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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Anselm (also Anselm of Aosta and Anselm of Bec) was born at Aosta in the extreme northwest of today's Italy and studied in Burgundy. Drawn by the reputation of its abbot Lanfranc, he moved on to the abbey of Le Bec in Normandy. Anselm was already an important theologian at the time of his election there as abbot in 1078 (his enthronement took place early in the following year). While abbot, Anselm followed Lanfranc to Canterbury. He succeeded him as archbishop there in 1093. Difficulties with king William II over church/state relationships caused Anselm to spend the late 1090s on the continent, where he found time to add to his substantial body of writing. Recalled by Henry I in 1100, he went into a second exile in 1103 and returned only in 1106 after Henry had renounced lay investiture, taxation of the church, and confiscation of its property. Anselm died in 1109; he was buried in Canterbury cathedral. His Vita by his much younger associate Eadmer (BHL 525, etc.) is deservedly famous; the same author's Miracula of Anselm (BHL 534) provides early attestation of his cult. St. Thomas Becket failed in an attempt to have Anselm canonized. Henry VII was more successful in 1492, getting pope Alexander VI to authorize Anselm's cult for England. In 1690, in the wake of England's Glorious Revolution, Anselm was added to the general Roman Calendar. In 1720, at the request of the Stuart pretender James III, he was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church. Some period-pertinent images of St. Anselm of Canterbury: a) as depicted in a late eleventh-century copy, written at Jumièges, of his _Monologion_ (Rouen, Bibliothèque Jacques Villon, ms. 359): http://www.mondes-normands.caen.fr/angleterre/cultures/GB_FR/3/C3-2-anselm.htm b) as depicted (presenting to Matilda of Tuscany a copy of the book) in a twelfth-century copy of his _Orationes sive Meditationes_ (Admont, Stiftsbibliothek, cod. 289, fol. 1v): http://www.donbosco-torino.it/image/4-image/Sant_Anselmo.gif c) as depicted (at center, betw. St. Remigius of Reims and St. Omer) in one of four panels of a full-page illumination in the late twelfth-century so-called Bible of Saint Bertin (ca. 1190-1200; Den Haag, KB, ms. 76 F 5, fol. 29r, sc. 2B): http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76f5%3A029r_min_b2 d) as depicted (author portrait) in a late fourteenth- or very early fifteenth-century book of prayers to the BVM with an Office for her (Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, ms. 520, fol. 171r): http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht16/IRHT_06003-p.jpg e) as depicted (at right; at left, the BVM) in a late fifteenth-century copy of the _Interrogatio Sancti Anselmi de Passione Domini_ in the prose form of its German-language version _St. Anselmi Fragen an Maria_ (1494; München, BSB, Cgm 134, fol. 3v): http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/bsb00095928/image_10 Best, John Dillon ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion