work to do, the revival of thosecenturies took several forms. It was as multiform asthe life of which it taught its generation a newvaluation. Three of the directions in which thedeepened religious sense flowed need to be mentionedhere, not because they were the most important, butbecause Anselm represented and helped to guide them.

Aw As Churchmen grew conscious of having their ownspecific message, they realised how different in its aimsthe Church must be from any of the kingdoms of theearth, and how the qualifications which made mencitizens of the nations were ill-fitted to make " fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God."The contrast between society as it is and society asChrist meant it to be can never cease to trouble theChurch, if it is to be the salt of the earth. Everyrevival of religion makes that more troublesome. Andthe corruption of morals which had followed on longwar, the deeper corruption which saps a society thathas organised itself as a camp when the peril from


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INTRODUCTION 5without has ceased to threaten, drove the convictionof the contrast more sharply home to the conscienceof the Church. A Puritanic movement with its cryof " Come out, and be ye separate " spread throughWestern Christendom. It took an old form commonto both East and West, but new needs brought intoit a new spirit. The form was that of monasticism.The monks were the Puritans of the early mediaevalage. New monasteries sprang into being: Cluny,Clairvaux, Citeaux begin to be, and to be one of themost potent forces in Church and State alike. Butthough the form was old and in many respects familiar,the spirit was different. That most of the Europeanmonasteries accepted the rule of St. Benedict or framednew rules not unlike his great creation is in itself anindication of how new was the spirit which informedthese foundations. The impelling motive was as beforethat men might save their souls alive, but they con-strued the method differently. They were not soentirely governed by the Manichaean conception ofthe flesh being itself evil, which in Eastern monkerylamed so much wholesome activity and, e.g., thrustinto morbid prominence celibacy as the only formof chastity. Its presence cannot be denied. Butit was no longer the controlling impulse in thisrevived monasticism. Rather was the fundamentalimpulse social. Men found themselves in a societywhich was based on war. So lono- as the war waswaged against the infidel to keep Europe clear ofpaganism, the evil had been concealed. But whenthe threat of heathenism was withdrawn, the resultit had produced on society remained. After heathenNorman and Dane had become outwardly Christian,


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ANSELM AND HIS WORK

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tlio princes and dnkea turned against each other theweapons tlie use of which tlie}' had learned to loveand the passions they had not learned to control.Each wasted and ravaged the other's lands, slew orled into captivity the other's vassals. Witli a drearymonotony they passed from sacking a neighbour'stower to repelling an assault on their own. And theessential irreligion of it all became more manifestwhen it was Christian men who thus fought with eachother. What had the Church to say to this state ofaffairs? The Church might and did enter to checkexcessive cruelty and to bid men show mercy afterthe battle was over. But had the Church nothing tosay as to the constitution of society, which made suchthings possible, and which made them seem to manynatural and inevitable ? Many men in the disgust andweariness which a society so constituted must bringhad looked back and seen the ideal of a society whichwas based on love toward all men and on a consequentpeace. And, longing for it yet unable as matters thenstood to realise it, they went out of society altogether,and strove to build up a society for themselves on anew basis, the new and ever old basis of the obedienceto Christ. What drove them first was the need tosave their own souls and the recognition that whilethey remained where they were they could not savetheir souls alive. They became monks and moreparticularly Benedictines, men who vowed themselvesto service rather than to destruction, to love ratherthan to strife.

But this clearer vision on the part of the Church asto its own specific purpose in the world had a furtherresult. So long as the distinction between the king-


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INTRODUCTION 7doms of this world and the kingdom of Christ wasnot present to men's minds, there could be little con-flict between the two institutions which representedthese, and such conflict as did arise between Churchand State could be determined by easy compromiseswhich did not touch principles. But so soon as theChurch grew conscious of how far its ideals were itsown and came not from an earthly but a heavenlyMaster, it was sure to raise the question of ecclesi-astical method. Every revival of religion must brings .to the front the relations between Church and State."^**^/ ^ "^A Church which is conscious of its peculiar dignityand of its special ends will never be content to haveits officials appointed and its policy dictated by menwho must construe its purpose from a different stand-

^ -t^o point. The conflict was certain ; that it was so bitterti %vw ' was due to its novelty. While the eflforts of the civil;iJ-v-s power were largely directed to keep Christendom from^^Cx- being submerged, the Empire maintained in men's |(uy.^. imagination the sacrosanct character it had long '^M^borne. Its aims not unworthily represented the king-

' dom of God on earth. The Church, facing the immedi-ate task and content to accept the State-ideal largely asits own, could well submit to have its methods of govern-

j ^^ ment controlled for such ends. While the bishops; sj \ were State functionaries, and much of their energy wasp^jxc exhausted in fulfilling duties of a civil character, they."^ J might readily be appointed to office and even electedI ^Trby the head whose work they aided. But when thisI J - temporary condition passed, and when Church officialsf?,y f^realised anew their spiritual functions, they began to' ^ ^ chafe, and the best among them to chafe most, againstf X >^what now became an outside interference. The period\ 1^


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8 ANSELM AND HIS WORKsaw tlie lono- strife over investiture. The merit of

^ Hildebrand as an ecclesiastic is that he saw the issueso cknirly and clung steadily to one principle. Hestruck at the centre of things when he claimed thatreligious menthe college of cardinals, and neitheremperor nor kingmust appoint the chief dignitaryof the Church. He wrought from the centre out when

I he demanded that no archbishop should be consecrateduntil he had received the pallium, the symbol of hisspiritual authority, from a pope so elected. He de-veloped the system of legates who kept the severalnational conniiunions in close touch with the revivedcentre of authority. He strove to break the customwhich had grown up of making Church dignities

^ hereditary property and the appanages of greatfamilies by his canons against simony and in favourof clerical celibacy. Certainly the old idea of thesuperior sanctity of celibacy came to his aid, and heused it unhesitatingly. High Churchmen have oftenbeen heedless what heresy they helped to promote, ifonly they could compass their immediate end. Butto him celibacy was not merely an end in itself; itwas the means through which he overthrew the* great ecclesiastical families and brought Church dig-nities under the control of the Church itself. It isnot difficult to see the evil results of much of thispolicy and to recognise that it contained germs ofevil which were later to blossom rankly. The idea ofclerical celibacy brought a gross conception of thereligious life, which needed to be fluno^ off in theexaggerated protest of the Renaissance. The legates

^ continually interfering with the government of localchurches drew all initiative into the centre, until, over-


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INTRODUCTION 9loaded with problems it was incompetent to answerand questions it could not understand, it simply ceasedto act. The system which, at a time when the centreat Rome was full of fresh spiritual and moral life, sent ^life through every limb of the great body ecclesiasticmade the corruption more swift and potent when thepopes were Borgias. A means which religious menhave used to promote a religious end often becomesa strangling cord round the neck of their less religioussuccessors, who count themselves the inheritors oftheir fathers' purpose when they have only taken overtheir fathers' methods. But in its beginning the move-ment was the outcome of a new spiritual life withinthe Church itself. The more devout spirits welcomedit most heartily. The monks were Hildebrand's bestsupporters ; the outcome of the religious revival, theyrecognised and furthered a movement which had itsroots in the same soil.And finally the deepened sense of religion produced '" " 'a new interest in theology. Men had been fighting forseveral generations, they now began to think of thematters in defence of which they had unconsciouslyfought. Schools were founded. The monasteries be-gan to copy the older literature and to write their ownthoughts. The thirst for knowledge spread and drewmen together. Hundreds of students flocked toAbelard's lectures. Men travelled across half Europeto have the opportunity of learning from Lanfranc.In tliese centuries the scholastic theology and philosophy ^had their birth.And St. Anselm, as monk at Le Bee, as archbishop of

Canterbury, as author of the Monolog vii7)% and CurDeus Homo, bore his part in this threefold movement.


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10 ANSELM AND HIS WORKHe entered into it all, because he was a man ofgenius who was also a profoundly religious man.And in no one man of the time is it possible to study

its movement more purely than in him. The mandwelt with God. His Avork is the expression of that.It is not always possible to be sure about the cleanness ofHildebrand's hands. Not all the temptations of powernor all the greatness of the issues involved can excusethe inhumanity which Canossa proved to lurk in thepope, or expel the suspicion of an overweening pride. Weconfess to finding it difficult always to respect Bernardof Clairvaux, and his reiterated speech about humilitymakes the pride of the ascetic more open. One cannotentirely like Thomas a Becket. He leaves the impres-sion of posing and of striving to live up to his part.Anselm leaves on one student of his lifework the im-pression of entire sincerity. He is one of the monksto whom the austerities and restraints of the conventhave become a second nature. They have ceased tolimit him, and consequently have become his support.The monk's cowl is part of himself. He stands up be-fore William Rufus and Henry Beauclerk to fight thebattle of the liberty of the Church in England. Hefights it uncompromisingly, but through all his battlegives the impression of one who fought not for theinterests of his order, but for what he believed to bethe interests of the kingdom of heaven. He writes onthe most abstruse questions with an extraordinaryboldness, which the fact of his agreement with theopinions received by his Church should never conceal.Boldness in thought is too often claimed as the mono-poly of the heterodox. In and through all his workthe man stands as a wholesome man, answering with


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INTRODUCTION iiwhat power he can, in the light of the strong religiousconvictions he holds, the questions with which his timebrings him face to face. And so he has his reward.For, whether men agree or disagree with the answershe gave, they cannot fail to honour the spirit in whichhe did his work, and must end by loving the clean-souled, high-minded monk who, while seeking only toserve his generation according to the will of God, hasmade more clear to all after generations how that timepresented itself to the eyes and to the efforts of menlike himself.


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CHAPTER IThe Val d'Aosta

AosTA, where Anselni was born between April 211033 and April 21 1034, lies on the Italian side of thepasses of the St. Bernard. In its name, AugustaPrastoria, and in its ruined walls the town still bearsthe indelible marks of its foundation as a Romansettlement, from which one of Augustus' generalspacified the unruly tribes of the Alps. It became thecentre of a deeper pacification when about the fifthcentury it was made the seat of a bishopric. Andwhere the Roman Empire left walls, the ChristianChurch left the memory and the graves of saints.Unknown elsewhere, but remembered in the district towhich their lives were given, the names of SaintsJucundus, Gratus, Ursus persist among the hills andvalleys. Though his see was suffragan to that ofMilan, the Bishop of Aosta seems to have maintainedbut a loose connection with his superior. Politicalrather than ecclesiastical considerations determined

> his allegiance, and he appears more frequently at thecourt of Burgundy than at that of his archbishop.The fact may have aided to prevent the little townfrom being drawn within the influence of the politicaland ecclesiastical ambitions of Aribert, the successor of

12


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THE VAL D'AOSTA 13St. Ambrose, and to preserve it from the social upheavalwhich this prelate's restless spirit stirred up in hisdiocese.Eadmer describes the valley as lying on the borders

of Lombardy and Burgundy. In a period of un-certain frontiers to be on the borders of any statemeant in every instance a shifting allegiance ; andanyone who has tried to follow Burgundy through theearly part of the Middle Ages will know how speciallymutable that State was. But the Burgundy of ourdate was a county which Henry ii. and Conrad hadsucceeded for a time in making an integral part of theemperor's dominions. And in 1034, after a fiercestruggle between Odo of Champagne and Humbert theWhitehanded, the latter had brought the Val d'Aostaunder his power. Anselm was therefore born amember of the German Empire and under theimmediate rule of the Counts of Maurienne, fromwhom the present ruling house of Italy claim descent.But a border town Aosta was and had always been, setat one of the gates of Italy, with Lombards andBurgundians, Swiss and Italians thronging its narrowstreets, with the peaks of the Alps and their walnutgroves shutting it in on the north, while the DoraBaltea swept down beneath its bridge to the richmeadows of the Po. Anselm traced his lineage to thedouble strain in his people. Lombard on the father'sside, Burgundian on the mother's, reared in a townwhich was too small to inspire a civic pride and hadserved too many masters to know a peculiar devotionto any, he may have found it easier to grow into acitizen of the kingdom of God, who was willing to servehis Master in Normandy or England as the need was.


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14 ANSELM AND HIS WORKIn those days such a town and all Europe knew but

two classes of society. And by birth Anselm belongedto the class which ruled. His father, Gundulf, and hismother, Ermenberga, were both members of thegoverning class to whose unquestioned prerogative wehave no exact modern parallel. Both were nohiliternati, gentle born, both possessed property, part ofwhich their son could afterwards dedicate to theservice of God. When the boy of Aosta had becomefamous as abbot and theologian, Humbert, successor tothe Whitehanded in the county of Maurienne, was notunwilling to acknowledge himself to be of the sameblood. A tower in the manor of Gressan, not far fromthe foot of the Becca di Nona, still bears the name ofSt. Anselm. The tradition may preserve to our timeindication of the exact site of the property whichErmenberga is known to have possessed in the valley.And as the count had acquired fiefs in the samedistrict through his wife who belonged to the house ofValais, it seems probable that Anselm's connection withthat house was through his mother.^ But the preciseposition held by the family in the social hierarchycannot be clearly traced, nor, since it left little influenceon the one member for whose sake the others areremembered at all, is it of great importance.

Gundulf is described as a lavish-handed, high-spiritedman of the world, who was unwilling that through hisonly son becoming a monk his race should becomeextinct, but who himself took the cowl a short timebefore his death. He has perhaps suffered a little at the

^ Rule has built up an elaborate pedigree of both. Ermenberga andGundulf. His conclusions are possible. Those interested in the mattermay be referred to his book.


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THE VAL D'AOSTA 15hands of Eadmer, since he belonged to a type the carnalvalour of which no monk could quite appreciate. Yethis son may have owed something of his high courage rand simple disdain of money to his Lombard father.Ermenberga was a careful housekeeper, striving tohold together what her husband was ready to squander,a pure-spirited woman, who looked well to the affairsof her own house and who found time to talkto her boy of the concerns of God's house. Herfamily had ecclesiastical connections, and this, when


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1 ANSELM AND HIS WORKOf those boyish years we possess but few incidents.

Yet the few wliicli have come down serve to piecetogether some faint mental picture. One day Ermen-berga received her son home and to her infinitedistress hardly recognised him, so changed was he.While he had once been frank, he was now morose ; heshrank from everyone's sight, and avoided even hercaresses. The home with its larger interests, whichshould have charmed the schoolboy free from booksand discipline, seemed to hurt him. He winced at itsnoise, found no interest in its activity, and sedulouslyavoided all its inmates. After the first pain of findingher child changed the mother-heart taught her theright curea little wholesome neglect. The boy, shy,thoughtful beyond his years, brought up withoutcompanions in the society of his elders, had beenovertasked by his zealous tutors, who were doubtlessproud of so apt a pupil, and whose methods both ofphysical and mental culture were severe even to men.He had been strained beyond his powers, and hisnerves had given way. But there are only somelads who are capable of being overstrained inmental effort. Already his life-course was dawningin the boy.Dreamy he was and full of the fair fancies which

come to most children, but which persist in the thoughtsof the solitary ones, and which, because they are notdislodged by the ideas of playmates, help to make thelonely souls. His mother had spoken to her boy, asmothers ever will, of heaven. And when the sunsetburned among the Alps beside Aosta, the boy had seenbehind its crimson and gold the palace walls of theLord of Hosts. In his dream he set out to climb to it.


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THE VAL D'AOSTA 17As he went he passed through the fields where womenand men were busy at the harvest-work. These werethe servants of the King, and, since they did their worksluggishly, he resolved when he had reached the pre-sence to accuse them before their Lord. In theaudience-chamber he found God seated on His thronewith none about Him except the seneschal of Hishousehold because the others were busy in the fields." So he entered, and the Lord called to him ; and hecame near and sat down at His feet. And the Lordwith gracious gentleness would know who he was andwhence he came and what was his desire. He answeredall according to the verity. So the Lord gave order,and the butler brought him bread of the whitest, andhe ate and was refreshed in the presence of the King."Such was the story which Anselm, when archbishopof Canterbury, told the confessor who guided hisprivate conscience, the secretary who helped him in hispublic duties. Among his childhood's thoughts thisalone had persisted throughout his life. But there aredreams which at once betray and help to make men.And to the archbishop as to the child idleness wasone of the great vices, and there was only hunger forsoul and conscience except one had bread to eat whichthe world knew not of.But the priory not only gave its pupil Latinity and

guided him through the Trivium : it brought him intocontact with the Benedictine order, and so with therising religious movement which was giving the ordernew life, and which in turn the Benedictines were todo much to extend and guide. The boy was naturallyreligious, the whole atmosphere of his surroundingshitherto had borne the same character, his loneliness


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1 ANSELM AND HIS WORKhad made the impressions deep. He was studious,ah-eady so athirst for knowledge that he had workedtoo hard. To his boyish thought idleness was a vice.What was more natural than that the severe Bene-dictine rule should seem to offer the opportunity hedesired and to fulfil the ideal of a holy life? Itwas true that his uncles were in the religious lifeand yet were no monks. But canons in such aplace as Aosta were often little more than worthygentlemen of good family, whose birth gave themadmission to ecclesiastical posts which provided themwith modest revenues. On these they led respectedand respectable lives, and in return fulfilled certaindevout duties. When a new ideal of religious duty isbeginning to captivate men's minds, the representativesof an older order are liable to seem destitute of anyideal at all. A youth, above all in his early enthusiasm,will count such a service of God insufficient, and in hisfirst ignorance of life will claim for himself a moredifficult self-denial. Anselm applied for admission toa neighbouring convent. The abbot, however, refusedto accept him without his father's consent. Gundulf,who had no mind to see his only male heir a monk,refused his consent. The zealous boy he wasabout fifteen at the timeprayed for an illness whichmight extort permission from his father. The illnesscame, in answer Anselm believed to his prayer ; butthe consent was still withheld, for it is difficult to forcethe hand of the Almighty. When the illness hadpassed, the desire for a conventual life had passed withit. For some years he lived in his father's house andforgot, as though they had never been, his earlierdesires. In later years the monk spoke with bitter


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THE VAL D'AOSTA 19self-reproach of this period in his life as a time inwhich he plunged into excesses which left an enduringregret. But it is well to take self-accusations in sucha man with a large reservation. To him, who had solived himself into monkery that it seemed to him theonly truly Christian life, the time during which heforsook his early desire seemed a time during which heforsook all religion. There may have been nothingworse in it than the wholesome reaction, when the ladrose from his bed and saw the green earth under himand the blue heaven over him, and filled his lungs withthe Alpine air, and took back his life and his joy inthe large world like a gift from out of God's hands.About the year 1056 his mother died. She leftbesides Anselm only a daughter, Richera, to whom we

find her brother writing in later years, and who wasat the close of the century the mother of infantchildren. Richera must have been much younger thanher brother, and it is possible that Ermenberga died ather birth. And when the mother was dead, father andson found themselves hopelessly misunderstandingeach other. They had never possessed much incommon ; and the strength of character which markedthem both made them unable to cloak their difference.So long as the more spiritually minded woman hadlived, she had kept the diflference from rising to anopen antipathy. Now, when she was dead, thesituation became impossible. Gundulf was at no painsto hide his dislike. There was no one to soften it.Anselm at last could bear it no longer. He determinedto leave home. In the early summer of the followingyear, with no very definite aim before him, he loadedhis few necessities upon an ass and, accompanied by a


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20 ANSELM AND HIS WORK" clerk," crossed the Mont Cenis to disappear forthree years in Burgundy and France. He went outnot knowing wliither lie went. The instinct of hislife was guiding him. Eadmer says he was not re-ceived into tlie convent near Aosta, because it pleasedGod that he should not be entangled in the conver-sation of the place. And certainly it was betterfor the world and for himself that he should profess,as he finally did, in Normandy rather than inthe valley among the Alps. For in France was areligious and theological interest which no other partof the world could show. Italy and Germany wereengrossed in the political and ecclesiastical side of thereligious question. In Normandy Lanfranc was teach-ing. France was largely dominated by the congrega-tion of Cluny, and with all its limitations, which wereafterwards to make it the centre of Ultramontanismand obscurantism, Cluny was the most potent andpure ecclesiastical influence of the time. Eadmermight well declare it to have been of the Divineguidance that the future archbishop and theologiancrossed the Mont Cenis.


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CHAPTER IISainte Marie du Bec

In 1034 Herbert, bishop of Lisieux, dedicated to theVirgin-mother a humble Benedictine monastery notfar from Brionne. Thither Anselm's unconscious feetwere leadino^ him when he crossed the Mont Cenis.In that brotherhood he should profess as monk, teachas prior, rule as abbot, before England claimed him.He should be one of the men who made Sainte Marie duBec famous wherever good scholarship and holy livingwere valued. Since this became the " nest " to whichin years of later trouble he looked back with longing,and since it gave him, perhaps the best, and certainlythe happiest years of his life, it is necessary toattempt to recognise its significance for the Normandyof its time.Normandy was in the making. The years of

conquest were past. Already the great lines of itsfuture strength were beginning to show dimly throughthe chaos. Yet the outward appearance of theland was no unfit sign of its inward life. It wasstill a wilderness of forest and swamp, where theclearings that should become cities stood out likeislands in a sea. The townships were dotted here andthere, grouped round a minster or a castle; and


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22 ANSELM AND HIS WORKthough the wooden houses were weak and the localinstitutions childlike in their simplicity, the cities ofto-day often occupy the old sites and the civic liferetains much from its beginnings. Above these,protector and terror, rose a Norman keep. Built lessas a home than as a defence, its site ao^reed with itspurpose. On some plain the encircling river was usedto form a natural ditch ; on a crag the walls were butneeded to complete what the rock had begun, and thehand of time makes it difficult to-day to distinguishwhere Nature ceased and man beo^an to build. Here abaron, as stark as the keep he had built, kept his own

' against his enemies and wrought his will on hisdefenceless tenants. He obeyed nothing higher thanhis own will, realised but fitfully that there wasanything higher. " Every lord that was mighty ofmen made him strong, and many weened to have beenking." Turbulent, lawless, loving battle, yet with fineelements of manly honour and knightly faith breakingthrough their brutality, these lived as they listed.Mortemer and Varaville had not yet taught them thestrength in the hand of the tanners grandson. Sountamable were they that only the force of theConqueror could restrain them and that the orderwhich he had hardly maintained in his lifetime couldnot survive him. They could be bent by a moreresolute will or outwitted by a clearer brain. Buteverything still depended on the individual ruler and

! his personal character. All the elements of a stronggovernment in a young-spirited and intelligent racewere present, but an ordered State was still to bebuilt up.The force which could alone moderate the baseness


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SAINTE MARIE DU BEC 23as well as discipline the strength oi* the Normancharacter was still too largely a force from without.Christian they had been called for some generations.But their Christianity had been too much of a super-stition to do much more than check their worstexcesses and produce wild remorse of conscience, thecure of which was as superstitious as its cause. Howlittle the temper of heathenism had died out amongthose Northmen betrayed itself when their still heathencountrymen burst into the country about the middleof the tenth century. Almost all the baptized fellback with relish into the practice of rites which theyhad not yet forgotten. Only those about Evreuxstood fast to their new" faith. Duke Richard I., him-self too young to understand all that the step involved,was prevented by wiser counsellors from being carriedaway in the common apostasy. When he came to hisstrength he maintained the attitude which had beentaken for him, won from his own people by his loyaltyto Christianity the name Sans j)eur, and checked byhis steadfastness the pagan reaction. And after hehad with the help of neighbouring Christian princesmade his duchy his own again, he set himself torevive monastic institutions there as the best meansof renewing religious life. He restored convents whichhad been ruined, built and endowed new ones, gaveevery encouragement to the Benedictine revival amonghis people. Yet the canons of a council held at Rouenin 1050 show that paganism was still so much of a forcein certain parts of the duchy almost a century later asto claim the attention of Church courts. What wasable to survive even in outward form till then musthave survived in spirit for many years later.


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24 ANSELM AND HIS WORKThe fact, however, that the victory under Duke

Richard was won in the name of Christianity andwith one definite issue before it united with theexample set by the duke himself to produce in thefollowing century an outburst of ecclesiastical andreligious zeal in Normandy. It was the period of itsgreat foundations. "The abbeys of Jumieges, ofConches, of Fecamp, of Mont St. Michel, of St. Wand-rille at Fontanelle on the Seine near Rouen, of St.Amand within, of Ste. Catherine or La Trinite duMont and St. Ouen without the walls of that famouscity, of Grestain near Lisieux, of Le Bee, Bernay,and Cormeilles between Rouen and Lisieux, of St.Evroult between L'Aigle and Argentan, of St. Leufroybetween Evreux and Gaillon, of St. Pierre sur Divesnear Troarn, were all restored, reformed, or foundedduring the latter half of the tenth or the first half ofthe eleventh century."

Yet, potent for good in the present and full ofpromise for the future though these foundations were,they long suffered under one fatal and common defect.

IThey did not belong to the people themselves. Notso much born out of their inward life as imposed uponit from without, most of the monasteries remainedexotics. Part of the stimulus to their foundation camefrom political and dynastic considerations. The rulershad based their power on Christianity, because theysaw that there lay the promise of the future forthemselves and for their land. They naturally sought tostrengthen the hold which religion had on their people'slives. They built and endowed, they encouragedreform and brought in monks. But religion needsmore than money and stones. For years not merely


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SAINTE MARIE DU BEC 25the ideals to guide their reformation but the men tocarry it into effect needed to be drawn from among

"^

foreigners. The native clergy of Normandy wereinsensitive to anything except the outside of themovement, and the ideal of monasticism had nottouched the conscience of the people. It is true thatwe only know the character of the generation fromthe records of their successors, who saw everything inthe light of the later movement, and it is never safeto judge the morals and ideals of one generation bythe new zeal of their followers. There were braveand holy men among the Moderates. But the com-plaints against the clergy of Normandy in those *decades are too constant to be ignored. When PopeLeo IX. visited Rheims in 1049 the independent temper ^of the French clergy towards the Roman see without 'doubt made his judgment on their moral charactermore severe. The clergy who were not Ultramontaneswere sure to find their marriage described as con-cubinage, their view on investiture condemned assimony. Yet that council found it necessary to passa law forbidding clerics to wear military weapons orto engage in war. Many of the superior clergy chosethe position not for the religious influence it offeredbut for the high position at court it opened. When ,the chief ecclesiastical dignity, the archbishopric of 'Rouen, was held during 113 years by three men, twoof whom were bastards of the ducal house, one under- \stands that there were disadvantages connected with 1the fostering care of the Norman lords. Men gavetheir countenance and their lands to the risingmonasteries, but they still hesitated to give them-selves. When they gave their sons, they gave these


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26 ANSELM AND HIS WORKnot so iniicli to serve the aims as to enjoy the dignitiesof the Church.The sioniHcance of the foundation at Le Bee is not

to be found in its power to rival in dignity its con-temporaries, nor in the commanding ability of its firstabbot. In both these respects it was negligible. Whatgives it importance is that Herlwin in the prime ofhis strength elected to leave his knighthood andbecome a monk. The foundation represented theconvictions of a man who gave more than a fosteringand slightly patronising protection, because he gavehimself. The Norman knighthood to their astonish-ment discovered that one of themselves counted theircommon life insufficient to satisfy the needs of hisimmortal soul and was resolved to rise up and seeka better. Now what those who are aliens to thecommon habits of a generation may choose to do doesnot trouble any generation greatly, it may even beput aside with an amused contempt. But when a manto whom life is offering the best which it can give tohis equals gravely puts it away as inadequate, his deedstrikes the imagination of the dullest. At last theideals of monasticism had touched the Norman imag-ination, had reached within the Norman thought. Oneresult was that the little house of religion exercised aninfluence quite out of proportion to its size or to theimportance of its founder. And while it must beacknowledged that great part of its power is due to thecircumstance that it was fortunate enough to countamontj: its monks men like Lanfranc and Anselm, theremust have been much of native vigour in the place,which could first attract men of such character withinits walls and could then give them the opportunity


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SAINTE MARIE DU BEC 27they needed. The tales which have come down of theabbey's founder and his first illustrious monk servealike to show what temper the men were of and thecauses which drove men then into conventual life.

There lived at the court of Count Gilbert of Brionnea knight named ^erlwin, one of the count's stoutestretainers. Sprung from a mixture of the Danish andFlemish stocks (his father Ansgot was of the oldDanes, his mother Eloisa was akin to the Counts ofFlanders), the knight was brave with the high couragewhich is more like hereditary instinct. He had beenfound wise in counsel and prudent in matters, so thathis lord trusted him in the court no less than on thefield. He was capable also of the generosity andquick sense of honour which can never be wanting inany man who is to lead men to a deeper understandingof the Divine generosity, without which in truth noman will ever see much in God to declare to men.Once his lord and he had quarrelled. The loosely-firm organisation of the period permitted a subordinatea large liberty in resenting any slight to his personalhonour; and Herlwin judging himself insulted hadwithdrawn from Count Gilbert's following and wasliving privately at home. To him, sulking in hisretirement, came the news that his lord had goneout to do battle with an old enemy, and tha>tmatters were likely to go hard with him, since theneighbour was stronger than he. The old loyaltyawoke at once at the summons of the count's adver-sity, the temporary quarrel was forgotten, the slightto his personal dignity was disregarded. Herlwingathered a troop of twenty men at arms, appeared onthe very morning of the battle alongside his chief,


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28 ANSELM AND HIS WORKand therebut not until with true Norman love oflegality he had been reQonciled in due form with hisadversaryfollowed his lord to a victory his cominghad made possible.To this man, unembittered by failure and while his

strength was still in him, the higher service of JesusChrist revealed itself. He turned to listen, and ashe listened, it grew ever more manifest to him thatin this semi-barbarous society where war was alike theamusement and the business of his class, where he heldhis position and exercised his privileges on the simplecondition of being ever ready for war, he could nottruly follow Christ. Yet the rough soldier s wit couldnot but recognise the duties which his estate in lifedemanded from him. He could not flee from them.If he did, his superior would seize his lands and visiton his vassals the anger which he could not wreak ontheir now monkish lord. The man was in the strait towhich the state of society must at that time havebrought many a man who was determined to makeearnest of Christian profession. For some time, sincethe count was obdurate and would not let him go,Herlwin tried to satisfy his conscience with subordinatesacrifices. He refused to eat the dainties at his lord'stable and satisfied his hunger with the plainest fare.He denied himself the pomp of a warhorse, and whereit was not possible to walk insisted on mounting anass. The fashion of his utterance might be uncouth andawkward but cannot fail to appear of simplest truth.He was resolute to witness to the great reality which hadbecome the one reality for him, that the obedience toChrist meant something more than the life which hiscompanions in arms lived, and which himself had


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SAINTE MARIE DU BEC 29lived until that time. The effort roused the amusedcontempt of men who found it impossible to conceive ^why a knight who was still sound in wind and limbshould even think of a monk's cowl. But hiscon-temptuous amazement only made the weighty ot theproblem heavier on the solitary spirit. Herlwm borehis false position as long as he might. At last it haderown intolerable, and as often happens in such

a casean outward event served to transform into action ahalf-formed purpose. He had followed his lord on oneof his unceasing raids into the territories of a neigh-bour But on this occasion matters "fell not out toCount Gilbert according to his desire. For IngelramCount of Ponthieu, met him with a

strong force andengaging him put him to flight with his men, and of thefugitives many were taken and many slain and manydisabled with wounds. Then a certain soldier therenamed Herlwin, fearing the danger and flying with allhis might for his life, vowed to God that if he got offsafe from so present a danger he

would henceforth besoldier to none but God." He escaped, and kept hisvow No considerations could now hold him back.Neither the threats nor the entreaties of the countcould prevent him from continually returning to hisplea for dismission. " By loving the world and obeyingyou" so ran his petition to his lord in the words inwhich a later age reproduced it, " I have until now toomuch neglected God and myself : too intent on clothmgand too mindful of the body, I have forgotten the im-provement of my soul. Therefore I entreat you toallow me, if ever I have deserved well of you, to spendmy remaining days in monastic seclusion."To a man who lived in that world life meant


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30 ANSELM AND HIS WORKobedience to other principles than those of Christ. Sosoon as " it pleased God to reveal His Son in him," theplain soldier had realised the fact. The sincerity of theman's mind made him unable to shut it out. Customand familiar duties had retained him for a time,even after his new-born conviction had made himuneasy. It had needed the shock of outv^ard circum-stance to make his troubled thoughts pass into resolu-tion. But once formed the resolution was irrevocable.Only Herlwin had no thought of founding an institu-tion, and just as little was he thinking primarily ofhelping society. He was seeking to save his soul alive.He craved to escape into an atmosphere which made itpossible for a man to think of self-devotion and topractise self-sacrifice. It was inevitable in those daysthat he should become a monk, almost as inevitablethat he should become a Benedictine. There wasnowhere else where he could go. For, whateverthey afterwards became under other influences, theBenedictines were facing the question of their time.Their answer was imperfect, as the answer of most menis. But one thing they saw plainly and said fearlesslyat the cost of what most men value above everythingelse, that society as then constituted in Normandy wasfundamentally unchristian, that so soon as a man madeearnest of his obedience to the great Master of all hewas bound to protest against it with what force was inhim, and that they for their part would protest by goingout from it and casting from them its rewards andits hindrances. Therein lay the strength of this mon-asticism. It represented an ethical reformation. Itbelieved that Christ's principles were practicable andwere meant to be obeyed. And offering to earnest men


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SAINTE MARIE DU BEC 31an opportunity for putting those into practice and thesupport of a society likemincled with themselves, itwon some of the strongest natures to its service andits aims.

But the troubles of the new soldier of Christ w^erenot at an end. He had but little knowledge of re-ligious institutions. He could . not even read.. Helooked about him for guidance, and found at firstnothing but discouragement. In the courtyard of onemonastery, where with all the embarrassed devotionof a new convert he stood silently watching the move-ments of the brothers, the porter mistook him for athief, and having knocked him down from behinddragged him beyond the gates by the hair. Onanother occasion he was scandalised by the behaviourof the monks in their procession. Some were so busydisplaying their Christmas vestments to the onlookersthat they had no attention to give to their service.Two even fell to blows over their place in the cere-monial, and one of these finished the unseemly squabbleby felling his neighbour. But the devotion which hadresisted the sneers and the persuasions of the Count ofBrionne's court was proof against the more difficulttest of seeing Norman convent-life from the inside. Hewas cheered, too, it is said, by one simple incident.When he knelt in a certain church at prayer, a monkstole in alongside and all unwitting of a spectator pros-trated himself to spend the long night in prayer andtears. But Herlwin would not enter into any of thereligious houses which he knew ; he resolved to foundone for himself.

His first monastery was situated on his own propertyat Burneville, a few miles from Brionne, and was as


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32 ANSELM AND HIS WORKhumble a house of religion as existed in Normandy.Its heart and soul was the devout, indomitable spiritof its founder. Many of the stones of his first build-ing were laid with his own hands. He taught himselfto build. With his few companions, some of whomhad been comrades in arms, he wielded mattock andspade. At the age of ioxiy he taught himself to read,and as all the hours of the day were needed for morematerial cares, stole hours from his sleep to learn hispsalter. The convent was miserably poor ; sometimesthe brethren had not enough to satisfy their humblewants. Herlwin consented to be appointed abbot in1037, not because he desired the office, nor because hecounted himself fit to fulfil its duties, but because noother could be found willing to accept the lowly honour.The site proved to have been ill chosen. Not even thediligent labour of the monks could make the wilder-ness yield enough for their maintenance, and therewas no spring nearer than a mile or two from thebuilding.Some miles farther down its course the Risle is

joined at Pont Authou by a tributary, which was toosmall to receive a distinctive name. Men called it LeBee, the Danish name which still lingers in Cumber-land for a streamlet. Here Herlwin elected to buildanew, probably because he owned some property there.The rivulet drops down to the Risle through fir woodsthat furnished favourite hunting-grounds to the sport-loving Normans. After these had been in some waycontented, the brethren removed to their new site andfounded a convent which, like the old, they dedicatedto the Virgin. Its fame made the brook famousSainte Marie du Bee, Our Lady of the Rivulet.


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SAINTE MARIE DU BEC 33The number of the monks increased, and the spirit

which animated them was excellent. Eloisa theabbot's mother, since she could help no otherwise,offered her services to wash the poor clothes of thebrethren. But, though the abbot was zealous, he wasalso ignorant. Now zeal without knowledge will nothold a house of monks long together, especially whenthese are of the untamed Norman blood and many ofthem have worn a helmet before they put on the cowl.The discipline of Le Bee was suffering, and Herlwinhad begun to feel keenly the want of the trainingwhich could enable him to guide the enlarging life ofhis little community, when circumstances threw in hisway the man he needed. His sagacity made him fit toappreciate, his humility made him willing to use thegift.Lo^ranc, sprung from a_ legal family, learned

especially in the canon law, with the instincts of aChurchman if not of a saint, had left his home atPavia to visit France. Paris in that age occupied to-ward Rome the position which Alexandria held at amuch earlier date as the school of a rising Christiantheology and as the place to which every inquiringmind instinctively turned for light on the questions ofspeculation which were beginning to exert anew theirperennial fascination on the minds of men. Lanfrancfound his way to Avranches, and there taught for atime with profit and increasing fame. But teachingcould not content him ; like many another he was look-ing with longing eyes towards a monastic life. Asthe story runs, he was on his way to Rouen to seekinstruction in religion, when he fell into the hands ofrobbers. Thereon it occurred to the scholar how he


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34 ANSELM AND HIS WORKhad heard of one in like case from whom robbers stolehis horse and who proliered them the whip which was ofno further use to him, with tlie result that the thievestouched to sudden remorse by his Christian patiencerestored their victim both horse and whip. Lanfrancthought to show a like gentleness in hope of a likereward and offered the men who had taken his goodshis clothes as well. But, whether the Norman robberwas coarser in fibre than his Italian fellow-rogue, orwhether, as Lanfranc himself thought. Providencerecognised and punished the insincerity of his offer, hisassailants construed the request as a mockery, acceptedthe clothes, beat their wearer, and left him strippedand bound to a wayside tree. Here in equal dangerof perishing from wild beasts and from cold Lanfrancsought relief in prayer. To his surprise and dismaythe famous canon-lawyer and best Latinist of Europefound that in his hour of need he did not know how topray. Lecture he could, but he could not even repeata passage from his psalter. The incident determinedhim ; and he vowed that if God delivered him fromthis peril he would instantly betake himself to amonastery and there before it was too late learn howto pray.Some peasants found and freed him in the early

morning. When he asked the way to the poorestmonastery in the neighbourhood they directed him toLe Bee. In later years the gifts of the faithful madethe abbey so rich that a doggerel Norman rhymeruns "De quelque part que le vent vente

L'Abbaye du Bee a rente."But at this time the brethren could not from poverty


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SAINTE MARIE DU BEC 35keep the light in their chapel burning day and night.Arrived there, the new - comer was directed to theabbot. He found Herlwin busy at the building of anoven, half hidden in its rising wall. " God save you,"said the Italian. " God bless you," answered theNorman and added, struck no doubt by his visitor'saccent, " Are you a Lombard ? " " I am." " And whatis it you would have from us

? " "I would become amonk." A brother was despatched to bring a book ofthe rule. Lanfranc read it while the abbot went onwith his oven. Satisfied with its requirements, hekneeled among the bricks to kiss his new superior'sfeet. A few days later he made his profession as amember of the brotherhood. And the quondam soldiertaught the great scholar and ecclesiastic how to pray.As Lanfranc went in and out, a humble monk in the

humblest cloister of Normandy, he marvelled at thethings which he saw. For he saw a simple pietybuilding up uncultured men into nobleness of life, andrecognised how the sincerity and elevation of theirpurpose cleared the men's minds of mists and gavethem direct insight into some spiritual realities.Herlwin was so little of a scholar that he had neededat the age of forty to teach himself to read. Yetwhen he commented to his monks on Scripture andtried in soldierly fashion to express the thoughts asto God's purposes which St. Paul's Epistles awoke inhimself, Lanfranc wonderingly acknowledged how vitalhis explanations were. He could not understand it,he said, save that it was another proof of how theSpirit like the wind bloweth where it listeth. Andthe lawyer of Pavia who had lectured to the crowdingstudents at Avranches became like a little child, and


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36 ANSELM AND HIS WORKputting from him his pride strove to gain the bestwhich the discipline of the cloister conld bring him.One day, probably as he read to the brethren gatheredto their midday meal, the abbot or another correcteda supposed false quantity in the reader's Latin andbade Lanfranc pronounce docere what he had rightlycalled docere. He obeyed, and when asked his reasonreplied that he now counted it a greater thing toobey Christ than to follow even the grammarianDonatus.On the other hand Herlwin was unwilling that thisnew brother should be buried among the ordinary con-vent-duties. He had not been sent of God to theirmonastery merely for his own sake but for theirs aswell, and he could render them a service which theyneeded. Perhaps, too, the shrewd abbot who had notlived at the court of Gilbert without learning muchabout human nature knew how impossible it is forany man of real power to deny the nature which is inhim. Lanfranc, associating only with untutored monks,having no one quite likeminded with himself, began tofret his heart out in morbid self-communings. He hadeven resolved and made preparation to flee into thewilderness and become a hermit. But the abbot,warned it was said by a vision, though it needed nolarger vision than a genuine sympathy with othermen can bring, showed such manifest distress thatthe other was softened to remain. Herlwin madehim prior and brought through his more culturednature a new tone into the little community. Heencouraged him to resume his work of teaching, andwhen scholars, hearing that the Lanfranc whom theyhad counted dead was in Le Bee, swarmed to the


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SAINTE MARIE DU BEC 37place in numbers which embarrassed the monkishhospitality, Herlwin was willing to let the monksstarve rather than the students. Among the restcame, drawn simply by the fame of a learning aboutwhich all Normandy spoke, another foreigner whocombined the qualities which distinguished the abbotand prior of the monastery, who united the pietywhich distinguished the one with the scholarship whichmarked the other. Lanfranc brought Anselm to LeBee, and for the sake of Anselm and of what hewrought there men still remember Le Bee.

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CHAPTEE IIIMonk, Prior, and Abbot

The Benedictines had from their beginning interestedthemselves in education. Prior to the ninth century,however, their schools were confined to the oblates,children dedicated to the monastic life and undertraining for that specific end. In the time of Charle-magne and doubtless through his influence the abbeyschools had followed the example of the episcopal andopened their doors to all. Protest was raised by thosewho feared the secularising influence : a convention ofabbots at Aix in 817 determined that the schoolsshould be reserved for the oblates. But the largeideal of the emperor was too strong, and the resultof the decision at Aix had been that two kinds ofschools were instituted. There were now monasticschools proper, scholce claustrales, where the boys wereall virtually novices, and scholar canonicce which wereopen to the clergy and even to the sons of laymen. Insome cases there existed within the abbey itself atraining college where younger monks were put undera special director, either because they had professedwithout passing through one of the other schools, orbecause they were judged capable of benefiting from afurther education.


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MONK, PRIOR, AND ABBOT 39When Anselm then appeared at Le Bee in the

autumn of 1059, he came as a layman attracted by thefame of Lanfranc's scholarship. The religious impulsewhich had once made him desire to profess at Aostawas not dead but it was dormant. Nor was Lanfrancthe man to reawaken it in a spirit like Anselm's. Thetwo men were drawn powerfully to one another bythe fact that they had in common many thoughtswhich they could only share with each other. Thelearned ecclesiastic could appreciate and guide thestrenuous intelligence of his new pupil. The pupilnever forgot his intellectual debt to his master. But,while they corresponded in later years on many sub-jects, their letters never show them opening theirhearts to each other.The spring of 1060 brought to Le Bee the news ofGundulf's death, and forced on Anselm the necessity

of deciding what he meant to do with his life. He hadalready thought of becoming a monk. The scholar ina monastery fared as meagrely and slept as coldly asany monk in his cell. In many of its habits, in all itsausterity the student's life was very near that of theprofessed monk. What it had not was the strengthwhich comes from brotherhood in a common purposeand the hope of eternal reward. Why should he nottake the vow which would require so little and giveso much ? Yet if he took the vow at Le Bee, he couldbe of little use there, since the abbey had no need oftwo theological teachers, and as the archbishop franklyconfessed he was not then monk enough in spirit torelish the certainty of being eclipsed by Lanfranc. If,however, he went to Cluny the life of which he hadlearned during his wanderings, could his health endure


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40 ANSELM AND HIS WORKits austerities or would its monks be willing: to usethe learuing wliicli lie already knew must be themaster passion of his life ? At times he meditated areturn to Aosta, there to devote life and patrimony tothe care of the poor. One thing only he was resolvednot to do, he would not live unto himself. Fearinglest inclination should obscure duty, he asked theadvice of his prior. Lanfranc sent him to their dio-cesan, the Archbishop of Rouen ; and Maurille decidedfor Le Bee. It may have been the memory of thisdecision, its hallowed results for himself and thegrounds on which it was formed, which gave a specialtone to his advice to an old pupil, Arnulf : " I highlypraise you, that you purpose going where you can liveaccording to your scheme, yet I warn that you do sowith the permission of your abbot, and that whereverGod direct your way . . . you choose no place whereyou can be of use to and instruct others, but onewhere you can profit from others and be taught bythem in the spiritual warfare."Le Bee was under a modified form of the Bene-

dictine rule. Entry into the novitiate was verysimple. In the chapter-house where the abbot pre-sided the postulant prostrated himself, and to theabbot inquiring his business answered, " I seek God'smercy, your fellowship and the brotherhood of thisplace : I long to become a monk and to serve God inthis monastery." The abbot replied with the largerwish, " God grant you fellowship and a place amongHis elect," to which the assembled chapter said Amen.He then set before the postulant the duties and trialsof a monk under the rule. The postulant promised tofulfil and bear them all. To this promise the abbot


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MONK, PRIOR, AND ABBOT 41answered, "Our Lord Jesus Christ so fulfil in youwhat for love of Him you promise that you mayobtain His grace and life everlasting," and the monksagain said Amen. "And we for love to Him grantwhat you so humbly and earnestly desire." Afterkissing: the abbot's feet the novice was led to thechurch and there clothed in the dress and hood of theorder. When the novitiate, which in Anselm's casemust have been very brief, was past, the monks wereassembled in the church-choir. At the close of theGospel in Mass Anselm was led in by the master ofnovices. While he walked to the altar and prostratedhimself on its steps, the Miserere was chanted by hisnew brethren. In the after silence the novice rose toread his vow from a slip of parchment: "I Anselmdo before God and His saints promise the faithfulnessof a monk, newness of life and obedience according tothe rule of St. Benedict in this monastery which hasbeen built to the glory of the blessed Mary evervirgin, in the presence of Herlwin its abbot." He laidthe slip as an offering on the altar, and standing on itssteps borrowed the words of an older ritual, " Upholdme, Lord, according to Thy word and I shall live, andlet me not be confounded in my hope." Three timesthis was repeated, and three times the monks, asthough reminded of their own need by the hearingof another's prayer, echoed their new brother's peti-tion. Then over the monk now prostrate the abbotintoned the De Profundis. A few praj^ers followed:the Veni Creator was sung: Anselm rising wassprinkled with holy water. His cowl was blessed bythe abbot. His novice's tunic was removed "TheLord put from thee the old man with his deeds." The


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42 ANSELM AND HIS WORKcowl was put on him" The Lord put on thee the newman who according to God is created in justice andholiness of truth." Anselm was a monk in Le Bee,and the kiss of peace was given him by his brethren.This was in 1060, when he was twenty-seven yearsold; and he was to live there as monk, prior, andabbot for thirty-three years.

Monasticism in the West had still the dew of itsyouth. To realise this, it is only necessary to see thethree figures which are grouped round the rise of LeBee : Herlwin, learning to read by night and buildinghis oven by day ; Lanfranc, the best Latinist and one ofthe sagest Churchmen of his day ; Anselm, who ponderedwhile his monks slept and whom the Church neededto summon on his obedience into the world of action.There could have been nothing stereotyped in a ruleand a life which could attract and satisfy three mindsof such divergent type. Regulations which wouldhave been the breath of life to Herlwin would havestifled the powers of Anselm. But the fearlessness ofa new enthusiasm was still present to the Benedictines.They were not afraid of individuality, within certainlimitations they fostered it. Nor were they afraid oflife. It was not a refuge the abbey oflered, it was anopportunity. Every Benedictine community stood forone thing in Europe : it preached the sacred dignity oflabour and the hatefulness of destruction. In an agewhen men counted their manhood by the amount theycould destroy, when their pastime as their pride was towreck or to prevent others from wrecking them, the rulewhich commanded labour as necessaryto the soul's healthreminded an astonished world of the dignity of labour.The monks in the days of their strength were the


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MONK, PRIOR, AND ABBOT 43creators. Where others wasted, they built and ditchedand taught. And the artisan and labourer dimlyrealised that these men brought him what all the sonsof men must gain if their work is not to be a drudgerybut a means of grace, the sense that their work alsocould in its measure be made divine. There were mentoo, like the Conqueror, who in that unquiet age onlytore down that they might more surely rebuild. Thesewere ever the readiest to acknowledge the help theBenedictines could lend them, and sought sometimes byhurtful privileges to foster their efforts or to purchasetheir aid.The first three years in the convent were spent by

Anselm in obscurity, the world forgetting, by the worldforgot. But no sooner had Lanfranc been summonedby William of Normandy to become head of themonastery the duke had founded at Caen, thanAnselm Avas promoted to the office of prior. Lanfranchad given fame to the little community so thatmen flocked to it for knowledge. It was felt thatno one was better fitted to continue his work than hisablest pupil. But the first years of office were madebitter to the new prior. Envy is not abolished whenits range has been narrowed. There were men in theconvent who resented Anselm's rapid promotion, andwho set themselves to thwart the man whose advancethey could not prevent. It was only for a few years,for the simple purity of the prior's life, the high sweetdignity of his aims, the absence of all self-seeking, hisinvincible patience and almost womanly tendernesssucceeded even in silencing envy. How much it costand brought him is revealed in his letters. It is truethat he never wrote about it. Indeed it is one


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44 ANSELM AND HIS WORKcharacteristic oi' his letters that he rarely speaksabout himself, and tliat while willinpr to help andcounsel all who consulted him he seldom claims theirguidance. Yet it is not without meaning that lie sooften urges patience on monks, and that the verseof Scripture which recurs oftenest is how tribulationworketh patience.

In the convent at the time was a young monk,Osbern, who though younger in years was older inreligion than the new prior. His jealous seniors whodared not show too nakedly their own resentmentencouraged the lad in disobedience to his superior.He set himself with the ability of a splenetic boyto worry Anselm in the thousand w\ays which theclose relations of a small monastery make so easy andso wearing. The prior bore with all. Seeing a trueheart beneath the monkey tricks, he resolved to win it,and to that end gave the lad special notice and allowedhim certain indulgences. Slowly the ice melted. Osbernlearned to believe in the affection of his superior andimpetuously like a boy repaid it by an entire devotion.No sooner did Anselm see this than he altered histreatment. Little by little he withdrew the indul-gences and began to test the youth's devotion bytasks which would serve to deepen it. Gradually thetrue character began to show more clearly. AlreadyAnselm was able to rejoice in the prospect for his pupilof a nobler manhood which would be an ornament tothe convent and a means to the glory of God. ButOsbern fell ill with a mortal sickness. While the illnesslasted the prior hardl}^ left his bedside, and when themonk died, it was with the prior's hands ministeringto his last necessities. Nor did death break that love.

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MONK, PRIOR, AND ABBOT 45Again and again in his letters does Anselm's affectionfor Osbern reappear. "Salute Dom. Osbern who iswith you as my beloved brother for the dead Osbern,my well-beloved, . . . wherever Osbern is, his soul ismy soul. During my lifetime I will claim on hisbehalf whatever I might after death hope from yourkindness, so that after my death ye may be free (fromthe prayers for the dead). Farewell, my beloved, andto repay thee according to thine own importunity, Iimplore and implore and implore thee to remember meand forget not the soul of my beloved Osbern. Andif I seem to burden thee overmuch, forget me andremember him."

Anselm's treatment of Osbern marks his power ineducation. The prior recognised what can be made ofrich untutored natures by giving them an aim on whichto expend their energy. While he recognised thatstrength which submits to no rule becomes weak orworse than weak, he had no monkish fear of vigour initself. He believed in life and good and Christdiscipline and rule were but the means of attainingthese more thoroughly. This eye for the foundationsof character made him a revolutionary in educationalmethod. The age believed in rigour especially ineducation. Guibert de Nogent mentions as a matterof course about his own, " meanwhile I was beatenalmost daily with a cruel hail of stripes and blows."Monks in the chapter were beaten for slight offences.The oblates were taught to chastise each other whentheir masters had finished with them. To Le Bee cameone day an abbot who opened his heart to his brother-educator as most men seem to have done who came incontact with the gentle prior. His lament was over


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46 ANSELM AND HIS WORKhis failure with tlic boys under his care. We do ourbest for them, so ran his plaint. We teach, correct,chastise them. But they only grow worse : they learnno respect for us and, what is more grievous, no respectfor the life to which we seek to introduce them : theygrow up sour-hearted rebels: and I am well-nighbroken-hearted over the business. Do you, answeredthe prior, pursue no other method than lashing ? See,brother, if you take a young tree with all its sap in itand check a branch here and tie in another there, whatwill you have a right to expect when you unbind thelashings ? Surely a twisted malformed thing whichis good neither for timber nor for fuel. And if youdo nothing but check your lads, telling them they arewrong here, reminding them they are wrong there, canyou wonder if all the branches of their naturalcapacity turn to gnarled worthlessness ? The homilywas so pithy and so gentle that the abbot askedpardon for his mistake from his brother and fromGod.Along with this went what is often bestowed on

men who have forgotten themselves in a high purpose,the golden gift of understanding a brother's thought.Apart from the theological and historical value of theletters of the Church fathers they deserve examinationas psychological studies. The study is within a narrowrange but is often extraordinarily keen. Flashes of in-sight occur in Anselm's letters which prove his estimatenot only of the value but of the dangers of the monasticlife he strenuously followed. Writing to Lanzo, anold pupil, he marks the disappointment many an ardentspirit must have suffered at the discovery of thecloister's drudgery. " So soon as we have pledged our-


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MONK, PRIOR, AND ABBOT 47selves to Christ's banner, the tempter comes to us notmerely from without, he glides into the camp of Christto ruin for us our service there. Nothing is morefrequent than that young monks are tormented byscruples as to whether they have done right in becom-ing monks. Or though they will to remain monks, theyimagine matters to be better in another cloister thanin their own and ask whether they should not gothither. So they are like young trees w^hich do notstrike root in the new ground in which they areplanted because winds move them hither and thither.Therefore your first care should be surrender to yournew position, and it will not be hard for you to accom-modate yourself thereto if you at first keep constantlybefore you the dangers which you have escaped, andthank God that He has suffered you to escape intothe haven of the cloister-life, be it one haven oranother."The circle of Anselm's influence grew as his character

became known. Men are quick to discover one whocan give them help. Part of this was inevitable andnatural as monks who had been trained under himwent to other foundations. Lanfranc in his efibrt toreform the religious life of England brought overmonks from his former convent. The men rememberedtheir old master and turned to him with a sureconviction of finding unfailing sympathy. But othersclaimed help. From Hirsau the abbot who is trying toplant the aims of Cluny in the tough imperialistic soil ofGermany asks guidance in a question of discipline. Somewrite for his books on metaphysics, others for copies ofhis Meditations, some make him their confessor in diffi-cult passages of their lives, most beg for his prayers.


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4S ANSELM AND HIS WORKThis increasing influence was due not merely to hisripe intelligence but to the happy lovesome temperwhich plays through his letters to his intimates. Heseems to take a delight in forcing the monkish Latinto express in ever-varying form his regard for menlike Maurice and Boso, his favourite pupils, or forGondulf of Rochester, his alter ego. To one of thesewho longs to be back at Le Bee but whom Lanfrancneeds and will not suffer to return he writes : " Althoughthe more I love thee, the more I could wish to havethee with me, yet I love thee more for the very reasonwhich has separated us. For since I love thee notso much for my own sake as for the sake of God andthyself, I love thee more, that thou provest thyself tobe such as that those with whom thou art are in nowise to be brought to let go one who has won their love,than I should, could they be readily brought to sendthee away. I pray thee therefore as a brother and Iurge thee as a well-loved son with that care and diligencewhich thou well knowest I have ever cherished towardthee, that more and more thou advance in good conductand bear patiently with me our separation, so long asLanfranc orders it, counting it a divine appointmentand that thou in no wise by impatience lessen the veryground of my greater love to thee. For although Ideeply long that thou shouldest be with me in fam-iliar talk, yet I more largely desire that thou shoul

welch. anselm and his work. 1901

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