SOURCE: Feiss, Hugh. “The God of St. Anselm's Prayers.” American Benedictine Review 36, no. 1 (March 1985): 1-22.

[In the following essay, Feiss surveys Anselm's Trinitarian theology as it appears in his devotional writings.]

St. Anselm was a monastic theologian, insofar as the context of his life and thought was Benedictine, and the principal aim of his thinking and praying was to seek the face of the Lord. One would, therefore, expect to find a close parallel between his thinking and his spirituality.¹

In his faith Anselm was untroubled; in his approach to monasticism he was conservative.² In both his theology and his written devotions he was highly original.³ At home in the old ways in which he had been nurtured, he brought to theological thinking new powers of thought, new ideas, and new methods which set him apart from his predecessors and also from those who came after him.⁴ His prayers and meditations are suffused with feeling and subjectivity, and are forerunners of St. Bernard and St. Francis, rather than offshoots of Carolingian forebears.⁵

Anselm's favorite theological genre was a closely reasoned monograph on some theological topic of personal concern to him and his friends. In his speculative masterpieces, the Monologion, the Proslogion, and Why God Became Man, Anselm pondered the fundamental mysteries of God and salvation. In some of his other speculative works, such as On the Procession of the Holy Spirit, the Letter on the Incarnation of the Word, and the letters on the sacraments, Anselm was pressured by external factors to develop or defend particular doctrinal points.⁶

Sometime around the year 1100 a.d., when Hugh, the abbot of Cluny, and Anselm, formerly abbot of Bec and now the harried archbishop of Canterbury, were both old men, Anselm visited Cluny. Anselm had once thought of becoming a monk at Cluny, but at the time he thought the “severity of the order” there would have kept him from putting to use the studies he had made.⁷

Hugh and Anselm were on friendly terms. The Dicta Anselmi reports that the two men often talked together of heaven, of virtuous living, and of the activity of good men.⁸ On this occasion, Anselm was asked to give a chapter sermon. The themes he developed in the sermon were ones he treated frequently in his discourses. So, when a monk of Cluny named William later wrote asking for the text of Anselm's remarks, Eadmer felt he could accurately write up what Anselm had said.⁹

In order to stir up in his listeners at Cluny a desire for heaven, Anselm proposed to present beatitude in bite-sized pieces, much as a big apple is cut into small slices so a child can eat it. He considered first seven bodily joys, then seven spiritual ones, and showed how heaven will be the unsurpassable perfection of all such joys. In his words about sickness and health and the joys of concord, one can sense the sufferings of the sensitive genius, in declining health, trying to cope with political issues for which he had little taste or aptitude.¹⁰

What one misses in the surviving versions of this discourse on beatitude is an explicit discussion of God who will be the source of all the joy of the elect. Anselm declares, “He from whom is whatever is good and who is ineffably more powerful and glorious than anything else will indwell them and watch over them”;¹¹ they will shine like the sun because they will be the temple and dwelling place of God.¹² The blessed will stand in God's presence,¹³ and seeing God face to face, they will be filled with the wisdom which is God.¹⁴

Beyond these general references to the mutual presence of the blessed and God, and a charming parable about God making fallen people adopted coheirs with his Son, there are few explicit references to God the Father or to Christ, and only one to the Holy Spirit.¹⁵ This seems strange in the work of the outstanding theologian of his time, who devoted some of his greatest writing to the Trinity. Was this failure to give the Trinity a prominent place in his devotional work typical, and if so, why? Who was God for Anselm when he prayed? In seeking to answer these questions, this study will first summarize Anselm's theology of the Trinity in his speculative works. The next four sections will seek to detect in his more devotional writings what place the Trinity had in his personal religious awareness and prayer. In these sections, his Prayers and Meditations, the Proslogion, his letters, and the memorials of his familiar teaching will be examined in turn. In these sections Anselm's sense of the distance of God will come to the fore. Finally, some conclusions will be forthcoming about Anselm and the relationship of his doctrinal teaching to his personal spiritual life, and some suggestions will be made why Anselm may have prayed to God the way he did.

ANSELM'S TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY

Anselm gave a summary of his Trinitarian theology at the beginning of his work On the Procession of the Holy Spirit, a work in which, uncharacteristically, he wrote apologetically on a questio not of his own choosing. Pope Urban II had called on Anselm to present the Western position on the procession of the Holy Spirit at the Council of Bari in October, 1098.¹⁶ In 1102, Anselm wrote this treatise, based on his remarks to the council.¹⁷ Anselm's summary of his Trinitarian theology in the first chapter of On the Procession of the Holy Spirit will here be supplemented with ideas drawn from his other works, especially the Monologion and the Epistle on the Incarnation of the Word.¹⁸

God is one essence, unique, perfect and self-subsistent. Without parts, God is wholly whatever He is, perfect goodness, justice and holiness. God is eternal and in every time and place. The creator thinks into existence whatever else exists; and creation exists more perfectly in the mind of God than in itself or in human minds. God created everything through his Word.

God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Although each is the one same God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are plural and different from each other. The Father is one from whom another is begotten; the Son is begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit proceeds from Father and Son. Whatever the Son is, he is from the Father; whatever the Holy Spirit is, he is from the Father and the Son. There is no Father except of the Son, nor any Son except of the Father, nor any Holy Spirit as the Spirit of anyone other than of the Father and the Son. Since the Son exists from the Father by being begotten, and the Holy Spirit exists by proceeding, by this diversity of birth and procession they are related to each other as diverse and distinct from each other. In God all are one where there is no opposition of relation.¹⁹ The Father begets; the Son is begotten; the Spirit neither begets nor is begotten. Hence, it is fitting that the Incarnation is proper to the person of the Son.

Men cannot comprehend the ineffable truth that there are three persons in one God. Human analogies fall short, yet Christians must strive with all the powers of their minds in search of understanding of God.²⁰ In the human soul there is a mirror of this mystery. The human mind is one, and at the same time it is memory, intellect and will. This human soul was created to know and love the triune God, and will be eternally blessed when it remembers, knows and loves God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To help clarify the mystery one may think of the analogous relationship of sun, brightness, and heat, of spring, river and pool, or of one mathematical point placed upon another.²¹

Such, in outline, is Anselm's theology of the Trinity in his more speculative works. It remains to examine the less familiar terrain of his prayers.

PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS

Most of Anselm's prayers and meditations were early works, written before he was abbot. Although somewhat mannered and overwrought, the prayers and meditations show the theological acumen of their author. They emphasize the sinfulness and neediness of human beings, turning to God in contrition and love.²²

In these prayers there is, besides doxologies, only one explicit Trinitarian reference. Oratio 3, “Before receiving the body and blood of the Lord,” opens: “O Lord Jesus Christ, through the Father's arrangement and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, by your death you freely and mercifully redeemed the world from sin and eternal death. …”²³ This prayer, like most of the prayers, is addressed to Christ (alone or with one of the saints). Hence, when these prayers end with a doxology, as do Orationes 16 and 19 and Meditationes I and III, the doxology takes the form: “You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit.” For example, the ending of the “Meditation on Human Redemption” reads: “[May your love] occupy me totally and possess me completely, because you are with the Father and the Holy Spirit God, alone blessed forever, Amen.”²⁴

The Augustinian notion of the human person as the image of the Trinity often seems to be just below the surface, but the closest it comes to explicit mention is in Oratio 2 which is addressed to Christ: “O most gentle one, my prayer, my memory and my meditation on your benefits tend toward this—that I may enkindle your love in me.”²⁵ Here the mention of memory, meditation and love suggests Augustine's idea of the human being as the Trinity's image through the oneness of memory, understanding and will. The surprising thing is that Anselm doesn't invoke this idea more often. He several times mentions the divine image in the human being, but without any Trinitarian reference. For example, in Oratio 8 to John the Baptist, Anselm prays: “Alas for me, what I have made of myself! To think what I was, O God, and how you made me, and then how I have made myself again. … You reformed in me your lovable image, and I superimposed a hateful image. …”²⁶ Similarly, Anselm's refers to the sign of the cross, without mentioning the Trinity.²⁷

Sometimes the prayers invoke or refer to two persons of the Trinity. For example, Oratio 1, addressed to God, ends by asking: “Free me from all evil, and lead me to eternal life, through the Lord.” Oratio 4 declares: “God, the Son of God, for our sake willed to be obedient to the Father unto death.”²⁸ Once Christ and the Holy Spirit are mentioned together: “You were once made white in the heavenly bath, given to the Holy Spirit, sworn in the Christian profession, a virgin espoused to Christ.”²⁹ Several times Anselm prays for the love of God. At these times he seems about to ask specifically that the Holy Spirit bring this love into his heart, but he never does so.³⁰

One other aspect of the prayers is germane to the Trinity. Occasionally, the prayers refer to the closeness of God or Christ to the Christian. Oratio 3 asks of Christ that by the sacrament of communion “I might be worthy to be incorporated into your body, which is the church, and be your member and you my head, and that I might remain in you and you in me.”³¹Meditation III, also speaking of the Eucharist, says, “You will remain in Christ and Christ in you.”³² The same intimacy with Christ is implied by a reference to brotherhood with Christ in Oratio 7.³³ Finally, there is a sense of tenderness, if not closeness, in the passage on Christ as mother in Oratio 10.³⁴

However, these passages are the exception. The usual feeling of the prayers and meditations is one of distance from God and Christ. Thus, for example, Anselm exclaims in Oratio 13: “O rich and happy peace, how far am I from you!”³⁵ Generally, the prayers envisage the Christian as serving God in a state of mind midway between hope and fear,³⁶ fearing Christ the just judge, hoping in his mercy. The prayers voice the sentiments of fallen humanity, yearning to return to the God who made and remade them, from whom they have turned through sin.

The prayers and meditations take up some ninety pages in Schmitt's edition of Anselm's works. Our examination has shown that in these pages there are remarkably few references to the Trinity in general or to the Holy Spirit in particular. The focus of Anselm's prayer almost always is Christ, and sometimes it is the Father. Even in contexts where one might have expected reference to the Trinity (e.g., man as God's image; the doxologies), such references are absent. God and Christ are viewed as far from the sinful suppliant who looks to them for aid.

PROSLOGION

After Anselm had written his first great treatise, the Monologion (1077), “it came into his mind to try to prove by one single and short argument the things which are believed and preached about God, that he is eternal, unchangeable, omnipotent, omnipresent, incomprehensible, just, righteous, merciful, true, as well as truth, goodness, justice and so on. …” Anselm was so taken with this effort that it cost him his appetite and his sleep, and “disturbed the attention which he ought to have paid to matins and to divine service at other times. … Then suddenly one night during matins the grace of God illumined his heart, the whole matter became clear to his mind, and a great joy and exultation filled his inmost being.” The result was the Proslogion, “a volume small in size but full of weighty discourse and most subtle speculation.”³⁷

In the Proslogion Anselm's speculative powers and his intense desire to understand what he believes are brought into intimate union with prayer and devotion. The result is a sustained meditation which explores the implications of the “one argument” which Anselm struggled so hard to formulate, the heart of which is known to philosophers as the ontological argument.

Very little of the work is devoted to the Trinity as such. The first chapter recalls St. Augustine's understanding of the human being as made in the image of God: “I confess, Lord, and I give you thanks, that you have created me in your image, so that mindful of you, I can think of you and love you.” Immediately, though, Anselm acknowledges that this image has been worn and darkened by sin, so it cannot do that for which it was made, “unless you renew and refashion it.”³⁸

Two points are noteworthy here. First, Anselm is keenly aware of the ravages of sin which have turned this life into an exile, a search for what we have lost. Secondly, in confessing that he is created in the divine image, Anselm addresses the Lord. For the next twenty-one chapters Anselm addresses God, the Lord our God, the Lord, or the Immense Goodness, the Inaccessible Light.

Only in Chapter 23 does Anselm change his form of address, at the very moment he introduces the topic of the Trinity: “God the Father, you are this Good; this Good is your Word, that is, your Son. In the Word you utter there can be nothing other than what you are, and nothing greater or less than you. … And this is the only love common to you and to your Son, that is, the Holy Spirit proceeding from both. … What each is himself, the whole Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—is at the same time.”³⁹ Thus, as he turns his mind to the Trinity, Anselm addresses his prayer no longer to God or the Lord, but to God the Father.

In the remaining three chapters of the Proslogion, Anselm turns his mind to the enjoyment of this Supreme God, whose possession there in heaven contrasts with our neediness here below. In the climactic prayer of the final chapter Anselm addresses the Lord and God who spoke of heavenly joy through his Son. This final joy will not enter into the blessed, but they will enter into it, and then they will rejoice as much as they love and love as much as they know. Anselm prays that even here his love and knowledge may increase in hope, so that there they may be full in reality. God has advised us to seek and ask through his Son, and so Anselm does, until he will enter into the joy of his Lord who is God, one and three, blessed forever.⁴⁰

Four things are noteworthy in this final chapter of the Proslogion: (1) that Anselm now explicitly, for the first time, prays through the Son; (2) that there is contrast between here and there, hope and reality; (3) that the consummation of blessedness is visualized not as an entrance of God's joy into the blessed, but of them into it; (4) that the fullness of joy comes through loving and knowing God, one and three, and thus actualizing the form of God's image within oneself.

LETTERS

St. Anselm was a prolific letter writer. Half of Schmitt's critical edition of Anselm's works is devoted to the 475 surviving letters to or by Anselm; about 400 of these are Anselm's own. The letters fall into two distinct collections: (1) those written while Anselm was at Bec (1071-93); (2) his correspondence as archbishop (1093-1109). The letters in the first collection are more personal and literary; the letters of the second group are less personal and deal primarily with church business.⁴¹

In his letters, Anselm followed the rhetorical conventions. He began with the salutatio, the form of which was dictated by the relative dignity of sender and recipient. The inferior's name was always second. Then came the exordium or captatio benevolentiae designed to gain the good will of the reader. After the narratio or petitio of the body of the letter, came some sort of conclusio. The opening and closing parts of the letters provided occasions for Anselm to pray for God's help and blessings. However formal the style of these prayers in the letters, they give some idea of Anselm's religious mentality.

One typical example is “Letter 332,” addressed to the monks of Canterbury, probably sometime before October, 1104, when Anselm was in exile in France. The salutation reads: “Archbishop Anselm [wishes] to his brothers and dear sons who are serving God in Christ Church at Canterbury, to the degree it is possible, salvation and his own and God's blessings.” The body of the letter is an exhortation to the monks to be faithful to the monastic way of life during troublesome times. The letter ends with a prayer, the contents of which are characteristic of many prayers in Anselm's letters, although this prayer is fuller than most: “May almighty God deign to cleanse you from all evils, and make you abound in all good things and exult after this life in his kingdom. May the blessing of God be upon you, and may you be granted the remission of all your sins. Amen. At present I do not know when our return to you will take place, but I hope in God that your prayer will not be in vain.”⁴²

There are four features of the quoted parts of this letter which are significant here and typical of Anselm's letters: (1) the salutation wishes God's blessing; (2) the concluding oration is addressed to almighty God and asks his favors in this life and the next; (3) the concluding benediction and absolution; (4) the reference to the prayers of the monks for Anselm (often Anselm will mention also his prayers for his correspondents).

Anselm employs a somewhat different style when writing to kings and popes. An example is “Letter 378,” written to King Henry of England around the beginning of 1106. The salutation assures the king of the archbishop's faithful service and prayers: “To Henry, his most dear lord, by the grace of God King of the English, Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury [offers] faithful service with prayers.” After telling the king that he is sending the monk Gilbert of Bec to him, and defending the election of Pope Paschal, Anselm concludes: “May almighty God so make you rule over the English in this life, that you may reign among the angels in the future life.”⁴³ This prayer, like the prayer in “Letter 332,” asks the favor of almighty God, and it relates and distinguishes this life and the next.

The great majority of prayers in Anselm's letters share three characteristics with these two examples: (1) they implicitly place great value on intercessory prayer; (2) they are addressed simply to (almighty) God; (3) they distinguish sharply between the transitory, pilgrim state of this life and the fullness of the life to come, which awaits those who live rightly here and now.⁴⁴

Rarely there are hints of other emphases which are generally absent in the prayers of Anselm's letters. Some of these are as follows: (1) the indwelling presence of God in the soul⁴⁵ and in the Christian community;⁴⁶ (2) the action of the Trinity,⁴⁷ or, more specifically, the work of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the Christian⁴⁸ and who speaks through persons he chooses,⁴⁹ and teaches, inspires, guards and warms the heart of the individual Christian,⁵⁰ or, finally, Christ, who is the Christian's leader,⁵¹ truth,⁵² and teacher,⁵³ the focus of Christian brotherhood and the source of good.⁵⁴

So Anselm can on occasion situate his prayers in an explicitly Trinitarian context and speak of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the soul. However, almost always he prays simply to God from whom he feels himself an exile.

THE MEMORIALS

The Memorials of St. Anselm, edited by R.W. Southern and F. S. Schmitt, contain works and fragments attributed to St. Anselm and emanating from circles close to him. It is not always possible to pinpoint how closely these works represent Anselm's own ideas. However, they are of interest, since they reflect his thought, not in its speculative heights, but in the more intimate setting of his spiritual teaching and conversation in the company of his fellow monks.

The works in this category include the following: De Humanis Moribus, of unknown origin (perhaps notes dictated by Anselm); the Dicta of St. Anselm and the miracle stories, written up by Alexander, a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury, who was close to Anselm from 1100 until 1109; the De Beatitudine, written by Eadmer for William, a monk of Cluny; and, finally, some Miscellanea.⁵⁵

In one of the miracle stories, Anselm was visiting a cell of Bec, which was under the care of the monk Tytso. Tytso told Anselm how a few days before, during Sunday lauds, the devil stole a boy, who was their donkey-keeper. During lauds the monk himself felt shaky, so as soon as the service was over, he went to their dwelling-place. Upon searching the house, he found the boy's clothes, but not the boy. That evening, when Tytso had despaired of finding the boy, he heard a lamentation in the locked barn. Tytso and his companions rushed in and found the boy hanging naked and upside down from the rafters.

When they had helped him down, the boy told them how he had heard a voice calling him, and had risen from bed and gone to the window. When ordered to, he hesitatingly put his hand out the window. He was immediately pulled out the window and whisked away. The boy protested, but the stranger assured him that he would show him wondrous things, such as how the soul is separated from the body. The boy protested: “By my faith, I do not want to see that. Let me go.”

Meanwhile, they arrived at a woods. The boy saw that his abductor was a hairy, headless creature, who spoke from deep within his chest. Frightened to death, the boy began to cry: “Lord, God, help me, because I believe in you.” At this his captor left him. Then an old man came along. The old man told the kidnapped boy to quit crying and go to sleep, which he immediately did. He did not wake up until evening, when the monk heard him crying in the barn. The narrator notes that this story makes one consider the mercy of God, which let the boy be tried—perhaps because he did not go to church—but kept him from perishing, on account of his piety.⁵⁶

This story, like much of the Memorials, belongs to a world which seems far removed from the lofty speculations of the Monologion and the cultivated piety of the prayers. It is, however, a world in which Anselm was also at home; a world of homey stories, moral exhortation, and prayer for divine help.

In the Memorials Anselm appears as a spiritual guide who urges his listeners to live humbly and obediently according to God's will, avoiding self-will which is expressed in the desire for vain pleasure, exaltation, and knowledge.⁵⁷ Anselm's prayers are efficacious.⁵⁸ God is sometimes described in terms reminiscent of Anselm's theological works; for example, as one in whom knowledge, essence and eternity are one.⁵⁹ Most often, however, God is simply there, as God.

In much of his teaching in the Memorials, Anselm speaks simply of God, or prays, like the boy abducted by the devil, to the “Lord God.” However, more often than in his prayers, letters and theological works, Anselm draws upon the common themes of Christian catechesis and preaching, and to a greater degree than in his other works, he explicitly refers to the Trinity.

One of the most attractive examples of this is a sermon on the dedication of a church.⁶⁰ God, who dwells everywhere, has set up a home in the world, as a special reminder of his presence and hospitality. This house of God, which is fortified against the devil, is a temple because in it sacrifice is offered: formerly the Old Testament sacrifices, now the sacrifice of Christ which they prefigured. Christ was made our brother and comrade without ceasing to be what he was before the creation of the world. He lived and taught well; persevering in justice, he was killed by evil men.

The Father could give him nothing which was not his before he became man, since with the Father and the Holy Spirit he created all things in the beginning. So his reward was distributed to his brothers and sisters. As Christ died in the flesh, so those who wish to be Christians must put to death carnal evils and desires for the love of Christ. As Christ rose from death to life, so does the Christian by means of baptism.

The celebration of the dedication of a church signifies the sanctification of each Christian soul, the union of all Christians with God, the joining of man and God in friendship. The Church and each Christian are mothers who teach and they are the child who is taught. The Church and each Christian soul are spouses of Christ, and both, like Christ, offer to God the sacrifice of a humbled spirit. In the Church dwell God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Of this temple of God, the foundation is faith, which consists above all in holding that in the divine unity there is trinity and in the trinity, unity. The church is built up in love, which cherishes all whom the Spirit makes sons, all who through the same Spirit pray “Our Father.”

There are a few further Trinitarian themes in the Memorials which do not occur in this sermon for the dedication of a church. The Christian longs to contemplate the ineffable majesty of the undivided Trinity and Christ in glory.⁶¹ Seeing God as He is, the blessed will become like Him.⁶² Although the Memorials allude to sin destroying the image of God in human beings,⁶³ they do not make it a point to relate the triad of memory, intellect and will to the Trinity.⁶⁴ Several times, though, they refer to the seven transforming gifts of the Holy Spirit.⁶⁵

A noteworthy accent of the Memorials is the emphasis they give to the intimacy which Christ has established between God and humanity. The redemption wrought by Christ was not merely a juridical achievement; it established an intimate union between God and redeemed humanity. Christians receive divine adoption;⁶⁶ they become brothers and sisters of Christ and coheirs with him.⁶⁷ They are made members of Christ's body.⁶⁸ In heaven Christ is sanctified in the blessed who rest in him.⁶⁹ So close is the friendship which Christ's grace establishes between the Christian and God⁷⁰ that it can be described in terms of marital intimacy⁷¹ and deification.⁷² In heaven God will be all in all,⁷³ and even now the saints are one spirit with him.⁷⁴

CONCLUSION

There are many ideas in the Memorials which are not prominent in the rest of Anselm's writings, and their tone is not always typical of Anselm's other writings. In the analyses of Anselm's other devotional writings and his theological works two features stood out sharply: (1) the Trinity loomed larger in Anselm's doctrinal speculation than in his devotional writing; (2) there seemed to be a tension between the nearness and remoteness of God. The nature and origins of these two features of Anselm's thought are the subject of this conclusion.

St. Anselm's theological teaching marked the beginning of a theological renaissance, and his Trinitarian thought was not without the stamp of his genius.⁷⁵ He dealt with the Trinity extensively in the Monologion, and he thereafter presupposed, rather than reworked, the ideas he developed there. His later considerations on the theology of the Trinity were forced upon him by polemical situations. It was characteristic of Anselm to exhaust one theological subject and then move on to another, and so that he did not spontaneously return to a consideration of the theology of the Trinity does not necessarily imply that it was not of great interest to him. However, that his prayers, and not just his orationes but also the prayers which occur elsewhere in his works, do not manifest a strongly Trinitarian devotion, does suggest that his theological interests, like his devotional life, were not as pronouncedly Trinitarian as might at first appear.

Once in his life Anselm found himself forced to defend his doctrinal orthodoxy. John, a monk of Bec, wrote him that Roscelin of Compiègne claimed that Anselm held that the Father and the Holy Spirit had become incarnate with the Son. Anselm replied to this accusation, first with several letters, then with the work On the Incarnation of the Word.⁷⁶ As Roscelin himself found, and Abelard was to learn in the next generation, the Trinity was a doctrine which could easily embroil one in controversy.⁷⁷ Perhaps this led Anselm to shy away from the Trinity in his theology and devotion.

Another reason why Anselm was not pronouncedly Trinitarian in his outlook was his fascination with the divine nature and attributes. In a way that may be called Platonic, he was drawn to the one “than which nothing greater can be thought,”⁷⁸ “the supremely good and supremely great.”⁷⁹ That this one was triune, that the Father sent the Son to save us and give us the Spirit of adoption, Anselm believed unreservedly and devoutly. Yet in the mystery of God, it was the light of the divine nature which drew him irresistibly to itself.

When Anselm was a little boy, his mother told him that “there is one God in heaven who rules all things and comprehends all things.” Reared in the mountains, little Anselm thought that God's heaven rested on their summit. One night he dreamed that he was supposed to climb the mountains to the court of God. There God greeted him affably and offered him the whitest of bread. The next day Anselm recalled to his mind's eye this visit to the one God in heaven who rules and comprehends all.⁸⁰ During his whole life his mind was drawn toward that one God.

This concentration on the oneness of God was probably reinforced by the Divine Office which he celebrated as a monk at Bec, and whenever possible during his life as archbishop and superior of the monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury.⁸¹ Although the absence of contemporary customaries and liturgical books makes it impossible to reconstruct the liturgical life of Bec in Anselm's time, the order of the day and the arrangement of the office is not likely to have differed much from that of other observant monasteries of the time. Hence Anselm's religious life for over thirty years at Bec, and to a lesser degree afterwards at Canterbury, was nourished by the recitation of at least one hundred psalms a day, and probably many more. This was so because to the ordinary monastic cursus, monastic legislators and customs had added numerous accretions, most of which consisted of psalms.⁸²

The God of the psalms is the one God, the Dominus Deus, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even when each psalm is concluded with a doxology, the cumulative impact of praying so many psalms is not likely to have contributed any Trinitarian emphasis to Anselm's religious awareness.⁸³

As he grew up, Anselm attended Mass celebrated according to the liturgy of Aosta, which was influenced by the usages of Lyons. The prayers of this rite seem to have emphasized acknowledgement of sins. For example, as the faithful brought up the bread to the bishop, they prayed: “To you, Lord, my creator, I offer a sacrifice for the remission of all my sins and those of all your faithful.” On the other hand, one of the prayers before communion ran: “Holy Lord, grant that I may so receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ … that through this I may desire … to be filled with your Holy Spirit.”⁸⁴

Throughout Anselm's writings, there is a similar contrast and tension between the closeness and distance of God, between being a wretched sinner and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Such a paradox is undoubtedly part of devout Christian experience, but the contrast, for example, between the sense of unworthiness in Anselm's prayers and the emphasis on God's indwelling in Chapter 20 of the Dicta (the sermon on the dedication of a church) seems peculiarly intense. Without implying that religious experience can be understood wholly in terms of psychological causes, or that one can pinpoint key events in Anselm's religious development, it is possible to suggest a certain parallel between Anselm's relations with God and his relations with other human beings.

Anselm's mother died when he was still young, “and then the ship of his heart had as it were lost its anchor and drifted almost entirely among the waves of the world.⁸⁵ Anselm did not get along with his father, and he soon left home. Anselm's heart seems to have not found any anchorage until he became a student under Lanfranc at Bec. For Lanfranc, Anselm's devotion was so great that if Lanfranc had said so, Anselm would have gone into the woods and spent the rest of his life there as a hermit.⁸⁶

Only three years after Anselm became a monk at Bec, Lanfranc left to become abbot at Caen. Anselm succeeded him, and “being continually given up to God and to spiritual exercises, he attained such a height of divine speculation, that he was able by God's help to see into and unravel many obscure and previously insoluble questions about the divinity of God and about our faith.”⁸⁷ As prior he was also involved in the discipline of the monastery. One very young and talented monk named Osbern was of difficult character and disliked Anselm. Anselm won him over by kindness and soon the boy began to love Anselm. Anselm, for his part, saw Osbern grow in the monastic life and, “inspired by the holy fire of charity, he loved his son more than you could believe possible.” Osbern, however, soon took sick and died. Afterwards, several monks, formerly critical of Anselm, hoped “to succeed to Osbern's place” in Anselm's affection, “but he, though he thanked God for their change of heart, ‘became all things to all men,’ that he might save all.”⁸⁸

It seems, therefore, that to this point in his life, Anselm developed strong attachments. Each time, though, he was separated from the person he loved. Although he continued to be a kind person who attracted the affection of others, he henceforth seems to have avoided close friendships. Thereafter, Anselm was more passionately devoted to the idea of friendship, the union of wills in God, than to any friend.⁸⁹

Perhaps his experiences of human loss and his sense of the distance of God were related. Although he believed and sometimes even felt that God was a loving Father, that Christ was his brother, and that the Spirit dwelt within him, Anselm had a deep sense of the transitoriness and incompleteness of this world and a feeling that however beautiful was the valley, God and heaven were on the top of the mountain.

Anselm thought of human beings as created in God's image, fallen into dissimilitude, redeemed objectively by Christ and subjectively by faith and baptism, and then fallen back into sin and striving for salvation.⁹⁰ The Christian life is a struggle of the sinful exile to so submit to God's grace and will that one day the Christian may be one with God again. To those struggling in this life, God seems remote; there is contact with heaven through the cross of Christ. Here below, the image of the Trinity in human beings is clouded over and worn; only in heaven will they realize fully who they are, as they forever remember, understand, and love God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thus, when after his death Anselm appeared to a man in a dream, he could finally say: “There I live, where I see, rejoice and enjoy.”⁹¹

Notes

1. I am thankful to Bro. Neil Yocom, O.S.B., who collaborated on an earlier version of this study, which was presented at the Fifteenth International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 3, 1980. This revision was completed during a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar at The Catholic University of America in the summer of 1982. The leaders of the seminar, Professors Daniel Sheerin and Ruth Steiner, and the participants contributed much to its completion. I wish also to thank the editors of the American Benedictine Review, whose criticisms I have found stimulating, even when I did not agree with them.

2. St. Anselm, Ep. 37 (S 3.144-48). References to Anselm's works in the critical edition of F. S. Schmitt, Omnia Opera, 6 vols. (Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson 1946-61) will be indicated by an “S” followed by the numbers of the volume, pages and, where appropriate, the lines. Translations are my own, unless otherwise indicated. See also R. W. Southern, St. Anselm and His Biographer (Cambridge University Press 1963) p. 349; Benedicta Ward, Anselm of Canterbury: A Monastic Scholar, rev. ed. (Fairacres, Oxford: SLG Press 1977) pp. 5-7.

3. Southern, Anselm and His Biographer, pp. 346-47.

4. G. R. Evans, Anselm and a New Generation (Oxford: Clarendon 1980).

5. Southern, Anselm and His Biographer, pp. 42-47.

6. Anselm's works may be fitted together systematically. See John McIntyre, “Premises and Conclusions in the System of St. Anselm,” Spicilegium Beccense, I: Congrès international du IX^e centenaire de l'arrivée d'Anselme au Bec (Paris: J. Vrin 1959) pp. 95-101.

7. Eadmer, Vita Sancti Anselmi, ed. and trans. R. W. Southern (London: Thomas Nelson 1962) pp. 9, 121, 123. For another instance of the phrase districtio ordinis, see De Humanis Moribus, ch. 81 (M 71.20). As I note later, the order of the day and the divine office at Bec were probably not much different from those at Cluny. Hence, one may wonder what this districtio ordinis was. References to The Memorials of Saint Anselm, eds. R. W. Southern and F. S. Schmitt (London: Oxford University Press 1969) will be by an “M,” followed by numbers of pages and lines.

8. Noreen Hurt, Cluny under St. Hugh, 1049-1109 (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press 1968) p. 148. Dicta, ch. 21 (M 196.10-12).

9. R. W. Southern, Anselm and His Biographer, pp. 362-64; De Beatitudine Perennis Vitae (M 273-91). Other versions of Anselm's remarks on this subject are found in Dicta, ch. 5 (M 127-41); De Moribus, chs. 48-71 (M 57-63); Proslogion, ch. 25 (S 1.118.12-120.20); Miscellanea, ch. 3 (M 304-05).

10. De Beatitudine, chs. 5, 10 (M 277.15-78.10, 282.23-83.22).

11. Dicta, ch. 5 (M 129.21-25).

12. De Beatitudine (M 275.20-21).

13. Ibid., M 280.8, 284.30.

14. De Humanis Moribus (M 60.25-28).

15. Cf. De Beatitudine (M 290.16-17).

16. Eadmer, Vita Sancti Anselmi, ed. and trans. R. W. Southern (London: Thomas Nelson 1962) pp. 112-13 (ch. 34); Eadmer, History of Recent Events in England, trans. Goeffrey Bosanquet (London: Cresset 1964) pp. 108-10.

17. G. R. Evans, Anselm and Talking about God (Oxford: Clarendon 1978) pp. xii, 10, 195-97; G. R. Evans, Anselm and a New Generation, pp. 41-59. See also Anselm, Epp. 239-41 (S 4.146-50).

18. De Processione (S 2.175-219); Monologion (S 1.13-87); Epistola de Incarnatione Verbi (S 2.1-35). On Anselm's theology of the Trinity see Helmut Kohlenberger, “Konsequenzen und Inkonsequenzen der Trinitätslehre in Anselm's Monologion,” Analecta Anselmiana V (Frankfurt/Main: Minerva 1976) 149-78; Michael Schmaus, “Die theologiegeschichtliche Tragweite der Trinitätslehre des Anselm von Canterbury,” Analecta Anselmiana IV/1 (Frankfurt/Main: Minerva 1975) 29-45; Renato Perino, La dottrina trinitaria di Sant'Anselmo (Studia Anselmiana 29) (Rome: Herder 1952); Walter Simonis, Trinität und Vernunft (Frankfurter theologische Studien 12) (Frankfurt/Main: J. Knecht 1972) pp. 5-34.

19. De Processione Spiritus Sancti, ch. 1 (S 2.180-85).

20. Evans, Anselm on Talking about God, p. 35; Evans, Anselm and a New Generation, p. 194; Dicta, ch. 3 (M 118-22); De Incarnatione Verbi, ch. 1 (S 2.3-10).

21. For discussion and references regarding these images of the Trinity in Anselm's work, see G. R. Evans, “St. Anselm's Images of the Trinity,” Journal of Theological Studies 27 (1976) 46-57; W. Hankey, “The Place of the Psychological Image of the Trinity in the Arguments of Augustine's De Trinitate, Anselm's Monologion and Aquinas' Summa Theologiae,” Dionysius 3 (1979) 99-110; G. R. Evans, “St. Anselm and St. Bruno of Segni: The Common Ground,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 29 (1978) 138-40.

22. On questions of authenticity see André Wilmart, introduction to Meditations et prières de saint Anselme, trans. A. Castel, Collection Pax (Paris: P. Lethielleux 1923) pp. i-lxii. On style and content see F. S. Schmitt, “Des hl. Anselm von Canterbury Gebet zum hl. Benedikt. Zur Wesenart der anselmianischen Gebete und Betrachtungen,” Studia Benedictina (Studia Anselmiana 18-19) (Vatican City: Libreria Vaticana 1947) pp. 295-313; René Roques, “Structure et caractères de la prière Anselmienne,” Sola Ratione. Anselm-Studien für Pater Dr. h.c. Franciscus Salesianus Schmitt (Stuttgart: Frommann 1970) pp. 119-89; Benedicta Ward, Anselm of Canterbury, and the introduction to her translation of the Prayers and Meditations of St. Anselm (Baltimore: Penguin 1973) pp. 35-75.

23. S 3.10.3-5.

24. Ibid., 3.91.209-11.

25. Ibid., 3.7.22-23.

26. Ibid., 3.26.19-20, 27.30-32; also 29.82, 85. Oratio 14 (S 3.56.31-32, 59.1210; Oratio 17 (S 3.68.9).

27. Oratio 4 (S 3.11.10). In general, in the Vita and the Memorials there is little indication that the sign of the cross has Trinitarian connotations for St. Anselm.

28. S 3.6.16-17, 3.12,30-31. Also Oratio 5 (S 3.14.49-51); Oratio 13 (S 3.54.138-410; Oratio 18 (S 3.71.3, 7); Meditatio III (S 3.87.95 ff.).

29. Meditatio II (S 3.80.7-9).

30. Oratio 18 (S 3.72.43-46); Oratio 16 (S 3.67.79-81).

31. S 3.10.18-20.

32. Ibid., 3.89.135-36.

33. Ibid., 3.23-24.

34. Ibid., 3.40-41;

35. Ibid., 54.128.

36. Oratio 4 (S 3.12.47-48).

37. Eadmer, Vita, ch. 19, ed. Southern, pp. 29-31.

38. S 1.100.12-13; cf. ch. 14 (S 1.111.2-24).

39. S 1.117.6-19.

40. Proslogion, ch. 26 (S 1.120.1-122.2).

41. R. W. Southern, St. Anselm and His Biographer, pp.67-76. Some of the earlier letters are translated in two unpublished masters theses: Anselm Pedrizetti, St. Anselm's Letters to Lanfranc (Washington, DC: Catholic University 1961); Paschal Donald Honner, Saint Anselm's Letters to the Monks of Bec (Washington, DC: Catholic University 1961). Some of these letters were published in Paschal D. Honnor, “Letters of St. Anselm to His Monks at Bec,” American Benedictine Review 14 (March 1963) 138-63, and “Letters of St. Anselm to the Community of Bec, II,” American Benedictine Review 14 (June 1963) 319-40; Anselm R. Pedrizetti, “Letters of Saint Anselm to Archbishop Lanfranc,” ABR [American Benedictine Review] 12 (1961) 430-60. For the style and content of all the letters, see the doctoral dissertation of Sr. John David Loughlin, Saint Anselm as Letter Writer (Washington, DC: Catholic University 1967).

42. S 5.267.1-3, 268.25-30.

43. Ibid., 5.321.1-2, 322.21-22.

44. Ep. 16 (S 3.122.21-23); Ep. 37 (S 3.147.92-148.94); Ep. 56 (S 3.171.13-14); Ep. 287 (S 4.221.37, 44-45); Ep. 402 (S 5.346.2, 11-15); Ep. 413 (S 5.358.2, 7-14, 359.25-26).

45. Ep. 369 (S 5.323.10-11).

46. Ep. 403 (S 5.347.15-16); Ep. 450 (S 5.397.9-10).

47. Ep. 374 (S 5.318.15-16).

48. Ep. 232 (S 4.139.25-26); Ep. 418 (S 5.364.22-23).

49. Ep. 8 (S 3.110.7-8).

50. Ep. 10 (S 3.114.28); Ep. 60 (S 3.175.21); Ep. 45 (S 3.159.31); Ep. 286 (S 4.206.32); Ep. 288 (S 4.208.18); Ep. 413 (S 5.358.12); Ep. 448 (S 5.395.18-19); Ep. 467 (S 5.417.17).

51. Ep. 2 (S 3.101.69-70).

52. Ep. 21 (S 3.128.20-21).

53. Ep. 6 (S 3.108.26-28).

54. Ep. 45 (S 3.158.12, 159.25-26, 36).

55. De Humanis Moribus (M 37-104); Dicta (M 107-95); Miracula (M 196-270); De Beatitudine (M 271-92); Miscellanea (M 293-360).

56. Miracula, ch. 51.

57. This is the explicit theme of De Humanis Moribus, chs. 8-46 (M 41-57), but it appears constantly in the teaching of the Memorials; e.g. De Humanis Moribus, chs. 127-28 (M 87), Dicta, chs. 1-2 (M 110-18).

58. Dicta, chs. 39-40, 44-45; Miscellanea, chs. 7-8 (M 306).

59. Dicta, ch. 9 (M 147.26-27).

60. Dicta, ch. 20 (M 180-94); also Miscellanea (M 310-19).

61. Miscellanea (M 358-59); cf. De Humanis Moribus, ch. 59 (M 60.25-28); Dicta, ch. 4 (M 123.17-18); Dicta, ch. 9 (M 147-49); De Beatitudine, ch. 8 (M 280.8).

62. Miscellanea (M 359.25-26).

63. De Humanis Moribus, ch. 119 (M 83.29-30); Miscellanea (M 329.8-9).

64. Miscellanea (M 306.1-5, 332.27-34).

65. De Humanis Moribus, chs. 131-32 (M 88.20-89.25); Miscellanea (M 328-29); Dicta, ch. 1 (M 110.4).

66. Dicta, ch. 5 (M 138.22-24); Dicta, ch. 20 (M 187.21); Miscellanea (M 304.32).

67. Dicta, ch. 5 (M 138.22-33); Dicta, ch. 20 (M 184.1-3; 187.22); De Beatitudine, ch. 12 (M 284.8-10); Miscellanea (M 304.33-34).

68. Dicta, ch. 20 (M 181.21-22, 191.9-10); De Beatitudine, ch. 10 (M 282.29-31, 284.10).

69. Miscellanea (M 332.4-7).

70. Dicta, ch. 5 (M 138.21; 140.15); Dicta, ch. 20 (M 185.31, 187.20-21).

71. With God: Dicta, ch. 20 (M 186.25, 187.1, 190.4 ff.); with Christ: Dicta, ch. 20 (M 186.2-3).

72. Dicta, ch. 5 (M 139.4); Dicta, ch. 9 (M 148.27-29); De Beatitudine, ch. 12 (M 284.11-13).

73. Miscellanea (M 328.27-28).

74. Ibid., 332.31-32.

75. Edmund J. Fortman, The Triune God (Philadelphia: Westminster 1972) pp. 173-76.

76. John's letter, Ep. 128 (S 3.270-71); Anselm's reply, Ep. 129 (S 3.271-72); Anselm instructs Fulk, Bishop of Beauvais, what to say at the Council of Rheims, Ep. 136 (S 3.279-81); Epistola de Incarnatione Verbi (first recension: S 1.281-90; second recension: S 2.31-35); Southern, Anselm and His Biographer, pp. 77-81; Evans, Anselm and Talking about God, pp. 99-111.

77. D. E. Luscombe, The School of Peter Abelard (Cambridge: University Press 1969) 103-42.

78. Proslogion, ch. 2 (S 1.101.8).

79. Monologion, ch. 1 (S 1.15.12).

80. Eadmer, Vita, ch. 2 (ed. Southern, pp. 4-5).

81. See, for example, Eadmer, History of Recent Events in England, trans. Geoffrey Bosanquet (London: Cresset 1964) pp. 98-99; Dicta, ch. 44 (M 245.3-6).

82. On the horarium at Bec, see M. J. Charlesworth, St. Anselm's Prosologion (Oxford: Clarendon 1965) pp. 12-15; for Canterbury, see Lanfranc, Decreta, ed. David Knowles (Corpus Consuetudinum Monasticarum, 3) (Siegburg: Fr. Schmitt 1967) xvii-xxv. Cf. also Margaret Gibson, Lanfranc of Bec (Oxford: Clarendon 1978) pp. 27-29, 170-73.

83. The Rule of St. Benedict, ch. 9 and elsewhere, refers to adding “Glory be to the Father” at the end of psalms. Ironically, Anselm helped turn devotion away from exclusive concentration on the psalms. See Southern, Anselm and His Biographer, pp. 38-43. This suggestion that frequent use of the psalms might have reinforced Anselm's proclivity to pray to the One God implies no negative assessment of the use of the psalms in Christian prayer. Furthermore, Augustine's commentaries on the psalms and the liturgical use of the psalms both suggested a Christological understanding of the psalms to Anselm's contemporaries, just as they do to us. My point is that this particular approach to the psalms is not the one Anselm adopted, as far as one can tell from the prayers which occur in his writings.

    I suspect that the roots of Anselm's sense of God are Carolingian, and I have begun studying these roots. Initial investigation of the Carolingian psalm-prayers suggests a lack of Trinitarian emphasis much like that found in Anselm. In all this I do not wish to imply that Anselm's way of relating to God in prayer is inferior or undesirable. The Spirit seems to inspire many ways of speaking to the God who discloses himself in Christ.

84. These liturgical texts are quoted in Robert Amiet, “Saint Anselme liturgiste,” Analecta Anselmiana V (Frankfurt/Main: Minerva 1976) pp. 283-95.

85. Eadmer, Vita Anselmi, ch. 4, pp. 6-7.

86. Ibid., ch. 6, p. 11.

87. Ibid., ch. 7, p. 12.

88. Ibid., ch. 10, pp. 16-20.

89. Southern, Anselm and His Biographer, pp. 67-76; Brian Patrick McGuire, “Love, Friendship and Sex in the Eleventh Century: The Experience of Anselm,” Studia Theologica 28 (1974) 111-52. A. Fiske, “St. Anselm and Friendship,” Studia Monastica 3 (1961) 259-60 notes the change in Anselm's relations with his friends, but attributes it to Anselm's many responsibilities, rather than to any change in Anselm.

90. See for the various elements of this statement: De Humanis Moribus, ch. 37 (M 51), chs. 80-82 (M 72-74); Dicta, ch. 1 (M 110-16); Miscellanea (M 323-27); Eadmer, Vita, ch. 10, pp. 18-19; Meditatio, ch. 1 (S 3.76-79); Southern, Anselm and His Biographer, pp. 101, 109-10.

91. Eadmer, Vita, pp. 162-63.