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Quick Facts
- Italian nobility.
- After a childhood devoted to piety and study, Anselm wanted to enter religious life, but his father prevented it, and Anselm became rather wordly for several years.
- Upon his mother's death, Anselm argued with his father, fled to France, and became a Benedictine monk at Bec, Normandy.
- Studied under and succeeded Lanfranc as abbot.Archbishop of Canterbury.
- Theological writer.
- Counselor to Pope Gregory VII, Pope Urban II, and William the Conqueror.
- Opposed slavery and obtained English legislation prohibiting the sale of men.
- Fought King William Rufus's encroachment on ecclesiastical rights and the independence of the Church, and was exiled.
- Resolved theological doubts of the Italo-Greek bishops at Council of Bari in 1098.
- Strongly supported celebate clergy.
- King Henry I invited him to return to England, but they disputed over investitures, and Anselm was exiled again to return in 1106.
- One of the great philosophers and theologians of the middle ages.
- Doctor of the Church in 1720 by Pope Clement XI.
