medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Another apparently uncanonized doctor was Anselm of Canterbury, who lived
in a time when papal canonization was growing in importance.
Anselm died in 1109, and in 1163, less than a year after his elevation to
the archiepiscopate, Thomas Becket presented a request for his
predecessor's canonization to Pope Alexander III at the council of Tours.
Anselm's case was one of a number of postulations put forward at the
council, all of which -- including that of Bernard of Clairvaux -- were
postponed. Shortly after the council, however, the pope replied to Becket
with a letter delegating to him the authority to summon a synod of
bishops, abbots, and other prominent officials from his province to decide
whether Anselm should be canonized. Popes of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries employed this procedure, known as "canonizatio in forma
commissoria," in a number of postulations; on which see Juergen Petersohn,
"Die paepstliche Kanonisationsdelegation des 11. und 12. Jahrhunderts und
die Heiligsprechung Karls des Grossen," in Stephan Kuttner, ed.,
Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law,
Toronto 21-25 August 1972, Monumenta iuris canonici, ser. C, vol. 5
(Vatican City: Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, 1976), 163-206. In
Anselm's case, however, there is no evidence that the provincial synod
ever met, and Becket's plan to obtain the canonization of his predecessor
who had opposed royal control of the church apparently fell victim to his
own developing conflict with King Henry II. Despite his apparent lack of
formal canonization, Anselm was named a Doctor of the Church in 1720.
John
John M. McCulloh [log in to unmask]
History Department 785-532-0373
Eisenhower Hall
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506
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