SfSSS
CUR DEUS HOMO?
The Ancient and Modern Library of Theological Literature
a
CUR DEUS HOMO
BY
ST ANSELM
TO WHICH IS ADDED
A SELECTION FROM HIS LETTERS
JOHN GRANT
1909
CONTENTS.
PAGE
LIFE OF ANSELM . . , . xi
CUR DEUS HOMO?
SAINT ANSELM S PREFACE t xxvii
;oofe 5.
CHAP.
I. The question on which the whole work depends . . I
II. How those things which are about to be asserted, are to
be received ...... 2
III. Objections of unbelievers and answers of the faithful . 5
IV. That these answers appear superfluous to unbelievers,
and like representations of the truth, not the truth
itself .6
V. That the redemption of man could not have been effected
by any save by God Himself .... 7
VI. How unbelievers object to our assertion that God redeemed
us by His death and so showed forth His love towards
us as for us to have come to conquer the devil . 8
VII. That the devil had no just right against man ; and why
it seems as though he had : and wherefore God should
have delivered man in this way ... 9
VIII. How, although the humiliations we assert Christ under
went, belong not to His divinity, they yet appear to
unbelievers to be disparaging when asserted of Him as
Man : and whence it seems to them that as Man He
did not die of His own free will . 12
vi Contents.
CHAP. PAGE
/ IX. That it was of His own free will that He died : and what
is meant by "He was made obedient even unto death ; "
" wherefore God highly exalted Him : " and "I came
not to do Mine own will :" and " He spared not His
own Son : " and " not as I will, but as Thou wilt " . 15
X. On the same points ; and how they may rightly be under
stood differently . . . . 19
XL What it is to sin ; and what, to make satisfaction for sin 23
XII. Whether it beseemeth God to remit sins of His mercy
alone, without any due ransom being paid . . 25
XIII. That in the course of things nothing is less to be tolerated
than that the creature should deprive his Creator of due
honour, and not repay what he has taken . . 27
XIV. In what way the punishment of the sinner gives honour
io God ....... 29
XV. Whether God would suffer His honour to be profaned
even in the very least ..... 30
XVI. The reason why from among mankind must be replaced
the number of angels who fell .... 32
XVII. That other angels could not be put in the place of those . 33
XVIII. Whether the saints will be more in number than are
the lost angels ...... 34
XIX. That mankind cannot be saved without satisfaction for
sin . 44
XX. That the satisfaction should be proportionate to the trans
gression, nor can man make it for himself . . 47
XXI. What is the gravity of sin .... 49
XXII. How man insulted God when he let himself be conquered
by the devil ; for which he cannot make satisfaction . 52
XXIII. What man, by sinning, takes away from God, which he
is unable to repay . . . . -53
XXIV. That so long as man repays not to God that which he
owes, he cannot be made blessed ; nor is he excused
by his want of ability . . . .54
XXV. That of necessity by Christ shall mankind be saved . 59
Contents. vii
JBoofc 33.
I. How man was by God created upright, that he might be
blessed in the enjoyment of God, 6l
II. That man would not have died, had he not sinned . 62
III. That man will rise again with the body in which he
Hves here ...... 63
IV. Thar God will carry out in human nature that which He
designed ...... 63
V. That although this be necessary, yet God doth it not of
necessity ; and what that necessity is which takes away
or diminishes a benefit, and also what that necessity is
which makes the kindness greater ... 64
. That the satisfaction whereby man can be saved can be
effected only by one who is God and Man . . 66
J VII. That it is necessary that some person should be perfect
God and perfect man ..... 67
VIII. That it behoved God to assume humanity from the race
of Adam and from a woman, a virgin ... 68
IX. That the word alone, and humanity, should be united in
one person, is imperative . . . .71
X. That this same man would not lie under the necessity of
death ; and how it would be that he could, or could
not, sin ; also, why he, or an angel, are to be praised
for their righteousness, whereas they cannot sin . 73
XI. That he would die of his own free will ; and that mortal
ity does not belong to pure human nature . . 77
XII. That although he would be partaker of our infirmities,
yet would he not be wretched .... 80
XIII. That he would not, with our other infirmities, partake of
our ignorance . . . . . .81
XIV. How his death could exceed in value the many and great
sins of mankind ..... 82
XV. How that death can also atone for the sins of those who
slew Him ...... 84
XVI. How from the sinful mass God assumed sinless humanity ;
and of the salvation of Adam and Eve 86
vii i Contents.
CHAP. PAGE
XVII. How it is that He died without necessity, who could not
have been except He was to die ... 90
XVIII. (a.) That for God there is neither necessity nor impossi
bility ; also, what is compulsory, and what non-com
pulsory, necessity ..... 94
XVIII. (). How the life of Christ atoned to God for the sins of
men, and how it behoved Christ to suffer, and how it
did not behove Him to suffer .... 100
XIX. The reasoning whereby from His death may be deduced
the salvation of man ..... 104
XX. How great, and how just, is the mercy of God . . 107
XXL That is impossible that the devil should be saved . 108
XXII. That by what has been said is proved the truth of the Old
and of the New Testaments . . . .109
SELECTIONS FROM THE LETTERS OF ST ANSELM.
.^ WRITTEN WHEN A SIMPLE MONK.
1. To Lanfranc . . . . . .in
2. To Odo and Lanzo . . . . .112
3. To Hernostus . . . . . .116
4. To Gondulph . . . . . .117
5. To Henry . . . . . .119
6. To Hugo . . . . . . .121
7. To Gondulph . . . . . .122
8. To Lambert and Falcerald . . . .123
9. To Lanfranc . . . . . .123
10. To Maurice ...... 124
11. To Henry ...... 125
12. To Rainald ...... 126
13. To Gilbert ...... 128
14. To Adelide ...... 129
53-. WRITTEN WHEN ABBOT OF EEC.
15. To William ...... 130
16. To Henry. ...... 134
Contents. ix
355. WRITTEN WHEN ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
17. To the Monks of Bee , . . . .136
18. To the Monks of Bee . . , . 140
19. To Fulk, Bishop . , . . . .148
20. To the Monks of Bee ..... 151
21. To Hugh, Archbishop of Lyons .... 152
22. To Boso ....... 155
23. To Lanfrid, Abbot of St Ulmar . . . 157
24. To Pope Pascal . . . . . .158
25. To the Prior and Brethren of the Church at Canterbury . 161
26. To Donald, Donatus, and other Bishops . . 162
27. To Pope Pascal . . . . . .164
28. To Pope Pascal ...... 167
29. To Matilda, Queen of the English . . .168
30. To Roger, Robert, and other Abbots . . . 169
31. To Gondulph . . . . . .170
32. To his Nephew Anselm . . . . .171
33. To Matilda, Queen of the English . . . 171
34. To Gondulph, Bishop . . , . 173
35. Anselm to his dearest Adruin . . . .175
36. To Pope Pascal . . . . , .176
37. To Burgundius and his wife Richera . . ,177
38. To Richera . . . . . .178
39. To Pope Pascal . . . . . .179
40. To Pope Pascal . . . . . .181
41. To William the Abbot and to the community of Bee . 183
42. To his friend Cuno . . . . .184
43. To Gondulph, Archbishop . . . .186
44. To Henry, King of the English .... 187
45. To Ernulph and the Monks of Canterbury . . 188
46. To Abbot Gerontius . . . . .189
47. To Henry, King of the English .... 190
48. To Orduvinus . . . . . .191
49. To Warner . . . . , .192
50. To Rainald . . . . . -193
51. To Farman, Orduvinus, and Benjamin . . 195
52. To Henry, King of the English .... 197
53. To Henry, King of the English .... 198
54. Anselm to Guarnerius ..... 200
55. To Henry, King of the English .... 200
56. Anselm to his Bishops . 201
57. To Hugh, Archbishop of Lyons .... 203
58. To Eulalia, Abbess ..... 204
b
Contents.
PART III, continued.
59. To Henry, King of the English .... 206
60. To Mabilia, a Nun ..... 206
61. To Matilda, Queen of the English , . . 208
62. To lielgotus, Abbot of St Andaenus . , , 208
63. To Alexander, King of the Scots . . .210
64. To Robert and his Sisters and Daughters . .211
65. To Turold, a Monk of Bee . . . .214
66. To Basilia ...... 215
67. To Lambert, Abbot of St Bertinus . . . 216
68. To Muriardachus, King of Ireland . . . 217
69. To Muriardachus, King of Ireland . . .219
70. To Odo, Monk . . . . . .221
71. To Thomas, Archbishop of York . . . 222
72. To Godfrid ...... 223
73. To Pope Paschal the Second .... 224
74. To Thomas, Archbishop of York . , . 226
75. To Henry, King of the English .... 226
76. To a Certain Lady ..... 227
77. To William, Bishop-Elect of Winchester . . 231
78. To Malchus, Bishop of Waterford . . 4 232
79. To Baldwin, King of Jerusalem .... 233
80. To G., Canon of St Quintin .... 234
81. To Matilda, Queen of the English . . . 235
82. To Count Hugo ...... 236
83. To Count Haco ...... 237
84. To Henry, King of the English .... 238
85. To Richard, a Monk ..... 238
86. To Willermus ..,.., 239
87. To Herbert, Bishop of Thioford . , , .240
88. To his Nephew ...... 2\l
89. To Bernard and his Monks , , * .242
LIFE OF ST ANSELM.
A NSELM, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to
1109, while William Rufus and Henry the First
ruled England, was neither Norman nor Saxon, but
Italian, born in 1033 at or near Aosta, the chief place
in a mountain valley near the St Bernard Passes. His
father, Gundulph, a Lombard settler in those parts,
whose wife, Ermenburga, was related to the lords of
part of the valley, bore a name well-known there.
Anselm was thus of noble birth: he had one sister: also
some uncles : of other kindred we know nothing. His
mother was good and kind, and seems to have done her
own work in awakening her child s religious aspirations:
his father a rough man, harsh to his son. Before
Anselm was fifteen he wished to be a monk: this his
father would not allow, and even a dangerous sickness
(for which Anselm had prayed) did not gain the desired
end. After some time he appears to have been driven
away by his father s unkindness, and with one com
panion, a clerk, he crossed the Alps by Mont Cenis :
spent three years in Burgundy and France proper, and
then went to Avranches, where the learned Lanfranc
of Pavia had founded a school: him Anselm finally
joined at the Monastery of Bee, in the eastern part of
Normandy, where he was now prior.
This all sounds unnatural if we forget that eight hun-
xii Life of St Anselm.
dred years have passed by since Anselm lived, when the
cloister seemed the only place where a holy life was
possible, and was the only place where learning could
be acquired and intellect trained for the service of God.
And this latter advantage was specially to be had at
Bee : Lanfranc had formed the monastery into a school,
while it still remained what it was at its foundation by
Herlwin, a retainer of one of the guardians of William,
son of Duke Robert of Normandy, that he might have
a place where he could work out his soul s salvation.
Herlwin, who was of noble Danish and Flemish descent,
though unlearned, welcomed the learned Italian Lan
franc ; and Normandy, which was really only beginning
to assimilate Christianity, soon had in Bee a centre of
intellectual energy which worked wonders beyond its
narrow limits. Thus Bee, as it had attracted others,
naturally drew the young Anselm, thirsting for cultiva
tion : he remained there, and studied under Lanfranc.
After a time he had to settle the question as to his
future career: whether he should return to Italy and
take up the inheritance his father had now left him, or
become a monk. Lanfranc, whom he consulted, re
ferred him to the Archbishop of Rouen, who advised
him to take the latter course ; and certainly the
peculiar gifts of Anselm had the fullest scope then
possible in the life he chose. At twenty-six years old
he became a monk at Bee : after three years more he
became prior; and fifteen years after that, in 1078, on
the death of the founder Herlwin, Anselm became
abbot, and remained so for another fifteen years, till 1093.
These thirty years are likely to be lost sight of when
we pass on to the years which followed after 1093,
during which the vicissitudes of the active life of nations
and rulers affected Anselm s existence, the varied tale
making those years appear longer. But it was what
Life of St A nselm. x i i i
Anselm grew to be, and showed himself to be, through
those thirty years in the monastery by the " Beck,"
among his pupils and young monks and brethren of his
own standing, which not only caused him to be chosen
archbishop by the English, but enabled him to behave
in most trying situations as one whose ideal was clearly
before him, and whose life had become so completely
moulded to that divine ideal as to be quite untouched
by temptations which others could not understand were
none to him. So, in those years, he taught and cared
for his brethren : became the object of passionate affection
on the part of the younger men more especially: drew
all men to him by his wonderful sweetness: corrected
the faulty without losing their love : prayed, meditated,
wrote. Only those who know his prayers and medita
tions 1 can appreciate the devotional side of his char
acter : the intellectual side is to be studied in his
theological treatises, one of which is included in this
volume. At Bee he wrote three dialogues on the ideas
of Truth, Free-will, Sin. Also two other treatises,
applying intellect to understand and prove its faith out
of its own resources. One " Monologion " is a soliloquy
on the ground of belief in God : the other " Proslogion "
an address to God by the soul seeking to discover
whence comes the idea of God in the human mind.
He was quite original in his method of treatment : it is
the argument from ideas ; Plato applied to Christianity.
He remained unfollowed by the schoolmen ; his method
was like that of more modern thinkers ; and he is for
the devout of all ages : prayer and intellectual effort
intermingle in his " Proslogion " especially.
Once, wearied, he asked the Archbishop of Rouen to
allow him to give up his post of abbot ; but he was
refused. As abbot, he had to take part in the outward
1 There is a selection edited by Dr Pusey (Parker).
C
xiv Life of St Anselm.
business which arose from the numerous possessions of
the abbey in England, as \vell as Normandy ; so, after
1078, when he became abbot, he more than once visited
England, became personally known there, and much
liked by the English, who found him more sympathising
with their character and ways than Lanfranc, now Arch
bishop of Canterbury. In 1088, Lanfranc died, only
one year after William the Conqueror.
To understand at all the tangled history of the follow
ing years, we must remember that William, as Duke
of Normandy, had ruled by his own powerful person
ality, and custom being in those days stronger than law,
and depending very immediately upon force, William
had established, in the face of the strongly-organised
power of the Roman See as administered by Hilde-
brand, the "custom" of appointing and deposing bishops
and abbots as pleased himself : " all things, divine and
human, waited on his nod," says the chronicler Eadmer.
When he came to England, he brought these " customs "
with him : novelties they were in that realm, but his
power bore down everything, and he generally used it in
the cause of right and order. His choice of Lanfranc as
his adviser shows that he meant to do his best for the
Church ; still he himself was the head in all things,
Lanfranc working with, but under, him. When these
two great men were gone, all was altered : William the
Red seized the revenues of the See of Canterbury and
kept it vacant for three years, during which time the
worst specimens of ecclesiastics got the upper hand,
and all was disorder, misery, and wickedness. From
the chronicle of Eadmer, a monk of Canterbury at this
time, we see how it was that reference to Rome grew to
be looked on as a kind of protection, and that the well-
intentioned clergy sought thus to interpose some kind
of law between the helpless and their brutal oppressors.
L ife of St A nsehn. x v
The barons did not like the great see of Canterbury to
be thus kept vacant: in 1092, Hugh of Avranches,
Earl of Chester, begged his old friend Anselm to come
over and help him in reorganising a monastery. On
Anselm s refusal (for already there was a rumour that
he might be made archbishop, and he did not wish it),
the Earl pleaded sickness, and entreated him to come :
Anselm could not withstand the loving desire, and
came. The community of Bee bade him stay on in
England, and when, after five months he wanted to re
turn, the king stopped him. In March 1093 William
fell ill at Gloucester, sent for Anselm, treated him as his
spiritual father, and being, as all thought, very near his
end, he sought to repair the past by naming Anselm
to be archbishop, at the urgent request of his nobles.
Anselm refused : then followed a strange scene : he was
compelled by actual force to take the pastoral staff from
the king s hand, and was dragged to the church,
protesting; but the king ordered him to be at once
invested with the temporalities of the see, as Lan franc
had held them. Delay ensued, for it was necessary
to have the leave of the Duke of Normandy, the
Archbishop of Rouen, and the community of Bee,
before Anselm could be transferred from the abbacy
to Canterbury ; and at Bee they loved him too well
to give him up without protest ; during this interval
Anselm saw that he ought to accept the burden from
which he had shrunk, seeing the terrible state of dis
order in the English church and the misery caused
thereby. The king, after all, recovered, and breaking
all his promises, was more oppressive than before.
Anselm made three stipulations before he would be
consecrated : First, that he was to have all the pos
sessions of the see, as Lanfranc had held them.
Secondly, the king must have him for his adviser and
xvi Life of St Anselm.
trust him as his father. Thirdly, he, with the Norman
Church, had acknowledged Pope Urban, not Clement,
the Anti-Pope : and he could not change. (Neither
had as yet been acknowledged in England.) The king
answered favourably but cautiously, saying that as to
the property of the see Anselm should have all that
Lanfranc had, but he would make no promise about
any further claim. A few days later, when he had
received the letters from Normandy giving Anselm
leave to accept the see, he sent for him to Windsor, and
begged him to agree to the choice of the whole realm
and of himself ; but asked as a personal favour to him
self that those military vassals of his own to whom
since Lanfranc s death he had made grants of church
lands, should keep them. This Anselm refused, for he
knew that it would be a permanent loss to the Church,
and felt that he ought not to give his consent to that.
William was very angry; but at last he yielded to the
universal clamour, and ordered Anselm to be seized of
all the Church possessions as Lanfranc had been. He
was enthroned September 5, 1093 ; and consecrated
December 4, 1093, by the Archbishop of York. William
soon quarrelled with him : refusing as too small a con
tribution of money which Anselm had sent him ; and
when in February 1094 he left for Normandy, and
Anselm begged for a council to be called which might
reform abuses, William, irritated, would not summon
one. On the king s return, Anselm asked leave to go
to Rome for the pallium, the white woollen stole with
four crosses, badge of his office, which it was the recog
nised custom for every newly-made bishop to get from
Rome : William refused : lie had not yet acknowledged
Urban, and, by Jiis father s customs, no one could
acknowledge a Pope in England without his leave.
Here lies the origin of t he whole quarrel between
Life of St A nselm. xvii
Anselm and the kings of England, William and Henry :
he believed the then universal law of the Roman
Church to be binding on him ; they had the
English dislike to foreign interference. Anselm re
minded the king of the condition he had laid down
when he was consecrated ; and again asked for the
great Council of England. It met at Rockingham,
in Derbyshire, March n, 1095. Anselm asked the
great assembly how he was to keep his obedience
to the Apostolic See without breaking his faith to the
king. The bishops were timid, advising and urging
him to give up to the king: Anselm was firm : it came
to threats : but at last the laymen stood on the arch
bishop s side, and the popular feeling went against the
bishops. The question was adjourned to Whitsuntide,
and Anselm left the court. The king in the meantime
had sent to Rome for the pallium, and by Whitsuntide
a papal legate had come back with the messengers and
brought it ; he reported that Urban was ready to grant
special favours to the king during his lifetime : so Urban
was formally acknowledged in England. Failing to
induce the Pope to depose Anselm, William made
friends with him ; and as Anselm refused to receive the
pall, symbol of spiritual authority, from lay hands,
royal though those hands might be, it was laid on the
altar at Canterbury, and Anselm took it thence, June
10, 1095. The next year was rather quieter : the first
Crusade enabled William to buy Normandy from his
brother for three years : of course during that time he
redoubled his extortions, and Anselm, who had begun to
try to improve matters in England, was persecuted by
the king on some mere pretext, and cited to appear in
his court. Anselm asked leave to go to Rome : he felt
he wanted some help and advice : again in August and
October he asked in vain : but at last the king gave
xvi ii Life of St A nselm.
way : Anselm went October 15, 1097 : the king softened
at parting, and received Anselm s blessing. He went from
Dover, with hardly any baggage or belongings : William
seized the property of the see at once : thus Anselm left
his see to appeal from tyranny to what in those days was
held to be the source of divine rule on earth.
After Easter 1098, he and two friends, one of whom
was Eadmer, to whose chronicle we owe much of our
knowledge of Anselm s doings, reached Rome : journeys
in those days were toilsome and full of hardship ; in
estimating what Anselm underwent this element should
not be forgotten. At Rome he was treated with great
honour, but no decision was given. He spent the
summer at a village on a hill near Benevento, where
he finished the treatise " Cur Deus Homo," which forms
part of this volume. The Pope would not release him
from his archbishopric ; a year and a half passed in
waiting : Anselm was invited to the Council of Bari in
October 1098, and was there called upon to justify to
the Easterns the creed of the West : and as to Anselm s
own business, the Council advised the excommunication
of William. Anselm, returning to Rome for the winter,
found there one of the clerks of the king s chapel, who
had been taking measures to influence the action of the
Roman Court : so a space of nine months was granted to
the king for consideration. Anselm staid for the Lateran
Council at Easter, 1099 ; where the Pope placed him
in the place of highest honour ; * " various decrees of
discipline were renewed : among others, one of excom
munication was passed with acclamation against all
who gave or received investiture of churches from lay
hands, and who for church honours, became" the men
" of temporal lords. Thus, the very usages of England
and Normandy to which Anselm had conformed were
1 Dean Church.
Life of St A nsdm. xlx
now condemned by Rome." Anselm saw it was of no
use waiting longer : the Pope did not mean to quarrel
openly with England : so he went and lived at Lyons,
with his old friend Archbishop Hugh. Pope Urban
died July 1099; King William, August iioo, while
Anselm was working in the diocese of Lyons: his return
was urgently desired by Henry and the barons, and on
23rd September iioo he landed: met the king at
Salisbury. Henry had already been consecrated and
crowned by the bishop of London, promising that he
would not rob the church, nor take possession of vacant
church lands : his position was still insecure as against
his brother Robert, and he needed the support of
Anselm. But he was quite determined to retain the
"customs" of his father and brother, and even went
further, requiring Anselm to be anew invested by
himself with the archbishopric.
This would have implied that a spiritual office was
dependent on the will of the temporal ruler for the
time being: and what Anselm had heard at the Lateran
Council had shown him that Rome condemned all lay
investiture to church dignities : as a matter of simple
obedience to the generally acknowledged chief spiritual
authority he felt he must refuse : he said so. The
matter was by consent referred to Rome. In the mean
time Anselm, October iioo, decided that Edith,
daughter of Malcolm of Scotland and the English
Margaret, was not bound by conventual vows which
she had been forced for safety s sake to appear to have
taken ; and married the royal couple : also, when
Robert invaded England, and the Norman chiefs
wavered, Anselm held them to the king. The answer
from the Pope Paschal the 2nd, it was now ran thus :
he was willing to grant much, but not the right of lay
investiture. Henry sent a second embassy to Rome;
xx Life of St Anselm.
three bishops, and two of Anselm s friends : the public
answer given by the Pope, and the letters they brought
home, again refused the king s request, but Henry s
three bishops declared that in a private audience the
Pope had spoken differently. This could not be
accepted: a temporary compromise was made, Anselm
agreeing not to interfere with any bishops or abbots
whom Henry should appoint in the meantime, and
Henry promising Anselm should not be required to
consecrate them ; another embassy being sent to clear
the matter up. At last, Anselm got the council he
had so long asked for : Henry held one at Westminster
at Michaelmas 1102, which aimed at settling the dis
cipline of the clergy, and improving general morality.
The high character of Anselm was beginning to tell ;
the standard of the clergy to be raised : some bishops
appointed by the king afterwards repented, and would
not receive the pastoral ring and staff, or be conse
crated, except by Anselm s authority : one even suf
fered the loss of all rather than do so.
Paschal, in answer, positively prohibited lay investi
ture. The king was determined no man in his realm
should be another man s subject, that was his view of the
matter ; and the Pope really believed that as the suc
cessor of St Peter, all spiritual jurisdiction came from
him : and the spiritual had a tendency to include the
territorial power in those days. Anselm simply looked
on it as a matter of obedience ; and obedience to the
spiritual power came first in his eyes : he was bound,
first of all, to his ecclesiastical superior, who only could
give him power to serve the king in his English Church.
The Pope had written to Anselm : the king would not
hear the letter : Anselm would not open it save in the
king s presence, lest any should say it had been tampered
with. Henry grew furious ; in Lent 1 103 he came to
Life of St Anselm xxi
Canterbury and threatened Anselm; and then suggested
that Anselm himself had better go to Rome : so after
Easter he went ; it was too hot to go on to Italy : he
stayed at Bee: at the end of August he set out; at Rome
he found an agent of the king, the same who had been
there on the part of William Rufus, one William
Warelwast, clerk of the king s chapel. Before the Pope
and the Roman Court this man pleaded on Henry s
side : Anselm was silent ; " He would not plead," says
Eadmer, " that mortal man should be made the door
of the church ; " but he was only waiting for orders,
longing to be allowed to do his proper work. Warel
wast concluded thus, " Know all men present, that not
to save his kingdom will King Henry lose the investi
tures of his churches." The Pope broke out, " Nor
before God, to save his head, will Pope Paschal let him
have them." Further, the Pope s counsellors advised
that in some lesser matters of custom Anselm should
indulge the king, who might personally be exempted
from excommunication ; but that all who infringed the
prohibition of investitures must be excommunicate.
Paschal wrote courteously to the king, gave Anselm his
blessing, and confirmed him in the primacy of Canter
bury. On the road to Lyons, Warelwast, who had
joined Anselm as he went along, delivered to him a
message from the king, to the effect that if Anselm was
going to be with him as his predecessors had been with
former kings, he would be welcome in England.
Anselm took the hint, and again remained at Lyons,
dependent on his old friend. There he waited a year
and a half : the state of things in England grew un
bearable : and he was blamed on all sides for things he
could not alter. He could not rightly thus go on suffering
the evils which the Church was enduring in England,
without doing his utmost to guard his flock ; and he
xxii Life of St Anselm.
saw that Paschal was going to do no more. So in
March 1105 he went northwards, visiting on his way
Adela, Countess of Blois and Chartres, Henry s sister,
who was ill ; he let her know that he was on his way
to excommunicate the king. She contrived that her
brother and Anselm should meet at the Eagle Castle,
in the Bee neighbourhood (Henry was just preparing to
struggle finally for Normandy), and there, July 22, 1 105,
the possession of his revenues was granted to Anselm,
and he was restored to the king s friendship. But still
the king insisted on the recognition of the right of in
vestiture ; reference had again to be made to Rome.
By this time however, one exaction after another had
made the down-trodden clergy clamour for their head,
and the bishops, including the very men who had gone
against him, wrote imploring him to return : " For now
we are seeking in this cause, not what is ours, but what
is the Lord s." There were yet more delays, more em
bassies, more discussions ; then at last Paschal gave the
archbishop authority to release any who had incurred
the penalty of excommunication for breaking the canons
concerning homage and investiture ; so that he was able
to go back to England and work with the bishops ; but
the Pope gave no rule to guide Anselm as to the future.
In September 1106 Henry by the victory at Pinchebrai
became master of Normandy, and in August 1107 an
assembly was held at London. The king and bishops
conferred together, and at last a conclusion was reached,
which now appears so natural and obvious that one
might ask why Paschal had not managed the settle
ment sooner. For he having allowed homage, which
Urban had forbidden equally with investiture, the king
yielded the latter point, and in the words of Eadmer, 1
" in the presence of Anselm, the multitude standing by,
1 Dean Church s translation.
Life of St Anselm. xxiii
the king- granted and decreed that from that time forth
for ever no one should be invested in England with
bishopric or abbey by staff and ring, either by the king
or by any lay hand ; Anselm also allowing that no one
elected to a prelacy should be refused consecration on
account of homage done to the king." Then bishops
were appointed to the many empty sees, and conse
crated on the nth August at Canterbury, all being now
friendly to Anselm.
It would seem that by securing the homage the royal
power as sole ruler over the land was vindicated and
confirmed ; the principle that spiritual jurisdiction as
well as spiritual power is given by the spiritual, not by
the temporal, ruler, was vindicated by Anselm in the
long resistance which ended thus. There was an evil
consequent upon Anselm s success ; the habit which
ensued of appealing to Rome to decide between the
royal power and the heads of the spirituality in the
realm of England : this right, acknowledged for spiritual
ends, was both abused to further the worldly advance
ment of foreigners, and extended to matters which had
no spiritual side, and four hundred years later the Eng
lish shook themselves free ; but who can say that for a
time the close connection with Italy and its greater
civilisation was not better for England than that our
rough forefathers should have been left to settle every
thing by rude force, and crush out the weak beginnings
of gentler teaching and intellectual growth ? That
Anselm was most certainly entirely single-minded in
the matter, no one who reads his devotional works and
his letters can doubt.
He lived not two years after this : did all he could :
Henry listened to him, and corrected some great evils
which Anselm told him of. In a great Whitsuntide
assembly the canons of the Synod of London against
xxiv Life of St Anselm.
clerical marriage were affirmed. Anselm asserted
against Thomas, Bishop-Elect of York, the paramount
claims of the see of Canterbury. In these years he
wrote a treatise concerning the Agreement of Fore
knowledge and Free-will. Gradually his strength
failed : he felt no pain : only would have liked to live
till he had solved a question he was thinking of, as to
the origin of the soul. On the Tuesday in Holy Week
1109 he was seen to be dying; they read him the
Gospel for the day : on the Wednesday, as day was
breaking, he passed away, April 21, 1109. He was
buried in the minster at Canterbury, of which he had
been nominally sixteen years archbishop : much of the
time an impoverished, wandering exile.
So Anselm the monk, theologian, abbot, archbishop,
worked in his day : Saint Anselm he was formally
named in 1494. But to know Anselm the man, the
personality which lay beneath, we must read not only
his deeper treatises, and read, study, and use his medi
tations and prayers (though these reveal his beautiful
individuality wonderfully), but also his letters. Here
we see him as he was to his friends, his pupils : here
we find bursts of tenderness which put our own feel
ings into words and re-echo them to us : here also we
find the man of strict integrity and a single eye, who
plainly and lovingly rebukes sin wherever it may be,
and the brave servant of the Church who stands firm
for her, though regardless of self. Only about one-
fifth of these letters are here given, but by them the
history of Anselm s life can be traced, and his sufferings
estimated. Also, from them we can give some idea of
the extent of his personal influence and of the prestige
of the Church of Canterbury, which the chronicler
Eadmer incidentally terms " the mother of all England,
Scotland, and Ireland, and the neighbouring isles."
L ife of St A nselm. xxv
It is but one human life, one personal development
of Christianity we may here learn to know ; but it is so
beautiful, so attractive in its strength, that to some
whose lives have been for years influenced by him,
whose deepest thoughts have been by his writings raised
higher and guided onwards, it is a subject of hope that
in the future life Anselm may be to them not an his
torical figure, a name, a thought only, but a friend seen
" face to face." R. C.
SAINT ANSELM S PREFACE.
T WAS obliged to complete the work hereto subjoined
more quickly than was advisable, and therefore to
make it briefer than I could wish, on account of some
who had transcribed the first portions for themselves
before it was as yet finished and ripely considered.
For I should have inserted and added many things that
I have left out, had I been allowed to produce it in
quiet and with sufficient time. But in great trouble of
spirit (which how and why I have suffered, God
knoweth), I began in England, and finished it while
a wanderer in the Capuan province.
I have called it, from the matter whereof it treats,
<l Why was God made man ? " and have divided it
into two books. The first of these contains certain
objections of unbelievers who reject the Christian
faith because they think it contrary to reason, with
the answers of the faithful ; and finally, setting Christ
aside, (as though He had never been) proves by logical
arguments that it is impossible for any man to be
saved without Him.
In a like manner, in the second book, (as though
nothing were known of Christ) it is shown no less
plainly by reason and in truth, that human nature was
made to this end, that at some time man in his com
pleteness, i.e. in body and soul, should enjoy a blessed
xxviii St Ansehrfs Preface.
immortality ; and that it is necessary that, what man
was made for, to that he should come : but that only
by one who is man and God, and of necessity by all
which we believe of Christ, could this be done.
I request all who choose to transcribe this book, to
place at the beginning of it this little preface, with the
chapters of the whole work ; so that into whosesoever
hands it may come, he may see as in its countenance
whether there be in the whole form aught which he
will not disdain.
BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
THE QUESTION ON WHICH THE WHOLE WORK
DEPENDS.
/^\FTEN, both by word of mouth and by letter, have
^^ I been eagerly asked to write down the explana
tory arguments with which I am accustomed to answer
those who ask about various points of our faith : for
they say that they enjoy them, and think them conclu
sive. They inquire, not that they may through reason
be led to faith, but that they may be edified by the
insight of those who do believe, and that they may,
as far as they can, be always ready to give an effectual
answer to anyone who asks for a reason of the faith
that is in us. The unbelieving often question (deriding
Christian simplicity as infatuated), and the faithful
wonder in their own hearts, for what reason, and by
what necessity, God was made man, and by His death,
as we believe and confess, gave life to the world ; since
He might have done this by another person, whether
angelic or human ; or by His sole will. On this point
not the learned only, but also many unlearned persons
inquire much, and ask the reason of it. Therefore
A
2 Why was God made Man ?
since many desire this subject to be treated, and since
the elucidation, though very difficult to carry out, is
intelligible to all when completed, and attractive on
account of its usefulness and the beauty of the
reasoning : I will try (although what should be
enough has been said by the holy Fathers on the sub
ject) to show forth to those who are seeking, that which
God may deign to disclose to me. And since question
and answer is an easy way of explaining things, I shall
make one of my petitioners my interlocutor Boso shall
ask, and Anselm answer, as follows.
CHAPTER II.
HOW THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE ABOUT TO BE
ASSERTED, ARE TO BE RECEIVED.
Boso. TUST as right order requires that we should
J believe the deep things of the Christian
faith before we presume to discuss them by means
of our reason ; so exactly does it seem to me to be
culpable carelessness if after we are settled in the
faith, we do not seek to understand that which we
believe. Wherefore since by the prevenient grace of
God I so hold, as I believe, the faith of our redemption,
as that if by no exercise of reason whatever were I able
to understand it, yet would nothing by any possibility
have power to tear me away from that firm conviction :
I ask you to explain to me that which, as you know
many besides me are asking : namely, by what necessity
and for what reason hath God, being omnipotent,
assumed, in order to its restoration, the humiliations
and weakness of human nature ?
Anselm. What you ask of me is above my powers,
Book L Chapter II. 3
and I fear to treat of these depths, lest, if anyone
should imagine or see that I did not satisfy him, he
should rather conclude that the actual truth did not
exist, than that my intellect was unable to grasp it.
B. You should not so much fear this, as bear it in
mind (for it often happens during the discussion of a
question that God reveals what hitherto was unper-
ceived) : and hope for God s grace, because if you freely
impart what you have received of free gift, you will de
serve to be endowed with higher gifts to which you
have not yet attained.
A. There is another thing on account of which I see
that we can with difficulty, if at all, discuss the subject
fully among ourselves at present ; since to do that some
clear conception is necessary of power, necessity, will,
and some other things, which are so connected that
none of them can be fully considered without the others ;
and consequently the treatment of these involves a
labour, not as I think so very easy, nor yet altogether
useless ; for ignorance concerning them makes some
things difficult, which become easy when these are
understood.
B. You might on occasion speak briefly concerning
these points, so that we may grasp what is sufficient for
the work of the moment, and postpone what more there
is to be said to another time.
A. This also strongly restrains me from yielding to
your prayer : that since the subject is not only precious,
but also, as it is in form perfect beyond the sons of
men, so also is it in rational perfection above the human
intellect ; therefore I fear lest, just as I myself am apt
to be indignant with bad artists when I see our Lord
depicted under a misshapen form, so it may happen to
myself, if I presume to investigate so sublime a subject
by rude, contemptible speculations.
4 Why was God made Man ?
B. Neither should this stop you, because as you allow
anyone who can to put the thing more clearly, so you
prevent no one whom your decision does not please
from writing better than yourself: but (and this must
put an end to all your excuses) that which I ask of you
you are not going to do for the learned, but for me and
for those who with me ask it of you.
A. Since I see both your importunity and that of
those who out of love and religious zeal are joining you
in this request, I will try my very best (God helping
me, and I being aided by your prayers frequently pro
mised to me when I have asked for them for this very
object) not so much to show you that which you seek
as to seek it with you ; but on this condition, which I
desire should be implied in all which I say : that is, that
if I shall say anything which a greater authority shall not
confirm, even though I should seem to prove it logically,
it shall be received with no more certitude than is given
by the fact that so it appears to me in the meantime,
until God shall show me better in any way. For if I
am in any measure able to satisfy your inquiries, it will
be certain that a wiser than I could do it more fully ;
and it is yet further to be noted, that whatever man
may say or be able to know about it, deeper arguments
will lie yet hidden within so great a subject.
B. That is plain enough (to use an infidel phrase) :
but it is fair that whilst we are seeking to investigate
the ground of our faith, we should bring forward the
objections of those who will on no account give their
adhesion to that same faith without some reason for it.
For although that same reason is sought by them be
cause they do not, but by us because we do, believe ;
yet what we all seek is one and the same thing : and
should you say anything in your answers which sacred
authority should seem to contradict, may I be allowed
Book I. Chapter III. 5
to bring it forward ? so that you may explain that this
opposition does not exist.
A. Speak as you think advisable.
CHAPTER III.
OBJECTIONS OF UNBELIEVERS AND ANSWERS OF
THE FAITHFUL.
B. T TNBELIEVERS, mocking at our simplicity,
^ reproach us with doing God wrong and
putting Him to shame when we assert that He de
scended into the womb of a virgin, was born of a
woman, grew, was nourished with milk and the ordin
ary food of man, and (to be silent on many other points,
which seem unsuitable to God) that He suffered weari
ness, hunger, thirst, scourging, and death with thieves
on the cross.
A. We do God no wrong nor put Him to shame,
but giving thanks with all our hearts we praise Him
and proclaim the ineffable heights of His mercy ; for
just so far as by marvellous and unimaginable ways He
redeemed us from so many and so well-deserved evils in
which we were sunk and restored us to so great and
unmerited blessings, just so far, I say, He showed forth
for us the greater love and compassion. But if they were
thoughtfully to consider how consistently the restoration
of humanity was thus effected, they would not deride
our simplicity, but would with us praise the wise
beneficence of God. For it was needful that as by
the disobedience of man death had come upon the
human race, so by the obedience of man should life be
given back. And that as sin, which was the cause of
our condemnation, had its first beginning from a woman,
6 Why was God made Man ?
so the author of our justification and salvation should
be born of woman ; and that the devil, who had van
quished man by persuading him to taste the fruit of
the tree, should in like wise be conquered by man by
that death which He bore on the tree. There are also
many other things, which being carefully studied, show
the ineffable beauty of the redemption in this way
procured for us.
CHAPTER IV.
THAT THESE ANSWERS APPEAR SUPERFLUOUS TO
UNBELIEVERS, AND LIKE REPRESENTATIONS OF
THE TRUTH, NOT THE TRUTH ITSELF.
B. "THESE are all beautiful sayings, and to be
accepted as pictured realisations : but if
there be not something solid whereon they rest, they
are not a sufficient reason to the incredulous why we
ought to believe God to have willed to suffer as we
assert He did. Now he who wishes to paint a picture
chooses something solid whereon to work, that what he
paints may last ; but no one designs on the water or on
air, since no trace of the picture would remain thereon.
Wherefore when we display these logical harmonies
which you enumerate, as it were in the guise of
pictures of a past action, to unbelievers, they (con
sidering what we believe to be not a real thing which
happened, but only a fiction) think we do but paint
pictures on the clouds. Therefore is to be shown, first,
,; the reasonable solidity of the verity ; that is, the
necessity which proves that God should or could
| descend to that which we predicate. Therefore in
order that the actual truth should shine forth more
Book I. Chapter V. J
brightly, these harmonies should be displayed as a
picture of the solid reality.
A. Does not this sufficiently appear to be an effectual
reason, why it behoved God to do these things which
we assert ? namely, that the human race, His so
precious creation, would have utterly perished, and it
was not fitting that the intentions of God for man
should suddenly be frustrated ; and again, that His
design could not have been carried out unless the
human race had been delivered by the Creator
Himself?
CHAPTER V.
THAT THE REDEMPTION OF MAN COULD NOT HAVE
BEEN EFFECTED BY ANY SAVE BY GOD HIMSELF.
B. TF this deliverance were said to be effected by
anyone else rather than by God Himself
(whether by angel or by man), in what way matters not,
the human intellect would accept the fact much more
readily. For God might have made some one man
without sin, not of the sinful mass of humanity, nor
from any one man, but as He made Adam : by such a
one it would appear that this same work might have
been accomplished.
A. Don t you understand that whatever other person
should save man from death eternal, to him would man
rightly belong ? If that were so, he could in nowise be
restored to that place of dignity which he would have
filled had he not sinned ; since he who was to have
been the servant of God only, and equal in all things
to the good angels, would be the slave of one who was
not God and to whom the angels owed no service.
Why was God made Man ?
CHAPTER VI.
HOW UNBELIEVP:RS OBJECT TO OUR ASSERTION THAT
GOD REDEEMED US BY HIS DEATH AND SO
SHOWED FORTH HIS LOVE TOWARDS US AS FOR
US TO HAVE COME TO CONQUER THE DEVIL.
B. HPHIS it is at which they marvel so much: that
we call this deliverance redemption. " For,"
say they to us, " in what capacity, or in what prison, or
in whose power, were you confined, whence God could
not set you free unless He ransomed you with so many
toils, and finally by His blood ? " And when we say to
them : " He redeemed us from our sins, and from His
wrath, and from hell, and from the power of the devil,
whom because we could not, He came Himself to sub
due, and He bought back for us the kingdom of heaven ;
and since He did all these things thus, He shows forth
how He loves us ; " they answer : " If you say that God
could not do all these things by His word alone, He
who you say created all things by His word, you con
tradict yourselves, for you assert Him to be powerless.
If on the other hand you say that He could, but willed
it not save in this way, how can you call Him wise
whom you would affirm to have willed without any
reason to suffer things so misbecoming ? If, then, He
wills not to punish the sins of men, man is free from
sins and from God s anger, and from hell, and from the
devil s power, all which He suffers on account of His
sins ; and receives those things of which for his sins he
is now deprived.
" For who hath power over hell or the devil ? whose
is the kingdom of heaven but His who made all things ?
Whatsoever therefore you fear or love, all lies in the
Book L Chapter VII. 9
power of Him whom nought can resist ; wherefore, if
He would not save the human race except in the manner
you assert, when He might have done it by His will
alone ; see (to speak moderately) how you impugn His
wisdom : for if a man were without cause to do by
severe labour that which he might do with ease, he
would not be considered wise by anyone. Therefore
your assertion, that God thus showed forth how much
He loved you, can be defended by no argument unless
it be shown that man could not possibly have been
saved otherwise. For if it could not otherwise have
been done, then perchance it would have been necessary
that He should thus show forth His love ; but now since
He could save man otherwise, what reason is there that
on account of showing forth His love, He should do and
bear what you say ? Does He not show forth to the
good angels, for whom He endures not similar things,
how much He loves them ? But when you say He
came down to conquer the devil for you, in what sense
do you take the phrase came down ? Is not the reign
of God s omnipotence universal ? How then was it
needful for God to come down from heaven to conquer
the devil ? " Unbelievers think they can fairly taunt us
with these objections.
CHAPTER VII.
THAT THE DEVIL HAD NO JUST RIGHT AGAINST MAN ;
AND WHY IT SEEMS AS THOUGH HE HAD: AND
WHEREFORE GOD SHOULD HAVE DELIVERED MAN
IN THIS WAY.
B. (continuing). T3UT that which we are wont to
assert, i.e., that God should have
proceeded against the devil to release man, rather by
IO Why was God made Man ?
right of equity than by His own sufferings, since the
devil by slaying Him in whom was no cause of death,
and who was God, had justly lost the power which he
had over sinners ; also, that otherwise unjust violence
would have been done him, since he justly had posses
sion of man, whom he had not drawn to his side by
violence, but who had come over to him voluntarily :
all this, to my mind, is of no force whatever. For did
\ the devil or man belong to himself or to any other save
God, or were in the power of any but God, this per
chance might be justly asserted ; but seeing that neither
devil nor man exists but by God, and that neither sub
sists outside His power, what claim should God urge
with His own, concerning His own, upon His own, ex
cept to punish him as His slave who had persuaded his
fellow-slave to desert their common lord and to join
him, and had, a traitor, received the fugitive : a thief,
welcomed the other thief with the theft from their lord ?
Each and either of them was a thief, since, one persuad
ing the other, each stole himself from his lord : so what
could have been more just, had God chosen so to do ?
Or if God, the Judge of all, were to take away the pos
session, man, from the power of one who holds him in
so unjust possession whether to punish him otherwise
than by the devil or to spare him where would be the
injustice ? For although man were justly tormented by
the devil, he yet tormented man unjustly. For man
had deserved to be punished ; nor by anyone more
suitably than by him with whom he had agreed to sin.
Yet was it no merit in the devil to punish ; rather did
it make him so much the more unjust, as he was not
drawn thereto by a love of justice, but was impelled by
his own malicious instinct ; for he did it, God not com
manding, but in His inscrutable wisdom, whereby He
brings good out of evil, permitting it. And I think
Book I. Chapter VII. 1 1
that those who deem that the devil has some right to
dominion over men are drawn to this opinion because
they see men justly subjected to annoyance by the
devil, and God permitting this with justice : and thence
they infer that the devil inflicts it justly. But it hap
pens sometimes that the same thing is just or unjust for
different reasons, and hence is pronounced wholly just
or unjust by those who do not look carefully into it.
Suppose, for instance, some one should strike an inno
cent person, by whom he justly deserves himself to be
smitten, yet if the one attacked ought not to defend
himself, and yet strikes him who assaults him, he does
this without just right. Thus this blow is wrongful on
the part of him who strikes back again, since he ought
not to defend himself; but looking at the person who
is struck in return it is just, since he who wrongfully
strikes rightly merits to be smitten ; therefore the same
action is just and unjust as it is looked at from different
points of view, and it may happen to be considered only
just by one, only unjust by another. So the devil is in
this way said to harass man with justice, since God
justly permits it, and man suffers it justly ; but man is
not said to suffer it justly because of the justice of the
infliction : only on account of his being punished by the
just judgment of God. 77 And though there be alleged
that " handwriting of the ordinance," which the Apostle /? /
says was " against us;^ and blotted out by the death of
Christ. f 4 * should anyone imagine to be signified by
this that since the devil, as it were, by the bond of this
handwriting, could, before the Passion of Christ, exact
sin from man as usury for the first sin to which he had
persuaded him, and also the penalty of sin, that there
fore by this his right over man should seem to be
proved : I by no means think that it should thus be
understood. For that handwriting is not the devil s : it
1 2 Why was God made Man ?
is called " the handwriting of the ordinance," and that
ordinance was not of the devil, but of God. For by the
just judgment of God it was decreed, and confirmed as
it were by a deed, that man, who of his own free will
sinned, can by himself avoid neither sin nor the penalty
of sin; he is a spirit capable of taking a step, but not
of retracing it ; and " whosoever committeth sin is the
servant of sin," nor ought he who sins to be released
without punishment, unless mercy should spare the
sinner, free him, and lead him back again : yet we are,
notwithstanding, to believe that under that ordinance
the devil can find no right to torment man. Again, as
in a good angel there is no unrighteousness at all, so in
an evil angel is there no interior goodness : nothing
therefore was there in the devil wherefore God should
not use his power against the devil for man s
deliverance.
CHAPTER VIII.
HOW, ALTHOUGH THE HUMILIATIONS WE ASSERT
CHRIST UNDERWENT, BELONG NOT TO HIS
DIVINITY, THEY YET APPEAR TO UNBELIEVERS
TO BE DISPARAGING WHEN ASSERTED OF HIM AS
MAN : AND WHENCE IT SEEMS TO THEM THAT AS
MAN HE DID NOT DIE OF HIS OWN FREE WILL.
A. "THE will of God ought to be a sufficient reason
lor us when He does anything, even if we do
not see why He wills thus, for the will of God is never
unreasonable.
B. That is true, if it be certain that God does will
the thing in question ; but many will never agree that
God doth will a thing, if it appear contrary to reason.
A. What is it that seems to you unreasonable in one
Book I. Chapter VI II. 13
saying that God willed those things which we believe
concerning His Incarnation ?
B. This, in a word : that the Highest should stoop
to such indignities, the Omnipotent do aught by so
great effort.
A. They who speak thus do not understand what we
believe. For we assert the Divine Nature to be without
doubt impassible, and in no way possibly to be brought
down from its ineffable exaltation, nor to need to use
effort to accomplish that which it wills. But the Lord
Jesus Christ we assert to be true God and true Man,
one Person in two natures, and two natures in one
Person ; wherefore when we say that God endured
humiliation and infirmity, we understand this not ac
cording to the sublimity of the impassible nature, but
according to the infirmity of the human nature which
He bore ; and thus no reason can be recognised as con
tradicting our faith. For we thus impute no humilia
tion to the divine substance, but show that there is one
Person, both God and man : and therefore no humilia
tion of God is understood to have been involved in the
Incarnation ; but it is believed that the nature of man
was exalted.
B. So be it : let nothing be imputed to the Divine
Nature, which is said of Christ according to the infirmity
of man ; but how could it be proved just or reasonable
that God should so treat that Man whom the Father
called His "beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased,"
and who called Himself the Son, or permit him to be
treated thus ?
What man would not be judged worthy of condem
nation if he were to condemn the innocent in order to
let the guilty go free ? So it seems the difficulty follows
which was asserted before ; for if He could not save
sinners otherwise than by condemning the just, where is
14 Why was God made Man ?
His omnipotence ? and if He could, but would not, how
do we defend His wisdom and justice ?
A. God the Father did not treat that Man as you
seem to think, nor did He deliver up the innocent to
die for the wicked. For He did not either compel Him
to die, nor permit Him to be slain, unwilling ; but that
One Himself bore His death by His own free will that
He might save mankind.
B. Even if He did not compel Him to it against His
will, since He consented to what the Father willed ; yet
in some way He seems to have coerced Him by com
mands. For it is said that Christ " humbled Himself,
and became obedient to the Father unto death, even the
death of the cross, wherefore God also highly exalted
Him ; " and that " He learned obedience by the things
which He suffered ; " and that "the Father spared not
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." And
the Son Himself says : " I came not to do mine own
will, but the will of Him that sent Me." And when
about to enter upon His Passion, He said : " As my
Father gave Me commandment, even so I do." Also :
" The cup which my Father hath given Me, shall I not
drink it ? " And elsewhere : " Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from Me ; nevertheless not what I will,
but what Thou wilt." And once more : " Father, if this
cup may not pass from Me, except I drink it, Thy will
be done." In all these passages Christ appears to have
suffered death more under the compulsion of obedience
than by the spontaneous disposition of His own will.
Book I. Chapter IX
CHAPTER IX.
THAT IT WAS OF HIS OWN FREE WILL THAT HE DIED :
AND WHAT IS MEANT BY " HE WAS MADE OBED
IENT EVEN UNTO DEATH : " " WHEREFORE GOD
HIGHLY EXALTED HIM : " AND " 1 CAME NOT TO
DO MINE OWN WILL : " AND " HE SPARED NOT
HIS OWN SON : " AND " NOT AS I WILL, BUT AS
THOU WILT."
A. TT seems to me that you do not rightly distinguish
between that which He did under the constraint
of obedience, and that, which being inflicted on Him
because he adhered to His obedience, He bore without
any compulsion to obey.
B. I need that you should explain this more fully.
A. Why did the Jews persecute Him unto death ?
B. For nothing else than that in life and speech He
held unswervingly to truth and righteousness.
A. I think it was that, for God demands this from
every rational creature, and this it owes by obedience.
B. So we are bound to acknowledge.
A. Thus that Man owed that obedience to God His
Father, and humanity to Deity : and His Father re
quired it of Him.
B. That is doubtful to no one.
A. So here you see what He did to fulfil what obed
ience required of Him.
B. It is true : and I now see what that was which,
having brought on Himself by persisting in obedience,
He likewise bore. For death was inflicted on Him be
cause He stood firm in His obedience, and He endured
it ; but how it is that obedience did not require this, I
do not understand.
1 6 Why was God made Man ?
A. Had man never sinned, ought he to suffer death,
or should God require this of him ?
B. According to our belief, neither would man die,
nor would it be required of him that he should ; but I
want to hear from you the reason of this fact.
A. That the rational creature was made upright, and
for this end, that it should be blessed in the enjoyment
of God, you do not deny ?
B. I don t deny it.
A. But you would never consider it like God to com
pel him whom He had created upright, for bliss, to be
miserable for no fault of his own ? now, for a man to die
unwillingly is pitiable.
B. It is clear that if man had not sinned, it had not
behoved God to require him to die.
A. Therefore, God did not compel Christ, in whom
was no sin, to die ; but Christ of His own will bore
death, not from any obligation to give up His life, but
on account of the obligation He was under to fulfil
righteousness, in which He sp firmly persevered, that
He incurred death thereby.^ But it maybe said that
the Father commanded Him to die, since He did lay on
Him a command to do that whereby He incurred death.
Therefore, N as the Father gave Him commandmentj even y ^
so He did, and^the cup which He gave Him, He drank,
and v He was made obedient to His Father even unto
death ; and thus N He learnt obedience by the things thatl
He suffered (that is, to what uttermost degree He
should carry His obedience). But this word " learned "dd
may be understood in two ways : either as meaning " He
made others fe arn," or as showing that He proved by
experience that of which He was not ignorant by antici
pation. Wherefore the same Apostle, when He had
said "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto^A,!^
death, even the death of the cross," added, " wherefore
Book I. Chapter IX. 17
God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him ap..
name which is above every name " (to which is similar
the saying of David, " He shall drink of the brook in
the way ; " therefore shall He lift up His head). This
is not said as though in no way He could have attained
to that exaltation save by this " obedience " unto death,
and as though this exaltation were only conferred in re-
compence for this obedience ; for before He had thus
shown forth His obedience, He Himself said that v all \y
things^had been v given } to Him bf His Father, and that
all things that the Father had were His ; but because -
that He Himself, with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
had ordained that He should show forth to the world
the ineffable height of His omnipotence in no other
manner save by His death ; hence that which was done
by means of it only is not incongruously said to have
been done on account of it. //For if we intend to do
anything, but propose to ourselves to do previously
something else through which the first shall be effected :
when that is already done which we choose should come
first, if the execution then follows of what we designed,
it may justly be said to be done by means of the other,
because that is done on account of which the latter was
deferred, since it was arranged to be done only after the
other had taken place. If, suppose, there were a river
which I could pass either on horseback or in a ship ; and
I decide to cross it in a ship, and thereupon put off
crossing because there is no vessel ; when the ship is
ready, if I cross, it may rightly be said of me, " The
ship was ready, therefore he crossed." And we speak
thus, not only when we decide to do a thing by means of
that which we will shall precede, but also when we only
decide that it shall take place after the other. For if
any one postpones taking food because he has not yet
said mass that day : that having been effected which he
B
1 8 Why was God made Man ?
wished first to do, he may rightly be thus addressed :
" Now take food, because you have done that on account
of which you were putting off eating." Much less, there
fore, is the expression unsuitable when Christ is said to
be exalted for that He endured death, by which and
after which He decreed to be exalted. It may also be
understood in that way in which the same Lord is said
to have increased c in wisdom and favour with GodJ not
because it was so, but because He was as though it were
so. Thus He was exalted after, as though it were be
cause of His death.// Therefore what He says, " I came
J not to do mine own will, but His which sent me," is like
Xsthis other saying, " My doctrine is not Mine," for that
which one has not from one s self, but from God, should
not so much be called one s own as God s. But no man
derives the truth which he teaches, nor an upright will,
from himself but from God. Christ therefore came not
to do His own will, but that of the Father; for the up
right will, which He possessed, was not from humanity,
but from Deity. "God spared not His own Son, but
-;delivered Him up for us all," means only that He did
not set Him free; many such expressions are found in
the Holy Scriptures. But where He says, " Father, if
it be possible, let this cup pass from me ; nevertheless,
not what I will but as Thou wiliest ; " and " if this cup
may not pass away from Me except I drink it, Thy will
be done : " He means by His " own will " the natural
desire for preservation, whereby His human flesh
shrank from the pain of death. But He says "the will
of the Father," not for that the Father would prefer the
death to the life of the Son ; but because the Father
willed not the human race to be restored, unless man
should do something as great as was that death. Not
because He is declaring the reason why another could
not have done it, doth the Son say that the Father
Book I. Chapter X. 19
willed His death, since He Himself preferred to die
rather than that the human race should not be saved ;$<?//<*
as though He could say: "Since Thou wiliest not that /-/
the reconciliation of the world be otherwise accom
plished, in this may I say that Thou wiliest My death :
Thy will be done, that is, let My death take place, that
the world may be reconciled to Thee." For we often
say that a person desires something because he does not
will something else, which if he willed, that which he is
said to desire would not take place ; as when we say he
wishes to put out a lamp, who will not close the window
through which comes the wind that extinguishes the
lamp. So the Father, in this sense, willed the death of
the son, in that He would have the world saved no
otherwise than by man doing this so great deed, as I
said before. And the salvation of man was so precious
to the Son who willed it, that since in no other way He
could effect it, it behoved Him to die ; wherefore He
did as His Father gave Him commandment, and the
cup which His Father gave Him, He drank, being f >
obedient even unto death.
CHAPTER X.
ON THE SAME POINTS ; AND HOW THEY MAY RIGHTLY
BE UNDERSTOOD DIFFERENTLY.
A. (continuing). TT may likewise rightly be under-
** stood thus : that by that righteous
volition, whereby the Son willed to die for the salvations* s
of the world/the Father gave Him (but not under com- JV> <
pulsion) Jhe charge and ^cup of suffering/ and spared 3r\ /& /
Him not, but N delivered Him up for usf and willed His t?> ?- J2
death; and that the Son Himself was \ obedient unto
2O Why was God made Man ?
. Heb*;V
/. ; death, and learned obedience by the things which He
suffered! But as according to His humanity He had
not the will to act rightly, from Himself, but from the
Father, so that will also by which He willed to die that
He might do so great good, He could not have save
^ from " the Father of lights, with whom is no variable
ness, neither shadow of turning ; " and as the Father,
by giving the will, is said to draw, so it does not be
come inconsistent when He is asserted to impel. For
as the Son says of the Father : " No one cometh to Me
except the Father draw him " so He might have said,
" unless He impel him." In like manner He might
have said, " No one goes willingly to death for My
Name, unless the Father urge or draw him." For since
by the will every one is drawn or urged to that which
he unswervingly wills, there is no incongruity in saying
that God draws, or urges, in giving that will ; in which
attraction or impulse no violence of necessity is under
stood, but the spontaneous and loving adherence of the
good will received. If, therefore, it be thus impossible
to deny that the Father, by giving that will, drew or
impelled the Son to death, who does not see that in the
same way He gave Him the command to endure death
of His own free will, and the cup that He should drink
of not unwillingly ? And if the Son spared not Himself,
but is rightly said to have given Himself up for us of
His own free will, who can deny it to be rightly asserted
that the Father, from whom He had such a will, spared
Him not, but delivered Him up, and willed His death ?
For in this manner, by unchangeably and freely adher
ing to the will He received from the Father, was the
Son made obedient to it even unto death, and learned
from the things which He suffered, obedience, that is,
what a great thing is to be done through obedience.
For then there is true and free obedience, namely, when
Book I. Chapter X. 21
the rational creature, not by necessity but freely, ad
heres to the volition received from GodJ* In other ways,
also, we may rightly understand the Father to have
willed the death of the Son, although these might well
suffice. For as we say that he wills the same as
another who carries out that other s will in act, so also
we say that he wills the same as another who does not
indeed act out, but approves, the decision of the other ;
as, for instance, when we see some one firmly willing to
suffer injury, in order that what he strongly desires may
be effected, although we say that we wish him to suffer
that penalty, yet we do not will or love his suffering,
but the object of his determination. And we are accus
tomed to say of him who can prohibit anything and
does not do so, that he wills that which he does not pro
hibit. Therefore, since the will of the Son pleased the
Father, and He prohibited Him neither from willing
nor from fulfilling what He willed, the Father is rightly
asserted to have willed that the Son should endure so
righteous and useful a death, although He loved not
that He should suffer. He said that the cup might not
pass from Him except He drank it, not for that He
could not avoid death had He so willed, but because, as
I has been said, it was impossible for the world to be
f saved otherwise ; and He indefectibly willed rather to
suffer death than that the world should not be saved.
But He said those words that He might teach the
human race that it could no otherwise be saved than
by His death, not that He might show He had been in
nowise able to avoid death. And whatever else like this
is said of Him is so to be explained as that He may
be believed to have died by no necessity, but of His
own free will. For He was omnipotent : and we read
of Him that He was offered up because He Himself
willed it; and He Himself said : " I lay down My life
22 Why was God made Man ?
fn lo" and I take it again ; no one taketh it from Me, but I
lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again." Since, therefore,
He does it by His own power and His own will, in no
sense can He rightly be said to be compelled to do it.
B. Only this, that God should permit Him, however
willing, to be thus treated, does not appear consistent
in such a Father of such a Son.
A. Surely it is most consistent in such a Father to
give His consent to such a Son, when He wills some
thing laudably for the honour of God, and usefully for
the salvation of men, which could not otherwise have
been effected.
B. Let us now turn to this point : how that death
can be proved to be reasonable and necessary ; for
otherwise it would appear that neither ought the Son to
have willed, nor the Father to have insisted upon or
permitted it. It is asked why God could not save man
otherwise? or if, when He could, He would not? For
it appears to be unworthy of God to have saved man in
this way ; nor is it clear why that death would not avail
to save mankind. For it is very strange if God so de
lights in or requires the blood of the innocent, that only
on condition of His death will He, or can He, spare the
guilty.
A. Since you have in this discussion identified your
self with those who will believe nothing unless on pre
vious proof, I should wish to make with you an agree
ment, that nothing, not even the very least possible
insinuation against God shall be granted by us, and
that no proof, even the slightest (unless contradicted by
a stronger), shall be rejected. For as the very least in
consistency in God is an impossibility as a matter of
course, so the slightest proof, if not confuted by a
stronger, necessarily holds good.
Book I. Chapter XL 23
B. In this discussion I accept nothing more willingly
than that this treaty may be jointly kept by us.
A. The only subject under discussion is the Incarna
tion of God, and what we believe concerning God made
Man.
B. It is so.
A. Let us, then, suppose that the Incarnation of
God, and those things which we assert of Him made
Man, had never been ; and let it be agreed upon be
tween us that man was made for blessedness, which in
this life he cannot have, nor can any one attain to it
unless he be freed from sins, nor can any man pass
through this life without sin ; and other things faith
in which is necessary for eternal salvation.
B. So be it ; for herein appears nothing unworthy of
God or impossible to Him.
A. Thus, unto man is needful remission of sins, that
he may attain to beatitude.
B. This we all hold.
CHAPTER XI.
WHAT IT IS TO SIN ; AND WHAT, TO MAKE
SATISFACTION FOR SIN.
A. TA/ E have therefore to inquire wherefore God
remits sins to man ? and that we may do
this the more thoroughly, let us first see what it is to
sin, and what to make satisfaction for sin.
B. Explanation is your part : attention mine.
A. If angelic beings, or men, always repaid to God
what they owe, they would never sin.
B. I do not wish to contradict that.
A. Thus to sin, is nothing else but not to repay to
God one s debt.
24 Why was God made Man ?
B. What is the debt we owe to God ?
A. The whole will of a rational creature ought to be
subject to the will of God.
B. Nothing is more certainly true than this.
A. This is the debt which angels and men owe to
God : paying which, none sins ; and every one who
does not pay it, does sin. This is uprightness, or recti
tude of will, which constitutes the just or upright in
heart, that is, in will ; this is the sole and whole honour
which we owe to God, and which God requires from us.
Only such a will, when it can act, can do works pleasing
to God ; and when it cannot act, it pleases by itself
alone, since no work is pleasing without it. Whoever
renders not unto God this due honour, takes away from
God that which is His, and does God dishonour : and
this is sin. Also, as long as he does not repay what he
took, he remains in fault ; nor is it enough only to
repay what was abstracted, but he ought for the insult
done to return more than he took. For as it does not
suffice, when one injures the health of another, to give
him back his health, unless he make him some com
pensation for the injury of the suffering he has caused
him : so, if one injures another s dignity, it is not suffi
cient that he rehabilitate that dignity, unless he restore
something to give pleasure to the injured in proportion
to the injury of dishonour done. And this is also to be
noted : that when anyone repays what he took unjustly,
he ought to give somewhat which could not have been
required of him had he not taken that which was
another s. Thus, therefore, each sinner ought to repay
the honour of which he has robbed God : and this is
the satisfaction which every sinner ought to make to God.
B. To all this, since we determined to work out the
argument, I have nothing (although you rather frighten
me) to say in opposition.
Book I. Chapter XIL 2$
CHAPTER XII.
WHETHER IT BESEEMETH GOD TO REMIT SINS OF
HIS MERCY ALONE, WITHOUT ANY DUE RANSOM
BEING PAID.
,Solot-^ Bbbt,
A T ET us go back, and see whether by mercy alone,
no atonement being made to His honour, it
may be fitting for God to forgive sins.
B. I cannot see why it should not beseem Him.
A. Thus to remit, is but this : not to punish sin ; and
since the just treatment of unatoned sin is to punish it :
if it be not punished, it is unjustly forgiven.
B. What you say is logically true.
A. But it beseemeth not God to forgive anything in
His realm illegally.
B. I fear lest I sin if I assert the contrary.
A. Therefore it beseemeth not God thus to forgive
unpunished sin.
B. This follows.
A. And there is somewhat else which follows, if sin
be thus forgiven unpunished : since the same treatment
would at God s hands be dealt to sinful and sinless ;
which is not consistent with God.
B. I cannot deny it.
A. And see this : No one is ignorant that the righteous
ness of men under the law was recompensed by God
according to its degree with a measure of retribution.
B. So we believe.
A. But if sin be neither punished nor atoned for, it
falls under no law.
B. I can understand no otherwise.
A. Therefore wickedness, if it be forgiven solely on
account of mercy, is freer than righteousness : which
appears extremely inconsistent. And the inconsistency
26 Why was God made Man ?
further extends to this : that transgression gives like
ness to God, for like as God is subject to no law, so also
is it with wickedness.
B. I am unwilling to oppose your argument. But
while God enjoins us explicitly to forgive those who sin
against us, it does appear to be a contradiction that He
should enjoin that upon us which beseemeth not Himself.
A. There is no contradiction in this injunction : for
we may not appropriate what belongs to God alone : now
it appertains to no one to take vengeance, save to Him
who is Lord of all : for when earthly powers do this
justly, God, by whom they are ordained to this very
end, Himself does it
B. You have cleared away the inconsistency which I
thought existed ; but there is somewhat else, to which I
want to hear you reply. For since God is so free that
He is subject to no law, nor to the opinion of anyone,
and so benign that nothing more benign may be sought
to be imagined; and since nothing is just or fitting
except what He wills : it appears strange for us to
say that He in nowise will, or that He ought not to
forgive an injury done to Himself, of whom we beg
forgiveness even for those which we do to others.
A. True is that which you state as to His freedom,
will, and benevolence ; but we ought so reasonably to
understand these as that we may not seem to impugn
His dignity. For freedom is only as to what is ex
pedient or fitting; nor is that to be called benignity
which affects anything unworthy of God. And what
we say that what He willeth is right and what He
doth not will is wrong, is not so to be understood, as
if, should God will something inconsistent, it would be
right because He willed it. For it does not follow that
if God would lie it would be right to lie, but rather that
he were not God. For no will can ever desire to lie
ckcf!
Book I. Chapter XIII. 27
except one in which truth is obscured, nay rather which
is injured by deserting truth. Therefore, when it is
said, " If God will to lie : " it is nothing else but
" If the nature of God be such that He desire to lie,"
and thereupon it does not follow that deceit is right,
unless it be so understood as when we say, speaking of
two impossibilities, that if this is so, so likewise is that :
and as this is not, so neither is that ; for instance, if one
were to say, " If water be dry, fire is damp ; " neither
being true, therefore it is true to say, " If God wills it,
it is right," of such things only as it would not be
unworthy of God to will. If God wills it should rain,
then it is right that it should rain : and if He wills any
man should be slain, it is right he should be slain.
Wherefore, if it beseemeth not God to do anything
unjustly or irregularly, it appertaineth not to His free
dom, benignity, or will, to forgive, unpunished, the
sinner who hath not paid to God that of which he
robbed Him.
B. You deprive me of everything which I thought I
could bring forward as an objection.
A. Will you go further, and see why it would not
beseem God to act thus ?
B. \ listen willingly to whatever you say.
CHAPTER XIII.
THAT IN THE COURSE OF THINGS NOTHING IS LESS
TO BE TOLERATED THAN THAT THE CREATURE
SHOULD DEPRIVE HIS CREATOR OF DUE HONOUR,
AND NOT REPAY WHAT HE HAS TAKEN.
A. TN the ordinary course of things, nothing is more
intolerable than that a creature should deprive
his Creator of due honour, and not repay that of which
he deprives Him.
28 Why was God made Man ?
B. Nothing can be plainer than this.
A. But nothing is more unjustly allowed than that,
than which nothing is less to be tolerated.
B. Neither is this obscure.
A. Then I think that you will not assert that God
ought to allow that than which nothing is more unjustly
tolerated ; as that a creature should not give back to
God what he takes from Him.
B. By no means ; I see it is completely to be denied.
A. Then, if there be nothing greater or better than
God, nothing is more just than that which subserves" His
honour in the disposition of all things; that is, perfect
justice, which is no other than God Himself.
B. Than this also, nothing is plainer.
A. Then, God upholds nothing more justly than He
doth the honour of His own dignity.
B. I must grant it.
A. Doth it appear to you that He upholds it com
pletely, if He permits it so to be taken away from Him,
that neither is He repaid, nor "doth He punish the
withholder thereof."
B. I dare not say so.
A. It is therefore necessary that either the honour
abstracted shall be restored, or punishment shall follow ;
otherwise, God were either unjust to Himself, or were
powerless for either, which it is a shame even to
imagine.
B. I perceive that nothing can be more reasonably
argued.
Book I. Chapter XIV. 29
CHAPTER XIV.
IN WHAT WAY THE PUNISHMENT OF THE SINNER
GIVES HONOUR TO GOD.
B. T3UT I should like to learn from you whether the
**-^ sinner s punishment gives God honour, or
how it can be any honour to God. For if the sinner s
punishment redound not to God s honour, when the
sinner pays not what he owed, but is punished, God
loses His honour irretrievably, which appears contrary
to what has been said.
A. It is impossible that God should lose the honour
due to Him ; either the sinner freely pays what he owes,
or God receives it from an unwilling giver. For either
man spontaneously of his own free will yields due
submission to God (whether by not sinning, or by satis
fying for his sin), or God subjects him unwillingly by
compulsion, and thus declares Himself to be his Lord,
which no man himself refuses willingly to own. Wherein
it is to be noticed that as man by sin takes what belongs
to God, so God in punishing takes away that which is
man s own. For not only that which he already pos
sesses is said to belong to anyone, but that also which
it is in his power to have. Since therefore man was so
created as to be able to attain to bliss if he had not
sinned, when, on account of sin, he is deprived of bliss and
of all good, he repays of his own, however unwillingly,
that which he took ; because, granting that God does
not transfer to the service of His convenience what He
takes away, as a man does money from another, yet He
does convert it to His own use in that it is used for His
honour by the very fact that it is taken away. By
taking it away He proves that the sinner and all the
sinner possesses are subject to Himself.
3O Why was God made Man ?
CHAPTER XV.
WHETHER GOD WOULD SUFFER HIS HONOUR TO BE
PROFANED EVEN IN THE VERY LEAST.
B. A GREED. But there is yet something more to
"^ which I demand your reply. For if God, as
you prove, ought to protect His own honour, why doth
He suffer it to be profaned, even be it ever so little ?
For that which is suffered to be injured in any way is
not entirely, perfectly, guarded.
A. It is not possible for anything to add to or to
diminish the honour of God, in so far as it appertains
to Himself. For that same honour of His is incor
ruptible, and in no way mutable. But when any crea
ture follows its own course, as it were, marked out for
it, whether in the natural or rational order, it is said to
obey God and to honour Him ; and this applies chiefly
to that creature rational by nature, to whom it is given
to understand that which it ought to do. When this
creature wills what he should, he honours God ; not be
cause he gives God anything, but because he freely
yields himself to the will and decision of God, and pre
serves as far as in him lies his place in the universal
order, and the beauty of that universe. But when he
does not will what he ought, he dishonours God, so far
as in him lies, since he submits not himself freely to
God s direction, and, as far as he can, perturbs the
order and beauty of the universe, even though he in no
way can injure or lower the power or dignity of God.
iNow, if those things which are enclosed in the circle of
the sky were to wish not to be beneath the sky, or to
get away from under the sky, they could by no means
get anywhere but under the sky, nor fly from the sky,
Book I. Chapter XV. 31
save by approaching it. For wherever, whence, and
whither they might go, they would be under the sky,
and the more they removed from one part thereof, the
more they would approach to the other part. There
fore, should any man or bad angel be unwilling to be
subject to the divine will and rule, yet he cannot escape
from it; for, trying to flee from under the Will that
commands, he rushes under the Will that punishes.
And if you ask by what road he passes ? it is but under
the permissive Will ; and his perverse will and action
even are turned aside by the highest Wisdom into the
pre-ordained order and symmetry of the universe.
,,That spontaneous s^t]sfactLpn for perversity, or that
exaction of penalty from one refusing satisfaction (this
excepted, that God brings good out of evil in many
ways), have their own place, and a beauty of order in
the same universe. If Divine Wisdom did not add
this when perversity attempts to disturb the regular
order of things, there would be caused in that universe,
which God should rule, a certain deformity from this
violated symmetry of its order, and God would seem to
fail in His government. Which two consequences,
being inconsistencies, are therefore impossibilities, and
hence it is necessary that all sin be followed by satis
faction or penalty, pof 0?
B. You have satisfied my objection.
A. Therefore it is clearly shown that God, considered
in Himself, can be honoured or dishonoured by no one ;
but as far as in him lies anyone seems to do this when
he yields his will to God, or withdraws from Him.
B. I don t know what I could say against that.
A. I will add something more.
B. Speak on, until I become weary of listening.
32 Why was God made Man ?
CHAPTER XVI.
THE REASON WHY FROM AMONG MANKIND MUST BE
REPLACED THE NUMBER OF ANGELS WHO FELL.
A. TT is certain that God proposed to replace the
number of angels who had fallen from that
humanity which He had created sinless.
B. We believe this ; but I should like to have some
reason for it.
A. You mistake me; we only proposed to treat of
the Incarnation of God ; and you are interposing other
questions.
B. Be not angry, " for God loveth a cheerful giver ; "
now no one more clearly proves himself to be giving
cheerfully that which he promised than he who gives
more than he promised ; tell me, therefore, freely what
I ask.
A. It cannot be doubted but that the rational nature
which either is blessed, or to be blessed, with the con
templation of God, was foreknown by God to consist in
a certain right and perfect number of individuals, so
that this number may not rightly be either more or less.
For either God knoweth not of what number they should
consist, which is false, or, He fixes it at that number
which He sees to be most suitable. Wherefore those
angels who fell were either made for the purpose of
being of that number, or, because being beyond the
number, they could not persevere, they of necessity fell,
which it is absurd to suppose.
B. What you say is a plain truth.
A. Wherefore, then, since they were to be so many
in number, either that number is to be made up as a
matter of necessity, or that rational nature will exist in
Book I. Chapter X VII. 33
an imperfect number of individuals, which was fore
known to be in a perfect one : which cannot be.
B. Doubtless they must be replaced.
A. Then it is necessary they should be replaced from
humanity, since there is no other nature whence they
can be replaced.
CHAPTER XVII.
THAT OTHER ANGELS COULD NOT BE PUT IN THE
PLACE OF THOSE.
B. "Y^THY could not they be restored, or other angels
put in their place ?
A. When you see the difficulty of our reconciliation,
you will understand the impossibility of their restora
tion. But other angels cannot be put in their place
for this reason (to be silent as to how this seems con
trary to the perfection of the first creation), because they
ought not to be put there unless they could be such as
those would have been had they not sinned, since they
would have persevered without any knowledge of a
punishment for sin ; which, after their fall, would be
impossible for others, who should be put in their place.
For they are not equally praiseworthy who, the one
knowing naught of a punishment for sin, and the other
always considering it as eternal, both stand firm in the
truth. For it is never to be thought that the good
angels were strengthened by the fall of the bad, but
rather by their own merits. For exactly as if the good
had sinned with the bad, they would have been con
demned together ; so the wicked, had they stood firm
with the good, would have been equally strengthened.
In fact, if some of them were not to have been made
firm except by the fall of others, either none would ever
C
34 Why was God made Man ?
have been established, or the fall of some one, who
would be punished for the strengthening of the others,
was necessary ; both which are absurd. Those, there
fore, who stood firm were established in the same way
in which all would equally have been established had
they stood firm ; as I showed, as well as I could, where
I discussed the question as to why God did not give the
devil perseverance.
B. You have proved that the wicked angels must be
replaced by humanity ; and it is plain, on this account,
that the elect of mankind will not be fewer in number
than are the condemned angels. But whether they will
be more, show, if you can.
CHAPTER XVIII.
WHETHER THE SAINTS WILL BE MORE IN NUMBER
THAN ARE THE LOST ANGELS.
A. TF the angels, before some of them fell, were per-
feet in what we spoke of, i.e., number, men were
made but to replace the lost angels ; and the answer is
clear, that the saints will not be more than are those.
But if that number did not consist in all those angels, it
has to be completed from mankind ; both the number
that perished and the number that before were wanting
will have to be furnished by humanity, and the saints
will be more than the false angels; and thus we will
say that mankind was not created only to replace the
diminished, but also to perfect the uncompleted number.
B. Which is the rather to be held ? that the angels
were at the first created perfect in number, or not ?
A. I will tell you how it appears to me.
B. I can require no more of you than that
Book I. Chapter X VIII. 3 5
A. If man was created after the fall of the evil
angels, as some understand from Genesis, I do not see
how by this I can understand either alternative fully.
But it may (as I think) be, that the angels were at first P
perfect in number, and that man was created afterwards
in order to replenish their diminished number; and it
may be that they were not perfect in number, because
God deferred, as He still defers, filling up that number,
being about to make humanity in His own good time.
Whence He would, in this way alone, either perfect the
number which was not yet completed, or, even if it were
diminished, restore it. But if the whole creation were
made at once, and those " days " wherein Moses appears
to say this world was made not all at once, are to be
understood differently from the days as we now see
them, in the which we live, I am unable to understand
how the angels were made in that perfect number. For
had it been thus, it seems to me that either some men
or some angels would have been destined to fall of
necessity, else would there have been more in that
celestial kingdom than the symmetry of that perfect
number would require. If, therefore, all things were
made at once, the angels and the first human beings
o o
would seem to have been imperfect in number in this
way, that from humanity should no angel fall, the
number wanting would merely be supplied, and should
any perish, that which had fallen should be replaced.
And God might, so to speak, excuse human nature,
which was the weaker, and confound the devil should he
impute his fall to the weakness of his nature when the
weaker had stood firm ; and, if this latter did fall,
much more would God defend it against the devil and
against itself, when it, created much the weaker, and
mortal, should ascend in the elect so much the higher
than thither whence the devil had fallen, as the good
36 Why was God made Man ?
angels, equality with whom was due to it, had risen
after the downfall of the bad, they having persevered.
From these reasonings it rather seems to me most pro
bable that the angels were not of that perfect number
wherein should be completed that celestial kingdom :
for if man were created at the same time as the angels,
this were possible ; and if both were created together
(as is much the most commonly thought, seeing that it
is written, " qui vivit in eternum, creavit omnia simul "),
it appears to be necessary. But if the perfection of the
created universe is not to be understood as consisting so
much in the number of individuals as in the number of
natures, it becomes necessary to look upon human nature
as created either as the complement of that perfection,
or as being superfluous, which we dare not assert of the
nature of the very least little worm. Wherefore, it is
made for itself, and not only for replacing individuals of
another nature. Whence it is plain that even had no
single angel fallen, mankind would have had their place
in the celestial kingdom. It follows also, that of the
angels, before any of them fell, there was not that
perfect number ; otherwise it was necessary that either
men or some angels should fall, since beyond the perfect
number not one could remain there.
B. You have certainly proved something.
A. There is yet another reason, as it appears to me,
which not a little favours that opinion which holds that
the angels were not made perfect in number.
B. Express it.
A. If the angels were made in that perfect number,
and man were made for no other purpose but to replace
the lost angels, it is clear that unless some angels had
fallen from that blessedness, men could not rise to it.
B. That is certain.
A. But if any would or should say, that the elect of
Book I. Chapter X VIII. 37
mankind will rejoice as much at the perdition of the
angels as they will in their own beatification, since
doubtless the latter would not have been, without the
former : how could they be defended from the accusa
tion of this perverted rejoicing ? or how can we say
that the angels who fell can be replaced from mankind,
if it be true that had those not fallen, these would have
remained without that fault, that is, without rejoicing at
the fall of others ? but that without that fault these could
not be beatified ? For, on the contrary, how can they
be beatified with this imperfection? Therefore, by
what boldness shall we assert that God either would or
could not effect this restoration without that defect ?
B. Is it not like the case of the Gentiles, who were
called to the faith because the Jews rejected it ?
A. No; for if all the Jews had believed, yet would
the Gentiles have been called in, since " in every nation
he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is
accepted in Him." But since the Jews contemned the
Apostles, that was the occasion of their turning to the
Gentiles.
B. I see no way by which I can oppose this.
A. Whence, think you, can arise that strange joy in
another s fall ?
B. Whence, save that each and every one will be
sure that where he is he nowise could be, had not
another fallen from thence.
A. Then, if no one possessed this certitude, there
would be naught wherefore any should rejoice at the
loss of another ?
B. So it would appear.
A. You do not think anyone of them would have
this conviction, if they should be far more in number
than those who fell ?
B. In no way can I think they would have, or ought
38 Why was God made Man ?
to have, this certitude. For how could anyone know
whether it were for the restoration of what was dimin
ished, or for the completion of that which was not yet
perfect, that he was made one of that number constitut
ing the kingdom ? But all will be certain that they
were made for the perfecting of that state.
A. Therefore, if they are more in number than the
wicked angels, no one could know, or ought to know,
that he was included in that number only on account of
the fall of another.
B. It is true.
A. Therefore, no one will have any occasion where
fore he should rejoice over the perdition of another.
B. This also follows.
A. Since, therefore, we may perceive that if the
number of elect among mankind were to be greater
than that of the wicked angels, there would not ensue
that incongruity, which necessarily must follow if the
number were not greater ; and since it is impossible
that there should be any incongruity in that kingdom,
it seems to be necessary that the angels were not made
perfect in number, and that the glorified ones from
among mankind will be more numerous than the
unhappy angels.
B. I see not any reason for denying this.
A. I think that another reason may be given for the
same opinion.
B. You ought to express that also.
A. We believe that this bodily frame of the world
shall be made new again, and that, for the better ; and
that this shall neither take place until the number of
the elect among mankind shall be completed and that
blessed kingdom be perfected, nor be postponed after
its perfection is attained. Whence it may be deduced
that God had from the beginning proposed to accom-
Book I. Chapter X VIII. 39
plish both together; so that the lower nature which
could not perceive God, should by no means be per
fected before the higher which was to enjoy God ;
and being changed for the better should rejoice,
as it were, in its own way in the perfection of the
greater ; so that every creature exulting in its Creator
and itself over its so glorious and wondrous consumma
tion, shall, each after its own manner, eternally rejoice
together, seeing that what the will freely does in the
rational creature, that the inanimate creation may show
forth naturally by the ordinance of God. For we are
in the habit of rejoicing together at the exaltation of
our ancestors, as when on the birthdays of the Saints
we delight ourselves with festive exultation, being joyful
because of their glory. Which opinion seems to be
further supported by this : that had not Adam sinned,
God would yet defer to perfect that kingdom until the
number which He required being completed from
among men, those very men should be transfigured as
to their bodies with (if I may so speak) immortal im
mortality. Certainly they had in paradise a kind of
immortality, that is, the power of not dying ; but that
capability was not undying, since man was able to die,
whereas it is manifest these blessed ones cannot die.
But if it be thus, namely, that God from the beginning
had designed to bring that rational and blessed king
dom and this terrene irrational world to perfection to
gether, it would seem either that that kingdom was not
complete in the number of angels before the fall of the
bad, but that God was waiting for it to be completed
when the material substance of the world should be
changed for the better ; or, that if it were perfect in
number, it was not perfect in security, and that its
establishment was to be deferred, even though not one
among the number had sinned, until that renewal of
4d Why was God made Man ?
the world for which we look ; or, that if that ratification
were not to be put off longer, the terrestrial transforma
tion was to be hastened, that that confirmation might
take place with it. But to say that God should have
resolved at once to renew the world recently created,
and to destroy those things which will not exist after
that renewal, in their very beginning, before it had yet
appeared why they had been made, is totally unreason
able. It follows, therefore, that the angels were not of
that perfection in number as that their confirmation
might not long be deferred, wherefore the renewal of
the world would have to take place at once, which
would not have been fitting. But then again, that God
should have willed to postpone that same confirmation
of the angels until the future renovation of the world
seems inconsistent, especially as He had effected it so
quickly in some of them ; and as it might be thought,
when the first human beings sinned, that had they not
sinned, He would have done the same for them as He
did for the angels who persevered. For although they
might not have been raised to that equality with angels
to which men were to attain when the number of those
who were to be exalted had been completed, it yet
appears that had they conquered in that righteousness
wherein they were, so as not to have fallen when
tempted, they, with all their posterity, would have been
so established as for the future to be unable to sin : in
like manner as, since being overcome, they did sin, they
were so weakened as that, so far as in themselves lies,
they cannot be free from sin. For who would dare to say
that sin should have more power to bind in slavery man
consenting to it on the first persuasion, than righteous
ness would have had to confirm him in liberty, had he
adhered to righteousness in that same temptation ?
For in like manner as, since the whole human race was
Book I. Chapter XVIII. 41
in the first parents, it all was vanquished in them, so as
to be prone to sin (except that one Man, whom God, as
He knew how to form Him of a virgin without seed of
man, so knew how to keep Him apart from the sin of
Adam), so in them would the whole race have con
quered had they not sinned. Therefore there remains
only this opinion : that the heavenly kingdom was not
completed in that first number of angels, but was to be
filled up from among mankind. Which being granted,
it will follow that greater will be the number of the elect
of mankind than was that of the fallen angels.
B. What you say appears to me very reasonable ;
but how shall we explain what we read of God, " He
set the bounds of the people according to the number
of the children of Israel " ? (Deut. xxxii. 8), which, since
by " children of Israel " is understood " angels of God,"
is interpreted to mean that according to the number of
good angels we may reckon the number of elect human
beings.
A. This is not contrary to the previously expressed
opinion, if it be not certain that as many angels fell as
remained firm. For if the elect angels be more in
number than the reprobate, and it be necessary that the
elect of mankind should replace the fallen angels, it
might happen that the good angels were equal in
number to the saints, and thus the just men would be
more in number than the fallen angels. But remember
the condition under which I began to answer your ques
tion, i.e., that should I say anything which a higher
authority does not confirm, it shall not (although it
should appear to be reasonably proved) be received with
any greater certitude than that so it appears to me in
the meantime, until God shall reveal to me better in
some way. For of this I am sure, that if I say anything
which Holy Scripture undoubtedly contradicts, it is
42 Why was God made Man ?
false; nor will I hold to it, when I am once aware
thereof. But if in those questions thereon various
opinions may be held without danger, such as the one
which we are now discussing (for if we know not
whether more men are to be saved than angels were
lost, or not, and think there may be more of one than of
the other, I do not think there is here any spiritual
danger) if, I say, in questions of this kind we so ex
pound the divine sayings as that they may appear to
favour various opinions, and there is nowhere dis
covered anything which shall decide what ought in
dubitably to be held, I do not consider I ought to be
blamed. But that which you quoted, "He set the
bounds of the people," or "nations," "according to the
number of the angels of God," which in another transla
tion reads, " according to the numbers of the children
of Israel : " since both translations signify either the
same, or differing yet unopposed assertions, it is to be
understood, as, that by " angels of God " and by " chil
dren of Israel " are meant good angels only, or elect
men only, or angels and also elect men, that is, the
whole of that celestial kingdom. Either by " angels of
God" holy angels only, and by "children of Israel"
only justified men, or only angels by "children of
Israel," and only justified men by " angels of God." If
good angels only are signified by both, it is the same as
if " angels of God " only were meant ; but if the whole
celestial kingdom is meant, then this is the sense : that
" the nations," i.e., the multitude of the elect among
mankind, shall continue to be adopted, or that the
nations shall exist in this world, until, from among pre
destined human beings, the number of those citizens, as
yet imperfect, shall be completed. But I do not see
why only angels, or angels and holy men together, are
to be understood by " children of Israel." It is not
Book L Chapter X VIII. 43
strange to call saints "children of Israel" or "sons of
Abraham," who may rightly be called also angels of
God, because they imitate the angelic life, and likeness
and equality to the angels are promised to them in
heaven ; and since all who live righteously are angels
of God. Whence also they are called confessors or
martyrs ; but he who confesses and bears witness to the
truth is a messenger of God that is, an angel. And if
a bad man be called a devil, as God saith of Judah,
because of the resemblance in malignity, why may not
a good man be also called an angel on account of his
imitation of angelic uprightness ? Therefore we may,
as I think, say that God " set the limits of the people
according to the number " of the elect among mankind,
since the nations will exist, and there will continue to
be multiplication of human beings in this world until
the number of those same elect men shall be completed ;
and that being rilled up, the generation of men into this
life will cease. But if by " angels of God " we under
stand only holy angels, and by " children of Israel" just
men only, it may be understood in two ways namely,
that God " set the limits of the nations according to the
number of the angels of God," either because so much
people, that is, so many human beings, shall be adopted
as there are holy angels of God, or because the nations
shall endure until the number of the angels of God shall
be completed from among men. As far as I can see,
this can be explained in one way only : " He set the
bounds of the people according to the number of the
children of Israel," that is, because (as was said above)
nations shall endure so long in this world until the
number of the saints shall be completed. And from
either interpretation it is concluded that as many men
will be admitted as there remained angels. Whence,
however, it does not follow although the fallen angels
44 Why was God made Man ?
are to be replaced from among men that as many angels
fell as persevered. Should, however, this be still
asserted : yet, however, those arguments laid down
above may be estimated, it will still be found that they
seem to show that the angels, before any one of them
fell, were not of a certain perfect number, as I said
before, and that more men are to be saved than there
are bad angels.
B. I do not regret having obliged you to say these
things about the angels, for it has not been done in
vain. Now, return to that from which we diagressed.
CHAPTER XIX. .
THAT MANKIND CANNOT BE SAVED WITHOUT
SATISFACTION FOR SIN.
A. TT is well known that God determined to replace
the angels who had fallen, from the ranks of
humanity.
B. It is certain.
A, Men ought, then, to be such in that celestial king
dom, being taken into it instead of angels, as those were
to have been in whose place they are, that is, they ought
to be like the good angels ; otherwise, they who fell will
not have been replaced, and it would follow that God
either could not bring to perfection the good which He
began, or will have repented of having begun so great a
good ; which suppositions are both absurd.
B. Truly it behoves men to be equal to the good
angels.
A. Think you the good angels ever sinned ?
B. No.
A. Can you think that a man who has sometimes
sinned, nor ever made reparation to God for his sin,
Book I. Chapter XIX. 45
but only been forgiven unpunished, can be equal to an
angel who has never sinned ?
B. I may conceive and express these words : but I
can no more think the opinion they enshrine, than I
can understand falsehood to.be truth.
A. It is therefore not consistent witji God to take [
sinful man without reparation^ made, in place of the \
fallen angels ; for truth will not endure his being raised
to an equality with the good.
B. The argument makes this plain.
A. Then (not taking into consideration that he is
to be equal to the angels), consider man by himself,
whether God ought to advance him to that bliss, or to
such as he had before he sinned.
B. Say you what strikes you, and I will discuss it as
well as I can.
A. Let us suppose a rich man holding in his hand a
precious pearl, which no pollution has ever touched, and
which no other can take out of his hand unless he allows
this ; and that he is intending to lay it up in his treasury,
where are his dearest and most precious possessions.
B. I am thinking of it as though it were a reality.
A. What if he suffers that same rjearl to be jerked
by some envious person out of his hand into the mud,
when he might prevent this; and then, picking it out of
the mud, puts it away dirty, unwashed, into some clean
and special repository, meaning to keep it thus in future?
Think you he is wise ?
B. How can I think so, for would it not be much
better were he to hold and keep his pearl clean, than
dirty ?
A. And would not God do likewise, He who was
keeping man without sin, equal to angels in paradise, as
in His own grasp, and permitted that the devil, inflamed
with envy, should cast him (he indeed consenting) into
46 Why was God made Man ?
the mire of sin ? Would not God, I say, act in likewise,
were He to take back man, stained with the pollution
of sin, uncleansed, that is, without any satisfaction, into
paradise again, whence he had been ejected ?
B. The resemblance, were God to do this, I dare not
deny ; and, therefore, I do not assert that He can do
so. But it would appear that He either had not been
able to carry out what He had proposed, or that He
had repented of His good intention : neither of which
alternatives can be predicated of God.
A. Therefore hold thou most firmly, that without
^Satisfaction that is, without the spontaneous payment
of the debt neither can God release the sinner un
punished, nor the sinner attain to such bliss as he
enjoyed before his sin ; not in that way could man be
restored to what he was before sinning.
B. I cannot controvert your general argument. But
what is this, which we say to God : " Forgive us our
debts " ? and all nations pray to God, believing He will
forgive their sins ? For if we have paid that which we
owe, why do we pray for its remission ? Is God so
unjust as to exact for the second time that which has
been paid ? But if we have not paid, why pray we
in vain that He will do that which, as it would be
inconsistent, He cannot do ? d/^r/ /fe
A. H<^h&Jb&tk^&4iaid saith^JULvain^ " forgive ; "
while he who hath paid, prays thus, because his suppli
cation is itself a part of the payment ; for God owes
nothing to anyone, every creature being His debtor, and
therefore it is not well for man to act as equal towards
equal. However, it is not needful to answer you now
on this point ; when you understand why Christ died,
perchance you will see for yourself that about which
you now inquire.
B. For the present, what you have answered on this
Book I. Chapter XX. 47
point suffices me. For that no man can,; in sin, attain
to bliss, or be freed from sin, unless he restores that
which, by sinning, he abstracted, you have so plainly
proved, that I could not doubt, even did I wish to do so.
CHAPTER XX.
THAT THE SATISFACTION SHOULD BE PROPORTIONATE
TO THE TRANSGRESSION, NOR CAN MAN MAKE IT
FOR HIMSELF.
A. IVTOR will you, I think, doubt as to this also:
that the amends must be in proportion to
the offence.
B. Otherwise would sin remain in some measure un
subdued, which cannot be, if God leaves nothing inde
pendent in His kingdom. This, however, is taken for
granted, since the smallest inconsistency is impossible
to God.
A. Now tell me,* what will you offer to God in satis
faction for your sin ?<?<"
B. Penitence, a contrite and humbled heart, fastings,
and many bodily labours, and mercy in giving and
forgiving, and obedience.
A. In all these, what do you give to God ?
B. Do I not honour God when, for fear and love of
Him, in contrition of heart, I reject temporal happiness,
tread under foot in fasting and toil the delights and
peace of this life, am liberal in giving and remitting of
my possessions and my dues, and subject myself to Him
in obedience ?
A. When you render to God something which you
owe to Him, even had you not sinned, you should not
set it against the debt which you owe on account of
48 Why was God made Man ?
your sin : now all these things which you have men
tioned, you owe to God. For in this mortal life, so
great should be the love and (to which belongeth
prayer) the desire of attaining to that for which you
were made, and the grief because you have not yet got
so far, and the fear lest you never should attain to it,
that you ought to feel no gladness save in those things
which give you either help towards, or hope of, that
attainment. For you cannot deserve to have that
which you do not love and desire in proportion to what
it is, and on account of which, because you have it not
as yet, and still run so great a risk as to whether you
will get it or not, you do not grieve. With which is
also connected the fleeing from worldly peace and plea
sures, which call the soul back from that true rest and
pleasure, except in so far as you know they may aid
you in reaching that after which you are straining.
That giving you must also consider that you do as
under an obligation, for you understand, that what you
give you have not from yourself, but from Him whose
servants are both you and him to whom you give : and
nature teaches you to do to your fellow-servant, that is
one man to another, that which you would have another/
do to you ; and therefore he who will not give what he
has, ought not to accept what he has not. As to for
giving, I say briefly that vengeance (as we said before)
in no way can belong to you ; for neither are you your
own, nor is he who injured you, yours or his own ; you
are both servants of one God, made by Him out of
nothing, and if you revenge yourself on your fellow-
servant, you arrogantly assume over him a jurisdiction
which belongs only to the God and Judge of all. Thus,
in your obedience, what do you give to God which you
do not owe to Him at whose call you are bound to
render up all you are, all you have, and all you can do ?
Book I. Chapter XXL 49
B. Nothing of all these dare I assert that I give to
God, since I owe them all to Him.
A. Then what will you offer to God in amends for
your sin ?
B. If I owe to Him myself and all I am capable of,
even if I sin not at all, I have nothing which I can give
in amends for sin.
A. What will therefore become of you ? How can
you be saved ?
B. When I consider your arguments, I see not how.
But if I fall back upon my faith in Christian faith,
" which worketh by love " I hope I may be saved ;
and because we read, that^if the wicked man shall turn i &
away from his wickedness and do righteousness, all his 1* .
wickedness shall be forgotten.
A. This is only said of those who either expected
Christ before He came, or believe in Him now that He
has come. But we assumed a position as though
Christ had never been, nor the Christian faith ever ex
isted, when we proposed to inquire by the light of
reason alone whether His coming for the salvation of
men were necessary.
B. We did so.
A. By reason alone let us therefore proceed.
B. Although you are leading me into some perplexity,
yet I much desire that you would proceed as you have
begun.
CHAPTER XXI.
WHAT IS THE GRAVITY OF SIN.
A. T ET us suppose that you do not owe all those
"-^ things which you just now brought forward,
and that you can therefore pay them in amends for sin ;
D
50 Why was God made Man ?
and then let us see whether they could suffice to make
satisfaction for one sin, however small, when that one
act is considered as opposed to the will of God.
B. Did I not hear you bring this forward as a ques
tion, I should consider that one movement of compunc
tion would cleanse me from that sin.
A. You have not yet considered the exceeding gravity
of sin.
B. Bring it sensibly home to me now.
A. If you found yourself in the presence of God, and
some one said to you, " Look there ; " and God said on
the contrary, " I will that you on no account look ; "
ask your own heart what there is among all things
that are, for which you should against God s will give
that look ?
B. I can find nothing for the sake whereof I should
do that; unless I happened to be placed in such a strait
that I must needs commit, either that, or a greater sin.
A. Put aside that necessity, and consider this one sin
only : whether you may commit it in order to save
yourself.
B. I plainly see that I cannot.
A. Not to try you at too great length : how, if it were
necessary, that either the whole world, and whatever is
not God, should perish and return to nothingness, or
that you should do so small an action against the will
of God ?
B. When I consider the action in itself, I see that it
is a very slight one ; but when I enter fully into what it
is when done against the will of God, I see that it is
something very serious, and above comparison with any
loss whatsoever ; but we sometimes act against the will
of another, and that not reprehensibly, so that his in
terests are served, which afterwards pleases him against
whose very will we did it.
Book I. Chapter XXL 51
A. This is done to a man who sometimes does not
understand what is useful to himself, or cannot replace
what he has lost ; but God has need of nothing, and as
He has made all things, could, if they perished, replace
them.
B. I am constrained to own, that not even in order to
preserve all creation ought I to do anything against the
will of God.
A. How, if there were many worlds full of created
things, like this one ?
B. Were they multiplied to infinity, and displayed in
likewise before me, I should answer precisely the same.
A. You can do nothing better; but consider also, if
it should happen that you did against God s will give
that glance : what amends could you make for that sin ?
B. I have nothing greater than what I mentioned
just now.
A. Thus gravely do we sin every time we knowingly
do anything, however small, against the will of God :
since we are ever in His sight, and He Himself always
forbids us to sin.
B. By what I hear, we live in very great peril.
A. It is plain that God demands proportionate
satisfaction. ^ &
B. I cannot deny it.
A. You do not therefore make amends unless you
repay something greater than is that for which you
ought not to have committed the sin.
B. I see, both that reason so requires, and also that
it is altogether impossible.
A. And God cannot, because He should not raise to
beatitude anyone who is to any extent a debtor for sin.
B. This decision is very grievous.
2Z A. Now listen to another reason why it is not less
difficult for man to be reconciled to God.
52 Why was God made Man ?
B. Unless faith consoled me, this alone would drive
me to despair.
A. Still, hear me.
B. Speak on.
CHAPTER XXII.
HOW MAN INSULTED GOD WHEN HE LET HIMSELF
BE CONQUERED BY THE DEVIL; FOR WHICH HE
CANNOT MAKE SATISFACTION.
A. TV /TAN, created innocent and placed in paradise,
was, as it were, stationed between God and
the devil, that he might conquer the devil by not con-
sentm g to I 11 3 persuasions to sin, ! for the vindication and
honour of God, ; and to the confusion of the devil, had
he, the weaker, on earth, not sinned when tempted by
the same devil, who being the stronger had sinned, in
heaven, without being tempted ; now, when man could
easily have done this, he being coerced by no power,
voluntarily suffered himself to be overcome by persua
sion alone at the will of the devil and against the will
and honour of God.
B, What are you aiming at ?
A. Point out yourself, whether it be not against the
honour of God that man should be reconciled to Him
after the scandal of this insult caused to God, unless
he should first have honoured God by conquering the
devil, in like manner as, being vanquished by the devil,
he had dishonoured God. But the victory should be
such that whereas when strong and immortal in power
he consented easily to the devil and sinned, whence
he justly incurred the penalty of mortality; so when
mortal and weak as he had made himself he should
through the agony of death so conquer the devil as_to
be himself perfectly sinless ; which he cannot do so long
Book L Chapter XXIII. 53
as by the wound of the first transgression he is conceived
and born in sin.
B. I assert again both that reason proves what you
say, and that this is impossible.
> A. Yet further, grant one more thing, without which
man may not justly be reconciled, and which is no less
impossible.
B. You have already laid down for us so much we
ought to do, that whatever you may add thereto cannot
cause me further dread.
A. Listen, though.
B. I am attending.
CHAPTER XXIII.
WHAT MAN, BY SINNING, TAKES AWAY FROM GOD,
WHICH HE IS UNABLE TO REPAY.
A. TX7HAT did man take away from God, when he
* * allowed himself to be conquered by the devil ?
B. Do you answer that, for I know not what he could
have added to those injuries which you have already
declared.
A. Did he not deprive God of whatever He had
proposed to make of human nature ?
B. It cannot be denied. -^^ - in Mvid-
A. Look at the matter in thejjght of strict justice,
and judge according to that) whether man can make
unto God an adequate satisfaction for sin,j unless he t
restores by vanquishing the devil, that very same thing <; c v\,<,^ci
which he took from God by allowing the devil to con
quer himself; so that, in the same manner as by his
being vanquished, the devil seized, and God lost, that
which belonged to God, now by this other fact of man s
being victorious, the devil may lose, and God may
regain His own.
54 Why was God made Man ?
B. Nothing more strictly logical or just can be
imagined.
A. Do you think that the Just One could violate this
justice?
B. I dare not think about it.
A. Therefore, by no man should or can man receive
from God that which God intended to give him, unless
he restores to God all which he took away from God ;
so that, as God lost by him, so by him should God
recover what was lost. Which cannot otherwise be
done, except that as in the vanquished the entire nature
of man was corrupted and as it were leavened by sin, in
which God selects no one to fill up the number of that
celestial kingdom, so by the victor as many men shall
be justified from sin, as are needed to fulfil that number
for the completion of which man was created. But in
nowise could this be done by sinful man, since no
sinner is able to justify another.
B. There can be nothing more just ; and there is
nothing more impossible ; but from all this, both God s
5Y <j id mercy and man s hope appear to perish, so far as regards
that beatitude for which man was made.
A. Wait a little longer.
B. What more have you to say?
CHAPTER XXIV.
THAT SO LONG AS MAN REPAYS NOT TO GOD THAT
WHICH HE OWES, HE CANNOT BE MADE BLESSED;
NOR IS HE EXCUSED BY HIS WANT OF ABILITY.
A. TF a man is called dishonest who does not pay
another man what he owes him, much more is
he wanting in integrity who does not repay to God what
he owes to God.
Book I. Chapter XXI F. 5 5
B. If he can pay, and will not, certainly he is dis
honest. But if he cannot, how is. he dishonest ?
A. Perchance if there be in himself no cause for that
inability, it may be somewhat excused. But if there be
faultiness in that very want of power, as it does not
lighten the sin, so it does not excuse the failure to pay
the debt. For if anyone sets his servant a task, and
enjoins him not to throw himself into a pitfall which he
points out to him, whence he could by no means get out
again ; and that servant, despising the command and
warning of his master, casts himself of his own will into
that pit which had been shown to him beforehand, so
that he cannot possibly perform the enjoined task : you
surely do not think that this helplessness would stand
him in any stead as an excuse for not performing the
appointed work ?
B. In nowise ; rather would it be reckoned as mak
ing the fault greater, since he himself caused that want
of power. For he sinned doubly, since what he was
bidden to do he performed not, and what was forbidden
to him, that he did.
A. Thus man, who of his own free will incurred that
debt which he cannot pay, and by his own fault cast
himself into that state of powerlessness wherein he can
neither pay what he owed before the fall that is, to
keep from sin nor that which he now owes because he
sinned, is inexcusable. For that powerlessness is guilt,
since he ought not to have it, rather ought to be with
out it ; for as it is wrong not to have that which we
ought to have, so is it wrong to have that which we
ought to be without. Therefore, as it is man s fault that
he has not that power which he received whereby to
avoid sin, so is he guilty in being so helpless that he
can neither hold to right and avoid sin, nor can repay
that which he owes on account of sin. For he did
56 Why was God made Man ?
willingly that whereby he lost that power, and fell into
that state of helplessness. It is the same thing to be
without the power he ought to have as to be helpless as
he should not be. Wherefore want of power to repay
to God what is due to Him, which impotence causes
man not to repay it, does not excuse his failure therein ;
for its being the effect of sin, does not excuse the sin
which he commits.
B. Very grievous this, yet necessarily true.
A. Guilty therefore is man who repays not to God
that which he owes.
B. Most true ; for he is guilty of not repaying, and
guilty because he cannot repay.
A. But no guilty man shall be admitted to blessed
ness , since, as blessedness is perfection, to which
nothing is wanting, so is it adapted to no one except
those in whom righteousness is so perfect as to leave no
room for error.
B. I dare not believe otherwise.
A. Therefore he who does not pay to God that which
he owes could not be glorified.
B. I cannot deny this consequence.
A. If you mean to say that a merciful God remits to
the suppliant that which he owes, because he cannot
pay: this can only be called forgiveness either (i) of
that which man ought freely to pay, and cannot, that
is, what he should pay for sin which ought not to be
committed even for the preservation of everything that
is not God ; or (2) the remission of the punishment of
taking from him against his will (as I said before) glory
and blessedness. But if He remits that which man
ought of free will to repay, just because man cannot
repay it, what else is this but that God remits that
which He could not get ? It is mockery to attribute to
God mercy such as this. But if He omits to deprive
Book I. Chapter XXIV. 57
the debtor of that which was to be taken away against
the debtor s will, on account of his powerlessness to
repay that which he ought of free will to have rendered,
God takes away the penalty, and makes man blessed
on account of guilt which he owns and ought not to
have. For he ought not to be thus helpless, and so
long as he is so without having made reparation there
for, it is his guilt ; but this kind of mercy from God
is exceedingly contrary to His justice, which suffers
nought to be repaid on account of sin but its penalty.
Wherefore, as God cannot contradict Himself, so is it
impossible for Him to be merciful after this fashion.
B. I perceive we must ask of God some mercy other
than this.
A. Suppose this to be true, namely, that God for
gives him who does not pay his debt for the reason that
he cannot.
B. I would it were so.
A. But so long as he does not pay, either he cannot,
or he will not. If he will, but cannot, he is insolvent ;
but if he will not, he is dishonest.
B. Nothing can be clearer than this.
A. But whether he be powerless, or rebellious, he will
not be glorified.
B. This also is plain.
A. Therefore, so long as he does not repay, he
cannot be glorified.
B. If God follows the logic of justice, there is no way
by which wretched man may escape ; and God s mercy
seems to vanish.
A. You asked for logical proof; accept it now. I
do not deny the mercy of God, who saves ( men and
cattle* ^according to* the multitude of His* mercy?" But
we are speaking about that final mercy which beatifies
men after this life : that this beatitude ought to be
58 Why was God made Man ?
given to no one except to him whose sins are utterly
pardoned, nor this pardon be granted unless the debt
be paid which is due for sin according to the greatness
of the transgression, I think I have sufficiently proved
by the arguments just brought forward. If you think
you can oppose anything to these arguments you ought
to express it.
B. I see that I cannot weaken any of your arguments
in the least.
A. Nor do I think you can, if they are thoroughly
weighed ; and yet, if but one of all those which I laid
down shall stand firm in unconquerable verity, it ought
to be enough. For whether truth be proved irrefragably
by one, or by several, arguments, it is equally secured
from all uncertainty.
B. Thus, it is proved to be so. How, then, shall
> 1^ man be saved, if he neither pays what he owes, nor
ought to be saved unless he pays ? or with what assur-
; A. 2 4 ance dare we sa y that^God, rich in mercy beyond man s
understanding, cannot cause this misery ?
A. You should require this at their hands in whose
name you speak (who do not believe Christ to be need
ful to man s salvation) : let them say how man can be
saved without Christ. Which if they can in nowise
prove, let them cease from ridiculing us, come over and
join themselves to us who doubt not but that man can
be saved by Christ, or let them despair of this "being in
any way possible. From which, if they shrink, let them
with us believe in Christ, that they may be saved.
B. I will ask you, as I began by doing, to explain to
me the reason why mankind can be sav,ed by Christ.
Book I. Chapter XXV. 59
CHAPTER XXV.
THAT OF NECESSITY BY CHRIST SHALL MANKIND
BE SAVED.
A. TS it not sufficiently proved that man can be
saved by Christ, when even unbelievers deny
not that man by some means may be made blessed, and
it has been fully proved, that if we suppose Christ never
to have come, man s salvation could in nowise be pro
cured ? For man might be saved either by Christ, or in
some other way, or by no means : wherefore if it be
false that in no way, or that in any other way this can
be, it follows that it must of necessity be through Christ
B. If anyone, seeing the proof that it cannot be in
any other way, and not understanding the reason why
it can be through Christ, should assert that it can be
done neither through Christ nor in any way : what
answer shall we give Him ?
A. Why answer one who ascribes impossibility to that
which it is necessary should be, because he knows not
how it should be ?
B. Because he is foolish.
A. Therefore what he says should be passed over
with contempt.
B. True ; but what has to be shown him is, the reason
why that should be, which he thinks impossible.
A. Do you not understand from what we have
already said, that it is needful some human beings
should attain to beatitude? For if it be inconsistent
with God to advance man with any defect to that for
which He created him without fault, lest God should
seem either to repent of the good begun, or be unable
to carry out His intention : much more on account ot
that same inconsistency is it impossible to advance no
60 Why was God made Man ?
human being at all to that for which he was created.
Wherefore, either outside the Christian faith is to be
discovered a satisfaction for sin such as we have already
shown it ought to be (which no argument whatever
will be able to prove), or, that faith ought firmly to
be believed in. But that which is by strict proof shown
veritably to exist, ought not to be placed in any
doubtful light, even though the reason of its existence
be not perceived.
B. What you say is quite true.
A. Then what more do you ask ?
B. I do not apply to you to remove any uncertainty
in my faith ; but that you may show me the reason of
my certitude. Wherefore as you have by reasoning led
me to the point whence I can see that man, a sinner,
owes to God for his sin that which he cannot pay, and
that without paying it he cannot be saved ; so I want
you to lead me to that point whence I may perceive all
those things to be logically necessary, which the Catholic >
Church bids us believe if we will to be saved ; both what
avails to the salvation of man, and how God of His
mercy saves man, since He doth not forgive him his sin
unless man have repaid what he owed therefor. And
that your arguments may be the more effectual, begin
so far back as that you may build them upon a sure
foundation.
A. May God now aid me! for you do not spare me
at all, nor consider the ignorance of my knowledge, when
you assign to me so great a task. I will try, however,
since I have begun, trusting not in myself, but in God,
and I will do what I can, with His aid. But lest by too
long continuance weariness should be caused to anyone
desiring to peruse this, let us divide what has been said
from what we are going to say, by making a fresh
introduction.
BOOK II.
V-M
CHAPTER I.
HOW MAN WAS BY GOD CREATED UPRIGHT, THAT HE
MIGHT BE BLESSED IN THE ENJOYMENT OF GOD.
n
A. TT is indubitable that the rational nature was by
God created upright, that it might be blessed
in the enjoyment of God. For it is therefore rational,
that it may discern between just and unjust, between
good and bad, between a greater good and a lesser
good ; otherwise would it have been in vain created
rational. But God did not create it rational without a
purpose ; therefore, it is not doubtful that it was made
rational for this very end. By a like argument may be
proved that for this it received the power of discern
ment, that it might hate and avoid evil, and might love
and choose good, and might love most the greatest
good, and choose that. For otherwise God would have
given it that power of discerning to no purpose, since
the power of discrimination would be useless did it not
love and avoid according to its discernment. But it
would not be consistent, in God to have given so much
capacity to no purpose. Therefore the rational creature
is most certainly made for this, that it should love and
choose before all else the highest good, not on account
62 H^ ze/tfj 6W made Man ?
of anything else, but for itself ; seeing that if it love for
the sake of aught else, it loves not that highest good,
but something else. But for this it can do nothing but
what is right. That therefore it may not be rational
to no purpose, it is made both rational and upright for
the same end. For if it be made upright to choose and
love the highest good, either it is so created as that it
may sometimes follow what it would love and choose,
or not. But if it be not so created upright as that it
may follow that which it thus loves and -chooses, in vain
is it so created as to love and choose it thus ; nor will
there be any reason why it should ever follow it. So
long, therefore, as it should act uprightly by loving and
choosing the highest good, for which it was made, it
would be wretched, since it would be destitute against
its will, not having what it desires, which is most absurd.
Wherefore the rational nature was made upright that it
might be beatified by the enjoyment of the highest
good that is, God ; and hence man, who is rational by
nature, was made upright for this end : that he might
be blessed in the enjoyment of God.
CHAPTER II.
THAT MAN WOULD NOT HAVE DIED, HAD HE NOT
SINNED.
A. HP HAT also he was so created as that he was not
under the necessity of dying, may hence be
easily proved, since, as we said before, it is contrary to
the wisdom and justice of God that He should compel
man, whom He made upright for everlasting happiness,
to suffer death for no fault. It follows, therefore, that
had man never sinned, he never would have died.
Book II. Chapters II L, IV. 63
CHAPTER III.
THAT MAN WILL RISE AGAIN WITH THE BODY IN
WHICH HE LIVES HERE.
A. \7i 7 HENCE is sometimes clearly proved the future
* resurrection of the dead. For if man is to
be perfectly restored, he ought to be re-made again
exactly as he was to have been had he not sinned.
B. It cannot be otherwise.
A. Therefore in like manner as, if man had not
sinned, he would have been transformed into incor
ruptibility in that very body which he "wore, so it
would follow that when he is restored he shall be
transformed with his body wherein he spent this life.
B. What shall we answer should any say that this
ought certainly to be done in the case of those in whom
the human race shall be restored, but that in the case
of the lost it does not follow ?
A. Nothing can be conceived more just or more con
sistent than that as man, had he persevered in upright
ness, would have been completely (i.e., in soul aud body)
blessed, so, if he persevere in error, shall he be completely
miserable.
B. In a few words you have satisfied me on these
points.
CHAPTER IV.
THAT GOD WILL CARRY OUT IN HUMAN NATURE
THAT WHICH HE DESIGNED.
A. TT ENCE it is easy to perceive, that either God
will perfect in human nature that which He
began, or He made so exalted a nature for so great
64 Why was God made Man ?
good, in vain. But if it be acknowledged that God
has made nothing more precious than a rational nature
formed to rejoice in Him, it is very unlike Him to
suffer that nature to perish utterly.
B. No heart informed by reason could think otherwise.
A. Thus it is needful that He should complete what
He designed in human nature ; but, as we said before,
He cannot do this except through an entire satisfaction
for sin, which no sinner can make.
B. I understand it to be certainly necessary for God
to carry out what He designed, lest He should appear
to give up His intention in a manner inconsistent with
Himself.
CHAPTER V.
THAT ALTHOUGH THIS BE NECESSARY, YET GOD DOTH
IT NOT OF NECESSITY; AND WHAT THAT NECES
SITY IS WHICH TAKES AWAY OR DIMINISHES A
BENEFIT, AND ALSO WHAT THAT NECESSITY IS
WHICH MAKES THE KINDNESS GREATER.
B. TI) UT if it be thus, it seems almost as if God were
obliged of necessity to avoid inconsistency,
that he might obtain the salvation of the human
race. How then can it be denied that He doth this
more on His own account than on ours ? But if it be
so, what gratitude do we owe Him for that which on
His own account He .doeth ? And how shall we im
pute our salvation to His free grace if He saves us of
necessity ?
A. There is a necessity which takes away or lessens
the gratitude due to the benefactor, and there is another
necessity, whence deeper gratitude is due for the benefit.
For when anyone benefits another from necessity to
Book II. Chapter V. 65
which he is unwillingly subject, to him either no grati
tude, or much less, is due. But if he voluntarily lays
himself under the necessity of doing this benefit, nor
endures it unwillingly, then he deserves, as it were,
greater gratitude for the benefit. For this is not called
necessity, but kindness, since not under any compulsion,
but freely, did he undertake to fulfil it. For if you
shall willingly give to-morrow that which to-day you
freely promise to give on the next day, however neces
sarily it may follow that you must either redeem your
promise to-morrow if you can, or forfeit your word, yet
notwithstanding, he to whom you give owes no less for
the kind benefit than if you had not promised, since
you are not forced to make yourself his debtor before
the time of giving. It is the same when anyone freely
vows to live the life of counsels. For although he must
of necessity keep that vow, lest he should incur the
condemnation of an apostate, and granting that he may
be compelled to keep it even if unwilling, yet still if he
keepeth not unwillingly that which he vowed, he is not
less, but more, acceptable to God than if he had not
vowed, since he hath denied himself for the sake of God
not only ordinary life, but also his own freedom ; nor
can he be said to be leading that strict life from neces
sity, but in that same liberty wherein he made the vow.
Whence much more if God does to man a good which
He promised, granted that it behoveth Him not to go
aside from that promised benefit, yet we ought to im
pute it all to grace, since He undertook it on our account,
not on His own, and without compulsion from any.
For it was not hidden from Him when He made man
what man would do ; and yet by creating man He
freely, of His own bounty as it were, bound Himself to
complete the benefit begun. Finally, God doth nothing
of necessity, since in nowise is He compelled or for-
E
66 Why was God made filan ?
bidden to do anything. And when we say that God
doth anything as by a necessity of avoiding incon
sistency; since He feareth it not, this is rather to be
understood as that He does it by the necessity of pre
serving integrity ; which necessity is nothing else than
His own immutable integrity, which He hath from
Himself, and not from another ; and therefore it is but
improperly called necessity. Let us say then, that it
is necessary that the goodness of God, on account of
His own unchangeableness, should perfect in man what
He began, although all the benefits He bestows are of
free grace.
B. I grant it.
CHAPTER VI.
THAT THE SATISFACTION WHEREBY MAN CAN BE
SAVED CAN BE EFFECTED ONLY BY ONE WHO IS
GOD AND MAN.
A. "OUT it is not possible that this should be, unless
ro there be some onefwho can repay to God for
sin of manj somewhat whidh is greater than all
which is not God.
B. This is certain.
A. Also, he who of his own should be able to give to
God anything which might surpass all that is below
God, must needs be greater than all which is not God.
B. I cannot contradict it.
A. But nothing exists which is above all that is not
God, save God.
B. It is true.
A. None therefore but God can make this reparation.
B. Thus it follows.
Book II. Chapter VII. 67
A. Yet, none should make it save a man, otherwise
man does not make amends.
B. Nothing would seem more exactly just.
A. If, then, it be necessary (as we have ascertained)
that the celestial citizenship is to be completed from
among men, and that this cannot be unless there be
made that before-mentioned satisfaction, which God
only can, and man only should, make, it is needful that
it should be made by one who is both God and man.
B. Blessed be God ! we have now discovered a great
part of that of which we are in quest ; therefore go on
as you have begun. But I hope that God will help us.
A. We have now to investigate how God could be
made man.
CHAPTER VII.
THAT IT IS NECESSARY THAT SOME PERSON SHOULD
BE PERFECT GOD AND PERFECT MAN.
A. "D UT the divine and the human natures cannot be
so mutually interchanged as that the divine
shall become human and the human divine ; nor so
intermingled as that out of two shall be made a kind of
third, which shall be neither altogether divine nor alto
gether human. In fine, if it could be, that each should
be changed into the other, there would either be only
God and no man, or only a man and not God. Or if
they could be so mingled as that out of two natures,
both altered, a certain other third might arise (as of two
individual animals, masculine and feminine, of different
species, is born a third, which inherits the whole nature
of neither father nor mother, but a third made up of both),
this person would neither be God nor man. Therefore
the God-man whom we are seeking cannot be made either
68 Why was God made Man ?
by the conversion of one into the other, or by the commix
ture of both into a third, defacing both for either were
impossible ; and even if possible, either result would be
useless for the object of our search. But in whatever
way these two perfect natures be said to be joined, if it
be still so as that God is not the same as man, it is im-
possible^Jthat both should do what is necessary to be
done. [For God will not do it, because He ought not,
and man will not, because he cannot ; therefore that
God and man may do this, it is needful that the same
person shall be perfect God and perfect man, who shall
make this satisfaction; since he cannot do it unless
he be very God, nor ought, unless he be very man.
Thence, since it is necessary, preserving the entirety of
either nature, that a God-man should be found, no less
needful is it that these two natures should meet in one
person, as the body and the reasonable soul meet in one
being : which can be done in no other way but that the
same person should be perfect God and perfect man. J
B. I agree with all you say.
CHAPTER VIII.
THAT IT BEHOVED GOD TO ASSUME HUMANITY FROM
THE RACE OF ADAM AND FROM A WOMAN, A VIRGIN.
A. T^HERE now remains, to inquire whence and how
God would assume human nature. For either
He will assume it from Adam, or He will create a new
man, in likewise as He made Adam from no other
human being. But if He shall create a new man not of
the race of Adam, he will not belong to the human race,
which descends from Adam : wherefore this new man,
not belonging to it, ought not to make satisfaction for
Book II. Chapter VIII. 69
it. But as it is right that man should make reparation
for the sin of man, therefore it is necessary that the one
v/ho makes satisfaction should be of the same race as
the sinner; otherwise neither Adam nor his race would
really make reparation. Now since from Adam and
Eve sin was propagated among all men, therefore
neither of those two, nor anyone born of them, could
atone for the sin of man. Since therefore they cannot
do this, it is necessary that there should be one of the
race who can. Further : as Adam and all his race would
have remained upright without support from any other
creature had he not sinned, so was it needful, that if
the same race were to rise again after its fall, it should
rise and be raised by itself. Now by whomsoever it may
be replaced in its former condition, in him will it stand
by whose means it shall recover the position. But
when God first created humanity in the one Adam, nor
save from him would make the female (that from both
sexes mankind might be multiplied) ; He plainly showed
that by none but Adam did He intend to realise that
which He designed to make of humanity. Wherefore
if the race of Adam be restored by any man who is not
of the same race, it would not be replaced in that dignity
in which it was to have stood had not Adam sinned,
and therefore would not have been completely restored,
and the purpose of God would appear to have failed :
which are two inconsistencies ; therefore it is necessary
that he by whom the race of Adam may be restored
shall be of Adam s race.
B. If we follow reason, as we decided to do, this must
be inevitable.
A. Let us now consider whether human nature should
be assumed by God from a father and a mother, as other
men are made, or from a male without a female, or from
a female without a male. For by whatever way it may be
70 Why was God made Man ?
of these three, it will be from Adam and Eve, of whom
is every human being of either sex ; nor is any one way
of the three easier to God than the others, that in that
way it should rather be assumed.
B. You are advancing on the right road.
A. But we need not take much trouble to show that
that human being would be more purely and fittingly
made of man alone or woman alone, than by the union
of both, like all other children of men.
B. The assertion is sufficient.
A. Therefore that humanity is to be taken from man
only, or from woman only.
B. It can be from no other.
A. God can make a human being in four ways : that
is, either by a man and a woman, as continual fact
shows ; or by neither man nor woman, as He created
Adam ; or by man without woman, as He made Eve ;
or by woman without man, which as yet He had not
done. To prove therefore that this also lay in His
power, and that He was capable of this very work,
there would be nothing more suitable than that He
should assume that humanity which we are looking for
from woman without man. Whether this may be
more worthily done by a virgin or not, there is no need
to dispute : without any discussion, it may be asserted
that of a virgin it behoved God to be made man.
B. What you say my heart approves.
A. Is not this declaration of ours something firm
and solid ? or is it, as the unbelievers object, something
visionary, like a cloud ?
B. Nothing can be better defined or more clearly
supported.
A. Proceed then to colour, not an imaginary vision,
but a clearly projected truth, and say, it is thoroughly
consistent that as the sin of man and the cause of our
Book II. Chapter IX. 71
condemnation had its origin in a woman, so the remedy
for sin and the cause of salvation should be born of a
woman ; and lest women should despair of having a
share in the lot of the blessed, since from a woman so
great evil proceeded, it is fitting that to build up their
hopes again this great good should proceed from a
woman. Fill in again with colour this also : that since
it was a virgin who was the cause of all the evil to the
human race, much more is it right that it should be a
virgin who would be the occasion of all the good. Also
this : if woman, whom God made from man, was made
of a virgin, it is very suitable that the man also who is
made of a woman should be made of a virgin, without
man. But these are enough of the illustrations which
may be made of this point : Why God made man should
be born of a woman, a virgin.
B. These illustrations are very beautiful and most
reasonable.
CHAPTER IX.
THAT THE WORD ALONE, AND HUMANITY, SHOULD BE
UNITED IN ONE PERSON, IS IMPERATIVE.
A. ~M"OW, then, we have to inquire in which Person
God, who is three Persons, would assume
humanity. But several Persons cannot assume one and
the same man in unity of Person. Wherefore this must
of necessity take place in one Person only. But on
this personal unity of God and man, and as to with
which Person of the Holy Trinity it ought the rather to
take place, I have said what I think to be sufficient for
the present investigation, in my letter on the Incarna
tion of the Word, addressed to Pope Urban.
72 Why was God made Man ?
B. Treat, however, though briefly, this point : Why
the Person of the Son should become Incarnate, rather
than that of the Father, or of the Holy Ghost ?
A. If any other Person were to become Incarnate,
there would be two Sons in the Trinity, namely, the
Son of God who was Son before the Incarnation, and
that one who by the Incarnation should be born of a
virgin ; and there would be among the Persons who
must always be equal, inequality in the dignity of
birth ; for one born of God would have a greater origin
than one born of a virgin. Also, if the Father became
Incarnate, there would be two grandsons in the
Trinity, since the Father would be the grandson of
the parents of the virgin, through the assumed
humanity, and the Word, though He had naught of
humanity, would yet be a grandson of the virgin since
He would be the Son of her son ; which are all incon
gruities, and would not be contingent on the Incarna
tion of the Word. There is also another cause why it
should beseem the Son to be Incarnate rather than the
other Persons, in that it sounds more suitable for a son
to supplicate a father than for anyone else to beg of
any other. Also, man, for whom the supplication had
to be made, and the devil, who was to be expelled, had
both set up a false idea of God by their own will ;
whereby they sinned, as it were, peculiarly against the
Person of the Son, who is believed to be the true image
of God : and so to Him who was specially injured, is
most fitly attributed the punishment or forgiveness of
the fault. Wherefore, since reasoning has inevitably
led us up to this : that it is necessary the divine and
human natures should meet in Person, and that this
cannot be done in more than one Divine Person, and
that it is plain that it would most fitly be done in the
Person of the Word, than in the others : we conclude it
Book II. Chapter X. 73
to be necessary that God the Word, and humanity,
should be united in one Person.
B. The way by which you lead me is so guarded on
every side by logical proof, that I do not seem to be
able to turn away either to right or left.
A. It is not I who lead you : but He of whom we are
speaking, without whom we can do nothing, leads us
wherever we are keeping in the way of truth.
CHAPTER X.
THAT THIS SAME MAN WOULD NOT LIE UNDER THE
NECESSITY OF DEATH ; AND HOW IT WOULD BE
THAT HE COULD, OR COULD NOT, SIN ; ALSO, WHY
HE, OR AN ANGEL, ARE TO BE PRAISED FOR THEIR
RIGHTEOUSNESS, WHEREAS THEY CANNOT SIN.
A. "OUT whether this Man would lie under the
necessity of death, as do all other human
beings, we need not investigate ; but if Adam was not
to have died had he not sinned, much more should not
this Man be bound to suffer death, in whom there could
be no sin, because He would be God.
B. I wish you would dwell a little on this ; for
whether it be asserted that He could sin, or that He
could not, it appears to me that there arises no little
difficulty. For if it be said that He would not be able
to sin, it seems difficult to believe (let me speak for a
little while, not as of him who never has been, as we
have done hitherto, but as of Him whose life and acts
we know of) ; who can deny that He could have done
many things which we call sins ? For, to mention no
others : how can we say, that He could not lie, which is
always a sin ? For when He said to the Jews, speaking
74 Why was God made Man ?
of the Father, " If I were to say, I know Him not, I
shall be a liar like unto you," and among those words
He saith, " I know Him not," who would aver that He
could not say those same three utterances except with
other words, nor so as to assert, " I know Him not " ?
Which had He done, He would, as He Himself said,
have been a liar, which is to be a sinner. Since, then,
He could do this, He could sin.
A. He could say this ; and yet He could not sin.
B. Explain this.
A. All power depends on will. When I say, for
instance, that I can speak or walk, it is implied, if I
will. But if freedom of will be not implied, it is not
power, but necessity. For when I say, that I can be
betrayed or conquered against my will, this is no
capacity of mine, but my necessity, and power on the
part of another. For that I can be betrayed or
conquered is nothing else but that another can betray
or conquer me. Thus we may say of Christ that He
could lie, if we imply "if He willed it ;" and since He
could not lie against His will, nor could will to lie, no
less exact is it to say that He could not lie. Thus He
both could, and could not, lie.
B. Now let us return to our inquiry concerning Him,
as though He had not yet been ; in like manner as we
began. I say then, that if he could not sin, because, as
you say, he could not will to sin, he would remain
upright of necessity, since not of his own free will would
he be righteous. Then what reward would be due to
him for his righteousness ? For we always say that God
so made man and angels as that they could sin, in order
that whereas they could depart from righteousness and
yet do adhere to it of their own free will, they may
deserve reward and praise, which would not be due to
them if they were of necessity righteous.
Book II. Chapter X. 75
A. Are not the angels who cannot sin worthy of
praise ?
B. They certainly are, because they merited their
present inability to sin by the fact that they formerly
would, and could not, sin.
A. What do you say of God, who cannot sin, nor
derived this from a power of sinning wherein He sinned
not ; is not He to be glorified for His righteousness ?
B. I should wish you to answer this for me ; for if/ 1
say He is not to be glorified, I know I shall be saying
what is not true. But if I say He is to be glorified, I
fear to weaken the argument which I used concerning
the angels.
A . The angels are not to be lauded for their righteous
ness because they were able to sin, but because by this
in some way they have of themselves that they cannot
sin ; wherein they are somewhat like unto God, who
hath of Himself whatever He hath. For a person is
said to give a thing, who does not take it away when he
could take it ; and he is said to cause a thing to be,
who when he could prevent its existence does not do
so. As therefore the angel in question was able to
deprive himself of his righteousness, and did not abstract
it ; and could cause himself to cease to be upright, and
did not do so ; he is rightly said to have conferred
uprightness on himself, and to have made himself
righteous. In this way therefore has he righteous
ness from himself (for a creature is not able to have it of
himself otherwise), and therefore he is to be praised for
his uprightness ; nor is he righteous of necessity, but of
free will ; for that is improperly called necessity, where
is neither compulsion nor prohibition. Wherefore since
God hath perfectly from Himself whatever He hath, He
is most to be glorified for the perfections which He has
and retains not out of any necessity, but. as I said
7 6 Why was God made Man ?
above, in His own, eternal immutability. So therefore
that man who would be also God, would, since he would
have every virtue he possessed from himself, be
righteous not of necessity but of free will, and by his
own power ; and would therefore be worthy of praise,
For although the human nature would have from the
divine whatever it possessed, yet he (since two natures
will be one Person) will have it from himself.
B. You have satisfied me on this point ; and I plainly
see that he could not sin, and yet would have the merit
of his uprightness. But now I think I must ask, why,
since God could make such a man, He did not make
the angels and the two first human beings like this, so
that they in like wise might not be able to sin, and yet
might have the merit of their uprightness ?
A. Do you understand what you are saying ?
B. I think I do ; and therefore I ask, why did not God
make them such ?
A. Because it neither could, nor should, come to pass,
that each one of them should be God, as we asserted of
that one in question ; and if you ask, why God did not
do this in as many persons as there are in the Holy
Trinity, I answer : because reason then did not at all
require this to be done, but rather (since God does
nothing without reason) forbade it.
B. I am ashamed of having asked that ; say what
you were going to say.
A. Let us then assert that he would not be obliged to
die, because he would not be a sinner.
B. I must grant it.
Book II. Chapter XL 77
CHAPTER XL
THAT HE WOULD DIE OF HIS OWN FREE WILL ; AND
THAT MORTALITY DOES NOT BELONG TO PURE
HUMAN NATURE.
A. T3UT it now remains for us to investigate whether
he could die according to his human nature ;
for according to the divine nature he will always be
incorruptible.
B. Why should we have any doubt about this, since
he would be true man, and every human being is
naturally mortal ?
A. I think that mortality belongs not to pure, but to
corrupted, humanity. For had man never sinned, and
his immortality been irrevocably confirmed, none the
less, however, would he have been true man ; and when
human beings shall rise again incorruptible, none the
less will they be true human beings. Now if mortality
belonged to the verity of human nature, there never
could be a man who was immortal ; therefore to the
verity of human nature belongs neither corruptibility
nor incorruptibility, since neither constitutes nor annihi
lates man, but the one avails for his misery, and the
other for his happiness. But since there is not any
human being but dies, "mortal" is put into the defini
tion of " man " by philosophers, who did not believe the
whole man could ever have been or could ever be im
mortal. Hence it is not sufficient to show that that man
in question is true man, in order to prove that he must
be mortal.
B. Do you seek out another proof; for I do not know
if you do not, how it can be proved that he can die.
A. It is not doubtful that since He would be God He
would be omnipotent.
78 Why was God made Man ?
B. It is true.
A. Then, if he so willed, he could lay down his life
and take it again.
B. If he cannot do this, it would not appear that he
were omnipotent.
A. Therefore he need never die, if he so willed ; and
he could die and rise again. But whether he lays down
his life without the action of any other, or whether
another causes him to lay it down, he permitting this,
makes no difference as to the future.
B. This is not doubtful.
A. If, then, he chose to allow it, he could be slain ;
and if he would not allow it, he could not.
B. Reason leads us directly up to this.
A. Reason taught us also that he ought to have
something greater than anything which is not God,
which he may offer to God of free will, and not as a
debt owed to God.
B. It is so.
A. But this can be found neither beneath him nor
without him.
B. True.
A. Therefore it is to be discovered within him.
B. This follows.
A. Therefore he will give either himself, or something
of himself.
B. I cannot understand otherwise.
A. Now we must inquire what kind of giving this v
ought to be. He could not give himself, or anything 9f
himself, to God, as if he were giving to one whose it
was not, that it might be his, since every creature is God s.
B. It is so.
A. Therefore this giving is so to be understood, as that
in some way he gives up himself, or something of him
self, for the glory of God, for which he was not a debtor.
Book II. Chapter XL 79
B. Thus it follows from what was said before.
A. If we say that he will give himself up, to obey
God, so that by holding steadfastly to uprightness he
may yield himself to God s will, this will not be giving
what God doth not require from him as a debt, for
every rational creature owes this obedience to God.
B. This cannot be denied.
A. Therefore he must needs give himself, or some
what of himself, to God in some other way.
B. To this reason drives us.
A. Let us see if perhaps this may be : to give his life,
to yield up his spirit, or give himself up to death for the
honour of God. For God will not require this of him
as a debt due ; for since there would not be sin in him,
he would not be obliged to die, as we asserted.
B. I cannot understand it otherwise.
A . Let us consider whether this be logically consistent.
B. Do you speak, and I will willingly listen.
A. If man sinned for pleasure, is it not right that he
should atone by suffering ? And if he was conquered
by the devil, and induced with the greatest facility to
dishonour God by sinning, is it not just that man,
atoning to God for sin, should, to the honour of God,
vanquish the devil with the utmost difficulty ? Is it not
consistent that he who by sinning went so far away
from God that he could remove himself no further,
should so give himself to God in atonement as that he
could not render himself up more completely ?
B. There is nothing more reasonable.
A. But nothing harder or more difficult could man
suffer of free will, being under no necessity, for the
glory of God, than death ; in no way could man give
himself more fully to God than by yielding himself to
death for His honour.
B. All these assertions are true.
8o Why was God made Man ?
A. He, therefore, who would atone -for the sin of man
must be such that he can die if he wills it.
B. I see plainly that the man whom we are seeking
must be such that he would die neither by necessity,
since he would be almighty ; nor from obligation, since
he would never have sinned ; and that he can die of his
own free will, because this would be needful.
A. There are also many other reasons for which it
highly became him to have the similitude and lead the
life of men, yet without sin, which stand out more easily
and clearly in his life and works than they could have
been presented by reason alone, before being, as it were,
verified in act. For who can show forth how neces
sarily, how wisely, it was ordered that he who was to
redeem man from the way of death and perdition, and
to bring him back into the way of life and eternal
glory, should abide among men, and while thus abiding,
whilst he taught them by word how they ought to live,
should present himself as an example ? How indeed
could he have held up himself as an example to weak
mortals, showing that they should not depart from
righteousness on account of either injuries, insults,
sufferings, or death, unless they had known that the
Lord Himself felt all these ?
CHAPTER XII.
THAT ALTHOUGH HE WOULD BE PARTAKER OF OUR
INFIRMITIES, YET WOULD HE NOT BE WRETCHED.
B. A LL these things plainly show that he must be
^ mortal, and a partaker of our infirmities ; but
all this is our wretchedness : he surely would not
therefore be wretched ?
A. By no means ; for just as that enjoyment which
Book II. Chapter XIII. Si
is against anyone s will does not conduce to his happi
ness, so is it not wretchedness to accept any trouble
wisely, not of necessity, but of free will.
B. It must be granted.
CHAPTER XIII.
THAT HE WOULD NOT, WITH OUR OTHER INFIRMITIES,
PARTAKE OF OUR IGNORANCE.
B. T3UT tell me, whether, in that likeness which he
must needs bear to men, he is to share our
ignorance as well as our other infirmities?
A, Concerning God, how can you doubt whether He
knoweth all things ?
B. But although he would be immortal according to
the divine nature, according to the human nature will
he be mortal. Then why might not that man be truly
ignorant in like wise, as he would of a verity be mortal ?
A. That assumption of humanity into personal union
with Deity, could by the highest wisdom only be done
wisely ; and therefore it will not adopt with humanity
what would in no way be useful, but very injurious to
the work which that man would have to do. Now,
ignorance would be useful to him in nothing, but in
jurious in many things ; for how should he perform
those many and great works which he would have to
do, without consummate wisdom, and how should men
believe him, if they knew him to be ignorant ? And
even if they knew it not, of what use would that ignor
ance be to him ? And further, if nothing can be loved,
except it be known ; as there would be no use in aught
which he did not love, so there would be no good which
he would not know. But no one knows good perfectly
except he who can distinguish it from evil ; and none,
F
82 Why was God made Man ?
who is ignorant of evil, is capable of this discernment.
Thus, as he of whom we are speaking will perfectly
know all good, so will he be ignorant of no evil.
Therefore all knowledge will be his, although he may
not show it openly in his intercourse with men.
B. In mature age, it would appear to be as you say ;
but in infancy, as it would not be a suitable time for
wisdom to be manifested in him, so would it not be
necessary, nor, therefore, suitable, that he should have it.
A. Did I not say, that that incarnation would be
wisely effected ? For God will assume humanity
wisely, that He may wisely, since most profitably,
use it. But He could not wisely assume ignorance,
for it never is useful, but always hurtful, unless per
chance thereby an evil will, which never could be in
Him, is restricted in its consequences. And even if
sometimes it may do no other harm, yet it does harm
in this one point, that it prevents the knowledge of
good ; and (to solve your question briefly), the being of
that man, as man, will be filled with the fulness of God
as in Himself; whence He will never be without God s
power, strength, and wisdom.
B. Although I should never have doubted but that
thus it always was in Christ, yet I asked it that I might
hear the reason thereof. For we are often sure of some
thing which yet we know not how to prove logically.
CHAPTER XIV.
HOW HIS DEATH COULD EXCEED IN VALUE THE
MANY AND GREAT SINS OF MANKIND.
B. "M" O W, I pray you to teach me how the death of this
one could avail for the many and great sins of
all, whereas you can show that one single sin (which we
Book II. Chapter XIV. 83
think a very small one) is so infinite, that were there
displayed an infinite number of worlds as full of crea
tures as this world, not to be preserved from annihila
tion unless some one gave one glance contrary to God s
will, yet that glance should not be given.
A. If that Man were present, and you knew who he
was, and it were said to you, " unless you slay that man,
the whole world will perish, with all which is not God : "
would you do it in order to preserve every other
creature ?
B. I would not do it, even though an infinite number
of worlds were displayed to me.
A. What, if it were said to thee again: "Either kill
him, or all the sins of the world shall be laid upon you ? "
B. I should answer that I would rather take upon
myself all other sins, not only those of this world both
past and future, but also all which can be imagined
besides these, than that one only. And I consider that
I ought to answer the same not only as to the slaying
of him, but also as to the smallest hurt which might be
done to him.
A. You judge rightly ; but tell me why your heart so
decides, as that it dreads more one sin in hurting that
man, than all others that can be imagined ; whilst all
sins that are committed, whatever they may be, are
done against him.
B. Because a sin committed against his person, is ,,
incomparably greater than all those which could be
imagined without his person.
A. What will you say in answer to this: that one
will often willingly suffer some personal injuries lest he
should suffer greater damage to his possessions ?
B. That God, in whose power are all things, needeth
not this endurance (as you answered before to a question
ot mine).
84 Why was God made Man ?
\
A. You answer rightly : let us therefore see, why no
sins, however enormous, however numerous, not touching
the person of God, are great enough to be compared to
the violation of the corporal existence of this man ?
B. It is very plain.
A. What doth it seem to thee is the worth of him,
the murder of whom is so great an evil ?
B. If his existence be as great a good as his destruc
tion is an evil, incomparably greater a good is it than
is the evil of those sins which are exceeded beyond all
comparison by his murder.
A. You speak truly. But think : sins are hateful in
proportion as they are evil ; and this his life is deserv
ing of love in proportion to its goodness. Whence it
follows that this his life is more deserving of love than
are sins hateful.
B. I cannot help perceiving this.
A. Do you not think that so great, so lovable good
can suffice to atone for the sins of the whole world ?
B. Nay, rather can it do infinitely more.
A. You see therefore how this life can conquer all
sins, if yielded up for them.
B. Plainly.
A. If therefore to yield up the life be the same as to
accept death, then as the yielding up of the life outweighs
all the sins of men, so also doth the acceptance of death.
CHAPTER XV.
HOW THAT DEATH CAN ALSO ATONE FOR THE SINS OF
THOSE WHO SLEW HIM.
B. /^RANTED that it is thus of all sins which do not
touch the person of God. But I now perceive
something else to ask. For if the sin of slaying Him
Book II. Chapter XV. 85
is as evil as His life is good, how can His death over
come and blot out the sins of those who killed Him ?
Or if it blots out the sin of some of them, how is it that
for some sins of other men it cannot atone ? But we
believe that many among those were saved, and that
numberless others are lost.
A. This difficulty was solved by the apostle, who said
that "if they had known, they would not have crucified *
the Lord of glory." For there is so great a difference
.between a sin done knowingly and one done in
ignorance, that the evil which, on account of its enor
mity, they never could commit, becomes venial because
it is done ignorantly. But no human could ever wish,
knowingly, to kill God ; and therefore those who ignor
antly slew Christ, did not fall into that infinite sin to
which no other sins can be compared. For we did not
regard its magnitude when estimating how good was
that life, in the light of its having been committed
ignorantly, but as having been done knowingly ; which
no one either did, or could do.
B. You have reasonably proved that the murderers
of Christ might have attained to the forgiveness of their
sin.
A. What more do you still ask? You already see
how a rational necessity shows that the heavenly king
dom is to be completed from among men, and that
this cannot be but by the remission of sins, which no
man can have except through a man who shall be God
also, and by his death shall reconcile sinners to God.
Then we discovered clearly that Christ, whom we con
fess to be God and man, died for us ; this, however,
being recognised most undubitably, that all things which
He says are certain, since God cannot lie ; and that all
things which He does are wisely done, although the
reason of these may not be understood by us.
86 Why was God made Man ?
B. What you say is true ; nor do I doubt in the
least that what He said was true, or that what He did
was wisely done. But I do ask this, that you should
explain to me the justice and possibility of those things
in the Christian faith which to unbelievers appear wrong
or impossible : not with the purpose of confirming me
in the faith, but that you may gladden me by the
logical proof of its truth to my intellect.
CHAPTER XVI.
HOW FROM THE SINFUL MASS GOD ASSUMED SINLESS
HUMANITY ; AND OF THE SALVATION OF ADAM
AND EVE.
B. V\7HEREFORE, as you have explained the
reason of those things which have already
been said, so I ask that you would lay bare the reason
of those which I am about to investigate also. That is,
first, how, from the sinful mass, that is, from the human
race, which was all infected with sin, God assumed sin
less humanity, as though unleavened were taken from
fermented dough. For, granted that the conception of
that Man Himself is pure and free from the sin of
carnal delight, yet the virgin herself from whom He
assumed humanity was "shapen v in wickedness!" and
" in sin did her mother conceive her," and she was
born with original sin, since she herself sinned in Adam,
tin whom all have sinned?
A. Since that Man is proved to be God and the
reconciler of sinners, it is not doubtful but that He is
entirely without sin, which He cannot be, unless He
were taken without sin from the sinful mass. But if we
cannot understand for what reason the wisdom of God
Book II. Chapter X VI. 87
did this, we should not be surprised, but reverently
acquiesce in the fact that among the mysteries of so
deep a subject there is something of which we are
ignorant. Indeed God restored human nature more
o
wondrously than He created it ; either indeed is equally
easy to God ; but man had not before he existed, so
sinned as to have forfeited his creation. But after he
had been created he by sinning deserved to lose both
his very existence and its object; although he might
not lose his existence itself, he incurred the necessity of
being either the subject of punishment, or the object of
God s mercy. Neither, however, of these two alterna
tives could have been if he had been annihilated.
Therefore God re-made him so much the more won
drously than He created him, in that the former was
done for a sinner contrary to his deserts : the latter
neither for a sinner, nor against desert. But : how great
a thing is it so to unite God and man as that the integ
rity of either nature being preserved, the same Who is
God is also man ! Who then can dare even to think
that the human intellect can comprehend how wisely,
how wonderfully, so inscrutable a work was effected ?
B. I agree that no man can in this life thoroughly
unfold so great a mystery, nor do I ask you to do that
of which no man is capable, but to do what you can.
And you will the rather convince me that deeper
reasons lie concealed in this mystery, by showing that
you see some reasons for it, than if by saying nothing
you prove that you do not understand any reason for it
at all.
A. I perceive that I cannot get free from your im
portunity. If I can at all explain what you ask, let us
thank God ; but if I cannot do so, that which has
already been proved must be considered sufficient.
Then, since it is certain that God must needs become
88 Why ^vas God made Man ?
man, there is no doubt but that wisdom and power
would not be wanting to Him, so that this should be
done without sin.
B. I plainly assent to this.
A. Thus it was necessary that the redemption Christ
effected should avail not only for those who lived at
that time, but for others also. For, let us suppose
there is a king whom all the population of his state
(except only one individual, who is, however, of the
same race), has so offended that not one of them, by
any action of his own, can escape the penalty of death :
but that he, who alone is innocent, is so high in the
king s favour that he can, and bears so great a love to
the culprits that he will, reconcile all who will believe
in his advice, by a certain service which will greatly
please the king, to be done on a day fixed according to
the king s will. But since not all who need to be re
conciled can assemble on that day, the king grants, on
account of the magnitude of that service, that whoever,
either before or after that day, shall have avowed their
desire to ask for forgiveness through that service done
on that day, and to adhere to the covenant thus made,
shall be absolved from all past offences ; and that
should it happen that after this pardon they transgress
again, if they will worthily make satisfaction and
thenceforward amend, they shall again receive forgive
ness through the efficacy of the same covenant ; only
under this condition, that no one shall enter into his
palace until that have been done whereby the guilt
shall be forgiven. So (according to the parable), since
all men who were to be saved would not be present
when Christ effected that redemption, so great was the
power of His death, that the effect thereof is extended
also to those absent, whether as to place or time. Now
this, that it was not intended to benefit those only who
Book IL Chapter X VI. cS 9
were present, is hence easily to be understood, since
not so many could be present at His death as are
needed for the formation of the celestial city ; nor even
though all who were living at the time of His death,
wherever they were, should be admitted to that re
demption ; for there are more devils, than there were
living at that time men from whom their number is to
be replaced. Nor can it be believed that there has
ever been a time since man was made, when this world
with the creatures made for man s use, was so empty as
that there was in it no one of the human race who
belonged to that for which mankind was created. For
it appears inconsistent that God should, even for one
moment, permit the human race, and the things which
He made for the use of those from among whom His
celestial kingdom is to be completed, to have as it were
existed in vain. For they would somewhat appear to
exist in vain, so long as they seemed not to exist for
that for which they were chiefly made.
B. You show agreeably to reason, and by an argu
ment which appears incontrovertible, that there never
was any moment since man was created, without some
thing belonging to his reconciliation (without which
every human being would be made in vain) ; and this
we may conclude was not only consistent, but also
necessary. But if this be more consistent and reason
able, than that there should ever have been no means
whereby the intention of God in making man might be
carried out, and there be nothing to oppose to the argu
ment, it is necessary that something belonging to the
predicted reconciliation should always have existed.
Whence it cannot be doubted but that Adam and Eve
partook of that redemption, although divine authority
does net expressly assert it.
A. It would also seem incredible, when God created
go Why was God made Man ?
them and unchangeably determined from them to make
all mankind, whom He meant to receive into the
celestial kingdom, that He should purposely have ex
cluded those two from that intended plan.
B. Rather ought He to be believed to have specially
made them for this, that they might be among them for
whom they were created.
A. You view it rightly. But, no soul, before the
death of Christ, could enter into the celestial paradise ;
as I said before of the royal palace.
B. So we hold.
A. But that virgin of whom was born that Man of
whom we are speaking, was of those who before His
birth were cleansed by Him from sins, and in that same
purity of hers was He born of her.
B. I should be entirely satisfied with what you say,
were it not that, whereas He ought from Himself to
have His own freedom from sin, He seems to have it
from His mother, and to be pure, not of Himself, but
through her.
A. It is not thus. Rather, since the purity of His
mother whereby He is pure, was through Him alone,
He also by Himself and of Himself was pure.
CHAPTER XVII.
HOW IT IS THAT HE DIED WITHOUT NECESSITY, WHO
COULD NOT HAVE BEEN EXCEPT HE WAS TO DIE.
.\\B. YyELL done so far. But it seems to me that
there is yet something more to ask. For we
said before that He did not die of necessity, and now
we see that His mother through His future death was
pure, which had she not been, He could not have been
Book II. Chapter XVII. 91
from her. How then is it that He did not die of neces
sity, who unless He were to die could not have been ?
For if He were not to die, the virgin of whom He was
born would not have been sinless, since she never could
have been so except by believing in His true death, and
He could not otherwise have assumed humanity from
her. Wherefore if He died not of necessity after He
was born of a virgin, He could be not born of a virgin
after He had been born : which is not possible.
A. Had you thoroughly considered what has already
been said, you would certainly, as I think, have found
the question solved therein.
B. I do not see how.
A. Did we not, when we were asking whether He
could lie, did we not, I say, show that there are two
capacities for deceiving, the one of willing to deceive,
and the other of being able to deceive ; and that since,
while He was able to deceive, He also had this of Him
self, that He could not will to deceive : therefore He was
to be lauded for His righteousness whereby He held to
the truth ?
B. It is so.
A. In like manner, as to the preservation of life :
there is the power of willing to retain it, and the power
of retaining it. So that when it is asked whether the
same God-man could preserve His life so that He
should never die, it is not to be doubted ; because He
always had the power of preserving it, although He
chose not to will to retain it so as never to die ; and
since He had this of Himself, that is, to will not to be
able, it was not of necessity, but by free power, that He
laid down His life.
B. These powers in Him were not exactly alike : the
power to deceive, and the power to preserve His life.
For in the one case it follows that if He would, He
92 Why was God made Man ?
could, lie ; but in the other it would appear that if He
would not, He no more could, than He could not be
what He was. For to this end was He man, that He
might die, and through faith in His future death could
He assume humanity from a virgin, as you said before.
A. In the same way as you think He was so not
able not to die as to have died of necessity because He
could not but be what He was, so might you assert
that He could not have willed not to die, or that He of
necessity willed to die, since what He was He could
not but be ; for He was not made man more for this,
that He should die, than that He should will to die.
Wherefore, as you ought not to say that He could not
but will to die, or that He willed to die of necessity, so
it ought not to be said that He could not but die, or,
that He died of necessity.
B. Rather, because both dying and willing to die are
subject to the same reasoning, they appear to have
been in Him matters of necessity.
A. Who voluntarily chose to become man, that by
the same immutable will He might die, and by faith in
that certainty a virgin might become pure, from whom
that humanity might be assumed ?
B. God, the Son of God.
A. Has it not already been proved that the will of
God is constrained by no necessity, but freely makes
use of its own immutability when it is said to do aught
necessarily ?
B. That has certainly been proved. But we see, on
the other hand, that what God unchangeably wills,
cannot but be, rather necessarily must be. Wherefore, if
God willed that that man should die, he could not but die.
A. From the fact that the Son of God assumed
humanity with the will to die, you prove that that same
Man could not but die.
Book II. Chapter X VII. 93
B. So I understand it.
A. Does it not likewise appear from what has been
said as to the Son of God and the humanity He took,
being one Person, that the same is God and Man, Son
of God, and son of a virgin ?
B. It is so.
A. Therefore, that same man could not but die, and
died, of His own will.
B. I am unable to deny it.
A. Since, therefore, the will of God by no necessity,
but of its own power, doeth aught, and the will of that
One was the will of God, He died by no necessity, but
of His own free will.
B. I am unable to withstand your arguments ; for
neither the premisses you lay down, nor the conse
quences which from them you assert, can I weaken in
the least. That, however, which I said, will still occur to
my mind : i.e., that if He willed not to die, He no more
could do it than He could cease to be what He is ; for
He was really and truly to die, because if He had not
been really to die, that true faith in His future death
could not have been, whereby that virgin, of whom He
was born, and many others, were cleansed from sin.
For if it were not actual and real, it could have been of
no avail. Wherefore, if He could refrain from dying,
He could make that to be true which was not
true.
A. Why was it true before He died, because He was
to die ?
B. Because He freely willed it with an unchangeable
will.
A. If, then, as you say, He therefore could not but
die, because He was really and truly to die, and on this
account was really and truly to die, because He Him
self immutably willed this, it follows that from no other
94 Why was God made Man ?
cause could He not but die, except because He willed
to die of His immutable will.
B. So it is ; but whatever were the cause, it is still
true ; because He could not but die, and it was neces
sary He should die.
A. You stick too much at a mere nothing, and
anticipate difficulties where there are none.
B. Have you forgotten what I opposed to your
excuses in the beginning of this discussion of ours, viz. :
that what I was asking, you were not required to do for
the learned, but for me and those who asked through
me ? Therefore bear with me while on account of the
slowness and dulness of our intellect I go on question
ing, so that you may satisfy me and them even on
unimportant points, in the same manner as you began.
CHAPTER XVIII. (O
THAT FOR GOD THERE IS NEITHER NECESSITY NOR
IMPOSSIBILITY; ALSO, WHAT IS COMPULSORY, AND
WHAT NON-COMPULSORY, NECESSITY.
A. *\X7E have already asserted that God is improperly
said to be unable to do anything, or to do any
thing of necessity. For in fact all necessity and impos
sibility depends upon His will: but His will is subject to
no necessity or impossibility. For nothing is necessary
or impossible, except because He wills it to be so ; on
the other hand, to say that He wills or does not will any
thing from necessity or impossibility, is contrary to the
truth. Wherefore, since He does all things which He
wills, and only because He wills them : as no necessity
\ or impossibility precedes His assent or dissent, so
neither does either precede His action or abstention,
Book II. Chapter X VII L (a). 95
however many things He immutably wills and does.
And as, when God does anything, after it has been
done, it cannot not have been done, but it always re
mains true that it has been done, yet can it not rightly
be said that it is impossible for God to cause that which
is past not to have happened ; it is not, however, the
necessity or impossibility of action that is in operation
here, but the sole will of God, Who (since He Himself
is Truth) wills truth to be as immutable as He is : so if
He designs immutably to do anything, although what
He proposes, before it be done, cannot be not to be
done, yet is there no necessity for Him to do it, nor im
possibility of His doing it, since it is His will alone
that acts. Whenever, then, it is said that " God can
not," it is not that any potentiality in Him is denied,
but His insuperable- Power and Will is signified. For
nothing else is .understood except that nothing can cause
Him to do that which He refuses to be able to do.
For this mode of speech is much used of saying a thing
can be done, not because in itself, but because in another
thing, resides the power ; and that it cannot be done,
not because itself, but because another thing, lacks the
power. We say, for example, " this man can be con
quered," for " another can conquer him ; " and, " he
cannot be conquered," for " no one can overcome him."
For to be conquerable is not power, but impotence;
nor is it impotence, but power, to be unable to be van
quished. Nor do we assert that God does aught neces
sarily, from this, that any necessity binds Him, but
rather that it binds another (as I said of impotence), when
we say He cannot do aught. Because every necessity
is rather compulsion, or prohibition ; which two neces
sities are mutually converted into the contraries, neces
sity and impossibility. For whatever is obliged to be
is forbidden not to be, and what is obliged not to be is
96 Why was God made Man ?
forbidden to be ; so that what is necessary to be is im
possible not to be, and what is necessary not to be is
impossible to be, and vice versa. But when we say that
for God anything is necessary to be or not to be, it is
not meant that there is compelling or prohibiting neces
sity as towards Him, but it is meant, that in all other
things there is a necessity prohibiting these to be done,
and compelling them not to be done ; the converse of
this is what is meant as regards God. For when we
say that God must needs say what is true, and that of
necessity He can never lie, nothing else is said but that
so great is in Him constancy in preserving the truth,
that it is of necessity that nothing could make Him not
say the truth, or say what is not true. Wherefore when
we say that that Man Who, according to the unity of
His person (as was said before), is one and the same,
Who is the Son of God, could not but die, or could not
but will to die, after He had been born of a virgin ; it
is not intended to mean that there was in Him any
powerlessness to preserve or to will to preserve His
immortal life, but we imply the immutability of His
will, whereby He freely became man that He, per
severing in that same will might die, and we imply
that nothing could change His will. For the impo
tence would be greater than the power, if He could
will to lie or break faith or change His will which pre
viously He had chosen should be immutable. And if
(as I said above), when anyone freely proposes to do
something right, and by the same determination after
wards performs that which he proposed, although he
may be compelled, if unwilling, to keep his promise, yet
is he not said to do what he does of necessity, but of
that free will whereby he intended it: (for not of neces
sity, nor from impotence, ought it to be said that any
thing is done, or is not done, where neither necessity
Book II. Chapter XVI I I. (a). 97
nor want of power caused the thing in question, but free
will :) if, I say, it be so in the case of a human being,
much more should necessity or impotence never be even
named in connection with God, who doth nothing ex
cept as He willeth, and whose will no power is able to
coerce or restrain. But to this end was efficacious the
diversity of natures and unity of person in Christ, that
if human nature were not able to do what must needs
be done for the restoration of mankind, the divine
nature might do it ; and if it were hardly suitable to
the divine nature, the human might effect it. Finally,
the virgin who was by faith sanctified that He might be
born of her, did in nowise believe He should die save
because He willed it, as she had learnt from the pro
phet, who said of Him : " He was offered up because
He willed it." Wherefore, since her faith was true, it
was necessary it should so be in the future, as she
believed it. And, should it disquiet you afresh when I
say that it was necessary, remember that the truth of
the virgin s faith was not the cause of His dying wil
lingly, but, because this was to take place was her faith
true. On which account, if it be said, that it was neces
sary He should die by His sole will, because the belief
or the prophecy which preceded His death was true, it
is but as though you should say that it was necessary it
should be so, because it was to be so ; but in this sense
necessity does not compel the thing to be, but the ex
istence of the fact involves the necessity. For there is
an antecedent necessity, which is the cause of the ex
istence of the fact ; and there is a consequent necessity,
which the fact occasions. It is a preceding and causa
tive necessity which is meant when it is said that the
earth revolves round the sun, because it is necessary
it should do so. But this is a consequent and non-effi
cient, merely existent, necessity which is meant when I
G
98 Why was God made Man ?
say you talk of necessity, because you do talk ; for the
force of natural conditions causes the earth to revolve,
whereas no necessity compels you to speak. Wherever
there is the preceding, there is also the consequent neces
sity ; but not uniformly where is the consequent is there
also the preceding. For we may say, it is necessary the
earth should revolve, since it does revolve ; but it is not
similarly true that you therefore speak because it is
necessary you should speak. This consequent neces
sity always runs thus : whatever was must needs have
been.
What is, must needs be.
Whatever is to be, must needs take place.
This is that necessity, which (where Aristotle treats
of singular and future propositions) appears either to
annihilate, or to occasion, everything, necessarily. By
this consequent and non-causative necessity, since the
belief or prophecy concerning Christ was true, because
He was to die of His own will, not by compulsory neces
sity, was it necessary it should be thus ; by this necessity
was He made Man : by this He did and suffered what
ever He did and suffered : by this did He will whatever
He did will. But by the same necessity they came to pass,
because they were to be, and they were to be, because
they had been, and they had been, because they had
come to pass ; and if you insist upon knowing the real
necessity of all that He did and suffered, know that all
were of necessity, because Himself so willed. But no
necessity preceded His Will. Wherefore if these things
were, only because He willed ; had He not willed, they
had not been. So then no one took His soul from
Him, but He laid it down of Himself, and took it again ;
because He had the power to lay down His life, and to
take it again, as He Himself said.
B. You have satisfied me that He cannot be proved
Book II. Chapter XV III. (a\ 99
to have undergone death by any necessity ; nor do I
regret having persistently importuned you to do so.
A. We have drawn out, as I think, a clear explana
tion of how God assumed humanity without sin from
the sinful mass ; but I in nowise consider it is to be
denied that there is any other besides that which we
have brought forward, except this, that God can do
what the reason of man cannot comprehend. But since
these appear to me to be sufficient, and since if I desired
now to inquire into any other it would be needful to
investigate what original sin is, and how from the first
parents it was diffused among the whole human race
x except that one man of whom we are speaking ; and
to touch upon certain other questions which require
separate handling ; let us, satisfied with the explanation
we have worked out, go on with what remains of the
task we have begun.
B. As you will ; but upon this condition, that some
time, God helping you, you will, as though paying a
debt due, give that other proof which you evade going
into.
A. So far as my own intention goes, I do not refuse
what you ask ; but as I am uncertain about the future,
I dare not promise, but commit it to God s ordering.
But now say what you think remains to be unravelled
( ^j
"3& 1 6 of the question you put at the beginning, on account of
which many others have obtruded themselves.
B. The main point of the question was, why God was
made man that by His death He might save mankind,
when it would seem that this might have been done in
some other way : in answer to which you showed by
many and necessary proofs that the restoration of
human nature neither ought to have been left undone :
nor could have been, unless man should repay what for
sin he owed unto God : which was so heavy a debt that
IOO Why ivas God made Man ?
as no one unless he were man, ought, so unless he were
God, he could not, pay it ; and therefore that some one
must be man who also is God. Wherefore it was need
ful that God should assume humanity in unity of person,
so that the nature which ought to pay, and could not
have paid, should be in person One who could. Then
you showed how of a virgin, and by the Person of the
Son of God was to be assumed that humanity which
should be God ; and how it could be assumed without
sin from the sinful mass. Further, you plainly proved
that the life of this man was so ineffable, so beyond all
price, that it would suffice to atone for what was due for
all the sins of all the world, and for infinitely more. It
therefore remains to show in what ivay it atones to God
for the sins of men.
CHAPTER XVIII. ().
HOW THE LIFE OF CHRIST ATONED TO GOD FOR THE
SINS OF MEN, AND HOW IT BEHOVED CHRIST TO
SUFFER, AND HOW IT DID NOT BEHOVE HIM TO
SUFFER.
A. TF for justice sake He suffered Himself to be
slain, did He not give His life for the honour
of God ?
B. If I can once understand that of which, though I
see it not, I have no doubt ; how this could reasonably
have been done ; and that He could have adhered in
flexibly to righteousness while keeping His own life ; I
will confess Him to have freely given to God for His
glory that to which nothing that is not God can be
compared, and which can compensate for all the sins of
all mankind.
A, Do you not understand that when He bore with
Book IT. Chapter X VIII. \b\ \ o i
benign patience injuries, insults, and death on the cross
with thieves, all brought upon Him (as we said before)
on account of righteousness which He was obediently
fulfilling, He gave an example to men that for no
inconveniences which they may feel should they swerve
from the righteousness which they owe to God ; which
example He would not have given at all had He by
His power avoided the death which for such a reason
was inflicted upon Him ?
B. It would seem that He set that example from no
necessity, since many before His coming, and John the
Baptist after His coming but before His death, bravely
bearing death for the truth, are known to have set it
sufficiently.
A. No man except Himself ever by dying gave to
God, what He was not of necessity to lose at some
time ; or paid, that which He owed not. But He freely
offered to His Father what He would never have been
obliged to lose, and paid for sinners that which He
owed not on His own account. Wherefore He much
the rather set the example that every one should not
hesitate to render up to God of his own accord when
reason requires it, that which at some time or other he
must infallibly lose, who, in nowise needing to do it
on His own account, nor being compelled thereto for
the sake of others, to whom nothing was due save
punishment, gave so precious a Life, even Himself,
so ineffable a Person, by a will so perfectly free.
B. You are getting very near to what I want : yet
bear with me if I ask something to which (foolish as
you may think the question) I have nothing ready
in reply should it be asked of me. You say, that when
He died, He gave that which He did not owe. But no
one will deny that He did better when he gave such
an example as this, and that He pleased God more,
102 Why was God made Man ?
than if He had not done it ; or will say but that He
ought to do that which He knew to be best and most
pleasing to God. How, therefore, can we assert that
He did not owe to God what He did, that is, what He
knew to be best and most pleasing to God, especially
as a creature owes to God all that He is, and knows,
and is capable of?
A. Although a creature has nothing from itself, yet
when God allows it lawfully either to do, or leave
undone, somewhat, He so gives it both as that though
one may be the better, yet is neither definitely re
quired ; whether the creature does what is best, or
takes the other alternative, we say it ought to do what
it does do ; and if it does that which is the better, it
has a reward ; since it freely gives that which is its own.
For, though virginity may be greater than marriage,
yet is neither positively required of man : both of him
who uses matrimony, and of him who prefers to retain
his virginity, is it said that they ought to do what they
do. For no one says that either virginity or marriage
ought to be chosen ; but we say, that that what a man
prefers before he decides on either of these, that he
ought to do ; and if he keeps his virginity, he looks for
a reward for the free gift which he offers to God.
Therefore, when you say that a creature owes to God
the best which he knows and is capable of, if you under
stand it as of obligation, and do not imply "if God
wills," your assertion is not always true. Thus, for
instance, as I said, virginity is not due from man as
a debt, but if he prefers, he may use marriage. But
if the expression " ought " puzzles you, and you cannot
understand it except as implying something owed,
know that as it happens sometimes when speaking
of being able, or unable, and of necessity, we mean not
that ability or necessity are in the things of which they
6ook II. Chapter X VIII. (b\ 103
are predicated, but that they are in something else, so it
is with the term " ought." For when we say that the
poor ought to receive alms from the rich, it only means
that the rich ought to give alms to the poor : since this
debt is not to be required of the poor, but of the rich.
And we say, that God ought to be over all, not because
He is in any way bound to be so, but because all things
ought to be subject to Him, and ought to do what He
wills, since what He wills, ought to be. Therefore
when He wills to make any creature ; whereas it is His
to make or not to make, it is said He ought to create,
since what He wills ought to be. Thus, then, the Lord
Jesus, when He (as we said) willed to endure death :
whereas it was His both to suffer and not to suffer,
ought to have done what He did, because what He
willed ought to be done, and He was not bound to
do it, being under no obligation. For since He, the
same Person, is both God and man ; according to that
human nature in which He was man, He received from
the Divine Nature, which is other than the human, so
to have for His own all which He had as that He
ought to give nothing but what He willed : but, accord
ing to His Person, He so had from Himself whatever
He had, that He was so perfectly sufficient unto Him
self, as that neither ought He to give back anything to
another, nor need He give that it might be repaid Him.
B. I now plainly see, that in no sense did He under
obligation, as my argument seemed to prove, yield
Himself up to death for the honour of God, and yet He
ought to have done what He did.
A. That honour appertaineth to the whole Trinity;
because since He Himself is God the Son of God, to
His own glory as well as to the glory of the Father and
of the Holy Ghost did He offer up Himself, that is, His
Humanity to His Divinity, which same is One of Three
104 Why was God made Man ?
Persons. But, however, in order that while holding fast
by this same verity we may plainly say that which we
desire to say, let us use the customary expression, that
the Son freely offered Himself to the Father ; for in
this manner it is most clearly expressed ; because that
both in one Person God who as man offered Himself,
is understood : and also by the name of Father and Son
great devotion is felt in the hearts of the hearers when
the Father is said to impeach the Son in this manner
for us.
B. I most freely adhere to this.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE REASONING WHEREBY FROM HIS DEATH MAY BE
DEDUCED THE SALVATION OF MAN.
A. T ET us now, as far as we can, consider by how
conclusive a chain of reasoning human salva
tion can be deduced hence.
B. My heart is eager for this : for although I seem
to understand it in my own mind, yet I want the web
of proof to be woven by you.
A. How much the Son freely gave, it is not however
needful to set forth.
B. It is obvious enough.
A. But you will not consider that He who freely
gives to God so great a gift, ought to be without any
recompence. { *
B. Rather do I see it to be needful that the Father
should recompense the Son ; else would He appear to
be either unjust if He would not, or powerless, if He
could not : both which suppositions are inconsistent
with God.
Book II. Chapter XIX. 105
A. He who recompenses another, either gives what
that other has not, or remits, what from that other
might be required. But, before the Son did that great
thing, all which the Father had, were His also; nor did
He ever owe anything which to Him might be remitted.
What recompence therefore could be made to Him
who had need of naught, and to whom naught could
be given or remitted ?
B. On the one side I see the necessity, and on the
other the impossibility, of recompensing ; for it is neces
sary for God to pay what He owes, and there is no one
to whom He might repay it.
A. If so great a reward, and one so justly due, be not
paid either to Him or to another, the Son will seem to
have done this so great thing in vain.
B. Which it would be wrong to think.
A. Therefore it is necessary that this be repaid to
some one else, since to Him it cannot be.
x- B. This follows inevitably.
A. Should the Son will to give to another that which
is due to Himself, surely the Father could not rightly
forbid Him, nor refuse it to any to whom the Son
might give it ?
B. Certainly I take it to be just and necessary that
anyone to whom the Son might wish to give, should be
recompensed by the Father ; since both the Son may
give what is His own, and the Father can only repay
to another what He owes. i.,^/\ UA , t f y^fv,
A. To whom could He more fitly assign the fruit of,
and retribution for, His death, than to those for whose
salvation (as the investigation of the truth showed us) .
He made Himself man, and to whom (as we said) He v
in dying gave the example of dying for righteousness
sake? In vain, however, would they be imitators of !J( -.^f<c
Him if they were not sharers in His merits. Or whom ;
* <
u
io6 Why was God made Man ?
could He more justly make heirs of a debt due to Him
of which He Himself had no need, and of the over
flowings of His fulness, than His kindred and brethren,
whom He sees burdened with so many and so great
debts and wasting away in the depths of misery; that
what they owe for their sins may be remitted to them,
and what on account of their sins they are in need of
may be given them ?
B. Nothing more reasonable, delightful, desirable,
could the world hear. Therefore I hence conceive so
great confidence that I can hardly express the greatness
of my heart s exultant joy. For it seems to me that
God could reject no human being, coming to Him in
this Name.
A. Thus it is, if he approach in the right way. But,
how one ought to enter into participation of so great
grace, and how live under it, we are taught everywhere
in Holy Scripture, which is founded on solid truth
(which, God helping us, we shall some day perceive) as
upon a firm foundation.
B. Truly, whatsoever is built upon this foundation is
founded upon a rock.
A. I think I have in some measure already answered
your question, although a better than myself could do
so more fully, and the reasons and consequences of this
mystery are greater and more numerous than my intel
lect or that of mortal man is able to grasp. Still, it is
plain, that God . in nowise needed to do that which we
have mentioned ; immutable verity, however, so required.
But granting that what that Man did, God is said to
have done, (on account of the unity of Person :) yet God
needed not to come down from heaven to conquer the
devil, nor to act against him to set man free as a maker
of justice ; but, God required man to vanquish the devil,
in order that he who had offended God by sin, by
Book II. Chapter XX. 107
righteousness might make reparation. Inasmuch as to
the devil God owed nought save punishment, nor did
man, save conquest, that having been vanquished by
the devil he might vanquish him in turn : but whatso
ever was required of man, that he owed to God, not to
the devil.
CHAPTER XX.
HOW GREAT, AND HOW JUST, IS THE MERCY OF GOD.
A. OO, the mercy of God, which whilst we were con-
sidering God s justice and man s sin, seemed to
you to vanish away, we now find to be so great and so
perfectly consonant with justice as that neither greater
nor juster could be conceived of. For what can be
understood as being more merciful than that God the
Father should say to the sinner who was condemned
to eternal torments, and who had nothing wherewith
to redeem himself: "Take my Only-Begotten Son, and
offer Him for thyself;" and the Son Himself: "Take
>me, and redeem .thyself "? But they do, as it were,
speak thus when they call and draw us to the Christian
faith. And what can be more just than that he, to
whom is given a payment greater than all that is owing
to him, should, if this be given in payment of what is
owing, remit the whole debt ?
io8 Why was God made Man
CHAPTER XXI.
THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE THAT THE DEVIL SHOULD
BE SAVED.
A. T3UT the salvation of the devil, about which you
asked me, you will understand to be impos
sible, if you will carefully consider that of humanity.
For as mankind could not be reconciled save by one
who should be God and man, who could die, by whose
righteousness might be repaid to God what He had lost
by the sin of man : so the lost angels cannot be saved,
unless by one who should be God and angel, who could
die, and who by his righteousness might restore to God
what the sins of others have taken away. And as
humanity could not be redeemed by another man who,
although he were of the same nature, was not of the
same race, so no angel could be saved by another
angel, although all be of one nature ; since they are not
of one race, as are human beings. For not, as all men
are from one man, are all angels from one angel. And
this also prevents their restoration : that as they fell
without impulse from another towards their fall, so
ought they to rise without help from any other ; which
is impossible to them. But otherwise they cannot be
restored to the power of place which they used to
occupy : for without external help, by their own power
which they had received they might have stood firm in
the truth, had they not sinned. Wherefore, if anyone
should opine that the redemption of our Saviour might
at some time be extended to them, he is logically con
vinced, as logically he is deceived. And I do not say
Book IL Chapter XXII. 109
this as though the value of His death could not by its
magnitude prevail over all sins of angels and men, but
because irrefragable proof from revelation is against its
prevailing for the fallen angels.
CHAPTER XXII.
THAT BY WHAT HAS BEEN SAID IS PROVED THE TRUTH
OF THE OLD AND OF THE NEW TESTAMENTS.
B. A LL that you say appears to me most reasonable
"^ and incontrovertible ; and by the solution of
the one question which we proposed, I see that every
thing contained both in the Old and the New Testament
is proved. For when you prove thus that God must
needs be made man, even if some few things which you
have laid down from our sacred books (as, for instance,
what you mentioned concerning the Three Persons of
the Godhead, and concerning Adam) were to be
omitted, you would yet by argument alone satisfy not
only Jews, but Pagans also. And He, the God-Man,
gives the new covenant, and confirms the old : for as
we must needs acknowledge Him to be the Truth
itself, so nothing which is in them contained can any
one deny to be true.
A. If we have said aught which requires correction, I
do not refuse it, so it be logically and rightly made.
But if herein be confirmed the testimony of the truth,
we must not attribute the logical discovery we think
we have made, to ourselves, but to God, who is blessed
for ever. Amen.
SELECTIONS FROM THE LETTERS
OF ST ANSELM.
part 3.
WRITTEN WHEN A SIMPLE MONK.
i. To LANFRANC.
BROTHER ANSELM, to his master and father, Lanfranc,
Archbishop of Canterbury, who is revered by Catholics
with much love, and beloved with reverence.
Glory be to God on high, who has set the light of your
faith and wisdom on a high candlestick, that it may give
light to all that are in the house. And we pray
Almighty God that this light may so burn that it be
not consumed : may so give light to others as that it
may never be for itself extinguished : that after its long
shining to the English, it may be removed to share
eternally in the light divine in company with the angels.
As indeed anything good of our own (if such indeed
there be), we reckon as yours ; so that which benefits
you, whatever it may be, we cannot but consider as our
own. For although so many unexpected changes of
circumstance often try to remove you from me, yet they
never could (I will not say separate our closely-adhering
souls from each other, yet certainly) draw my clinging
spirit away from you. Wherefore I may be silent upon
112 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
what you know, and whereof I doubt not, for if you
bear me not in your heart at least you could not fly
from me : but also you cannot entirely abandon him
who follows you wherever you go, and wherever he may
remain, still embraces you. The precious cup which
you gave to me dearer and dearest, you said with joyous
kindness and loving confidence (so master Hernostus
brings me word) that you would like to have. There
fore I give you back your gift, yet not at all that I may
be less under obligation to you : nay, most freely do I
give you the most precious thing I have in the world.
Let our beloved brethren who are with you read after
the open letter to your highness this short yet full note
of mine, addressed to you : my yearning for you con
tinually increases : and the love which you long ago
knew I bore you, never grows less.
2. To ODO AND LANZO.
Anselm of Bee, sinner by his life, monk by profession,
to his masters, friends, best-beloved brethren, Odo and
Lanzo : despise temporal for the sake of eternal things :
for earthly obtain heavenly.
Since true affection, as it is laudably expended, is
also irreprehensibly claimed by the fact of loving, I
think I am not impudent in somewhat proclaiming my
affection for you, that I may either acquire yours, or
having acquired it, may render it more perfect. But
since on account of our widely separated abodes you
can perceive the goodwill of my heart, neither by my
kind actions nor even by mutual intercourse, at least let
the greeting of a letter be to you a sign that the memory
of your love is still alive in my mind. For when first
your reverend brotherhood made itself known to my
littleness by actual presence, my soul adhering thereto
To Odo and Lanzo. 113
by the embrace of charity took so deeply the impression,
that by loving it formed in itself a clear image thereof
by which it always has you present, even when far
away ; whence, though sight be rare, affection is not
occasional but continuous. Thus far the spontaneous
greeting of affection is addressed to two ; from this
point onwards is given the exhortation owed to one
alone ; for to one of you is it given, since by one was it
demanded, but I shall enjoy a double reward of my
labour if it be received by each as addressed to himself.
Truly do I remember, master mine and friend Lanzo,
thy holy zeal for living righteously having demanded
with many prayers of my tepidity to quicken thee with
spiritual love by admonitory letters, which, as I could
not but think it inconsistent that the cold should try to
warm up the fervent, so I wished to refuse, but again,
considering that by a cold blast a burning fire is in
creased, I could not entirely withhold what thou didst
ask for. Wherefore since that which thou dost require
of me thou wilt find much better everywhere in the
sacred pages, yet I wish freely to obey thy gentle
vehemence out of respect to thee ; I will therefore go
between the two, and first lay upon thee a charge to
study holy Scripture, and next in my own person add a
few things, not on my own authority, but on the authority
of that same Scripture.
I advise thee therefore, and implore, oh best beloved,
that as it is written, " keep thy heart with all diligence,"
there may be nothing that may take thy mind off its
guard. Let it carefully consider what it may gain by
advancing ; lest, which be far from it ! it lose something
by falling away. For as in virtue it is more difficult to
attain by effort to something one had not before, than
from indolence to go without it, so is it harder to recover
what is lost by negligence, than to obtain what one
H
1 14 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
knows one has not as yet possessed. Therefore, dearly-
beloved, always esteem past things as nought, so that
thou disdain not to hold fast to that to which thou hast
attained, and always, even though unable through in
firmity, yet strive by persistence to add something
thereto. For that among many called, few are chosen,
we are all sure, since the Truth so teaches : but who the
few are, everyone of us is uncertain, the Truth being
silent. Wherefore, whoever liveth not yet as the few,
must either by altering his life join himself to the few,
or most certainly fear condemnation. But he who judges
himself to be already of the few, must not forthwith feel
confident of the certainty of his election. For since
none of us knows to how few the elect are reduced, no
one knows whether he be now among the few chosen,
although he be like to few among many called. There
fore, let no one, looking behind him, think how many he
is preceding on the road to the heavenly country ; but
continually looking forwards, let him anxiously consider
whether he could now enter equally with those of whose
salvation no believer doubts. See, therefore, best-
beloved, that on no account the fear of God which once
thou didst conceive, die down ; but that as though
fanned continually with unremitting attention it may
daily burn more glowingly, until changed into eternal
confidence it shall give thee light.
For that is especially to be avoided, beloved brother,
which many do, of whom the number is not so great as
is the folly of their minds ; who, the longer they live,
the more they cherish the hope of living, and, putting
away the fear of approaching death, fall away from the
resolution to live holily. For it is the rather true that
by so much the longer anyone has lived, so much the
shorter time he has to live ; and by so much the further
anyone is from the day of his birth, the nearer is he to
To Odo and Lanzo. 1 1 5
the day of his death and of retribution for his whole
life. Therefore as thou seest each day the past of thy
life increase, so know assuredly that thy time for living
a holy life is daily growing less. Therefore, friend of
mine, be careful so to spend the space of life which
remaineth to thee (since thou knowest not how short it
is), that from day to day thou expand the holy intention
of thy soul, so that although it should be somewhat
burdensome to thee to lead a holy life, yet the more
thou perceivest that thy labour is hastening to an end,
and that thou art nearing thy rest and reward, so much
the strongly resisting, and joyfully persevering, thou
mayest go forward vigorously fortified. Thou mayest
not therefore fall back out of weariness from what thou
hast begun, but rather shalt undertake what is prepared
for thee, and which thou hast not as yet attempted ;
in the hope of celestial aid, for the love of the blissful
reward ; that, Christ leading thee, thou mayest attain
to the fellowship of the blessed saints. My letter is
already almost too long : but it may take leave of
those alike with both of whom it began ; attend, my
two friends, hear, both my loved ones : receive, I bt-g,
the end of my foolish exhortation in memory of our
mutual affection. Foolish, I call the exhortation, being
my own : but not the meaning, for that is from God.
Listen, then, and do not, on account of my share in it,
despise that which is of God. Should the world, now
and again, smile on you with its sort of favours, smile
not back upon it ; for it does not smile on you for you
to smile when the end comes, but that you, being subject
to its jeering prince, may lament when he laments.
Therefore rather, so often as it shall smile on you,
shrink you from its smile, mock with horror at the
smiling one, that afterwards you may laugh at the
mocker, and smile when it laments. Friends mine,
1 1 6 Selections from the Letters of St Ansehn.
" love not the world, neither the things that are in the
world : " for it is truly written, that " the world passeth
away, and the lust thereof; " and that " the friend of the
world is the enemy of God." It has no wisp of hay on
the tip of its horn ; there is gold on the horn : but look
behind ; the tail is guarded with hay ; it wounds with the
tail : beware ! Beware, I say, and fare ye well.
3. To HERNOSTUS.
Brother Anselm to his lord and dearest brother
Hernostus wishes as much health of body as is good
for him, and of soul as shall be sufficient for him.
The aggravated suffering of your illness, my loving
and equally beloved friend, I knew first from the report
of others, and then by reading your letter. To be silent
as to how great compassion I felt therefor in my mind :
my conscience bears me witness that I would gladly
transfer all that suffering to my own body. But since
it is certain that God " scourgeth every son whom He
receiveth," the same love in a wonderful manner both
urges me to pity because you are worn with chastise
ment, and, because you are being trained for your in
heritance, draws me on to congratulation. For we
ought to consider, beloved, what consolation those
sufferings bring with them, which, while they outwardly
wash away our sins, to which they, by external suffer
ings, draw our attention, give to us the lot of God s
children, to whom are promised the joys of the heavenly
kingdom ; and while our outward man, which must needs
fail daily, groans and sighs, weighed down by heavy
blows, our inward man, which ought to be renewed day
by day, being relieved from its burden of sins, exults
and breathes freely. This will most certainly be attained
to, if the inward man starts not impatiently aside during
To Gondulph. 117
the chastisement of the outward, but, by acts of thanks
giving, submits freely to the chastising hand. For as
we are always pleasing to Almighty God so often as
we dissent from His will in no particular, we must
assuredly appease the merciful Lord if, when chastiseci v
we willingly yield ourselves to our chastiser. But since
anger is shown against an adversary only : if the guilty
one associates himself with the one offended, by agree
ment with his opinion, the impulse of the offended one
must subside, since he can find no enemy to strike at.
Wherefore, dearly beloved, since it is written that " we
must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom
of God ; " when we are scourged, let us be of the same
opinion concerning God s dealings with us, as was blessed
Job : " Haec mihi sit consolatio ut affligens me doloribus
non parcat." Job vi. 10.
4. To GONDULPH.
Greeting from brother Anselm to his honoured
master, best beloved brother and most attached friend,
Master Gondulph.
Though I desire to write to thee, soul most beloved
of my soul, though I intend to write to thee, I know not
how best to begin my address. For whatever I know
about thee is sweet and joyous to my spirit : whatever
I desire for thee is the best which my mind can con
ceive. For I saw thee such that I loved thee as thou
knowest ; I hear thee to be such that I yearn after thee,
God knoweth how much : whence it cometh that whither
soever thou goest, my love follows thee ; and wherever
I remain, my longing embraces thee. And since thou
dost eagerly ask me by thy messengers, exhort me by
thy letters, and urge me by thy gifts, to have thee in
remembrance : " Let my tongue cleave to the roof of
n8 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
my mouth " if I have not held Gondulph first among
my friends. I do not here mean Gondulph the layman,
my father, but my friend, Gondulph the monk. Now
how could I forget thee ? How could he fade from my
memory who is impressed upon my heart as is a seal
upon wax ? Also, why dost thou, as I hear, complain
with so much sadness that thou never receivest a letter
of mine, and why dost thou ask so affectionately to have
one frequently, when in the spirit thou hast me always
with thee? When therefore thou art silent, I know
thou carest for me ; and when I make no sign, " thou
knowest that I love thee." Thou art a sharer in my
existence, for I have no doubts of thee ; and I am
witness to thee that thou art sure of me. Since there
fore we are mutually sharers in each other s conscious
ness, it only remains that we should tell each the other
what concerns us, that we may alike either rejoice or
be anxious for each other. But as to my affairs, and the
reasons why I would have thee rejoice or be anxious
with me, thou wilt better learn from the bearer of this
missive than from the writer of the letter. Greet Master
Lanfranc, the young nephew of our revered lord and
master, Lanfranc the archbishop, and present to him
my faithful desire to do him service. For since he is
so near and dear to him whom so I venerate with affec
tion and love with veneration as that I would love what
he loves ; and since I hear that he is of an amiable
character : if he deign to allow it, I both offer him my
service and ask for his friendship. Salute Master
Osbern who is with you for my dear dead Osbern ; for
I would impress on thee and on all my friends in as few
words as I know how, and with the greatest earnestness
I can, that wherever Osbern is, his soul is my soul. I
therefore while alive would receive for him whatever if
To Henry. 119
dead I might hope from your friendship, lest you be
negligent when I am dead.
Farewell, farewell, my beloved (mi charissime) ; and,
to repay thee according to thine importunity, I pray
and pray and pray, remember me, and forget not the
soul of Osbern my beloved. If I seem to burden
thee too heavily, forget me, and remember him. I send
another letter to the lord Henry ; but changing the
names all through, thine may be his, and his thine.
5. To HENRY.
Brother Anselm to Henry, his dear master and
brother, greeting.
Dearly-beloved, the more report testifies to me that
your behaviour towards all increases daily in virtue and
devoutness, so much the more is thy friend s heart in
flamed by the wish to see what he by loving hears of,
and enjoy what he loves from hearing of it. But since
I suspect that we are beloved by each other in no dis
similar degree, so also I do not doubt but that we alike
yearn each for the other. But to those whose spirits
the fire of love welds into one, it is not unnaturally
grievous to be debarred from personal intercourse by
local separation. However, since " whether we live,
or die, we are not our own, but the Lord s," we ought
to consider more what the Lord, whose we are, wills
to do with us, than what we, who are not our own,
would wish. Let us therefore so cherish the yearning
of fraternal love as that we may yet obey the rule of
the celestial Will ; and so manifest the obedience of
submission which the divine rule requires, that we may
retain the loving affection which the divine dispensation
grants us. For we cannot better modify God s ordering
for our own benefit than by setting our own will to
I2O Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
obey His. Since therefore we both have many present
with us whom we, being by them beloved, love in
return ; let us, while enjoying their society with a
reasonable pleasure, prepare for those who are not to
be enjoyed with a peaceful mind ; and let us earnestly
pray that at some time with both present and absent
friends we may all present together enjoy the presence
of God Himself. But since, led by divine mercy, we
shall reach the home towards which we struggle not as
by the same path, we shall the more joyfully assemble,
as though recalled from various places of exile. I do
not thus exhort thy serenity, beloved, as fearing thou
dost not thus, but as desiring that wherein thou doest
well therein thou shouldst continually make progress.
I commend to thee Master Herluin my beloved, who
also loveth me, as thou mayest know by his own mouth,
who will better be able to tell thee those things which
concern me, and for which I demand thy love, than I
could do in the narrow limits of a letter. Consider the
letter I send to Master Gondulph as thine own, chang
ing the name, and thine as his. Now whatever my
affection, whether expressing itself, or asking anything,
writes either to thee or to him, that very same it would
say both to thee and to him ; but since for the soul
dearly-loved by me of Osbern, our dead brother, I
neither can pray to God nor ask of men as much as I
would : I again impress upon thee that whatever con
cerning him I write to Master Gondulph, to thee I say
it. The lord abbot and all the brethren of our congre
gation greet thee and Master Gondulph, thanking you
much for your gifts, but still more for your excellent
conduct, and application to learning. Farewell : and
hold the soul of Osbern to be my second self; think of
it not as his, but as mine.
To Hugo. 121
6. To HUGO.
Brother Anslem, for Hugo his master honoured for
holiness, and brother loved for his charity, wishes that
he may pass this life prosperously in holiness, and the
next in happiness for eternity.
I am answering the letter of your blessedness briefly,
because I have just now little opportunities of dictating
much. If you are really unable to hold your office
amicably with him with whom you have to do, it is
better for both, that you humbly asking, and he grant
ing, leave, you should be relieved from the anxiety of
that charge, than that both disagreeing under that
burden, should irritate each other. But if he should
refuse to grant you leave, it were better for you to bear
the burden even uselessly in obedience than to reject it
impatiently in disobedience. And if you have found
that by your advice he is not improved but irritated, it
were even better " keeping silence even from good
words," that " so far as in you lies," according to the
Apostle, " you should live peaceably with all men," than
that by saying good words to no purpose you should
give occasion to the ill-disposed. For since the head
ship of the charge was committed not to you but to
him, it will not be required of you if, your advice being
neglected, by the shepherd s fault the flock is not well
governed. Nor is it advisable, so long as he does not
compel you to turn from good to evil, for you to ven
ture (unless he allowed it) to evade that subjection and
life of perseverance which you once freely promised, by
changing your abode ; that is if you find yourself enabled
by any plan or means at all to live aright under him.
For if his rule, though in some ways an impediment to
your progress, doth yet not obstruct the way of salvation,
it is in the hidden judgment of God sufficient that, judg-
122 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
ing yourself unworthy of greater favour, you should live
humbly without sin under fewer blessings rather than
strive after greater by mortal sin. For no one ought
willingly to sacrifice his life unless it happen that he
cannot otherwise escape a worse death. The Almighty
God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, "Wonderful, Counsellor,"
and Angel of great counsel, so teach you to do His will,
that He may give you to see His glory, holy master
and brother beloved.
7. To GONDULPH.
His own to his own, friend to friend, Anselm to
Gondulph, wishes through love of bliss perseverance
in holiness, and for the reward of holiness an eternity
of blessedness.
And now, this Gondulph and Anselm is witness that
I and thou are never so in want of each other as that we
must needs prove our mutual affection by letters. For
since thy spirit and mine can never bear to be absent
from each other, but unceasingly are intertwined ; we
mutually need nothing from each other, save that we
are not together in bodily presence. But why should I
depict to thee on paper my affection, since thou dost
carefully keep its exact image in the cell of thy heart ?
For what is thy love for me but the image of mine for
thee ? Therefore thy known wish induces me to write
somewhat to thee on account of our bodily separation ;
but since we are known to each other by the presence
together of our spirits, I know not what to say to thee,
save may God do with thee as He knoweth shall
please Him, and be profitable to thee. Farewell.
To Lanfranc. 123
8. To LAMBERT AND FALCERALD.
Brother Anselm to his honoured uncles, much-loved
uncles and kind guardians, Lambert and Folcerald :
despise earthly good for heavenly, and take unto your
selves heavenly for earthly.
Although time and space, by the disposition of the
Divine Will, separate us, yet nothing has nor shall have
power to lessen in me the desire for your affection,
God s grace protecting me. And since I am assured
that a like affection for me dwells in no different
manner in your hearts, I have no doubt but that just as
I wish to know all about you, so you always wish to be
informed as to all which concerns me. But you will be
able to learn and notify it more fully by means of the
bearer of this note, than the small space of a letter
would allow. But what an affection my heart bears
you, may He from whom cometh and to whom
tendeth and to whom alone is known that affection, so
show to you and convince you of, as He knows is pro
fitable for you. But yet, if I may say somewhat out of
the abundance of my heart : I fear nothing more for
you than lest you should go on in the love of the world,
and of a worldly life, sleeping unto the end ; and (with
abundance of possessions) should find nothing or little
in your hands, when you shall have awoke again after
the end.
9. To LANFRANC.
Brother Anselm to his respected lord and father,
Archbishop Lanfranc, his own because his own.
As Zacharias the prophet, to exalt the authority of
his prophecy, repeats at almost every verse : " Thus
saith the Lord ; " so to impress upon myself who it is
that speaks, to whom, and in what spirit, I like our
124 Selections from the Letters of St Anselw.
letters which I so often address to your paternal high
ness, to bear stamped at their very beginning, " Lord
and Master," and " His own because his own." This
I so, I don t say I know how to copy, but I have so
deeply engraved it in my mind that whatever I intend
when I begin my salutation, this always appears in the
completed sentence. Wherefore, since I so often write
to you under this title, I now asking, complain, and
complaining, ask, why you now write back to me so :
but I know not to what lord and father of yours ;
signify it at the beginning of the letter. But if you are
writing to your servant and son, why seek to subvert by
a relative opposition what you cannot destroy by the
opposite negation ? I beg, therefore, that as often as I
receive a letter from your mightiness, I may either see
plainly whom you write to ; or may not see whom you
do not write to.
10. To MAURICE.
Brother Anselm to his beloved brother and son
Maurice.
I hear that you are studying under master Arnulph.
If it is true, I am very glad, for I always longed for
your improvement, as you partly know, by experience ;
and that never more than now. I have also heard that
he is very strong in grammar ; and you know that it
was always tiresome to me to teach boys grammar,
so that I did it much less than would have been useful
for you. I know that under me you went back in
parsing. Therefore, I exhort and pray, and desire you,
as a beloved son, that whatever you read with him, and
whatever else you can read, you try to parse most care
fully. Nor be ashamed to learn in this way even what
you think you do not need, as though you had but just
To Henry. 125
begun : for by this means you will grasp more firmly
what you do know, when you hear it repeated ; and if
you make any mistake, you will correct it by his teach
ing, and what you do not know you will learn. But if
he reads nothing with you, and it is your own neglect, I
am vexed ; and I desire that so far as may be, you
should be fully employed, and principally upon Virgil
and the other authors which you did not read with me,
except those in which there is anything shameful.
And if you are for any cause prevented from reading
them with him, at least try to do this : take the books
which you have read, as many as you can, and at what
times you can, and parse them right through carefully
from beginning to end, as I advised above. Show also
to that same dear friend of mine this letter, wherein I in
a few words both beseech him to give you much affection
and beg he will show you how I can trust in his
real friendship, and point out that what he does for you,
he doth for no other than for this my heart. For long
have we been certain of our mutual friendship ; if
indeed he deigns to remember what I shall never for
get. Greet him as respectfully as you can from me ;
and the lord prior, and my lord Gondulph, and the
other masters and brethren who are with you. Fare
well, my sweetest son, and despise not the advice of
him who loveth thee with fatherly affection.
ii. To HENRY.
Brother Anselm to his master and beloved friend, the
reverend prior Henry : sow thou holiness on earth, to
reap in heaven felicity.
My beloved one, your master Osbern who returns
now to you, does so freely acknowledge and execrate
the perversity of his former life ; and, so far as from the
1 26 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
dealings I have had with him I could openly or secretly
ascertain, he is so inflamed with the love of a praise
worthy life, that we may not without cause esteem his
inner man to be either already changed, or without
doubt easily to be transformed. And it is known to
your prudence that there is never so great need of
kindness as in the early, incomplete conversion from a
bad to a good life, lest the immature virtues which may
be nourished and brought to full growth by the con
solation of kindness should be checked, or quite crushed,
by austere hardness. Therefore I beg of your beloved
holiness, since wisdom in government becomes you, and
it is expedient for the aforesaid brother; that, overlooking
all his past perversity, you would nourish the infancy of
his good intentions with the milk of perceptible kind
ness, lest perchance (which I expect not) he might, not
from weakness display, but from malice fall back into,
his former wickedness. For in no way do you better
prove to him that under the severity which he felt in
his error there was hidden love than by its being shown
at the time the error is corrected. Finally, as it seems
to me, no one ought to be driven into the way of living
virtuously, save he who cannot be attracted into it.
Also, I pray, or rather require as a debt which friends
owe to each other, that, as I desire to love all those
who are dear to your beloved fraternity, so Master
Osbern in obtaining my affection, may greatly rejoice
in yours for him having increased. Farewell.
12. To RAINALD.
To his revered lord and father, the Abbot Rainald,
brother Anselm sendeth greeting.
The little work, which you so earnestly beg me to
send you from so far, I certainly should not send you
To Rainald. 1 27
at all, could I avoid yielding to your will. But I fear
lest, should it fall into the hands of some who are more
eager to blame what they hear than to understand it,
and they chanced to read there something which they
had not before heard or perceived, they would at once
declare that I had written things hitherto unheard of
and contrary to the truth. And then, since I being so
far away could not answer them, not only will they,
while rejecting truth, think they are defending it ; but
they will persuade others who rashly believe before
they hear what it is they are censuring, that I am an
assertor of that which is false. I have indeed already
borne very hasty blame from some such, because of what,
following St Augustine, I said about the Person and
the Substance of God. These however now know that
they blamed inconsiderately, and rejoice to know now,
by this means, what formerly they did not perceive.
For they did not know that it cannot, in the literal
sense, be said that there are in God three Persons, any
more than three Substances ; but for the same reason,
for want of a word literally signifying that plurality
which is understood in the most Holy Trinity, the
Latins say we must believe there are three Persons in
one Substance : while the Greeks no less faithfully con
fess three Substances in one Essence. Wherefore I
earnestly beg of your holiness not to show the little
work to worcly and quarrelsome, but to sensible and
peaceful, people. And if it should happen that any so
find therein any fault as that his argument seem to you
worthy of being answered : I beg of you to tell me what
the objection is, and with what argument it is sustained,
so that the peace of charity and the love of truth being
both preserved, either I by his criticism, or he by my
answer, may be set right.
128 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
13. To GILBERT.
Brother Anselm to his master, brother, friend, Gilbert :
the friend of his beloved one : that which writing cannot
express.
Sweet are to me, dearest friend, the proofs of thy
affection : but they can in nowise relieve my heart,
deprived of thee, from the longing for thy beloved self.
Assuredly, wert thou to send every aromatic scent, all
glittering metals, every precious stone, all kinds of
woven beauty, it would reject them ; nay, my heart
could never be healed of its wound but by receiving
the other half of itself which has been torn away
from it. Witness the grief of my heart when think
ing thereon ; the tears which dim my eyes and fall
down my face and on my fingers as I write. And
indeed thou knowest as myself my love towards thee,
but certainly I was ignorant of it. He who separated
us from one another, He has taught me how much I
loved thee : truly that man has no knowledge of good
or evil who docs not experience both. For never
having made trial of thine absence I was unaware
how sweet it was to me to be with, and how bitter to
be without, thee. But thou hast in consequence of our
separation another present with thee whom thou lovest
not less, but more ; whilst thou art removed, thou I say
from me art removed, and no one is given me in thy
place. Since, then, thou art rejoicing in thy consolation,
for the wound is gaping in my soul only, perchance they
who are enjoying thy society are offended at my saying
this to thee. But if they rejoice while keeping that
which they wished for, why should they forbid him to
lament who has not that which still he loves ? They
will excuse me, seeing me in themselves. Moreover,
can you understand how compassionately, how feelingly,
To Adclide. 129
they can do this, and whence my grief can be lessened,
which no one will console who can, and no one can who
would. But may He who can do all that He wills, so
comfort me as that He may sadden no one ; so may He
sadden no one, as that He may preserve for thee the
love everywhere felt, unimpaired.
14. To ADELTDE.
To the Lady Adelide, honoured for the nobility of
her royal birth, but more noble by the power of her
virtuous life, brother Anselm : may your earthly rank be
so adorned with the adornment of virtues that you may
attain to union with the King of kings in eternal felicity.
As to the garlands of psalms which your highness
deigned to require of me, my lowliness, though faithful to
you, could not carry out your request either more quickly
or any better. For my obedience seconded your com
mand the more devotedly that that command proceeded
from holy devotion. Which devotion I wish and pray
that Almighty God will so preserve and nourish for us
as that He may refresh your mind on earth by His
tenderest love, and in heaven by the blissful vision of
Him. The small and worthless gift which my poor
littleness sends to you let not your rich nobility despise.
If, indeed, it is not encrusted with gold and gems, it is
most certainly entirely composed with loving fidelity and
given with faithful love. After the garland of psalms are
added seven prayers, of which the first is not so much
to be called a prayer as a meditation, wherein the soul
of the sinner briefly contemplates itself; and contem
plating despises, and despising humbles, humbling
agitates itself with fear 01 the last judgment, and being
thoroughly agitated, breaks forth into groans and tears.
But among the prayers of holy Stephen and Mary
I
1 30 Selections from the Letters of Si A nselm.
Magdalene there are some which, if they are said in the
inmost heart, when it is at leisure, rather tend to arouse
love. But with all seven I, the servant and friend of
your soul, exhort you to take heed, however well you
may do it, with what humility and with what a feeling
of fear and love the sacrifice of prayer should be offered.
Farewell ; both now and always farewell in God, and
keep the little book sent as an earnest of my fidelity
before God and of my prayers, such as they are. I
will mention at the end of my letter that which the
whole letter is meant to inculcate. All which will
have to be left, despise, even while you have it, with an
uplifted mind ; and that alone which can blessedly be
kept for ever, strive for with humble mind so long as
you have it not. That of which I desire to convince
you, I pray the Holy Spirit to convince you of, when I
say for the third time, Farewell.
part 33*
WRITTEN WHEN ABBOT OF BEC.
15. To WILLIAM.
Brother Anselm, called Abbot of Bee, to his loved
and longed-for (would it were loving and longing)
William : despise dangerous and miserable vanities,
and seek the secure and blessed verity.
So completely, oh my beloved whom I yearn after,
has Almighty God filled my soul (by His grace, not
through my own merits) with love for thee, that, agi
tated between the longing for thy salvation and the fear
of thy peril, being excited day and night by anxiety for
thee, it cannot rest ; blessed be God for His gifts, and
70 William. 131
would that He might take away from thee thy hatred
for thine own soul even as He hath given unto me the
yearning for thy salvation. Bear with me, dear friend,
and endure him who loveth thee, should I appear to
thee importunate, and speak to thee more sternly than
thou wouldst wish. For the love of thy soul com-
pelleth mine, nor alloweth it to suffer that thou
shouldst hate that which it loveth with an ever-present
love. Receive, therefore, most dear one, with a love
which I pray God to impart to thee, the sayings of him
who loveth thee. Thou, dearly beloved, art what love
sayeth with pain, and grief sayeth lovingly, who (which
may God put away from thee) hast hated that soul of thine
beloved of mine ; for " whoso loveth iniquity hateth his
own soul," Ps. xi. 6 (in the Latin). Iniquity of a truth,
and many iniquities are they with which thou dost so
eagerly make thyself happy, oh my beloved. Iniquity,
and many iniquities are they whither the force of
worldly things, rushing to ruin, impels thee, my loved
one. For the bloody confusion of war is iniquity. The
ambition of worldly vanity is iniquity. The insatiable
desire for false advantages and false riches is iniquity.
Towards these, alas ! I see him whom I so long to keep
back by loving him, drawn by the subtle enemy de
ceiving his heart. Oh God, friend and deliverer of man,
let not the enemy draw Thy servant away ! Thou tellest
me, beloved brother : " I do not love these things, but
I love my brother who is entangled in them : and there
fore I hasten to be involved therein with him, that I
may help and guard him." Alas ! wretched grief from
the miserable error of the sons of Adam ! Why, oh
man, sayest thou not rather : " I love not these things,
but Christ my God ; and therefore flying from these I
hasten to Him that I may be helped and guarded by
Him." And so thou, having heard the crash of the
132 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
world falling into ruins upon thy brother, and disregard
ing Christ who calleth thee, dost rush under that
ruin that a mortal man, a worm of earth, may beneath
so confused a weight and such overwhelming confusion
help and protect another worm of earth, another mor
tal. Answer me, brother : who shall help and guard
thee helping and guarding him ? God, whom thou
carest less to follow than that brother of thine ! Christ,
who calleth thee, thou scorn est to follow in peace and
in thine own country and among thy relations and
friends that an "heir of God" and " joint-heir with
Him " thou mayest possess the kingdom of heaven ;
and by such and so many difficult rugged ways, through
rough seas and stormy tempests thou hastenest to thy
brother amid the confusion of war, that thou mayest see
him (to suppose something great) bearing rule over the
Greeks. Now thinkest thou that God will help and
guard him better by thee than without thee ? or thee on
his account more than on his own ? rather much the
less would He do it : for He is wroth if He seeth any
one loved by any other more than that other loveth
Him. But perchance thou sayest : " If I begin to follow
Christ, I fear lest on account of my weakness I should
fall away." How over and over again one must grieve
and weep at the error of the sons of men ! They fear
not failure in following after those things which always
do fail ; rather they run after them with all their heart ;
and they venture not to follow after God who never
fails them and promises them His aid, fearing lest they
fail. They rejoice in falling away that they may fail,
and fear to advance lest they fall away. Believe, I
exhort thee, in the counsel of God, and commit thyself
wholly to the help of God, and thou shalt experience no
failure in His service. Last, beloved and longed-for,
and dear friend, " Cast thy burden upon the Lord," and
To William. 133
be assured, since the Holy Spirit so promises, that
" He shall nourish thee." Delay not thy so great
good, and fulfil my yearning for thee, that I may have
thee for my companion in following Christ ; and that
we may strive together so that as thou seest me, so I
may see thee a companion in Christ s inheritance, which
He gives. Be not ashamed of breaking the chains of
vain intentions ; since it is no shame, but an honour, to
pass into the liberty of the truth. Be ashamed of
loving God less than the treasurer of B , who as a
young man of thy age was self-indulgent and hand
some, very rich, of noble birth, and excessively fond of
worldly pleasure ; and when once formerly I was, as
now, in England, he coming to Bee for I know not
what cause, being moved by the sudden grace of the
Holy Spirit to retreat forthwith, bound himself to
remain here as a monk, having taken at once the ton
sure and our habit, affirming that he was now happier
than ever before in his life. Blush not to confess thyself
one of Christ s poor, for thine will be the kingdom of
heaven. Fear not to become the soldier of so great a
King, for the King Himself will be beside thee in every
danger. Delay no longer to enter in this life on the
road which thou hast chosen ; lest perchance in the
other life thou be hindered from receiving the crown of
blessedness. I advise, counsel, pray, adjure, enjoin thee
as one most dear to abandon that Jerusalem which now
is no vision of peace, but of tribulation, where with
bloody hands men contend for the treasures of Constan
tinople and Babylon : and to enter upon the road to the
heavenly Jerusalem, which is the vision of peace, where
thou shalt find a treasure only to be received by those
who despise the others. I end this long letter unwillingly,
since out of the abundance of the heart my mouth
desireth to speak much to thee. May Almighty God,
134 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
who in that other one whom I spoke of just now, in
whom I desired to rejoice with a like but lesser longing,
since with less hope than I have in thee, worked more
than my heart hoped, not disappoint my greater hope
of thee and my greater longing for thee. And if God
should inspire thy heart before my return : God is at
Bee with our brethren when I am absent as when I am
there. God direct thy heart according to His will, and
gratify my desire of thee according to His mercy.
Amen.
16. To HENRY.
Brother Anselm to his lords and friends, and most
dear brethren, the Lord Prior Henry and the others in
the Monastery of Canterbury, continually serving God
in the Church of Christ; may you ever advance to
higher things in the holy life you have chosen, and
never fall away.
Moses, our beloved brother, who from youthful levity,
and being deceived by another s cunning, deserted the
shelter of your holy companionship (like a son of our
mother Eve, who being in paradise beguiled, lost the
happiness of paradise while yet sheltered in that august
retreat) ; yet has neither driven hogs to pasture, being
compelled by hunger, nor desired to be fed with the
husks which the swine did eat ; but with that mental
food yet unexhausted which he had received at your
spiritual table, has put in at our monastery as into a
well-known harbour, after many wanderings over the
seas of the world. Although, being conscious of his
fault, he fears the severity of justice, as the Apostle
says, " no one ever hated his own flesh : " yet he desires
to be received again in whatsoever way it may be, into
the flock wherein he was suckled and brought up. And
To Henry. 13$
since he reckons himself not worthy to be called your
son or your brother as yet, he desired at least to become
as one of your hired servants so only he may attain to
be among you : and for his attendant whom he himself
drew on to consent to and obey his pleasure, he fears so
much more than for his own flesh, as that if the other
should be visited with any penalty by a just decision,
he will regard it as to be paid by his own soul. Also as
to that money belonging to another which was received
on condition of repayment, and which he being deceived
by some one else incautiously spent, he is so uneasy that
unless by the help of your bounty and by leave to ask
in whatsoever quarter whence he might get assistance,
he should succeed in freeing the other from that debt,
his spirit can never hope to be freed from this shame.
But since he cannot think his own prayers alone either
could or should be sufficient to obtain so many and so
great things, he begs me, your servant, since just now he
has no one more attached to you, or whom he more
depends on as being able to obtain anything from you
to intercede for him. Therefore, since there is no more
urgent intercession than the offering of skin for skin, of
life for life, as saith the Lord : " Greater love hath no
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends," let your love understand that Master Moses,
from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, is
covered entirely with the skin of your servant brother
Anselm, and his mouth is mine. If, therefore, there
should be anyone among you whom I have ever wilfully
offended, let him first scourge my skin in Moses for that
aforesaid fault, and deny food to my mouth. But after
that fault I commend my skin to brother Moses to guard
as he loveth his own ; and to you that you not merely
spare it. For if for his fault my skin be struck or severely
injured, of him will I require it ; but if any should spare
136" Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
him, I will be grateful to him. And as to his attendant,
know that I have no other skin, since his safety is mine :
his soul is my soul. But since what he asks as to the
money is easy to do, it will not, as I think, be hard to
obtain from your mercifulness. We wish to hear your
decision as to all these points by a letter from you before
he sets out to return : not that he would refuse to hasten
even towards suffering, should you so desire him ; but
because he desires to return in good hope, joyfully, to
those whom he loves. Farewell.
part 333.
WRITTEN WHEN ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
17. To THE MONKS OF EEC.
Brother Anselm, to his best - beloved, and much
longed-for brethren and sons, the monks of Bee : in
neart belonging to them after God : may you ever be
ruled by the counsel and enjoy the consolation of the
Holy Spirit.
All that you have written or said in common, or that
as individuals you have out of the affection of your
hearts sent to him whom you love and long for, and
which neither tongue can express, nor pen, is all deeply
and distinctly graven upon my heart. There is besides
much else proceeding from my heart and mind which I
would were in like manner written and graven on your
hearts. For there, in the most secret recesses of my
being, I arrange and re-arrange, turn it over, again and
again, before God. With what feeling I do it, He seeth,
both within and without ; to this testify my tears and
To the Monks of Bee. 1 37
exclamations, and the sound of my heart s groaning,
such as I never remember any grief to have drawn from
me before the day whereon the heavy lot of the arch
bishopric of Canterbury was seen to fall upon me, which
words and groans I am certain were not of set purpose
simulated, but the swords of grief piercing my heart
extorted, and still extort them. Of this it was impossible
that those should be ignorant who beheld my face on
that day when the bishops and abbots who dragged me
to the church carried me off objecting and protesting, so
that it might have appeared doubtful whether madmen
were leading a sane man or sane men one out of his mind ;
except that they were singing, and I for pallor was in
hue more like a dead than a living man : nor they who
after that day heard me from afar lamenting in unusual
fashion (my mind being overcome with grief when I had
leisure to reflect both on your affection and the burden
imposed upon my weakness), and seeing me feared that
I should lose either my life or my senses, on account of
this fear sprinkled me with holy water and gave it me
to drink. Perhaps I ought to be ashamed because the
wounds of grief have so prostrated my soul, entirely
absorbed as it is in its separation from your souls and
its own grave peril, and so prostrate it still, that it often
emits heavy groans, with gushing tears. But of a truth
I do not blush to confess that the fear of God arid love
of men, chiefly of you, have thus wounded and do thus
wound it. All which things bear my conscience witness
as to the longing and desire with which I looked forward
to the archiepiscopal dignity and burden, and the joy
with which I accept it. However, if any do think of me
otherwise than as my conscience deems of itself in the
sight of God, I am consoled by this, that it ought to
be a very small thing to me that I should be judged of
them or of man s judgment. And, also, that we have
J 38 Selections from the Letters of St A nselm.
to pass through this life through evil report and good
report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet
well-known, so only that my conscience accuse me not
before God. I have hitherto resisted this election of
myself which was made violently, holding myself fast to
the truth : but now whether I will or not I am compelled
to confess that the decisions of God resist my efforts
ever more and more, and now I see no way by which
I can fly from them either without serious evil, both
temporal and spiritual, on either hand, or without God s
anger could I or any other at all impede the intention
He has formed. Wherefore, being vanquished, not so
much by the power of man as by that of God, against
whom no wisdom or strength may avail, I feel impelled to
follow this course only: after having prayed as much as I
could and striven that if it were possible, this cup should
pass from me, that I should not drink it, seeing my
prayer repulsed and my struggles to be unavailing, I
should say to God, " Nevertheless, not as I will, but as
Thou wilt." But since on either hand I fear God, nor
either way love aught save God and men for God, I
think there is nothing safer for me in so dangerous a
position as, setting aside my own inclination and will,
to give myself up, both in feeling and will, entirely to
God. And although in this matter it be very hard for me
to give and for you to receive a decision which is against
your feelings and mine, yet since I and you belong more
to God than I to you, or you to me : " whether we live
or die, we are the Lord s : " I yet dare not in God s
business, and in such straits, withhold my opinion as
before God from those whom I am bound to advise. I
therefore advise you my best-beloved and most affec
tionate ones, to let nothing make you persistently oppose
God ; for " rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft ; " and it
is very hard to kick against the goad of God. For
To the Monks of Bee. 139
things have undoubtedly by the decision of God come
to this pass : that I must needs, if God shall deign to
effect aught of good by my means, serve and be useful
to, you and many others ; or I must be of no use at all
either to myself, or you, or others, not the will, but the
power, being wanting.
And if this should happen through your obstinacy,
you would cause my old age to be worn away and fail
from inconsolable sadness, on account of the great and
varied evil which hence would follow and justly appear
to be imputed to you and me even by those who do not,
however, foresee them. But if you knew what evils the
delay has already occasioned to bodies and souls, and
how detested it and those who cause it are by the best
and wisest of the English, and even by the whole
nation, I think you also (if you are not inhuman)
would hate that delay. Perhaps what I say may
appear strange to you, and many who do not see into
my heart, and who are ready to judge the interior con
sciences of others, which they cannot discern, will judge
me wrongly somehow because I speak to you thus about
this affair. But I speak before God, to whom I lay
bare my life, and " put my trust in Him, that He shall
bring it to pass," for my conscience doth not accuse me
in His sight of being drawn to speak thus by the desire
of earthly riches or dignity. If henceforth any should
think otherwise of me, I shall hold him to be an adver
sary of the truth, and God shall be my witness against
him. Farewell ; and may God, who guideth the weak
in judgment, and learneth His way to such as are not
stiff-necked but gentle, direct your minds and wills to a
right judgment concerning this business.
140 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
1 8. To THE MONKS OF EEC.
To his dearly-beloved Lord, Prior Baldric, and the
other servants of God living in the monastery of Bee ;
brother Anselm, their servant and fellow-servant : may
you ever be ruled by the divine counsel, and protected
by the divine help.
Although the divine will separates me from you in
body, not without deep and pious grief to my heart,
yet I pray God that the affection which He gave and
wherewith my soul embraces you in its secret recesses,
may continue ; through which, God approving, I shall
always be your servant ; since I shall ever, so far as
God shall give me the power, be devoted to your
interests. For though that affection be so great that
often when I reflect on our separation, so against our
will and still so incomplete, my heart forthwith swells
and is agitated with an internal tempest as the sea with
winds, and my eyes rain down tears, yet is it sweeter
to me to bear all that through my love than to detach
myself therefrom. For God knows, in whose sight I
speak according to my conscience, that I more loved you
in God and for your own sake, and to be myself with
you : that you to me were more than the distinction,
or power, or earthly possessions which I had on your
account Wherefore I am more distressed by your
sadness at whatever need (if any such there be) which
you may feel of me, than consoled by any earthly
exaltation or opulence. Even now in this very address
which I am making to you by dictation, tears which
my eyes cannot restrain are my witnesses, as also sobs
bursting from my throat and choking it up, as they
overflow from the groaning of my heart, interrupting
the writer by delaying the words from my mouth.
However, there are, as I hear, some (but who they may
To the Monks of Bee. 1 4 1
be, God knoweth) who either out of malice pretend, or
out of mistake suspect, or are impelled by undiscerning
grief to say, that I was attracted to the archbishopric by
depraved avarice rather than compelled to accept it by
religious necessity. These I know not how to convince
of the position of my conscience in this matter, if my
life and conversation does not satisfy them. For I
have already so lived for thirty-three years in the
monastic habit (that is, three without office, fifteen as
prior, the same number of years as abbot), and that all
good people who knew me loved me, not from any
efforts of mine but by God s grace, and those the most
who knew me intimately and familiarly ; nor did any
one perceive in me any action to make them think I
delighted in power. What then shall I do ? How shall
I repel and extinguish this false and hateful suspicion,
lest it injure by lessening their charity the souls of those
who loved me for God s sake ; or of those to whom any
advice or example of my littleness may have been
useful, by persuading them that I am worse than I am ;
or even of these and others who have not known me and
will hear this, by setting before them an evil example !
Thou, God, who knowest all things ! I do not justify
myself according to the test of Thy strict judgment,
since that great Apostle, who could say, " I know
nothing of myself," when he had said this, added : " Yet
am I not hereby justified, but he that judgeth me is the
Lord." And that honest and upright man, fearing God
and avoiding evil, to whom, as Thou didst Thyself
testify, there was none like upon earth, said, " I am
afraid of all my works : " but according as my soul
understands its own conscience do I declare it before
Thee, that all who shall read or hear this my letter, may
know it as witnessed by Thee, and believe it. Thou,
Lord, seest, and be Thou my witness, that so far as my
142 Selections from the Letters of St Ansehn.
conscience tells me, I know not why the love of any
thing which Thy servant, a scorner of the world, ought
to despise, should attract or bind me to the acceptance
of the archbishopric to which I was dragged, being
borne suddenly away ; and also, that did obedience and
chanty, both which on account of Thee I would guard
so far as Thou hast given them, allow it, I would rather
choose to serve and live as a monk, under a superior,
and receive from him spiritual advice and bodily neces
saries, than to rule or guide other men, whether as to
their souls direction or their bodily support ; or to
possess earthly riches.
Thou seest, and be Thou my witness, that, so far as
my conscience tells me, I know not how I could free
myself from that design of those who elected me ; and
that Thy fear and love and the obedience which I owe
to Thee and to Thy Church, compel me, bind me, so
that I may not dare obstinately to contradict their
religious entreaties and the great desire they manifest
to me. Lord, if my conscience be deceiving me, show
me myself and correct me, and " make Thy way plain
before my face." And whether it please Thee, that
what has been by men begun in this my election shall
be completed, or not carried out, " teach me Thy way,
and I will walk in Thy truth." Lord, Thou seest, as I
said, my conscience : be Thou witness for me to those
who may suspect otherwise of me ; and make it plain
to them ; that they injure not their own or others souls
by judging my spirit wrongly. Now, dearly loved
brethren, you have heard what my conscience tells me
as to my desire for or contempt of the archbishopric.
But if I knowingly lie to God, I know not to whom I
should tell the truth. Should anyone henceforth, in
contradiction to what I have said on this matter and
called God to witness, try openly or secretly to give any
To the Monks of Bee. 143
other a bad opinion of me, I think that God will be on
my side against him, and will answer him for me ; but
I shall console myself with the witness of God. But I
am very sure that however this false suspicion shall
injure the soul of any, the authors of it, should there be
more than one, will have the sin upon their souls, and
whether there be one or many, it will lie most on him
who shall have been the chief originator. Here, how
ever, I will briefly answer those arguments with which
some of you think I might reasonably have resisted the
aforesaid election. They say : " When he was obliged
to become abbot, he became our servant in the name of
the Lord." What do they mean by this ? They surely
do not think that I swore servitude to you in the Lord s
name ? for I certainly did no such thing. Is that which
the Lord said : " If ye shall ask anything in My Name,"
to be understood as if He had said, " If ye had sworn
to the Father, asking anything in My Name " ? or when
we say : " Our help is in the Name of the Lord," or as
often as we do or say anything in the name of the Lord,
do we each time swear by the name of the Lord ? By
no means : but however that may be understood, is
now nothing to me ; but what I then said " in the name
of the Lord," I understood and understand as in the
Lord, that is, in God. What is done in God, is done
according to God, that is, rightly. When, therefore, I
gave myself to be your servant in the Lord s name, I
gave myself to you as a servant, so far as I could
according to the Lord s will. Judge ye now whether
in this way I refuse, or whether I could while following
God refuse to accept His disposal of me, to which
whether I willed it or not I was rightly subject ; or the
obedience to which I had wholly surrendered myself.
For when I professed myself a monk, I yielded up
myself, so that thenceforward I could not be my own,
144 Selections from the Letters of St Ansel in.
that is, I could not live according to my own will, but
according to obedience ; now true obedience is either
to God, or to the Church of God and those who are
placed highest below God. This obedience, then, I
neither abjured, nor yielded up ; but rather fulfilled it
as I said, " in the name of the Lord." Learn then what
it was that I then gave you. This only : that I could
not at my own will withdraw myself from your service,
nor seek to be withdrawn from it, unless compelled
thereto by that guidance and obedience, to which I was
first subject by the ordinance of God. But as to what
I did : had I done otherwise than as I said, of a verity
you would not be monks, were you to exact of me
aught that I had promised you, when it was contrary
to God s will. Never before you had allowed me to be
promoted to the archbishopric, did I explain to anyone
this surrender of myself, but I used to object it as an in
superable obstacle, lest I should be promoted ; until I per
ceived that those who wished to remove me persisted with
such constancy in their determination as not to under
stand that anything could be in the way, and also that
they asserted that on no account either would or should
they desist from what they had begun. Some also say
that I had been given to you according to God ; and that
from those over whom I was lawfully placed I cannot
rightly allow myself to be removed, nor ought they
to yield me up. St Martin was an abbot according
to the will of God, and yet he was taken away from
his monks and clergy, and placed over monks and
laymen and women. I think that Peter the Apostle
sat in the episcopal chair at Antioch by God s appoint
ment; and yet no one says that he did wrong when,
deserting it, he went to Rome to seek a larger harvest.
Can we therefore say that these did not love their first
disciples, or that they afterwards loved them less ? or
To the Monks of Bee. 145
that God scorned and deserted them because they had,
as to bodily presence, deserted those others ? This, at
any rate, brethren, cannot be asserted. I compare not
myself to them in greatness ; but I am not on that
account to be condemned if God doth with me some
what as He did with them. Perchance someone may
say : " Thou art not a man whom so great a charge
befits." This is exactly what I assert with heart and
mouth concerning myself. Then they say : " Whatever
thou art, we want thee ; we do not release thee."
Some again call to mind that I used to say that I
was unwilling to live except with you, and that I
would never have any other charge but that of Bee.
But I used to say this according to my own will and
inclination and with the idea of trusting in my own
defence and reply should I be called to another charge.
But what, if God orders that I shall even live for, and
serve, others ? Ought I rebelliously to resist ? Both I
and you belong more to God than I to you, and you
to me. The prince of the apostles said to the Lord :
" Thou shalt never wash my feet." That was his will.
But what said the Lord? " If I wash thee not, thou hast
no part with Me." And what Peter ? " Lord, not my
feet only, but also my hands and my head." But God
did not condemn him because he changed his own
purpose for the divine purpose ; rather He humbled
Himself at Peter s feet. I had reckoned on my strength
and cleverness to defend myself with ; but God was
stronger and more able than me, and therefore my idea
came to nothing. Some one may perhaps say I have
spoken foolishly, as if justifying myself and proving
myself worthy of the archbishopric ; but my false
slanderers have constrained me lest they should infect
you or some one else with the poison of their untruth :
nor do I aim at proving myself worthy of the arch-
K
146 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
bishopric, but at clearing myself of a falsely imputed
crime. But as to these things of which I have so far
spoken, let this now suffice. I will however add some
what for your consolation.
Thus, I beg of you, my much-loved brethren, not to
be grieved above measure at my absence. Truly your
sadness is mine, and your consolation is mine also.
Let not your hope be in man, but in God, since if I
have been of any use to you, it was not of myself, but
of Him. Many of you, and perhaps all, came to Bee
because of me; but none of you became a monk because
of me ; nor from hope of reward from me did you devote
yourselves to God ; from Him to whom you gave all
you had, expect all you need. " Cast your burden upon
the Lord, and He shall nourish you." Turn all your
anxiety towards serving Him : and He will take all care
for your support. For myself, I pray that you will not
love me the less, because God doth His will with me :
and that I may not for this be utterly lost, if I have
sometimes wished to do your will, because I neither
dare, nor ought to, nor can, resist God, nor do I see so
far how I could withdraw myself from the Church of
the English, except by resisting God. Let it be plain
that you have not loved me for yourselves alone, but
also for God, and myself. Pray for me, that whatever
may become of me, may by the grace of God be brought
to a good end. From this time forth, give up looking
upon me as your abbot ; but know me to be your loving
friend and most anxious for you so long as I live, God
keeping me firm in those feelings which He gave me
concerning you. But I will never give up the power of
binding and loosing, and of advising you, which I had
over you, so long as the abbot who shall succeed me,
and you who will be under him, shall yield it to me : I
can hardly say it for weeping. To our Lord Jesus
To the Monks of Bee. 147
Christ and His righteous mother Mary, and to blessed
Peter, to whom He commended His sheep, and to
Saint Benedict (according to whose rule you professed
obedience) : and to the other saints of God I commend
you, most dearly-loved brothers mine, and by their
merits and intercessions may He who redeemed you be
your abbot, your guardian : may He cause you after
this life to live in His kingdom. There may His good
ness grant me to behold you, and with you to rejoice
eternally, who is God blessed for ever. Amen. Many
among you, whom I used to cherish with such sweet
and familiar affection that to each one it might seem as
if I could have loved none other so much, wonder why
I do not write to each singly some remembrance of our
affection. But they must know that not my forgetful-
ness, but their number, occasions this. And perhaps I
shall do so when it shall be more convenient, and if not
to all, at least to some. At present I will say only this
to them : that they should remember I loved them for
nothing else but because they loved God and their own
souls. They are my witnesses that I always claim this
from them and from you all ; for this I implore, to this
exhort, this advise : let them do this, and thus will they
ever keep inviolate my love for them. Hasten to raise
up an abbot for yourselves, for this is needful for you.
Farewell. Show this letter of mine to whomsoever you
can, to clear me from those false suspicions of me ; and
chiefly to the reverend lords and my fathers who of
His grace for God s sake, bishops, and abbots, loved
me ; concerning whom it hurts me most if they are
deceived into suspecting there is anything bad and
wrong in me. For I am unwilling to lose their affec
tion on any account, but desire always by honouring
and loving them to deserve and retain it.
148 Selections from the Letters of St Ansehn.
19. To FOLK, BISHOP.
Brother Anselm to his dearest, much-loved friend,
Fulk, bishop : mayest thou enjoy the perpetual pro
tection and consolation of God.
I know, dear friend mine, how your loving heart must
be saddened by the unlooked-for loss of the bodily
presence of him whom it loves above all others, did it
not wisely comfort itself with the consideration of the
divine ordering of things. For as in the hearts of those
who are mutually attached to each other the hope and
opportunity of enjoying each other s company nourishes
a certain enjoyable serenity, so does the despair of the
same thing engender a grievous bitterness. My know
ledge of this fact your wisdom may be aware of. For
I so well know the sincerity of your love towards me,
that I am sure you are not ignorant of the truth of my
love for you and for those to whom I have expressed
it, and most of all for the monks of Bee. For none so
truly understands the real attitude of a soul as he who
feels for it a true friendship. Consider, therefore ; what
genuine gladness can there be in my heart, which is
saddened by the irreparable loss in this life of the
bodily presence of so many friends longing for me and
longed for by me ? Each one of these grieves for the
loss of my companionship in the body, and my spirit
grieves for all, since it is unwillingly and so unexpectedly
separated from the presence of them all. For although
I may seem to be gladdened by a greater number who
show like attachment to me in England, this can in
nowise root out of my heart the former love planted so
long ago and cherished for so long. But true affection
does not love its former friends less, even if it be
unable to show itself outwardly, when it is extended to
a greater number ; just as neither does it fear to be less
To Fulk, Bishop, 149
loved by the earlier, if they be true friends, when it
obtains the affection of a greater number. And yet I
find a certain comfort in the number of present friends
for the vexation I endure from the absence of the
earlier ones, that is however unable to cause me not
to sorrow for those who the more they love me so
much the more are they hurt by grief for the absence
of their friend whom they love. I enjoy writing to
my dear friend about the truth of my affection,
and treating at length of its power: but since the
brevity of a letter will not allow of this, I must
now (although I should like to say more) change the
subject. Some, as I have heard, suspect me of obtaining
the archbishopric, to which I was dragged with grief and
fear, through covetousness. Whether they do this by
their own mistake or by the persuasion of others, may
God, who sees that they are mistaken and wrong, have
mercy on them. I do not defend myself to my brother
beloved, who having known me long in familiar inter
course, undoubtedly must have learnt and believed in
my freedom from desire of worldly honours. You knew
this all the more certainly the more fearlessly you
committed yourself and all your life to my guidance
and judgment. But I defend myself before those, who
ever they are, who shall read this letter, that they may
know what my conscience witnesses with me before
God, and that when need shall arise, they may defend
me before others who are not well-informed, if not for
my sake, yet on account of God s cause. For the weak
brethren in God s Church are much injured by the
opinion of any wickedness in any man, whether the
report be a true or a false one ; and most of all if it be
of wickedness in him who is so placed in the Catholic
Church as that by word and example he should and
can be of use to others. Therefore be it known to all,
1 50 Selections from the Letters of St Ansclm.
as my conscience tells me in the sight of God, whom
to invoke as witness to a lie is, I know, a crime, that I
was not drawn or bound to the archbishopric over the
English by the desire of anything whatsoever which a
servant of God, a despiser of the world, ought to spurn ;
but the fear of God compelled me to suffer myself to be
dragged, although grieved and afraid, from the Church
of God. Also, that if I could, consistently with the
obedience and love which I owe to God and to His
Church, my mother, because of Him, I would rather
and more gladly choose to be under an abbot and
regular discipline in monkish poverty and humility, and
to obey, and serve, than to reign as a secular prince in
this world, or to govern, or to possess either arch
bishopric or bishopric, or an abbey, or to be set over
any men at all whether for the government of their
souls or the sustenance of their bodies, in possession of
great opulence whether in lands or worldly goods.
This I do not ascribe so much to my own virtue as to
this, that I know myself to be so little useful, strong,
vigorous, prudent, or just, that it would suit me better,
and be more advisable for me to be under obedience
than to be set over others, to obey than to give orders,
to serve than to rule, to minister than to be ministered
unto. I am obliged to acknowledge this about myself;
but I would rather say what I think of myself in all
simplicity without any double-dealing than allow other
men to sin against me, or to follow a bad example
through their ignorance and their mistakes concerning
me. Whoever believes what I here say of myself, it is
certain will not be mistaken in believing thus, if my
conscience deceives me not before God ; and as to him
who does not believe it, it is a truth that he, judging of
me falsely and rashly, is mistaken. May Almighty
God cause you to enjoy in this life and in the life that
is to be, His unfailing protection and comfort. Amen.
To the Monks of Bee. 1 5 1
20. To THE MONKS OF BEG.
Anselm, called the archbishop, to those dearest sons
of his love, the youths and young men of Bee, who sent
a letter to him in England : the blessing of God be
yours, and my blessing so far as it is worth, if indeed
it avail for aught.
I have read in your letter your most affectionate and
tender love for him whom you love and who loves you ;
I have read it often, and again and again the depths of
my heart have been deeply and tenderly moved by the
contemplation of your love, and tears flowed down my
cheeks. Though the love of even one of you were
sufficient to cause this, yet was it all the fuller and more
overpowering because I recognised in your words the
like mind and affection of others who had sent no letter.
What you say, that you wish I could always be with
you, I certainly myself desire. But since God disposes
otherwise than we wish, nor do I perceive it to be advan
tageous to your souls, which I love (as your own hearts
testify) like my own, that you should be able to live
with me ; I pray, advise, exhort, that you patiently with
me endure the divine dispensation. And thus lessening
by submission your own grief you will soften mine also ;
for your sadness is mine, and likewise your consolation.
And this I say not only to you, oh dearest sons, but to
all who like you are disquieted by the absence of their
well-loved friend. I know that could you hope still in
this life to spend some time in my company, it would
be a great comfort to you. Then how much greater a
consolation ought we to feel it, if we hope to be
together, victorious and jubilant for ever in the life to
come ? Be comforted, therefore, my sons, be comforted
and submit yourselves to the will of God, who better
knows what is good for you than you do yourselves ;
152 Selections from the Letters of St A nselm.
since God will give you for that patience something
greater than could come to you from my presence. Be
assured that no distance of place, no length of time
would be able, as I hope in God, to drive from my
heart the sweetness of your affection. Both to those
who in their letter have told me they wished for my
absolution, and to those who, although they have not
written to ask for it, yet desire it, I send before God
absolution and benediction, and pray that Almighty
God may absolve them from all their sins and bless
them in the life to come. Amen.
21. To HUGH, ARCHBISHOP OF LYONS.
Brother Anselm, called either by command or per
mission of God, Archbishop of Canterbury, to his lord
and dearest friend, the honoured Archbishop Hugh :
mayest thou long shine in this life, and ever rejoice in
the next.
If all things are to be done with prudence, those are
chiefly to be carried out with wisdom wherein the only
point in question is how the will of God shall be obeyed.
I beseech therefore your holiness, that for God s sake,
and for the love I know you bear me, you would seek
counsel of God and impart it to me. To speak briefly:
I think you will have heard how suddenly I was raised
to the archiepiscopate. Before I gave my consent, I had
plainly said that I favoured the Lord Pope Urban, and
was against Guibert ; and for six months I did and said
all I could without sin in order to be dismissed. But
being, however, on many accounts constrained by the
fear of God, I yielded me sorrowfully at the command
of my archbishop and to the election of the whole of
England, and was consecrated ; perchance I trembled
with fear where no fear was ; but I could not tell ; God
To Hugh, A rchbisliop of Lyons. 153
knows, and I cannot yet be sure. Soon after, our king
intending to set out for Normandy, was in need of much
money. Before he had asked me for anything, by the
advice of friends I promised him no small sum : God
knows with what intention. He rejected it as too little,
that I might give more ; but I would not. Thanks be
to God, who pitying the simplicity of my heart, caused
it to happen thus, lest, if I had promised nothing or
little, there might have seemed a just cause for anger;
or if he had accepted it, it might have been turned into
an accusation against me and a suspicion of nefarious
purchase. From that time he has appeared to seek
opportunities against me. I spoke about the pallium ; he
would not let me fetch it so long as he had acknowledged
no pope ; nor even allow me to give notice to the lord
pope of this excuse for delay. I have held out until
now by the advice of the bishops in order to avoid
useless variance, if perchance God might cause some
thing to happen in the meantime which should induce
him to accept the lord pope. I begged that a council
might be summoned, which had not been done in
England for many years, in order that some things in
that kingdom which seemed on no account endurable
might be altered. I also warned him to correct some
things which he seemed to me to be doing wrongly :
openly enraged on these accounts, he told me I had
lost his affection. I answered that I would rather he
were offended with me, than God with him ; and with
that I left his presence. The next day, returning to
him, I said I would gladly give him satisfaction, if he
could find in me any fault against him (of which how
ever I was myself unaware), and I begged him to give
me back his affection. He replied that he would not
then either accept satisfaction, or give me back his
favour, unless I would tell him what reason there was
154 Selections from the Letters of St Ansclm.
for his restoring me to it. I saw that he wanted the
money, which I would not give, lest I should seem to
be acknowledging a fault which did not exist. Then he
got so angry that he spoke as he ought not ; and some
considerable lands, which Archbishop Lanfranc had
held in his father s time and that of this king undis
turbed up to the day of his death, in part he gave, and
in part is preparing to give, to his soldiers, under
some pretext of military tenure, according to which
he wills me to cede these lands : whereas I say that
he has no right to compel me to cede lands which
the archbishop my predecessor held so long peacefully,
and which he himself gave to me on the same terms
on which that other held them.
Now this is what I spoke of as military tenure.
Because, before the Normans invaded England, those
lands are said to have been held by English soldiers
under the Archbishop of Canterbury, and these soldiers
died without heirs, he, the king, wants to assert that he
can constitute as their heirs exactly whom he will.
Now your wisdom shall hear what I think about the
foregoing, so that in your letter you may either approve
of my opinion, or refute it, giving your reason : and
strengthen me in that which the rather ought to be held
to. But this is what I think : The king gave me the
archbishopric as Archbishop Lanfranc had held it until
the end of his life; and now he takes from the Church and
from me that which the Church and that very archbishop
so long held in peace, and which he himself gave to me.
Now I am very sure that this archbishopric will be given
to no one after me otherwise than as I shall hold it at
the day of my death ; nor, should any other king suc
ceed in my life-time, will he grant it to me otherwise
than as he shall find me holding it. Therefore if until
my death I shall have held the archbishopric impaired,
To Bo so. 155
in that way the Church would lose through me. If
indeed it were some other person, to whom appertained
not the guardianship of the Church, who did her this
injury or patiently put up with it when it had been
already done, it is plain enough that in the future no
objection could be taken to the possessions of the
Church being restored to her. But now, since the king
is his own advocate, and I the guardian, what will be
said in future but that since the king did it, and the arch
bishop by consenting confirmed it, it ought to be valid.
It is therefore better for me in God s sight that I should
not thus hold possession of the lands of the Church,
but being, after the fashion of the apostles, poor, should
do the office of a bishop as a witness to the violence
done, than that by retaining that possession diminished,
I should render that diminution irreparable. And, there
is another thing which I think also. If, being conse
crated bishop metropolitan, I do not for a whole year
demand a reigning pope, nor the pall, when I can do
so, I ought rightly to be removed from the honour. If
I cannot effect these without losing the archbishopric,
it is better for me that it should be forcibly taken from
me; better indeed is it that I should reject the arch
bishopric than be false to the apostolic see. Thus I
think, and thus I shall act, unless you write to me to
say why I ought not so to act. May Almighty God
so guard your sanctity by His grace in this life, that
happiness may be your lot in the life that is to be.
Amen.
22. To BOSO.
Father to son, brother to brother, friend to friend,
Anselm to Boso ; that, to thee.
I give thanks as if I were with thee, for thy visit by
1 56 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
letter, for thy advice, comfort, thy yearning affection,
And the rather since although thou lovest me above all
earthly things, yet thy heart more inclines towards con
soling me in my trouble of which thou art aware, than
to the satisfaction of thy loving affection, which is the
chief thing in the world to thee. The sweetness of thy
affection for me has long known the tenderness of mine
for thee, and my love for thee knew long ago thy love
for me. Each knows the secret heart of the other by
his own, and positive experience suffers no doubt to
arise in the mind of either. For our mutual love had
its true source in God ; and I do not so much pray that
wherein it has hitherto persevered it still may continue
as confidently from hope in God declare that it will
endure. I cannot send you frequent letters, as your
affection and mine would desire ; since even if I had the
opportunity, I should fear to give some occasion for
violence from the king, who hates everything belonging
to me and those who love me; both towards our Church
and towards the bearer, if he by any means should have
knowledge of it. The book I have written, of which the
title is, " Cur Deus Homo ? " is being copied by Master
Eadmer, my very dear son and the staff of my old age,
a monk of Bee, to whom my friends are indebted in
proportion to their love for me, or rather to the church
of Bee, whose son he is. Since for the reason I have
before mentioned, I cannot write to the lord abbot of
our church, I commend to thee the memory of myself,
that in the hearts of those whom I loved (they bear me
witness) as my own soul, and God giving me grace will
love as long as I live, thy earnest putting in mind may
deepen it and never suffer it to wear out. I hear that
Master Fulk, my cousin, is with you. If he is, I entreat
you all for him as for my own flesh. For he is an exile
for God s sake, and long ago he became a monk at Bee.
To Lanfrid, Abbot of St Ulmar. 157
Greet him, and be to him in my stead. May Almighty
God bless thee, body and soul. Greet those whom thou
knowest and thinkest well to greet.
23. To LANFRID, ABBOT OF ST ULMAR.
Anselm, called Archbishop, to his dearly-beloved
brother Lanfrid, Lord -Abbot of the Monastery of
Saint Ulmar; may the divine wisdom guide and the
divine help aid thee.
Concerning your urgent request pressing me to try by
arguments and petitions to obtain leave from your
bishop for you to give up the post of abbot where the
divine will has placed you, I have myself thought much
and often, and spoken to others from whom I hoped to
receive spiritual counsel ; and I have come to the con
clusion, that although on account of the pity which I
feel, my brother, for your sadness, I should greatly
rejoice with you if by the mercy of God, with the
advice and permission of your archbishop and bishop,
you should attain your desire, it would yet be dangerous
for me to request and advise so unusual a measure.
Further : I fear lest I should err not a little if at my
instance the place committed to your charge should
be left without any ruler and be more completely, nay,
altogether, ruined, both as to goods, government, and
order. For if your presence there were of no other use
than this : that wickedness cannot reign there, or act
freely without any check, so that things are not so bad
there as they would be if it were without a head, either
as to orderly life or waste of goods ; yet you could not
complain as if you were living uselessly where you were
repressing so much evil both bodily and spiritual, thus
keeping that place from ruin. Then your prudence
may all the more take comfort since there are some
1 58 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
under you who both love your wisdom and rule and
obey it with a voluntary subjection. There is again
somewhat more for which you should rejoice in your
tribulation ; that you are doubtless meeting with it on
account of your burning zeal for God, and that you are
enduring it from the fear of God whereby you dare not fly
from it. Of a truth, where there are so many reasons for
comfort and spiritual gladness, little weight ought to be
attached to the bitterness of sadness. For God weighs
not only the care one takes to be profitable to others,
but also or perhaps yet more carefully, the labour one
endures in the attempt to profit them and the grief one
feels at not being able to improve them according to
one s wish. For it is our part to plough and sow, but
the increase and harvest are God s to give. He repays
us that which is our own, though it be our own through
His help; but that which is His, to Himself He ascribes
it. However, if your mind will not or cannot accept
this opinion, I do not forbid it, if through your bishop,
and the ordinance of God through those to whom these
matters appertain, you can in the regular way obtain
your desire. Farewell.
24. To POPE PASCAL.
To his reverend lord and father, Pascal the great
pontiff, Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury ;
with due willing submission and, if they are worth
aught, the devotion of his prayers.
The reason why I have so long delayed to send any
message to your highness after we, giving God thanks,
had rejoiced at the certain news of your elevation, was
that a certain messenger came from the king of the
English to the venerable Archbishop of Lyons about
our matters, not however announcing what was to be
To Pope Pascal. 159
required ; and hearing the answer of the archbishop he
went back to the king, promising to return at once to
Lyons. I waited for him that I might know what I
could tell you as to the king s will, but he never came.
I will therefore state my case briefly, for when I stayed
in Rome I often told it to the Lord Pope Urban and to
many others, as I doubt not your holiness knows. I
saw in England many evils the correction of which
belonged to me, and which I could neither remedy, nor
without personal guilt allow to exist. Now the king-
required me to give my consent under the cloak of
justice to what he willed, which was against the law and
will of God. For except by his own command he would
not allow the holder of the apostolic see to be appealed
to in England ; nor that I should send him a letter or
receive one sent by him, or obey his decrees. He has
suffered no council to be summoned in his kingdom
since he became king, now thirteen years ago. He
gave the lands of the Church to his men; when I sought
advice as to these and similar matters, every one in his
kingdom, even my own suffragan bishops, refused to give
any advice save according to the king s will. I, seeing
these and many other things which are against God s will
and law, begged him for leave to go to the apostolic see
that I might thence receive advice as to my own soul
and the duty incumbent on me. The king replied that
I had offended against him by the mere asking for this
leave, and required me either to give him satisfaction
for this as for an offence and security against my ever
asking again for such permission or ever appealing to
the apostolic see, or forthwith to leave his realm. I
preferred to depart rather than consent to that wicked
ness. I went, as you know, to Rome, and told the
whole matter to the lord pope. Directly I left Eng
land, the king, only allowing for the bare food and
1 60 Selections from the Letters of St A nselm.
clothing of our monks, took possession of the whole
archbishopric and converted it to his own use. Being
warned and commanded by the lord pope to alter this,
he held him in contempt, and still continues to go on
in the same manner. This is now already the third
year since I left England ; the little I brought with
me and much which I have borrowed and still owe,
have I spent. Thus owing more than I possess, being
detained at the house of our venerable father the
Archbishop of Lyons, I am at present supported by
his kind liberality and generous goodness. I say this
not as desiring to return to England, but I fear lest your
highness should be angry with me did I not make you
acquainted with my position. Thus I pray and adjure
you with all possible earnestness by no means to com
mand me to return to England, except in such manner
as I shall be allowed to prefer the law and will of God
and the apostolic decrees, to the will of man : and ex
cept the king shall restore to me the Church lands, and
whatever he has taken from the archbishopric because I
appealed to the apostolic see ; unless indeed a just com
pensation be made to the Church for all that. Other
wise I should let it appear that I ought to put man
before God, and that I am rightly despoiled for choosing
to appeal to the apostolic see. It is plain enough what
an injurious and detestable example this would be for
my successors. Some of the less intelligent ask why I
do not excommunicate the king ; but the wiser and
more clear-judging advise me not to do that, since it
behoves me not to do both these, i.e., make the com
plaint, and impose the penalty. And then I am told by
my friends who are under the same king, that if I were
indeed to publish my excommunication, it would by
them be despised and turned into ridicule. The autho
rity of your wisdom needs no advice from me as to all
To the Prior and Brethren of Canterbury Church. 161
this. I pray that Almighty God may make all your
actions pleasing to Him, and His Church long to rejoice
in the prosperity of your rule. Amen.
25. To THE PRIOR AND BRETHREN OF THE CHURCH
AT CANTERBURY.
Anselm the archbishop to the lord prior and the
brethren living under his rule in the Church of Christ
at Canterbury, greeting : and from God blessing, and
forgiveness of sins.
Your fraternity asks me for advice as to your trouble,
and particularly as to the money which the king has
made you pay. You know how he has robbed me of
the possessions of the archbishopric. Therefore he
shall by no means get from me anything out of the
whole archbishopric, unless he shall first have reinvested
me according to the canons, and restored to me what
he took ; nor ought you willingly to give him my money
without command from me. But should he force you to
give it whether by fear lest he should do still worse to
you or by any other compulsion, I shall cry to God alike
for what he has taken and for what he shall take from
me and you (for what is yours is mine) and invoke His
judgment. Do not let present sufferings too much
terrify nor disturb you, "for God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able." " Be
strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might."
God, who does not forsake those who put their trust in
Him, will put an end to these evils. Master Baldwin,
when he returned from Rome, brought word from the
lord pope, that he will bring our affair before the Council
which is to meet next Lent, that he may get advice from
the said Council : and he sent word of this to the king.
I beg of you to cause to be written out for me the
L
1 62 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
book " Cur Deus Homo ? " &c., in one volume, for I want
to send it to the lord pope, and I would ask that some one
who writes clearly and distinctly may transcribe them.
Farewell. And do this as quickly as you conveniently
can, and send it to me.
26. To DONALD, DONATUS, AND OTHER BISHOPS.
Anselm, metropolitan bishop of the Church at
Canterbury, to the reverend bishops Donald, Donatus,
and others high in office in the island of Hibernia :
may salvation from God the Father and Jesus Christ His
Son, and the blessing of an eternal inheritance be yours !
Perceiving by many signs the sweet savour of your
devotion, I have made up my mind to lay specially
before you the calamities which I suffer, that the nearer
you stand to the Creator, the more intimately you may
display my troubles before Him, and thus displaying
them with groans of compassion may obtain of Him
mercy for me. While my predecessor of blessed
memory, Lanfranc, now dead, was archbishop, I being
abbot at the head of the monastery of Bee in Nor
mandy (where my aforesaid predecessor, in ruling the
Church over which I now by God s will preside, had
preceded me), by the secret counsel of God went on
business concerning Church property, to England.
And being there, both the king and bishop and the
chief men in the realm forcibly conduct me to the
episcopal throne, not, as is customary, by summons,
but rather violently dragging me, clergy and people
shouting together, so that not one was present but
seemed to be pleased at what was being done. Then
again when I protested that I neither would, nor
should, agree to that, since without their knowledge I
had been taken out of the power of the Duke of
To Donald, Donatus, and other Bishops. 163
Normandy and the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rouen,
I was compelled by the command of those very same
men (z>., the aforesaid duke and archbishop), through
whose claims I had struggled to escape, and obeying, I
accepted the burden of the office. In this manner I
was raised to the pontificate, and accepted it because I
found it impossible to resist. Being therefore crowned
episcopally, I began carefully to consider what was my
duty to Christ, to His Church, to the country, to my
office, and I tried to repress evils by partial discipline,
to coerce those who had unjustly taken possession, and
to reduce everything irregular to due order. For
which cause those who ought to be my helpers in God s
Church, being greatly offended, only do me harm, and
the cause of God, which ought to advance through me,
goes back when I am present. Wherefore (I groan
as I speak and own it) bitter grief seizes me when I
remember that I have lost that fruitful peace, and
reflect that I have incurred this useless danger. For
so it has come to pass through my sins, that those who
had freely placed themselves under my rule, now of
their own will withdraw from my authority, and I who
was marked out by their approval am now hated by
almost all. Wherefore, venerable brothers, sons in
your affection, I beseech you in the name of Him who
redeemed His enemies by His own blood, pray that
God would give to us all peace, turn by His grace the
hearts of our enemies, and make us to live according to
His will. Further, I am impelled by my pastoral
solicitude to admonish your fraternity, godly though
you be in life and upright in intention, that you man
fully and watchfully extend God s teaching, restraining
with canonical severity any teaching contrary to that of
the Church which may be found within your provinces,
and arranging all things according to God s will. But
164 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
if at any time, whether on the consecration of bishops,
or on account of disputes about Church business, or for
any other reasons, any question about things pertaining
to holy religion should arise among you which you are
unable to settle canonically; I ordain, by the charge
love lays upon me, that this point should be referred to
my knowledge so that you may rather receive advice
and comfort from me than appoint transgressors of
God s law to be judges in His cause. Again, best
beloved, I implore you, pray for me ; raise me out of
my trials by the hand of your prayers, your devout
petitions vibrating in the ears of God s clemency.
May God, who "causeth the light to shine out of
darkness," flood your minds with the light of His
wisdom, that what He commands you may know, and
knowing, may indeed fulfil.
27. To POPE PASCAL.
To his respected lord and beloved father Pascal the
supreme pontiff, Anselm, servant of the Church of
Canterbury, presents his due obedience and faithful
prayers.
Since the aims and resolutions of the Church s sons
depend on the authority of the apostolic see, therefore I
have recourse to the direction and advice of your pater
nity; why notwithstanding I so long put off writing any
thing to your highness after my return from England,
you may if you like learn from the bearer of this. King
William, through whose violence I was three years an
exile, being dead, I was most eagerly recalled by my
lord King Henry, and by his nobles, and by the Church,
and by all received with great joy. When afterwards
they understood the regulation which I had heard made
in the Roman Council by your predecessor Pope
To Pope Pascal 165
Urban of venerable memory, namely, that no one
should receive a Church investiture at the hand of a
layman, nor should a bishop or abbot become his man,
I perceived and heard that the king and his nobles
would on no account agree to it. Wherefore I am
waiting for necessary advice from your highness on this
point. When I was at Rome, I plainly showed the
aforesaid pope about the legation from Rome to the
realm of England, how the men of that kingdom as
serted it to have been held from ancient times up to
our own by the Church of Canterbury ; how necessary
it must therefore be to have it so, and that it could not
be otherwise except to the injury of both Roman and
Anglican churches. The lord pope did not take away
from me that legation which up to our time, according
to the aforesaid testimony, the Church had retained.
But while I was in exile for fidelity to the apostolic see,
I heard that your authority had committed that legation
to the Archbishop of Vienne. Now, what a great
difficulty, nay even total impossibility, it would be,
those comprehend who have had experience of the long
and perilous extent of seas and kingdoms, to wit,
France and Burgundy between England and Vienne ;
what an impossibility, I say, it would be for the Arch
bishop of Vienne to resort to England, or the English
to go to Vienne, for the settlement of business. Where
fore I humbly beg of your paternity, as a servant and
son, that a Church which suffered with me many
calamities while I was in poverty and exile for fidelity
to the Roman Church, may not in my days be deprived
of that dignity which it openly asserts itself to have pos
sessed before my time in my predecessors. When I left
England there was one, a priest by profession, but a
collector of rents, and not only that but a rent collector
of the worst possible reputation, by name Ranulph,
1 66 Selections from the Letters of St Ansehn.
surnamed also Flambard, from his cruelty which con
sumed like flame ; what the light of his torch is is
known far and wide not only in England but in foreign
realms. Him the king lately deceased, against the will
of all the better sort, against all right and justice, pre
sumed to raise to the episcopate without any amend
ment on his part, while I was in exile. How also he
exceeded, both before his episcopate and after, both in
simony and other crimes, the bearer of this parchment
will be able to make known. But such a bishop, having
been irregularly consecrated where he should not have
been, did not hesitate to contaminate churches and
persons outside his own diocese. When I returned to
England, I found this man had been taken by the king
on account of money which as a rent-collector he
owed and had wrongfully retained, as was fully proved
in the king s court, the people rejoicing as though a
lion which had ravaged all around were caught in the
toils. Of whom his archbishop, since dead, avowed in
the hearing of the king s court when he was in custody,
that he did not consider him as a brother or bishop,
and that he had broken every promise he had made
when consecrated. When he heard of my return, as a
bishop he claimed my assistance. So I sent to him four
bishops with the bearer of this, saying that if he would
show that he had so attained to the episcopate as that he
ought to be treated as a bishop, I would procure him
liberty therefor ; but I feared, I said, to be overwhelmed
with curses and reproaches by the people, should I set at
liberty his cruelty which was then restrained. But the
bishops reported that he had failed to satisfy them on
the points which I had asked about through them. He
afterwards fled secretly by a trick into Normandy, and
joining the enemies of the king his lord, it is reported
as a fact that he made himself the leader of pirates,
To Pope Pascal. 167
whom he commands at sea. About this, since the
Church committed to him, exposed to many perils
among barbarians, cannot be left long without a pastor,
and as to the churches and persons whom he con
secrated, I request the command of your wisdom. The
Archbishop of York having died since I returned, in his
place has been elected the bishop of Rochester, a very
learned man and skilled in ecclesiastical government.
In this election we bishops assented to the desire of the
clergy and people of that church. This bishop, though
he much wished to show himself in your presence
that he might be honoured by your benignity with the
pall according to custom, the king for some reason or
other has retained among the nobles of his council ;
and he now desires with entreaties to induce your
highness to send him the pall. Whose petition we
humbly beseech your bounty to grant, if it shall please
you to receive our prayers.
28. To POPE PASCAL.
Anselm, servant of the church at Canterbury, offers
his lord and father Pascal, the supreme pontiff, his due
service and prayers.
I think that your excellence must remember how I
interceded with you for our beloved brother the arch
bishop of B., and how kindly you answered. And now
that he is going to present himself to you, I venture
with all possible earnestness to pray that he may meet
with apostolic charity. After I left your presence,
William, the king of England s legate, who accompanied
me, told me on the king s part that I was so to act as
that I might be in England as my predecessor Lanfranc
had been with the king his father. I understood from
this that he did not wish for my return to England
1 68 Selections from the Letter s of St Anselm.
unless I would become his man and swear fealty to
him, and consecrate those on whom he should himself
confer Church investitures. Therefore I told the
king that I could not do this, and that you had enjoined
me not to communicate with those who should accept
investitures from him ; but if he would allow me to do
it consistently with my order and the obedience I owe
to you, I would be ready to serve God according to my
office, and the people committed to me, in England ;
and I asked him to give me an answer as to his will in
this matter ; which he has not yet done. I have not
even been able to obtain anything from the revenues of
my bishopric since William went back to England. As
to the letter which you desired me to send to the king
and queen from you, since William was told at Rome
that it was written under my direction, and since the
same William received, so I have heard, after that one,
another sent out by your holiness, I do not believe it to
have been conformed to my suggestions. Certain it is
that had it been written under my guidance it would
not have at all appeared as though implying contempt
or scorn ; now, as I hear, the king says I am his only
adversary. I anxiously await your advice about all
this, being prepared by God s grace to suffer for the truth
anything that is not unbecoming to a Christian. May
God long preserve your paternity safe to us. Amen.
29. To MATILDA, QUEEN OF THE ENGLISH.
To his mistress and dearest daughter Matilda, queen
of the English, Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, offers
his faithful prayers and faithful service, and God s
blessing, and his own.
I give thanks to God and to your highness for the
good-will which you bear towards me and towards the
Church of God, and I pray God Almighty of His love
To Roger, Robert, and other Abbots. 169
to increase your piety, and thus to make you persevere
until you receive from Him an eternal reward. I also
pray that He may so cause your good intentions to
succeed as that by your means He may turn the heart
of our lord the king from that advice of the nobles
which He reprobates, and cause the king to abide by
His counsel, which is for ever sure. I gratefully accept
your consolation and advice as from a mistress and a
friend in the sight of God, for I know that your affec
tion is given me by God. If your affection pleaseth to
send me word of anything, you may tell it safely by
word of mouth to the bearer of this. May Almighty
God direct all your actions, and guard you from all evil.
30. To ROGER, ROBERT, AND OTHER ABBOTS.
Anselm, by the grace of God archbishop of Canter
bury, to Roger, abbot, and Robert, son of Count Hugo,
and other monks of the monastery of St Ebrulf.
It is very well known, nor can it by any means be
concealed, how you broke into the monastery of St
Edmund, and by what violence you sought to control
the election by the brethren of that church and compel
their consent to your disorderly will. How irreligiously,
how against the monkish vow, and against the rule
of St Benedict which you professed, and contrary to
Holy Scripture, which says, " No man taketh this
honour unto himself, but he that is called of God," and
how directly against God Himself you are acting in
this, may God Himself see, who discerns between the
shepherd and the ravening wolf. I cannot indeed pre
vent my lord the king from appointing you over the
lands ; but over the souls for whose behoof an abbot is
chosen and appointed none but those to whom God has
given the power of binding and loosing can place any
one. That Church is in my primacy and archbishopric,
170 Selections from the Letters of St Ansehn.
and the consecrations therein belong of right to the
archbishop of Canterbury, whom, as you are well
aware, I am. Then, of those rights which belong to
me I have never yielded, nor do I yield, a single one to
you ; but rather I pray God, and I will strive so far as,
God helping me, I am able, that God may turn the
heart of my lord the king to that which best pleaseth
God, and is good for his soul ; and that God may make
him alter his heart according to God s will if so
be he doeth aught against it. You are Christians
under the Christian law, and you profess to live accord
ing to the monastic profession. If you act contrary to
that, you plainly confess that you are neither Christians
nor monks. I warn you therefore, as Christians and
monks, to prove that you fear God more than man,
and steadily to desist from the wickedness you have
entered upon. If you choose to resist God rather than
men, I warn you, God will resist your souls : God, to
whom is said " the poor committeth himself unto Thee,"
will Himself see, and perceive if henceforth you cause
any sufferings to the brethren of that Church.
31. To GONDULPH.
Anselm, archbishop, to the reverend Bishop Gon-
dulph, greeting.
Where and how I am you will hear from the bearer
of this, but why I do not yet return to England you
may learn from the letter which I send to the king.
But I want you to greet him faithfully from me, and to
give him my seal, which my messengers are bringing
you, and which I send to him, and if it should please
him to answer me by letter, send that to me by the
same messenger. If he does not wish to do this, tell
me in your letter what his answer is. But do not show
To his Nephew Anselm. 171
my ring to the king after William of Warelwast comes
to England, and to that same William do you secretly
show a copy of the letter which I send to the king.
And see to it that no one besides him, excepting only
our prior, knows of that letter before it is given to the
king. But after the king is acquainted with it, notify
it to the bishops and others, and greet the queen
lovingly from me. I send you a copy of the letter I
am addressing to the king.
32. To HIS NEPHEW ANSELM.
Anselm the archbishop to Anselm, his nephew in the
flesh, his dearest son in affection : greeting and God s
blessing, and his own.
Since of all my relations it is for thee that I feel the
most special love, I long for thy improvement in the
sight of God and before everyone. Wherefore I advise
and enjoin thee as a most dearly-loved son, to study
carefully to attain that improvement for which I sent
thee to England, and to spend no time in idleness.
Strive most to acquire a thorough knowledge of gram
mar by declining and parsing, by dictation ; and prac
tise reading prose rather than verse. Above all, keep
guard over thy behaviour and thine actions before men,
and over thy heart before God, so that when, God per
mitting, I see thee, I may rejoice in thy progress,
and thou be glad in my joy. Farewell. To God I
commend thee, body and soul.
33. To MATILDA, QUEEN OF THE ENGLISH.
To his honoured lady and dearest daughter, Matilda,
queen of the English, Anselm the archbishop offers
greeting and God s blessing, with his own if it be worth
aught, his service and loving prayers.
172 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
My heart gives thanks to your highness for your
extreme bounty ; it makes what return it can, and
ceaselessly longs to do more. May He who thus in
spires it, Himself repay you. For, what a pious and
sweet affection you by God s inspiration feel for me, you
plainly show me when you write me word of all the
bitterness and sadness and anxiety which you feel on
account of my absence. Which absence of mine, so far
as I and those who study the matter understand, has
not been thus long extended by any fault of mine.
Your excellence with devout feeling complains that my
intemperate behaviour has disturbed the equanimity of
mind of my lord the king and his nobles ; and that this
has prevented the good begun by your efforts from being
carried out ; but in that letter of mine wherein this
intemperate language is said to be, nothing unwarrant
able, nothing unreasonable can be discovered (although
this was imputed to me in the king s letter), if with
unbiassed judgment and quiet mind what is there
written, and the prohibition which I heard and which
all know, be considered. For I advanced nothing
against the king s father and Archbishop Lanfranc,
men of great and religious memory, when I proved
that neither in my baptism nor my ordinations had I
promised to obey their law and customs, and declared
that I was not going to be false to the law of God.
Now that which is required of me because they did it,
I, on account of what I heard at Rome with my own
ears, could not do without offending most grievously.
Were I to despise that I should be acting in defiance
of God s law. Therefore, that I might show how
reasonably I refused to do that which is demanded of
me in accordance with their customs, I explained how
much the rather I am a debtor to keep the apostolic
and ecclesiastical law known to all, in which we un-
To Gondulph, Bishop. 173
doubtedly perceive the law of God, since it was promul
gated for the support of the Christian religion : how
much the more dangerous it would be to despise this
law, I need not say here ; since Christians who have
ears to hear may daily know it from the divine decrees.
But that wicked interpretation of my sayings, according
to which I am said to have spoken unwarrantably, I do
not ascribe to the king s mind or to yours. For as I
heard, the king at first received my letter kindly ; but
afterwards some one, I know not who, with spiteful
and insincere intention, excited him against me by a
wrong interpretation. Who however that may be, I
do not know ; but I am quite certain of this, that either
he does not love, or knows not how to love, his Lord.
May Almighty God so cherish you and your children
in prosperity in this life as that He may bring you to
the blessedness to come. Amen.
34. To GONDULPH, BISHOP.
Anselm the archbishop to his old and ever new and
true friend and beloved in the Lord, the reverend
Archbishop Gondulph, greeting.
Although your constancy expects no thanks for the
good deeds you have undertaken, but often puts them
aside, yet lest others should think that I do not suffi
ciently notice the kindness and solicitude which you
certainly show in your great labours for my advantage,
nor estimate them highly enough : therefore I give
your reverence thanks in heart and in word and by
writing, for in everything belonging to me and my
affairs, I perceive that you prudently and vigorously to
the utmost of your power and with most true affection
both speak and act as you ought. And I am also sure,
that, God helping you, as long as you live, your good-
1/4 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
will towards me, as it has never failed since first it
began, so it never will fail. Your charity laments that
I have not ventured to England, on account of the
words of a single clerk ; but this is not the case. Read
the letter which I wrote to the Lord Prior Ernulph in
answer about this. I thought you had seen it. There,
as I think, you will read some good reasons why I
neither ought to have returned, nor, as things stand,
ought to return, to England. But do not make those
reasons public. The answer which the king promised
to give me by the feast of St Michael, I am sure that
neither Master Everard nor any messenger of mine can
receive on that day, for he does not so come to me as
that he could arrive on that very day. If, therefore,
on that day you do not receive that answer, I pray you
to demand another as quickly and earnestly as you can,
and send me the king s letter, whatever it may be, and
if he will not give any answer or wishes to put it off any
longer, let me know even that by letter from you with
out delay. And as this cannot be done so speedily
through Master Everard, do it through my servant
Vulgarus of Lyminge and some one companion, or by
any other walking messenger ; for I will neither cause
nor accept further delay before beginning to take
counsel of God and His Church, which ought to be
done in a matter like this. But I trust in God whose
cause it is that is in question, that at some time or other
it will be concluded, and the Church not always suffer
as it does now. I know not who it is that with evil
intention, out of the malice of his heart, interpreted the
letter I sent to the king as though I were boasting that
whereas I had always obeyed the law of God, his father
and Archbishop Lanfranc had lived wickedly outside
God s law. Now of a surety the mind of those who
say this is either very wicked, or very small. For
Anselni to his Dearest Admin. 175
some things were done in their own days by the king s
father and Archbishop Lanfranc, men of great and
devout reputation, which I, in these days, am unable to
do, while obeying the law of God, and without incurring
the damnation of my soul. You have done well, and I
am pleased at your telling me the whole business in
your letter, plainly, just as it happened. I am not
satisfied with having often commended to your care the
possessions and family of Robert who is with me, but
would again, on account of the great good-will I bear
him, draw your attention to them, and beg you to keep
both in peace, so far as you can. I salute your sons
and mine, and your daughters, and especially by name
Master Ernulph, your chaplain. May Almighty God
keep you always and everywhere. Amen.
35. ANSELM TO HIS DEAREST ADRUIN.
Anselm the archbishop, to his friend and dearest son
Adruin, greeting, and the blessing of God.
May God have a care of you even as you care for my
good name, for the which I give you thanks. I wrote
to you some time ago in answer to those who prate
against me, some who prefer to lie in speaking evil of
me rather than to speak the truth if there be any good
to speak of in me. But just now you ask with affection
ate kindness that I would answer those who say that
they have often seen in the churches specially belonging
to my cure (the priests having been expelled), laymen
standing before the altar, collecting alms, boldly usurp
ing the offices of burial and whatever else belongs to
the priest by right ; concerning which when you inquired,
you discovered from the evidence of our archdeacon,
worse, so you say, than you had before heard. You
have also heard clergy of these churches say that they
176 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
had often privately, and publicly in the Synod, com
plained to me of those offences, but had received no
help. I therefore tell you that these things have never
been done by my command, or my will, or with my
consent. And if I ever heard any complaint about
them (which I am not aware that I ever did) I never
dismissed it without what appeared to me a sufficient
remedy. Finally, I do not think that anything of that
sort is done in my churches ; but if it ever was, or is,
done in others, I am wholly ignorant of it, and so far as
I am concerned I neither ever did will nor do I now
will that it should be done. It therefore matters not
the least to me when I am criticised by those who make
these discoveries not from any love of truth, but from
malicious motives. But as to what you say you have
heard about my not much caring to return to you, I
answer that since I left England I have never been able
to perceive how I could consistently return. And most
assuredly I wish not, neither ought I, to lightly esteem
the charge laid upon me by God, and forget the love of
the brothers and sons committed to me.
36. To POPE PASCAL.
To his honoured lord and beloved father, Pascal,
supreme pope, Anselm, servant of the Church of
Canterbury, offers due submission and earnest suppli
cation.
After I had, being recalled to the bishopric, returned
to England, I published the apostolic decrees which I
had heard when present at the Roman council ; about
which my lord the king asked your holiness by his
legate, and I in my letter asked your advice according
to the view you should take of the matter. You
answered the king by letter, but me you answered not
To Burgundius^ and his Wife Richera. 177
at all; but since you did not give him a satisfactory
answer, certain bishops are going to seek an audience
of you about the same matter ; and I am sending my
messengers to report to me the tone of your reply, lest
I seem to anyone to do anything by my own judgment
or by my own will. With all due reverence for the
apostolic see, I do most earnestly entreat that you will
order concerning the petition which the aforesaid bishops
will present as your wisdom shall judge to be best and
most useful before God ; and whatever that should be,
let me know exactly through my messengers. For as
it belongs not to me to loose what you bind, so it is not
mine to bind what you loose.
3/. TO BURGUNDIUS AND HIS WIFE RlCHERA.
Anselm, by the grace of God Archbishop of Canter
bury to his brother and beloved friend, Burgundius, and
to his wife Richera, his sister, greeting, and God s
blessing, and his own, if it avail aught.
You sent me word, Burgundius, dear lord and beloved
friend, that you desired to go to Jerusalem for the
service of God and the salvation of your soul, and that
you wished to do so with the consent of me, Anselm,
and of your sons, my nephews. I rejoice at your good
intention, and I advise and exhort you if you take this
journey to carry away with you none of the sins you
may have committed, nor leave any behind you at
home ; and in the future to have a fixed intention of
serving God as a true Christian in your own rank.
Make confession of all your sins from your childhood,
one by one, so far as you can remember them. See
that you do no wrong to your wife, whose goodness
you know better than I do ; but let her be so left as
that she may not be without help and advice, whatever
M
178 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
God may do with you ; nor be expelled from your
home and rank against her will so long as she shall
live, that she may be able to attend on God for the
welfare of your body and soul and for her own soul
and those of your sons. Arrange all your affairs as
you would do were you now dying and knew you were
about to give account to God of your whole life. You
ask my sanction. The approval, and counsel, and help,
and protection of God, these I pray Him you may have
in all ways and everywhere. To thee, sister mine,
most dearly beloved, I would say : turn all thine inten
tion, thy whole life, to the service of God ; and since
God taketh away from thee all happiness in this life,
believe He doeth this that thou mayest delight in Him
alone : Him love, long for, think upon ; wait on Him
at all times and everywhere. May Almighty God bless
you both.
38. To RlCHERA.
Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, to his dearly-
loved sister Richera, greeting ; and in all her troubles
may she be comforted of God.
I know, best-beloved sister, that except your husband,
there is no man in the world of whose health and pros
perity you would so wish to know and hear as of mine,
and of that of your son Anselm who is with me : for I
am your only brother, and he is your only son. As to
what relates to us, our messengers could tell you by
word of mouth better than I can in writing. Know
however that your son, my dearest nephew, having
after he left you, suffered from a long and serious ill
ness, has however by the mercy of God regained perfect
health. Then as to myself I can say that I am well
in body ; but my heart is disturbed by many vexations,
To Pope Pascal. 179
Through the fear of God I dare not fly from England ;
and yet I cannot here dwell in any peace or tranquillity
or quiet. Each day my heart is agitated as though I
were going to depart on the next ; but however it may
be with me, I rejoice for you, for your messengers have
brought me word of your health and prosperity. Seeing
however that both the prosperity and adversity of this
life are short and transitory, let us despise them, and
fly from everlasting adversity while striving by a good
life to merit perpetual prosperity. Therefore, most dear
sister, since in this life you cannot have that which
would delight your soul, turn it entirely towards God,
that in a future life it may enjoy Him. Farewell.
Should your husband return, and wish to come and see
me, I desire him by no means to come.
39. To POPE PASCAL.
To his honoured lord the great Pontiff Pascal, An-
selm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, sendeth due
submission and faithful service.
In the first place, as far as my lowliness may, I
thank your mightiness for receiving and treating my
messengers so kindly and honourably, that I thence
know I may trust in your kindness beyond my deserts.
The letter they brought me from your majesty I
received with due reverence ; but the king of the English
would neither look at it, nor would he show me that
which you sent to him. Now the archbishop of York
and the other two bishops, with whom our messengers
presented themselves before you, on their return reported
by word of mouth other than was enjoined on me by
the written documents. For they asserted publicly, by
that truth to which bishops ought to adhere, that you
had in secret speech sent word by them to the king that
i So Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
if he otherwise acted rightly, you would neither prohibit
him from giving ecclesiastical investitures, nor subject
him to excommunication if he gave them, but that you
were unwilling to commit this to parchment lest other
princes to whom this was forbidden might hence take
occasion to complain. They told me also from you, on
the same faith of bishops, that I was to believe them
in this matter and to go by their advice. To which if
I would not agree, the king, even should I oppose it,
would forthwith by your authority do of his own plea
sure that which you had not forbidden ; and should I
persist in doing what your letter to me commanded, he
would without doubt expel me the kingdom. But yet
since I would neither disbelieve your letter nor might
venture to despise the assertion of your command put
forward by the bishops, since on either hand there
threatened the doom of disobedience, I by the advice
of those bishops begged for a delay until I could receive
from your excellency some assurance as to this busi
ness. I however would give no consent to anything
being done contrary to the decree of the Roman council,
but am merely suffering it, not branding anyone in the
meantime with the accusation of disobedience should it
be done. So therefore the king, by your authority, as
he thinks, is conferring bishoprics and abbacies. Pros
trate therefore in mind at your feet, with what earnest
ness I can, being placed in a most anxious position, I
entreat that I may find there is in you an apostolic pity
for my soul, and 1 suppliantly invoke the whole love of
the Roman Church to obtain this. I do not fear exile,
or poverty, or torture, or death ; for being strong in God,
my heart is ready to bear all these for obedience to the
apostolic see and the liberty of my mother, the Church
of Christ. I only ask for positive information, that I
may know without any ambiguity what I am to consider
To Pope Pascal 181
as your decision. In the Roman council I heard the
late Pope Urban of venerable memory excommunicate
kings and all laymen who gave investitures and Church
possessions, as also those who accepted the same and
became their vassals for them, and those who conse
crated these who so received them. Therefore if it
please your holiness, either remove this excommunica
tion as far as England is concerned, that I may remain
here without danger to my soul ; or tell me by letter
that you mean to uphold it whatever it may cost me ; or
if, in your wisdom, you choose to except anything, tell
me with the same exactness what that is. I wish also to
be instructed by your command as to how I am to act
with regard to those who during the aforesaid truce
receive forbidden investitures and those who consecrate
the former. In what I add to your paternity by word
of mouth of the bearers to this letter, I humbly implore
yon to deign not to despise my entreaties.
40. To POPE PASCAL.
Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, to
Pascal, the supreme pontiff, offers obedience due and
constant prayers.
With what earnestness my mind to the uttermost of
its power clings to its reverence for and obedience to
the holy see, the many grievous troubles known to my
heart and to God, bear witness ; which I suffered for
four years from the beginning of my episcopate in
England, and for two in exile, because I refused to
deny my dependence on the Roman See. From which
attitude of mind I hope in God there is nothing that
could move me. Wherefore so far as is possible to me
I wish to submit all my actions to the direction and
where necessary to the correction, of the decisions of
r 82 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
the said authority. As to my present position in Eng
land I will write only a few words, since I leave it to
the bearer of this to explain more fully by word of
mouth. When I returned to my bishopric after being
recalled by the present king of England, I found the
apostolic decrees were being violated which I had heard
when present at the Roman council, namely, that no
layman should give ecclesiastical investitures, nor should
anyone receive one at his hands, or become his man
for it, nor should any consecrate one who presumed
to do so ; if any however should transgress this, he
should lie under the excommunication of the holy
council. Which the king and his nobles hearing, what
they and even the bishops shouted out with one accord
as to the evils which would thence arise and what they
would rather do than accept these decrees, I am un
willing to tell : let these messengers who were present
and heard it all, tell it But turning to me, they all
with one accord declared that I could stop all the
mischief which might proceed from these decrees ; they
asserted forcibly that if I would join my entreaties to
those of the bishops, your highness would be pleased
to lessen the severity of the aforesaid decision. And
that should I refuse to do this, they should consider that
every evil which might thence arise was without any
palliation to be imputed to me. Lest therefore I should
seem to despise them somewhat, or to be doing aught
out of my own heart or by my own will, I neither dare
not listen to them, nor do I wish to put myself in the
least beyond the disposal of your holiness. Therefore
with all due reverence for and obedience to the apostolic
see, I pray that so far as your authority under God
allows, you would yield to this petition ; and tell me
decidedly what you desire me to do in this business,
whatever that may be. I pray Almighty God long to
To William the Abbot, and the Community of Bee. 183
keep your paternity safe in perfect prosperity for the
strength and comfort of His Church.
41. To WILLIAM THE ABBOT AND TO THE COMMUNITY
OF EEC.
Brother Anselm, called the archbishop, to his masters
and brothers the Lord Abbot William and the holy
community of Bee serving God under him : may the
divine grace and blessing ever lead you to all good and
defend you from all evil.
If my heart would display to you at length the love
it bears you, much parchment would not suffice ; and if
I wish to express it briefly that would never satisfy my
affection. But in this perplexity I am consoled by your
own feelings, whereby you realise in yourselves how
often and how much I have missed you, and how as
long as I lived with you I sought to be of some use to
you : and if you do not all know this by experience,
because God has increased your numbers since I left
you, learn it from those who know it and have proved
it. Accordingly let your love never doubt that as I loved
the root, so I do the branches however much they may
be multiplied, and all the sons of my mother, both the
first-born and those born after me, do I embrace in my
heart and love as sons of the same mother. Therefore
I beseech and adjure you all not to let the recollection
and love of me grow weak in the hearts of those who
have it, and to awaken and sustain it in the minds of
those who have not known me. For although in the
body I am absent with you, yet my nest, I mean the
Church of Bee, with all its chickens I bear always about
with me in my heart, and in my prayers and in every
righteous longing, if any such I have, plead for them
before God. But for me let the depth of your charity
184 Selections from the Letters of St Anselw.
pray, and may divine goodness cause that the diligence
of your prayers for me may not abate. Although your
minds are inflamed with good desires, yet since the
well-intentioned do not dislike to hear what they love,
I pray, adjure, advise, counsel you ever to stretch forth
to better things, and never to sink back from those to
which God has advanced you. May mutual love in
God ever burn within you, may peace and concord,
with truth, continually dwell in your mind ; may humble
obedience in all your actions please God, and observance
of your vow and avoidance of every fault ever be actively
fervent. Of these things remind each other, hold un
failingly to these. This I pray, I choose, I desire for
you ; this may He from whom cometh all good Him
self give you with His full and perpetual blessing.
Amen.
42. TO HIS FRIEND CUNO.
Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, to his
beloved friend Cuno, greeting.
Your gentleness desires that of the three kinds of
pride concerning which I spoke to you, I would by
letter recall to your mind two which have escaped your
memory. I said that they are three : one of thought,
that is, when anyone thinks of himself more highly
than he ought to think ; against which it is said, " Be
not high-minded, but fear," and which he denies to
exist in himself, who says : " Lord, I am not high-
minded, I have no proud looks." Another is of will,
when anyone wants to be treated with more considera
tion than is his due ; against which is said, " How can
ye believe, which receive honour one of another?"
Another is in deed; against which saith the Lord,
" When thou art bidden of any to a wedding, sit not
To his Friend Cuno. 185
down in the highest room." This when a man treats
himself better than he ought. Against each of these
forms many sayings are found in holy Scripture if they
are sought out. Against all it is said, " Whoso exalteth
himself shall be humbled," and "God resisteth the proud."
And many other passages there are. Of these three, when
each one is by itself, that is the least which is in deed
only, because it is done through ignorance alone ; and
yet since it is a fault, it ought to be amended. Of the
other two, that which is in will alone is the more to be
condemned, because it errs knowingly. But that which
is in thought, is only the more foolish, since it does not
manifest itself, and to itself appears quite right. If
therefore these three forms of pride be considered each
singly, they may be called simply three ; but if they
are taken two by two, they will be found to be three
double forms. If three be united at once, there will be
one triple pride ; and so there are seven, three simple,
three duplex, one triple. Opposed to these forms of
pride are divisions of humility, that is, that one should
think humbly of one s self, and as regards the estima
tion of our relation to others wish humbly for one s self,
act towards one s self humbly. For each form of pride
a man is called proud ; but as to the various parts of
humility, even for two, unless all the parts are there
together, a man is not called humble ; just as a man is
said to be ill when one limb is ailing, but we do not
say he is well, unless healthy in every limb. I have
thus brought this briefly to the remembrance of your
affection. If your prudence will frequently reconsider
it, you will understand it more fully than is here set
down. Farewell, and pray for me, that as God has
given me to comprehend pride and humility, so He
may give me to avoid the one, and acquire the other.
Greet my lord and friend, the bishop, for me.
1 86 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
43. To GONDULPH, ARCHBISHOP.
Anselm, archbishop, to the reverend Bishop Gon-
dulph, greeting.
I hear that our lord the king is demanding from the
prior and monks of our church money which they
neither have nor can have, since, as I am told, they
owe no small sum to their creditors and are in great
straits for want of the bare necessaries of life. Even
for the work taken in hand by the Church they are
unable to collect half of what I had estimated would
be wanted ; and if they had it, the king ought not to
exact anything from them, to whom as monks nothing
belongs, not even their own selves, nor have they any
right to give or lend anything which is not their own.
Wherefore I command and beg you with entreaties to
persuade the king to give orders that all our possessions
shall remain quietly undisturbed until I come back, as
he promised ; for if God grant me a prosperous return
I will do the king service as I proposed and as I owe
to my lord and king. If he shall do this, I will give
thanks to God, and to him ; but if he will not hear my
prayers, and chooses to do aught I would complain of,
then let him do, as lord, what shall please him ; but he
will not to my mind be doing what he ought. For I
and the monks are not divided ; all things which are
arranged for their service belong to me and are under
my government ; and if they are in want I am bound to
expend on their need whatever I have got. Thence
since each temporal misfortune affects my spirit in its
own peculiar way and degree, the very fact that this
afflicts them touches my heart more deeply ; and you
know that I ought not to give my consent to so unusual
and unheard-of a proceeding : and since I ought not,
therefore I dare not, suffer money to be extorted from
To Henry, King of the English. 187
monks and their prior : hence it is not advisable for me
or anyone that this custom should be by any agree
ment introduced into the Church of God.
44. To HENRY, KING OF THE ENGLISH.
To Henry, his revered lord, the renowned King of
England, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, offers his
faithful homage, with prayers.
I give thanks to God, from whom cometh all good,
for your safety and happiness, and that He has con
tinued your successes to your joy and that of your
faithful servants. I also thank your mightiness for
deigning to send me word of this as to one faithful in
whom you trust because he rejoices with you in all
your prosperity and gives thanks to Him by whose
providence it comes to pass. It is indeed true that I
daily pray and long for this, that God may so guide
you and yours in the glory of your temporal rule over
the English, as that He may cause you to reign in
eternal felicity among the angels. And it is with
regard to this that I most desire to serve you. Where
fore since this is my duty (I am indeed placed here for
that), I as both trusted servant and bishop advise,
pray, and, as it is written, adjure in season, out of
season, that as God increases your prosperity and
exalts your power, so you may above all things love in
all your doings to fulfil His will. The which may He
grant you long so to do in prosperity in this life that
He may after this life cause you to rejoice with Him in
eternity. With me, thank God, all is going well ; and
before the Assumption of the Blessed Mary I shall
depart from Bee, that according as God shall direct I
may pursue the object for which I quitted England.
As for our concerns : though I have every trust in your
1 88 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
goodness, yet I would ask you to give orders for all to
be left undisturbed until I return.
45. To ERNULPH AND THE MONKS OF CANTERBURY.
Archbishop Anselm to his dearly-loved masters and
brethren and sons, the Lord Prior Ernulph, and the
other monks serving God under him, sends greeting,
and God s blessing, also his own, so far as it may avail.
You will hear as to my health and prosperity and
where I am, from the bearer of this. But I cannot as
yet return to England until I know what the king says
in answer to the letter I sent him by the Bishop of
Rochester. What it contained you will hear from that
same bishop after it has been laid before the king.
But whatever the king may reply or whatever may
become of me, remember that " whether we live or die
we are the Lord s." So live therefore as that you may
live to Him, and when you die you may go to Him.
Let not the troubles of this life disturb you, for "by
much tribulation must we enter into the kingdom of
God." Cast your anxiety upon the Lord and He will
nourish you, He will not suffer the righteous to be
harassed for ever. Living righteously, not vexing your
hearts, pray to God to make you ever rejoice in His
consolation. The boys and youths, as my beloved
sons, I exhort and advise with all possible tenderness
not to be forgetful of the warning and teaching whereby
I used to instruct them how to keep strict guard over
their hearts and minds ; but by frequently thinking
over our rule, which I was wont carefully to exalt and
recommend to- them, strive by God s grace to keep it.
"The peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." I thank
you all for the kindness you have shown my nephew,
To Abbot Gerontius. 189
and desire him to remain with you and study theology
and other learning until I send him word to come.
46. To ABBOT GERONTIUS.
Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, to his
revered father and friend Gerontius, greeting.
A certain monk (by what I learnt from himself)
bound to your Church by a former profession, whereby
he took the clerical habit among you, and also to the
monastery of St Peter which is at Carnotes, where by
another profession he took the monastic habit, says he
cannot obtain his freedom either from you or from the
Carnotensian abbot, so as to work out in the monastery
of Carnotes or in yours the salvation of his soul ; which
he is unable to do unless he be set free either by you
or by the Abbot of Carnotes. Your prudence must
therefore consider that it is neither advisable nor seemly
for you abbots to destroy his soul by both pulling at
him thus, but that maternal love ought to reign within
you, and you should show that you love your neighbour
better than your own will. That one rather proves her
self the mother, who says to the other : " Take thou the
living child, nor let us both slay it," so that when the
true Solomon shall come, He may say : " Give to this one
the living child, she is the mother of it." For the true
mother will rather have her son live in the arms of
another than hold him dead in her own. Be it how
ever known to your holiness that so far as I could
gather, it is much better for many reasons that he
should stay at Carnotes than return to you. Where
fore if I might venture I would suggest by way of
advice to your community that you should give proof
of being, not the false, but the true, mother. Farewell.
190 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
47. To HENRY, KING OF THE ENGLISH.
To Henry, by the grace of God king of the English,
and his lord, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, pre
sents his faithful service and prayers.
In the letter which I lately received from your high
ness you deigned to assure me of your friendship, and
that there was no man on earth you would rather have
in your realm than me, if I would be with you as
Archbishop Lanfranc was with your father. I thank
you for your kindness and good-will. To what you say
about your father and Archbishop Lanfranc, I answer
that neither at my baptism, nor at any time of my
being ordained did I promise to keep any law or
customs of your father, or of Archbishop Lanfranc, but
only the law of God and of all the orders I received.
Wherefore if you wish me to be with you in such wise
as I may live after the law of God and of my order,
and if, according to the same law of God, you will
invest me with everything you have received from my
archbishopric since I left you, which were I present
you ought not to receive without my consent, and will
promise me this, I am ready to return to you in
England, and to serve God and you and all committed
to me according to the office assigned me by God, He
helping me. For indeed with no other king or prince
on earth would I so willingly live, no other so willingly
serve. But if you will not agree to this, do you what
pleases you ; but I by God s grace will never deny
His law. And I dare not, for I should not, omit to
declare to you that God will not only require at your
hands whatever the royal power may owe to Him, but
also whatever pertains to the office of the primate of
England. This burden is much more than you can
sustain, and you ought not to be displeased at what 1
To Orduvinus. 191
say. For no man is it more necessary to obey God s
law, than for the king, and none disregards His law at
a greater risk. For Holy Scripture says : it is not I
" mighty men shall be mightily tormented," which
may God avert from you. In the answer you have
already twice given me, I can discover nothing save a
certain (if I may venture to say it) pretext for delay,
which is inexpedient both for your own soul and for
the Church of God. If therefore you put off longer
giving me, in answer to this, a positive declaration of
your will, I, since the cause is not mine, but entrusted
to me by God Himself, fear long to put off making my
appeal to God. Wherefore I pray, I adjure you, force
me not to complain with sorrow, against my will,
"Arise, O Lord, maintain Thine own cause." May
Almighty God bend your inclinations to His will, that
after this life He may bring you into His glory.
48. To ORDUVINUS.
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, to his brother
and dearest son Orduvinus, greeting and blessing.
I am grateful to your affection for being anxious
about my reputation, and for asking how you should
answer my false accusers who seek occasion to attack
me. They say, so you write me word, that I forbid the
king to grant investitures ; and, what is worse, allow
wicked and evil clerks to usurp and ravage churches,
nor rise up against them. They say also that I give
churches to laymen. Tell them that they lie. I do
not by my own authority forbid the king to grant
investitures ; but since I heard the apostolic see ex
communicate in a great council laymen who give, and
those who receive, such investitures, and those who shall
consecrate the receivers, I will not communicate with
1 92 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
the excommunicate nor become myself excommunicate.
Neither do I willingly, but with sorrow, endure that
clerks should oppress churches, and I have to that
point risen up against it, that for this I am in exile and
despoiled of my spiritual belongings. That of which
they complain as to the clerks would not happen, if
the investitures which I stand out against did not take
place. I do not give churches to laymen by giving
them manors to farm; but I assign them that they may
be taken care of, not that the laymen may place or
remove a clerk, except by my order or that of our
archdeacon or the ruler of the manors of our church.
They therefore wickedly accuse me of minding others
business and neglecting my own ; for they say not this
out of love for the truth, but hinder my voice which
speaks on the side of truth. Farewell.
49. To WARNER.
Anselm the archbishop to Warner : greeting, and
the blessing of God, and his own, and may a full success
attend what he has well begun.
Blessed is God in His gifts, and holy in all His works,
who visited thee with His grace, my beloved son, when
thy body and soul were in peril of death, and mercifully
brought thee back to life. Reflect and consider what a
token God gave thee of His love, when with paternal
affection He constrained thee not only flying from, but
rejecting, Him, to return to Him and desire to serve
Him. Never think that what thou hast undertaken is
of less worth in thee because thou wast urged to it by
the fear of death, and not drawn by thine own free
inclination. For God does not weigh so much from
what beginning or on what occasion a man enters upon
the right course, as with what energy, what devotion, he
To Rainald. 193
makes use of the grace expended on him by God. See,
Paul the apostle was by compulsion converted from the
Christian faith ; but since he held the faith with all his
heart, and in it finished his course, he rejoicingly gave
us to understand in his own words that there was laid
up for him a crown of righteousness. Thou hast with
thee my dearest brother the Lord Prior Ernulph, who
is no less able than myself with all knowledge and zeal
to give thee advice, and by my authority to absolve
thee. To God and to him I commit thee ; to him after
God do thou by my advice and command commit thy
self. By the favour of God, thou art learned ; the
knowledge which God suffered thee to acquire for love
of the world, turn to use for the love of God, whence
thou hast whatever thou hast, so that in the place of
that earthly reputation after which thou with thy learn
ing wast panting, thou mayest attain that eternal glory
which thou didst either scorn or but feebly desire. As
to the customs of our order into which thou hast
entered, keep them carefully as though ordained by
God, for not one is useless, not one superfluous. I
advise thee to ask for the letter I wrote to Master
Lanzo when he was a novice. There thou wilt find
how thou shouldst behave in the beginning of thy con
version, and how meet the temptations which assail the
novice. I pray God, as far as I may, to give thee
absolution and remission of all thy sins ; and may He
so strengthen thee in thy purpose as to bring thee to
everlasting glory. Amen.
50. To RAINALD.
To Rainald, to him who wisely prefers truth to
vanity, who for the sake of virtue bravely spurns transi
tory glory, manfully endures poverty, Anselm, Arch-
N
IQ4 Selections from the Letters of St Arts elm.
bishop of Canterbury, sends greeting ; and may he ever
be protected and consoled by the grace of God.
Your affection desires I should send you some
consolation : which I do willingly, in the manner I think
most suitable for you and most profitable for you in
God s sight. Let your conscience, your virtue, your
perseverance, be the comfort of your heart in God s
sight. You acted bravely when you rejected for the
truth s sake the bishopric into which, uncalled by God,
you had been thrust. Let not your heart desire that
God should give you as a reward of your virtue that
which you spurned for righteousness sake. The recti
tude you preserved is far more precious than that which
for it you rejected. So you greatly tarnish your bright
ness in God s sight if you look for that which is vile and
transitory as a reward and consolation from Him. I
say not that you ought not to have the bishopric, or
that you do not deserve it, but advise you to rejoice
inwardly on account of the grace in which God made
you to stand, and to commit your sufferings and your
comfort to the will of God alone. Remember what the
Holy Spirit says : " Tarry thou the Lord s leisure : be
strong, and He shall comfort thine heart ; and put thou
thy trust in the Lord." When you feel want and
poverty closing around you, then be sure that the Lord
is greatly multiplying His grace upon you. This would
I have to be your consolation : hereby I would have
you to strengthen your hope : " He shall make thy
righteousness as clear as the light : and thy just dealing
as the noon-day." Since I know not how God is about
to dispose of me, I dare not promise you any compen
sation from myself, but I can display the good-will God
has given me towards you, and which you have
deserved. Of a certainty, I long, should I by God s
gift have the opportunity, to be of use to you both
To Far man, Orduvinus, and Benjamin. 195
bodily and spiritually. May Almighty God ever cause
you to rejoice in His protection and comfort, my dearest
brother. Amen.
51. To FARMAN, ORDUVINUS, AND BENJAMIN.
Anselm the archbishop to his beloved sons Farman,
Orduvinus, and Benjamin, greeting, the blessing of God,
and his own.
I know, beloved sons, that the greatness of your love
makes you desire my presence, that as sons to a father
you may open your hearts to me and receive advice as
to your several difficulties. But although it is well to
have a good and laudable zeal, yet if that be not
according to knowledge, it is not acceptable to God.
You want leave to come to me, but it is most certainly
true that it is more difficult, nay, more impossible, than
you are aware of; the distance very great, the people
foreign, the journey dangerous ; monks of the same
nation are being seized, ill-treated, their horses and
whatever they have, taken from them. The necessary
expense would be great, the toil severe, many the
breaches of rule ; the utility not so great but that
others would think me deserving of blame should I
give an easy consent to this. If you wish to bring to
my knowledge the evils which are being caused in Eng
land and in the Church and which you see and hear, I
know enough about them, I am powerless to remedy
them ; tell them to God, and while waiting for Him to
remove them, pray. If you seek counsel concerning
your souls, you have with you our venerable brother
and son the Lord Prior Ernulph, a spiritual man, in
whom abound by the grace of God both willingness
and wisdom ; whom as another self I sent unto you, in
my place. Have recourse to him as if to me, believe
him as you would me ; acknowledge him in my place.
1 96 Selections from the Letters of St A nselm.
I grant the same in reference to the Lord Bishop
Gondulph, should any desire so to do. To thee, son
Farman, who wouldest have leave to live elsewhere,
since amidst so much disquiet thou art as thou sayest,
unable to save thy soul, I say that it is not fitting, while
I cannot rule nor keep you together, that I should
begin to disperse you. It is not therefore the part of
wisdom either in you to ask, or in me to allow, this.
Finally, if I permit one or two either to leave the realm
because they desire to live elsewhere; or to leave the realm
to come to me, there are so many with the same reason,
that it could not be done without great scandal or great
disturbance. Let therefore he who desires this have
the same wisdom and patience that others have, that ye
may all alike possess your souls in patience. To thee
also, son Benjamin, who dost adjure me so forcibly and
dost plead as an excuse that without me thy soul must
be lost, I declare as to him whose soul I ought, and
wish, to advise, that thou oughtest to do nothing so un
reasonable, nor place thy soul and mine in so great
danger. Since as far as in thee lies thou wouldest place
thy soul in such peril, it is certain that for thy soul this
is no salutary place. What thou dost ask for cannot in
reason be done. It might perchance be done through
headlong, excessive rashness ; but it is not reasonable
to follow whithersoever our soul s indiscreet inclination
urges us, though it be with a good intention. I can t
understand how thy soul can be in danger of perdition,
just because thou canst not talk to me. For were I in
some place thou couldst not possibly get to in this
world or in the next life, yet oughtest thou not to
despair of the salvation of thy soul. I therefore entreat
and advise thee, dearest son, to bear without offence
the ordinance of God concerning thy soul, and accord
ing as thou seest Him dispose of us and what belongs
To Henry, King of the English. 197
to us, study thou as one who is wise and hath hope in
God, to save thy soul. As to what you, my brother
and son Orduvinus, suggest to me as reasons for my
not returning to England, know that I fly neither from
death, nor loss of limb, nor any injuries whatsoever, but
from sin, and dishonour to God s Church, and chiefly to
that of Canterbury. For if I were so to return as that
it should not be plain that the king ought not to despoil
me and usurp the things of the Church which are in my
charge, as he has done ; I should establish the bad, yea
servile and wicked, customs for myself and my suc
cessors by my own example ; which may God avert
from me ! Unless, therefore, he will acknowledge his
error and make reparation to God for what he has done
and is doing against me ; so that neither himself nor
his successor could on account of my example say to
me or my successors that he is doing it according to
custom, I cannot see, nor can any one of reasonable
intellect, how I can be on terms with him or return to
him, saving God s honour and my soul s health. If he
doth to me what he ought to do, I will do what I
ought for the honour of God. "The peace of God,
which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds."
52. To HENRY, KING OF THE ENGLISH.
To Henry, his beloved lord, by the grace of God
King of England, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury,
offers faithful prayers and service.
It belongeth to me, if I hear that you are doing
aught which is bad for your soul, not to hide this from
you, lest, which God forbid ! God should be displeased
with you for doing what doth not please Him, and
with me for my silence. I hear that your excellency
is inflicting punishment on the English clergy, and
198 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
exacting fines from them, because they have not obeyed
the order of the council which by your favour I held
in London with other bishops and clerks. This has
hitherto been unheard of, and never practised in the
Church of God by any king or other ruler whatsoever.
For according to the law of God it belongs to none to
punish this class of offence save to the bishops, each in
his own diocese ; or if these bishops should herein be
neglectful, to the archbishop and primate. I therefore
beg you, as a most dear lord whose soul I love more
than this life of mine, and advise as one truly faithful
to you both to your body and your soul, that you
commit not this grave sin against ecclesiastical custom ;
and if you have already begun, that you desist alto
gether. And I tell you that you must needs greatly
fear lest money so obtained (not to mention how much
it injures the soul) should, when you come to spend it,
less avail than it will afterwards injure, your earthly
affairs. Lastly, you know that in Normandy you
received me into your peace, and restored to me my
archbishopric ; and that the notice and punishment of
such offences chiefly pertains to the archbishop, for I
am bishop rather for spiritual oversight than for tem
poral possession. May Almighty God in this and all
your other actions so direct your heart according to His
will, as that after this life He may guide you to His
glory.
53. To HENRY, KING OF THE ENGLISH.
To his beloved lord, Henry, the renowned king of
the English, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, offers
faithful service, and his prayers.
For that your highness in your letter salutes me in
so honourable a manner and with such affectionate
good-will, I thank you heartily, as I ought. But when
To Henry, King of the English. 199
you so earnestly beg me not to be displeased at there
being so long a delay in sending your ambassador to
Rome ; though I ought not, so far as in me lies, lightly
to esteem your request, yet is the cause more God s
than mine ; whence out of a faithful heart and mind
well-disposed towards you I tell you what I must not
leave unsaid. That a thing should be displeasing to
me, unless it displeases on God s account, is no great
matter; but to displease God in the least is by no means
to be lightly thought of; as it displeases God not a
little to spoil an archbishop of his goods, the which you
have already, by God s inspiration, amended. But for
a bishop to be separated from his flock, and the church
from its bishop, without a reason approved by God, He
considers a very serious thing. Therefore turn your
mind speedily to arranging how you may be satisfied,
so that I, being, such as I am, a bishop of the church
which God has commended to your royal power and to
your realm, to guard, may speedily be restored to your
peace, and may no longer be debarred from the oppor
tunity of exercising according to my ability the office
for which I was there placed. I am also in great fear
lest it displease God, and lest the lord pope justly
blame me because, though it is so long since you and I
met together at the Eagle s Castle, I have never as yet
sent him an ambassador from whom He might learn
what was settled between us on such an important
matter, and what remains to be completed, and through
whom I might receive his advice and commands.
Wherefore it is dangerous for me to wait longer for
your ambassador, whom I had hoped was going to
return from Rome before next Christmas, as I under
stand you : particularly as, by whose advice or for what
reason I know not, you have not yet made any final
arrangement. Since, therefore, that I am unable to be
2OO Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
present with the church committed to me ought to be
of far more consequence to me than any question about
landed property, I implore you to name to me by letter
some no distant time when I may expect your ambas
sador to be returning from Rome, for I dare not put off
longer than next Christmas, at the very latest, sending
my own ambassador. Farewell.
54. ANSELM TO GUARNERIUS.
Anselm, archbishop, to Guarnerius his brother and
son beloved, greeting and God s blessing, and his own.
For the affection which I perceive in thy letter to me,
and for thy desire for my return, I return thee as a
brother and beloved son, my thanks. My return, God
willing, I shall not defer when by His providence I
shall perceive that I can carry it out rightly. But I
warn thee as one the care of whose soul God committed
to me, that thou be not negligent in learning and keep
ing the rule thou didst accept, but set thy whole heart
on advancing in those things which belong to the per
fection of a monk. For it is certain that if a monk be
tepid in his resolution as a novice, he will hardly ever,
or never, be fervid in his religious life as a monk. That
therefore which thou wouldst be found in the days of
thy death, the same seek to prove thyself every day ;
and always as though thou wert dying, each day, pre
pare to give an account of thy life, and thus thou wilt
advance from virtue to virtue.
55. To HENRY, KING OF THE ENGLISH.
To Henry, his beloved lord, by the grace of God king
of the English, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury,
presents his faithful service, and prayers.
Anselm to his Bishops. 201
Your highness by letter desired me to send you some
confidential person to whom you might safely entrust
whatever you might want to tell me. I therefore send
a brother called Gislebert, a monk of Bee, a close friend
of my own, whom you may trust as myself with any
thing you may wish to tell me. He will also tell you
how the Lords Baldwin and William had already started
on their journey to Rome when I received your letter ;
and what we have heard about the apostolic bishop
Paschal and about him who is said to have accepted
his see by robbery. I only say this : that Paschal who
fills the apostolic see was ecclesiastically elected in the
sight of God, and has already been accepted and con
firmed by the whole Church Catholic. But that usurper
of whom report speaks hath neither been elected nor
acknowledged unless by the children of the devil and
enemies of the Church of God. Let us therefore wait
until there come upon him, if it has not already come,
what the Lord said : " Every plant, which my Heavenly
Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." Nor
should any Christian be troubled, if the Church of Christ
does suffer persecution : He Himself underwent it, and
foretold it for that same Church : saying " In the world
ye shall have tribulation," adding for her comfort " but
be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
Almighty God make you so to reign in this life over
the English as that in the next you may reign among
angels.
56. ANSELM TO HIS BISHOPS.
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, to his friends and
fellow-bishops, from whom he received a letter by the
bearer of this, greeting.
I grieve, and sympathise with you about the trials
2O2 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
which you and the Church of England are enduring ;
but at the present time I am unable to help you accord
ing to your desire and my own, since I am not yet sure
what and how much I can do, until I know from our
ambassadors whom I am expecting presently to return
from Rome, what they have been able to arrange with
the lord pope. But it is good and pleasant to me that
you know at least what your sufferings have effected,
to say the least : and that you promise me your aid not
in my cause, but in God s cause, and press me not to be
slow in coming to you. Although I cannot do this
now, because the king will not as yet suffer me to be
in England, unless I will disobey the command of the
pop2 and agree with his own will and pleasure ; and I
am not yet certain what I can do, as I said ; yet I
rejoice in your good will as bishops and the constancy
you promise, and the exhortation you address to me.
But that I should cause some of you to come to me, as
you propose, lest while we are apart from each other
those who seek their own advantage should alter my
opinion, I do not at present think advisable. I hope in
God that no one could turn away my heart from the
truth, so far as I know it, and that very soon God will
show what it is that I can do, and I will let you know
as quickly as I can. What you ought to do in the
meantime, your prudence well enough knows ; yet will
I say that I, so far as, placing my hope in God, I am
acquainted with my own conscience, would not to save
my life give my consent to, nor make myself either the
instrument or author of, evil ; which has I hear lately
been promulgated among the churches of England.
Farewell.
To Hugh, Archbishop of Lyons. 203
57. To HUGH, ARCHBISHOP OF LYONS.
Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, to his
lord and father Hugh, the revered Archbishop of Lyons,
truly loved mother church ; mayest thou comprehend
what is of deepest and greatest worth.
What I have done since I left your amiable pater
nity, and what there is between the King of England
and myself, I need not give a long account of in a letter,
since the bearers of this can tell it better and more
fully by word of mouth. But since in all I do I would
rather, if so it might be, go by your advice than by that
of any man I have ever known, and particularly in this
business for which I am sending these messengers to
Rome, I humbly ask that they may be instructed and
fortified by your prudence. I even venture to ask that
if it seems advisable to your holiness, you might suggest
something to the lord pope so that he might know how
to set this matter right. For you know that when any
matter depends upon the advice of several people, as
they have not all the same impression of it, so do they
not all offer the same suggestion. Therefore since I am
sure that your mind is firmly fixed in the truth, I should
wish your opinion to be present wherever the liberty of
the Church of God and its true utility are under discus
sion. The whole difficulty of the case between me and
the king appears chiefly to consist in this, that the king,
although he will I hope suffer himself to be conquered
as to the ecclesiastical investitures by the decrees of the
apostolic see, yet will not, so he says, dismiss the
nominees of the patrons. On which point he is refer
ring by his embassy to the apostolic see, that he may
obtain leave thence to carry out his own will. Which
should he obtain, I doubt as to what I ought to do if he
should refuse to let any religious elected be made the
2O4 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
king s man for a bishopric or abbey. It would appear
very difficult for me to enjoin this upon him as a matter
of obedience ; and if I were not to do it, I should
appear to be acting according to the will of the
impious, and allowing audacity to gain unworthy pos
session of dignities. As to those also who have already
accepted forbidden investitures, and those who conse
crated them, I think the king will demand that they
shall continue to hold what they presumed unlawfully
to assume. Wherefore on these matters, and those
concerning which I seek wisdom from you through my
messengers, I propose to get your opinion. May
Almighty God keep your holiness safe in all prosperity.
Amen.
58. To EULALIA, ABBESS.
Anselm the archbishop to the reverend Abbess
Eulalia and her daughters, greeting.
I thank your devout affection for that you prayed for
me whilst I was in exile out of England, desiring my
return ; but now I ask you to pray with still more
earnestness that my return may be prosperous. I wish
you to know that my affection for you has existed ever
since I knew you, and still lives and continues, and will
continue, God willing, as long as I live. Wherefore
since that affection is an abiding thing, although you
need it not, yet would I write you somewhat whereby
you may be assured that I love you and have a care for
you. You, my beloved sisters, and daughters mine, I
exhort and advise to be subject and obedient to your
mother not only as under a human eye, but as in the
sight of God, from whom nothing is hidden. For then
is true obedience, when the will of the subordinate so
obeys the will of the superior as that wherever the sub-
To Eulalia, Abbess. 205
ject may be, he wills that which he knows the superior
wishes, so it be not against the will of God. Your
community ought to be the temple of God ; and the
temple of God is holy. If therefore you live, as I hope,
holy lives, you are the temple of God. You live holy
lives if you carefully keep your rule and vow ; you do
this with care, if you despise not the smallest things. For
your intention should be always to strive after perfec
tion, and with all your heart to hate falling back. For it
is written : " He who contemneth small things shall fall
by little and little." But he who falls back can make
no progress. Therefore if you wish to advance, and
dread falling back, do not despise small things : for as it
is true that he who despiseth small things shall by little
and little lose ground, so is it true that he who despiseth
not trifles, shall gradually get on. Do not consider any
sin small, although one may be greater than another.
For nothing ought to be called small which is done
through disobedience, which itself alone drove man out
of paradise. And what small sin can there be, if
according to Him who is Truth, whoso is angry with
his brother without a cause is worthy of judgment, and
whoso sayeth " Raca " worthy of the council, and whoso
shall say " thou fool " shall be worthy of hell fire ? I
pray you therefore, dearest daughters, to neglect
nothing, but seek to guard your deeds and thoughts as
ever in God s sight. Have peace among yourselves, for
in peace room is made for God, and there is much peace
to those who love God s law, and in them is no offence.
With heart and mouth I pray for God s blessing upon
you, for His pardon for you ; and I give and send my
own, might it aught avail. So far as it can. Farewell.
206 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
59. To HENRY, KING OF THE ENGLISH.
Anselm, archbishop, to his beloved lord, Henry, by
the grace of God King of England and Duke of Nor
mandy, sendeth faithful service and prayers.
Your highness sent me word by the bishop elect of
Winchester that I should write and tell you whether
the Lord Hervey, Bishop of Bangor, could be made a
bishop in the diocese of Lyons. I do not see how this
could easily be done. For as no bishops ought to be
consecrated for any church without the assent and
agreement of the archbishops and other bishops
throughout the province, so he who is consecrated
bishop cannot be made a bishop of any other province
without the agreement and consent of the archbishop
and bishops of that same province and the authority of
the apostolic see, nor without leave from the arch
bishops and bishops of the province wherein he was
consecrated. Which permission cannot be given with
out long and joint inquiry and deliberation by those
without whom he could not, as I said, be consecrated ;
even although his bishopric should seem to be so com
pletely annihilated that he cannot stay there. May
Almighty God direct you in this and in all your
actions. Amen.
60. To MABILIA, A NUN.
Anselm the archbishop to his* dearest daughter, the
nun Mabilia, greeting, and God s blessing, and his own.
I love thee, and as I love my own soul, so do I love
thine. But I so love my own as that it may attain to
enjoy God and may enjoy Him in the life that shall
be ; this I love, this I desire, for thee. Wherefore as a
To Mabilia, a Nun. 207
most dear daughter do I exhort and warn thee not to
take delight in worldly things, since no one can love at
once the good things of earth and of heaven. I would
not have thee love secular, but religious, society. Thou
hast nought to do with this world. If thou wouldst be
a nun, a spouse of God, say with the blessed apostle
Paul : " The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the
world ; " reckon all things in this transitory world as
but dung, with the same apostle. My daughter, what
necessity is there for thee to pay visits to certain of thy
relations ? since they in no way need thy advice and
help, nor canst thou receive from them any counsel or
aid in keeping thy vow and profession which thou
couldst not find in thy cloister. The aim of thy life is
distracted by their society. Neither will they for thee
put on religion, nor wilt thou because of them return to
the secular life. What therefore, my beloved, hast
thou, in God, to do with them, if thou art of no use to
them in the life they are leading, nor they to thee in
that which thou art bound to prefer ? If they want to
see thee, or in any way need thy advice or help, let
them come to thee, for they may roam and run hither
and thither ; but do not thou consent to go to them,
for thou oughtest not to leave the cloister except for
some necessity which God shall make plain. Choose
not, my daughter, wish not, to love the world, for the
" friend of the world is the enemy of God." Desire not
to love the world s friendship, since by so much the
more as thou by thy own will art its friend, so much
the less wilt thou be a friend of God and of the angels,
who are nearest to Him. Be not anxious to be known
in the world, for all the more God will say to thee, " I
never knew thee." Long to please God only : desire
to know God alone, and such things as may further
this your longing and knowledge. To Him commend
208 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
yourself daily. I, as far as in me lies, commend you
to Him. May He ever rule and guide and guard thee.
Amen.
6 1. To MATILDA, QUEEN OF THE ENGLISH.
To his lady and dearest daughter, Matilda, by the
grace of God illustrious Queen of the English, Anselm
the archbishop presents his faithful service and prayers ;
may you by God s grace rejoice always in this life
and in the next.
The bearer of this brought me your seal, and a letter
from you which informed me that you desire his dis
grace should be removed on the strength of a letter
from me, because of a certain justification he has
pleaded, and that through my intercession he should
recover from my lord the king what he had by the
king s command lost. I neither ought, nor wish, to
despise your expressed desire; but I am quite certain of
the kindness of your highness, and that you would not
wish me to act otherwise than as I ought. For your
prudence knows that it belongs not to me to bear
witness to what I neither heard nor saw ; but to those
who did witness it : nor is it my part to intercede for
him whose life and character I know nothing about, in
order that he may regain that which by royal command
he lost. Therefore I beg that your highness kind
heart may not take offence because I hesitate to do
that which I perceive to be no part of my duty. May
Almighty God by His blessing continually protect and
guide you. Amen.
62. To HELGOTUS, ABBOT OF ST AND^NUS.
Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, the
truly loved to his friend the Reverend Abbot of the
To Helgotus, Abbot of St Andcemis. 209
Monastery of St Andaenus, Helgotus, wishes whatever
of the best he can wish for a friend.
One true friend is ever anxious about another as that
other is about him ; desiring to know about the other s
concerns that he may either rejoice or suffer with him
according to what the circumstances may be. And
whereas no one loves sorrow ; yet strangely enough
should there be any cause for condoling, he would
rather know it that he may sympathise than be
ignorant, to avoid grief. Your affection, so sweet to me
and so loved by me, wishes to know my state, and
everything about me, that your heart may feel for me
just as mine is feeling. By the providence of God s
grace, and the help of your prayers and those of other
servants of God who are my friends, I have lately
returned to England: and with as great joy and honour
as men could possibly show, was I received by great
and small, by nobles and people. And what you heard
as to my lord the king having committed all his king
dom and possessions to my charge so that my will
should be in everything obeyed as his own, is true.
Herein he showed the goodness of his intentions and
his great love for me. But since it is written, " All
things are lawful unto me, but all things are not ex
pedient," and elsewhere : " All things are lawful unto
me, but all things edify not," I do not think it advisable
to begin as yet to attempt anything great by myself;
but since God has brought the king back to the good
disposition I perceive in him towards us, I hope that
God by His grace will through him work many things
to His own honour, whence we may rejoice. So far as
the changes of this world allow, all my affairs both
bodily and otherwise are by God s gift prospering,
except as to my bodily weakness, which I daily feel to
be increasing. May all the blessings which in your
O
2 IO Selections from the Letters of St A nselm.
letter you invoke for me, come also upon your own
head. I greet our brethren, your beloved sons, and beg
them to remember me.
63. To ALEXANDER, KING OF THE SCOTS.
To Alexander, by the grace of God King of the Scots,
Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, greeting,
with his earnest prayers and God s blessing, and, so far
as it availeth, his own.
I and all the congregation of the Church of Christ in
Canterbury give thanks to God and rejoice that God
has raised you to your father s kingdom by hereditary
succession after your brother, and that he has adorned
you with qualities suitable for a ruler. For your
brother who by a holy life by the mercy of God,
attained to make a good end thereof, we do as friends
for our friends pray, and will according to your petition
pray, that God may grant his soul to enjoy the eternal
gladness of His glory with His elect, and give to him
eternal blessedness. I know that your highness loves
and desires my advice. First of all therefore I pray
God so to direct you by the grace of His Holy Spirit,
and so to give you wisdom in all your actions that He
may bring you after this life to His heavenly kingdom.
My chief advice would be that by the help of Him who
gave you His fear and those good and pious habits which
you acquired in youth and from your childhood up
wards, you should strive to hold these fast. For kings
rule well, when they live according to God s will, and
serve Him with reverence; and when they keep rule
over themselves nor yield to vicious ways, but with
stedfast strength conquer those importunate tempta
tions. For constancy in virtue and royal fortitude are
not inconsistent in a king. For a king s constancy in
To Robert an d His Sisters and Daughters. 2 1 1
virtue is not inconsistent with royal power. Some
kings, as David, both lived holily and ruled the people
committed to their charge with strict justice and gentle
kindness, according as need required. So behave your
self as that the bad shall fear and the good love you ;
and that your life may always please God, ever let your
mind retain a vivid impression of the punishment of the
evil and the reward of the good after this life. May
Almighty God commit you and all your actions to His
righteous direction and to no other. For our brethren
whom we sent to Scotland according to the will of your
brother who has passed from this life s toil as we
believe to his rest, we do not think it necessary to ask
your protection, since we are not ignorant of your
kindness and good-will.
64. To ROBERT AND HIS SISTERS AND DAUGHTERS.
Anselm, archbishop, to his friend and dearly loved
son, Robert, and to his dearest sisters and daughters,
Seit, Edit, and Hydit, Luveris, Virgit, Godit, greeting,
and God s blessing, and his own, if it aught avail.
I rejoice in, and thank God for, your holy purpose
and the holy intercourse which you have with each
other in the love of God and of a holy life, as I learnt
from our brother and son, William. Your affection, so
dear to me, beloved daughters, requests me to write to
you some suggestions which may teach and incite you
to live aright ; though you have with you my dear son
Robert, whom God has taught to watch over you in
Him and to teach you day by day both by word and
by example how you ought to live. Since, however, I
ought to respond to your petition if I can, I will try to
write some words, in accordance with your desires.
Dearest daughters, every praiseworthy, every reprehen-
2 1 2 Selections from the Letters of St A nselm.
sible action, is deserving of praise or blame solely from
the will. For out of the will grows the root, arises the
source, of actions which are within our power ; and if
we are not able to do what we would, still each one will
be judged before God according to the intention of his
own will. Be therefore anxiously careful, not so much
about what you do, as about what you desire ; not so
much what your actions are, as what your will is. For
every action which is rightly done, that is, with an
upright will, is good ; and that which is done with a
faulty will, is not good ; from his upright will is a man
designated just, from an evil will is he called unjust.
If therefore you wish to live well, incessantly mount
guard over your will both in great things and in the
least ; in those which lie within your power and those
which you cannot do, lest it should at all swerve from
rectitude. But, if you wish to be sure that your will is
upright : that will most certainly is so which is subject
to the will of God. When therefore you are preparing
to do or thinking of doing something important, say
thus in your hearts : " Doth God will that I should will
this, or not ? " If your conscience answers you, " Truly
God doth will that I should so will, and such a desire
pleaseth Him," then whether you can carry it out or
not, cherish that will and intention. But if your con
science testifies to you that God doth not desire you to
have that volition, then with all your might turn your
heart away from it ; and if you wish to drive it entirely
away from you, as far as you can shut out the thought
and recollection of it from your heart. By whatever
means however you banish from you an evil will or evil
thoughts, consider this little bit of advice which I give
you, and hold it fast. Do not struggle with wrong
thoughts or an evil desire, but when they annoy you,
persistently occupy your mind with some profitable
To Robert, and his Sisters and Daughters. 2 1 3
reflection and wish. For no thought or desire is ex
pelled from the heart except by some other thought
or wish that does not agree with it. So therefore
treat any unprofitable thoughts and wishes as that
your mind, straining its every effort after such as are
useful, may disdain even to remember or glance at the
others. If when you wish to pray, or attend to some
good meditation, thoughts trouble you to which you
ought not to grant admittance, never choose for their
importunity to set aside the good action you had
entered on, lest their inspirer, the devil, should rejoice
at having made you desist from the good you had
begun ; but by the method I have just mentioned, by
despising them, overcome them. Neither do you either
grieve or be gloomy because of their molestation (so
long as, despising them as I said before, you yield no
consent to them) : lest on account of this sadness they
return again to the memory and revive their impor
tunity. For it is a habit of the human mind that what
pleases or grieves it returns to its recollection oftener
than what it feels or thinks with indifference. In like
wise should any one who intends to lead a holy life
proceed with regard to any unadvisable impulse,
whether of body, or mind, as of temptation, or anger,
or envy, or vain-glory. For they are most easily ex
tinguished when we disdain to feel them, or think about
them, or do anything through their influence. Nor fear
lest this class of impulses or thoughts be imputed to
you as sin, if your will in no degree joins closely to
them, for there is no condemnation to them that are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh. But this, to
walk after the flesh, is to be in agreement with the
carnal will. But " flesh " is the name given by the
Apostle to every wrong impulse whether of soul or
body, when he says, " the flesh striveth against the
214 Selections from the L etters of St A nselm.
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh." We therefore
easily annihilate suggestions of this sort if we obliterate
their very germ, according to the advice before given ;
but only with difficulty when once we have admitted
them fully-grown into our minds. To thee, dearest
friend and son Robert, I give all the thanks I can for
the care and love thou bearest for God s sake to these
his hand-maidens ; and I pray most earnestly thou
mayest go on in this holy and pious mind. For thou
mayest be assured that a great reward awaits thee from
God for these holy efforts. May Almighty God be ever
the guardian of all your life. Amen. May the almighty
and merciful God grant you remission of all your sins,
and ever make you advance with humility to better
things and never to sink back. Amen.
65. To TUROLD, A MONK OF BEG.
Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, to his
brother and friend Turold, by the grace of God monk
at Bee, greeting : and mayest thou persevere to the end
in thy holy purpose.
Blessed be God in His gifts and holy in His works,
who turned your heart from vanity to verity. For all
those follow vanity who desire dignities and honours
and riches of this world, for these cannot by any
means as they promise satisfy the mind ; but the
more they abound, so much the more do they produce
a thirst in the soul, nor do they conduct into any good
end. But those hold the truth who with all their hearts
despise earthly and transitory things, and with all their
power rise to true humility. For to spiritual eyes they
who humble themselves never appear to descend, but
to mount up the heavenly hill whence one ascends
to the celestial kingdom. The divine clemency has
To Basilia. 215
directed you into the road to paradise, nay rather,
placed you in a kind of paradise in this life when it led
you into the cloistered life of religious vows. Let your
prudence take care therefore that your heart look not
backwards. The monk looks backwards, when he often
recalls to mind what he once abandoned. Which if he
frequently does, divine love grows cold in him, and the
love of the world revives, with dislike to and weariness
of his vow. Therefore as your body is isolated from
secular business let your heart ever be separated from
worldly thoughts, and always busy with some useful
and spiritual meditation. May the Holy Spirit ever
make you to rejoice and to give thanks to God for the
good you have begun. Amen.
66. To BASILIA.
Anselm the archbishop to Basilia his friend, his
beloved daughter in the Lord, greeting, and the blessing
of God, and his own if it be worth anything.
I learnt from your messengers that you eagerly
desire a letter from me ; in this I perceive your good
will and Christian aim, for I do not see any reason
why you should desire it, except that you may thence
receive some wholesome advice for your soul. There
fore although the whole of the sacred Scripture teaches
you how you ought to live, if you have it explained to
you, yet I must not be stingy, or inexorable to your
religious petition. I will therefore, beloved daughter,
tell you something, which, if you will frequently con
sider it with the full force of your mind, will enable
you to influence your heart greatly with the fear of
God and love of a virtuous life. Let it always be
before your mind s eye that the present life has an end ;
and that man knows not when the last day, towards
2 1 6 Selections from the Letters of St A nselm.
which by day and night he is incessantly approaching,
shall arrive. The present life is a journey. For so
long as a man lives, he is always moving. Always is
he either mounting, or going downwards towards hell.
When he does any good deed, he takes one step up
wards ; but when in any way he sins, he takes one step
downwards. This ascent or descent is known by every
soul when it goes out of the body. That one who
carefully strives by a pure life and good works to rise
while it lives here, will be placed in heaven with the
holy angels ; and the one who descends by a wicked
life, will be buried in hell with the evil spirits. It is
also to be noted that it is a very much quicker and
easier road by which one goes down than that by
which one goes up. Wherefore in each one of their
decisions and actions a Christian man or woman ought
carefully to consider whether they are going up or
down, and with their whole heart to embrace those
which they see will help them upwards ; and those by
which they perceive a descent towards hell to be made,
flee from and abjure. I therefore warn and advise you,
friend and loved daughter in God, that so far as, God
helping you, you are able, you draw back from every
sin, large or small, and practise yourself in deeds of
holiness. I pray Almighty God to protect, direct, keep
you always and everywhere. Amen.
67. To LAMBERT, ABBOT OF ST BERTINUS.
Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, to his
dearest friend, to Lambert, reverend abbot of the
monastery of St Bertinus, sends greeting and love, with
prayers.
Since the Church of Rheims desires and demands
your reverence (as you write me word) for the post of
To Muriardachus, King of Ireland. 2 1 7
its archbishop, your prudence asks advice of my little
ness as to what you should do in so important, burden
some, and perilous an affair. In the first place, I pray
God that He would allow nothing to be done with you
but what He pleases and what is good for you. But
since you ask my advice ; so far as I can see, it appears
to me best for you that your will, so far as in you lies,
should give consent to, you should say, do, nothing
which might conduce to this end, that you should be
withdrawn by any means from the burden to which
you are called. No necessity compels you, beyond
obedience pure and simple. Now you need acknow
ledge no obligation to obedience save to the lord abbot
of Cluny, under whom you placed yourself. But what
you say, that you would rather incur the sin of dis
obedience than undertake so burdensome a charge, so
laborious a burden, is not my advice. For disobedience
not followed by penitence is more dangerous than
obedience which in the hope of God s mercy under
takes even that which seems impossible. Because, the
power and merit of obedience, when that alone urges
one into danger, either defends one from sin, or if per
chance one does err, it is but a slight error if ever
attended by repentance. But not one of the good
deeds of him who lives in a state of disobedience is
done without a stain being left upon it.
68. TO MURIARDACHUS, KlNG OF IRELAND.
To Muriardachus by the grace of God illustrious
King of Ireland, Anselm, servant of the Church of
Canterbury, sends greeting and his prayers, and may
the mercy of God ever guide and protect him.
I give thanks to God for the many good things I
hear of your highness. Among which is this, that you
2 1 8 Selections from the Letters of St A nselm.
cause the people of your realm to live in such peace as
that all good men who hear of it give thanks to God
and desire for you a long life. For where there is
peace, it is possible for all the well-disposed to do what
they choose without being disturbed by the bad.
Wherefore your highness, by whom God has done
these things, may most certainly look for great reward
from Him. Upon this foundation of peace it is easy
to build the other things which are required by the
religion of the Church. I therefore pray for the per
manence of your good dispositions, that you may
examine where there are any things in your kingdom
which need alteration, on account of the reward of
eternal life ; and for the continual increase of God s
grace in you, so that you may earnestly seek, God
helping you, to amend them. For nothing which can
be corrected should be thought trifling, since God sets
down to the account of all not only the evil they do,
but likewise the evils they do not correct when they
can. And the more powerful those who ought to
correct them may be, the more strictly will God require
of them in proportion to the power mercifully entrusted
to them, that they should will and act rightly. Which
seems chiefly to apply to kings, since they are known
to have the chief power among men and that which is
the least opposed. But if you cannot do everything at
once, you ought not on this account to give up trying
to go on from good things to better, since God is wont
graciously to perfect good intentions and good efforts,
and to requite them with perfect bliss. I hear that
marriages are dissolved and rearranged most irregularly
in your kingdom, and that those nearly related to each
other scruple not against the canonical prohibition to
live together, either under the name of wedlock or in
some other fashion, and this they do openly, without
To Muriardachus, King of Ireland. 219
incurring any censure. Also, the bishops who ought to
be the pattern and example of canonic rule to others,
are, so I hear, consecrated irregularly either by a single
bishop or in places where they should not be ordained.
These, and other things which the greatness of your
wisdom shall perceive to need correction in Ireland, I
beg, adjure, and advise you, as one whom I greatly
love, and whose progress in all ways I long for, to seek
to correct in your kingdom according to the advice of
good and wise men ; and I pray God that you may go
from your earthly kingdom to the heavenly kingdom.
Amen.
69. To MURIARDACHUS, KING OF IRELAND.
To Muriardachus the illustrious King of Ireland,
Anselm the archbishop, servant of the Church of
Canterbury : faithful obedience with prayers : by the
earthly mayest thou attain to the heavenly kingdom.
Since many things are told me of your excellence
which become the royal dignity, we rejoice greatly ; and
give therefor devout thanks to God from whom is every
good thing. I am also sure that He who gave you His
grace to do the right things you already perform, will
also give you a desire to do whatever you shall perceive
He requires of you beyond what you are doing.
Wherefore, illustrious son and well-beloved in God, I
beg that you will with the utmost speed and care
amend those things in your realm which you may per
ceive require amendment according to the religion of
Christ. For God has placed you on a royal height
that you may govern your subject people with a rod of
equity, and that whatever among them is against right
and justice, you should with that same rod smite and
remove. And yet it is said that one thing is done
among that people, which very greatly needs alteration,
22O Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
for it is entirely contrary to the Christian religion.
For it is said that men exchange their wives for the
wives of others, as they might exchange one horse for
another, or any other thing for something else ; or they
abandon them from mere fancy, without cause or rule.
How wrong this is, anyone understands who knows the
Christian law. If therefore your excellence is unable to
read for yourself the sayings of the Holy Scriptures
which forbid this infamous exchange, desire the bishops
and clerks regular who are in your kingdom to read
them to you, so that having learnt them, you may per
ceive with what anxious care you should investigate,
and take measures for the correction of, this evil. It is
also said that in your realm bishops are elected at
random and appointed without any distinct place for
their episcopate, and are ordained bishop by a single
bishop, as any priest might be. Now this is quite con
trary to the apostolic canons ; which direct that those
who are thus instituted and ordained, are with those
who consecrated them, to be deposed from the episcopal
office. For a bishop cannot be appointed according to
God unless he have a fixed parish and parishioners
whom he is to superintend, for even in secular things
none can have the name or office of a shepherd, who
has no flock to feed. It lowers also not a little the
episcopal dignity when he is raised to the pontificate
who knows not the limits of his rule nor whom he
certainly governs by the ministry of the episcopal order.
Also, none should be ordained by less than three
bishops, both for many other and reasonable causes
which the short space of a letter has no room for, and
also that the faith, good character and wisdom of him
who is to watch and rule, may be testified to by suitable
and legal witnesses. I therefore pray, exhort, and
advise that your excellence will take measures to have
To Odo, Monk. 221
these things in your realm amended, so that the reward
which you have obtained from God for other good
deeds may be increased to you for this. Finally, if
you do on examination find aught in yourself or those
who have been given you to rule which doth in any
way resist God s will, strive carefully to amend it, that
when you shall leave your earthly kingdom you may
come to the heavenly kingdom. Amen. As to our
brother Cornelius whom your highness asked me to send
to you, I have to say that he is so occupied in attendance
upon his father that he could not be separated from
him without peril of the father s life, nor could he take
him along with him, for he is very old indeed.
70. To ODO, MONK.
Anselm the archbishop, to his beloved brother Odo,
monk and cellarer, greeting and the blessing of God,
and his own.
It is said that because you feel that from old age and
sickness your end is approaching, you wish to give up
the office wherein hitherto you have served God and
the cloister of the church where you dwell. But I
should like it to be known to your affection that this is
by no means a good intention. Certainly we ought to
repent of evil deeds and give them up before our death,
lest the last day find us in them. But as to good works,
we should persevere in them to the end, that our soul
may be removed from the midst of them when it
leaves this life. Fur concerning those who persevere in
good works is it said : " Whoso persevereth unto the
end, the same shall be saved ; " not of those who leave
their good work off before the end. It is therefore best
for thy soul, brother and beloved son, that in that office
which to the best of thine ability with the approval of
222 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
God (so far as I have been able to learn) and to the
satisfaction of thine abbot and thy brethren thou hast
held, thou shalt persevere as long as life shall last and
thy abbot shall enjoin it upon thee, with willing and
joyful mind, without any resentment or murmuring, so
that in the very act of speaking, or arranging somewhat,
concerning that office, thou mayst even render up thy
soul. Thus will fall to thy share the promise which
is assured to those who shall persevere unto the end.
And fear not because on account of weakness of body
thou art no longer able to fulfil thy duties and look
after thy charge as thou didst formerly in health and
youth. For God doth not ask of thee above what thou
art able. Neither let any contradictions, from what
quarter soever they come, with which the enemy seeks
to vex and harass thy spirit so that thou mayest fail
before the end and lose the reward of perseverance,
disturb thee at all. Therefore I exhort and pray thee
that thou firmly purpose in thy heart never so long as
thou livest to desert the good work which hitherto God
helping thee thou hast fulfilled, unless this be enjoined
thee by thine abbot and thy brethren, not in conse
quence of thine importunity, but of their own free will.
And be thou assured that the greater the difficulty with
which, whether on account of thy weakness or of any
contradictions whatsoever, thou fulfillest the duty en
joined thee, so much the greater the reward thou wilt
receive from God. I pray God Almighty to direct thy
heart, and so far as in me lies, I send to thee blessing
and absolution from God, beloved brother.
71. To THOMAS, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, to Thomas, Arch
bishop-elect of York, greeting.
To Godfrid. 223
The canonical authority enjoins that no church of an
episcopal see shall remain more than three months
without a pastor. Since then it has pleased the king,
by the advice of his barons and with my consent, that
your person should be chosen to fill the archbishopric of
York, the limit of delay thus wisely settled should not
longer be extended by you. Wherefore I wonder that
after your election you did not demand to be conse
crated to that unto which you had been elected. So I
give you notice that on the 24th of September you
appear at our mother church of Canterbury, there to
fulfil what you ought, and to receive consecration. If
you do not come, it belongs to me to see to and to ful
fil what appertains to the bishop s office in the arch
bishopric of York. Besides, I hear that you before
being consecrated, want to cause the bishop-elect of St
Andrews in Scotland to be consecrated at York, which
neither ought you to do nor I to grant ; I entirely forbid
it to be done either for him, or for any other person who
ought to be promoted to the government of souls by
the Archbishop of York, since it belongeth not to you
to give or grant to any one a cure of souls which you
have not yet yourself received. Farewell.
72. To GODFRID.
Anselm the archbishop to Godfrid : greeting and
God s blessing, and his own.
Your nephew Juhel has told me about your mode of
life, and he asked me from you to give you advice as to
how you should live. But when I heard what your way
of life was, I could not think of anything I should add
to it, either of psalms, prayers, fastings, bodily seventies,
beyond what you have by the grace of God undertaken
and do now fulfil. What therefore you now do, keep
224 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
to as long as you can do it and retain your bodily
health. But should you feel that it is causing you to be
ill, then I advise you to moderate it as you shall find
to be advisable. For it is better to do part only with
healthy body and a cheerful spirit, than by sickness
to be reduced from that which you did joyously and
well, to nothing at all ; neither do you despise in any
degree those who do it not, or think them to be any less
meritorious than yourself in God s sight. For bodily
exercise is good ; but far more doth God love a heart
full of piety, love, humility and longing to get as far as
it can and to enjoy the fruition of God Himself. May
Almighty God teach and strengthen and console you.
I send you absolution from God and if it avail aught
my own for all your offences. I beg you, pray for me.
73. To POPE PASCHAL THE SECOND.
To his beloved and revered lord and master Paschal,
the supreme Pope, Anselm, servant of the Church of
Canterbury, sends his due obedience and his faithful
prayers.
Since the consolidation and regulation of the
Churches of God depends chiefly, after God, upon the
authority of your paternity, I, when there is any cause
for needing it, freely turn to you for help and advice.
The Archbishop of York, Gerald by name, departed this
life, another by name Thomas was elected in his stead.
Concerning him the report goes that he is seeking the
pall before being consecrated and making his acknow
ledgment to me according to the ancient custom of his
predecessors and mine. Therefore the point of my
request in this matter is that until he shall have been
consecrated and have professed to me the obedience
due, as I said, he shall not receive the pall from your
To Pope Paschal the Second. 225
excellency. Which I say not concerning this because I
envy him the pall, but because some claim, and even
hold charges as though this had been granted by you,
and they might feel assured that they can refuse me the
due acknowledgment. But should this happen, know
that the Church of England would be divided ; and
according to the Word of the Lord, " Every kingdom
divided against itself shall be brought to desolation,"
it will be desolate, and the strictness of apostolic dis
cipline will be not a little weakened therein. I also
should on no account remain in England. For I neither
ought to, nor can, suffer, as long as I live, that the
primacy of our Church should be destroyed. Further,
and with the same motive, I would suggest to your
reverence, since the pall is requested by the Bishop of
London, that he never had it ; so that he can show no
sort of argument in support of his claim. For some
join together under this show of right, to humiliate
(how, it matters not) the dignity of the primary see of
Canterbury. I sent this year after Pentecost a letter to
your holiness by Bernard, a servant of Master Peter,
your chamberlain, saying that the King of England
complains that you allow the King of Germany to give
investitures of churches, without excommunication, and
so threatens that he will most certainly resume his own
investitures, since the other peacefully retains his. Let
your prudence therefore decide without delay what you
will do in this matter, lest what you are constructing so
well should be irreparably destroyed. For our king is
constantly asking what you will do as to the other
king. Let us pray God to gladden us with your long-
lasting prosperity.
226 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
74. To THOMAS, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.
Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, to
Thomas, archbishop.
To thee I speak, Thomas, in the sight of Almighty
God, I, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of
all Britain, speaking in the cause of God Himself: the
sacerdotal office which by my command in my diocese
thou didst receive at the hands of my suffragan, I
forbid thee to exercise, and enjoin thee not to presume
to meddle in any manner with any pastoral care until
thou dost retire from the rebellion which thou hast
begun against the Church of Canterbury, and shalt
have made the submission to that see which thy pre
decessors Thomas and Gerard professed according to
the ancient custom of their predecessors. And shouldst
thou rather love to persist in the designs on which thou
hast entered than to give them up, I forbid all the
bishops of all Britain under a perpetual anathema, to
lay, any one of them, hands on thee to promote thee
to the episcopate ; or shouldst thou be promoted by
foreigners, to acknowledge thee as a bishop in any
Christian communion whatever. Thee, Thomas, I also
forbid, under pain of the same anathema, ever to
receive consecration to the bishopric of York, until
thou hast first made that submission which thy pre
decessors Thomas and Gerard made to the Church of
Canterbury. But if thou wilt entirely give up the
bishopric of York, I allow thee to exercise the sacer
dotal office which thou didst formerly receive.
75. To HENRY, KING OF THE ENGLISH.
To his illustrious lord, Henry, by the grace of God
king of the English, Anselm the archbishop presents
faithful service and prayers.
To a Certain Lady. 227
I pray you, my dearest lord, as lord and king and
guardian of the Church of God committed to you, to
hear with attention the complaint of this monk from
M., and I beg that, according as you may think be
coming for you and expedient for the Church, he may
feel your loyal and paternal assistance and consolation.
For my own part, as being most devoted to you, to
your soul and your body and to your true honour, I
advise and exhort you that you do not, by setting
over the Churches of God such as you ought not, and
otherwise than as you ought, and by the advice of those
by whose advice you ought not, that you do not, I say,
draw upon yourself, which God forbid ! the anger of
God. It is a fact that already in some matters coun
sellors who as to your soul s welfare are evil and
unfaithful, have advised you otherwise than was ex
pedient. May Almighty God grant you so to rule
over what He has given into your charge as that He
may rule you, and keep you safe from all harm.
76. To A CERTAIN LADY.
Anselm, by the ordinance of God Archbishop of
Canterbury, to a certain lady : mayst thou despise
the world, not Christ, and love Christ more than the
world.
Most gladly would I speak with thee face to face, if
I could, sister dearly loved in the Lord, for the charity
whereby I desire all men to be saved and the office
laid upon me, both require me to love thee with
brotherly and fatherly affection, and through that love
to have a care as to thy soul s salvation. But since no
opportunity can occur for our conversing together, a
necessity is laid upon me of writing what I think of
thee and what I want of thee.
228 Selections from the Letters of St Anselin.
I adjure thee therefore not to despise the love where
with, on account of God and the honour of God, and
for thy salvation, I love thee, nor to reject my advice.
Now if thou wilt choose to assent to what I say, be
sure that thou wilt in the end be very glad, and there
will be joy over thee among the angels of God. But if
thou wilt not, know that thou wilt be very sorry indeed
and wilt be without excuse in the strict judgment of
God. I hear, my sister, that long ago thou didst wear
the habit of holy religion ; how thou didst leave it off,
what thou hast suffered, what done, is no secret but
very well known.
Think now therefore, dearly beloved, how distant are
human embraces and carnal pleasure, from the embrace
of Christ and the happiness of chastity and purity of
heart. I do not mean the personal embrace of Christ,
but that union which takes place through love and
longing for Him in the soul that lives near Him in a
good conscience. Think, I say, what the difference is
between these two pleasures ; I am not now speaking
of lawful marriage. Think, I say, how great is the
purity of spiritual, how great the impurity of carnal
pleasure ; what the spiritual promises, and the carnal
threatens ; how great in the spiritual is the hope and
how enjoyable the expectation of Christ, how great
even in this world is its security and comfort ; how
great in the carnal the fear of God s judgments, how
great its shame even in this present life. Reflect what
it is to reject Christ thy spouse promising thee the
dowry of His heavenly kingdom, and to prefer a mortal
man giving and promising corruption and contemptible
things alone, to the Son of God, the King of kings.
Of a surety that King of kings desired thy beauty, as
that of a lawful spouse.
But after what manner he (whom thou knowest),
To a Certain Lady. 229
grasped at the beauty of thy outward form, how shall I
tell ? high-born woman, how can I say it ? A spouse
of God, a virgin, thou wert chosen ; and set apart to
wear the dress and live the life devoted to God. What
can I say thou art now, my daughter? God knoweth.
I say not this to enjoy thy confusion, but that God may
joy, and the angels rejoice with Him over thy conver
sion and loving penitence. What then can I call thee ?
If I say it not, thou wilt perhaps give no heed, if I do,
perchance thou wilt be angry. Once chosen, and sealed,
and espoused by God, what art thou become ? Let thy
nobility be ashamed of what thou dost blush to hear,
and I because of thy noble birth and my own affection
am ashamed to say. Behold, dear daughter, if thou
dost but set these things fully before thee, what grief
should be in thy heart for thy so great and so grievous
fall ? But if thou dost bitterly grieve, I grieving with
thee shall greatly rejoice ; if however thou sorrowest
not, I have no cause for joy but grieve much the more.
For if thou dost grieve, I still hope for thy salvation ;
if however thou hast no sorrow, what can I look for
but thy condemnation ?
For it is impossible for thee by any means to be
saved, unless thou shalt return to thy rejected habit and
thy vow. For although thou wast not consecrated by
the bishop, nor didst thou read thy profession before
him, yet this was by itself a clear and undeniable pro
fession, in that thou both in public and private didst
wear the habit belonging to the holy life, whereby
thou didst declare thyself to all who saw thee, to be
dedicated to God, no less than by reading thy pro
fession. For before there was the now customary
profession of the monastic vow, or the consecration,
many thousand human beings of both sexes by their
dress alone declaring themselves to be under the vow,
230 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
followed on to blessedness and a crown. And any who
then rejected the habit assumed without that profession
and consecration were considered as apostates. Thou
art therefore without excuse if thou desert the holy vow
which thou didst long ago profess by thy habit and
mode of life, although thou didst not read the now
usual profession and wert not consecrated by the
bishop. Assuredly, dearest daughter, the Lord is still
waiting for thee, thy Creator and Redeemer : the King
who desired thy beauty, that He might be thy lawful
spouse, still waits for thee and calls thee back, that thou
mayst be His true spouse, and if not a virgin yet, at
least, chaste. For we know of several holy women
who after the loss of their virginity pleased God and
were nearer to Him by penitence in chastity than
several others, although holy, in virginity.
Return therefore, Christian woman, return into thine
heart, and think whom thou shouldst rather love, to
whom the rather cling ; whether to Him who chose
thee for such an honourable position, and choosing
called thee, and gave thee the habit befitting His bride,
and still although spurned and rejected, waits for thee
and calls thee back ; or him through whom, to say the
least, thou hast fallen down from such exaltation to
where thou now seest thyself thrown ? particularly when
he now already, as I think, despises thee, or doubtless
will despise and desert thee. And may you so mutually
spurn each other as that God may not spurn you ; may
you so desert each other as that God may not desert
you ; may you so reject each other, as that God may
not drive you far from His face ; so may you turn away
from each other as that you may turn to God. Of a
certainty far better and more honourable is it both for
him and for thee that thou be spurned by him than
that he should hold fast to thee, for so long as he clings
To William, Bishop- Elect of Winchester. 231
to thee, there is no doubt (to say nothing about him)
thou wilt be rejected by God ; and if, rejected by him,
thou reject him for God s sake, thou wilt, so far from
being rejected by God, be received and loved by Him,
as one redeemed by His own blood. Turn, oh daughter
whose salvation I yearn for, turn the eye of thy mind
towards the clemency of Him who being rejected calls
back thee who hast spurned Him, that He may bring
thee to His royal couch, not an earthly one, but a
heavenly. Think, and let thine heart be shattered
to pieces, sorrow vehemently over thy fall. Cast aside
and tread under foot the secular dress thou hast assumed,
and resume the habit of a spouse of Christ which thou
didst throw off. For Christ will in nowise know or
receive thee, except in that habit whereby He marked
thee for Himself and by which thou hast in public and
in private shown thyself to be His spouse. In that
habit return thou into His favour again. Present thy
self before Him while there is time. Accuse thine own
conscience, bathe with tears thy sin. Pray to Him un-
weariedly, cling to Him inseparably : He is merciful.
He will not reject thee ; but rather, rejoicing at thy
return, will tenderly receive thee. If thou doest this,
there will be joy over thee in heaven and in earth
among all holy angels and men who know it. But if
thou scornest to do this, all will be against thee, and I
and the Church of God shall act as in such a case we
know how to act. May Almighty God visit thine heart
and pour into it His love, dearest daughter.
77. To WILLIAM, BISHOP-ELECT OF WINCHESTER.
Anselm the archbishop, to his friend who loves him
William Elect-Bishop of Winchester, greeting.
Tell me whether at the next Ember Season you are
232 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
coming to me to receive the priesthood, and whether
on the day after your reception of the priesthood you
desire to receive episcopal consecration. I must know
this beforehand, because if you are then to be conse
crated bishop, I will come at that time to Canterbury
and will invite some bishops to be with me and so
perform such an office after a fating manner. But if
you wish to receive the priesthood only at the time
before-mentioned, I shall not then come to Canterbury,
since I could do that wherever I might be. Where I
shall then be, I will give your affection notice before
hand.
78. To MALCHUS, BISHOP OF WATERFORD.
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, to his friend and
fellow-bishop Malchus of Waterford, greeting and
blessing.
I hear that the Lord Samuel, Bishop of Dublin, has
ejected the monks of the church in Dublin for no
reason, or for hardly any, nor will receive them back
for any satisfaction ; and that against rule he causes a
cross to be borne before him on a journey, and disposes
of the goods which archbishops gave to that church as
though they were his own. I am writing to him about
all these things, and I enjoin the inhabitants of that
same city to prevent the property mentioned from
being given away. And since I find not anyone to
whom I could better send the said letter, I beg of your
fraternity to give it to him in person; and warn him
gently by word of mouth, praying and advising him to
attend to the monition which I have sent in writing,
and to obey it. Farewell.
To Baldwin, King of Jerusalem. 233
79. To BALDWIN, KING OF JERUSALEM.
Anselm, the archbishop, albeit unworthy, of Canter
bury, to Baldwin, his beloved lord, by the grace of God
King of Jerusalem : may you so reign in this life over
the earthly Jerusalem, that you may in the next reign
in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Although by the gift of God you have the knowledge
which, God helping you, might suffice for living well,
and although I know your intentions to be good, yet
the abundant love I feel towards you induces me to
write something, though from afar, to your highness.
For as a fire already burning is fanned into brighter
flame by a breeze, so is a good-will roused by friendly
admonition into more vigorous action. You know, my
beloved lord, how God chose the city of Jerusalem both
before the coming of the Lord and in His coming, to be
His very own and the joy of the whole earth. Hers
were those first kings whom the Lord loved ; out of
her came the prophets, in her was the special house of
God and His sanctuary ; there was effected our re
demption, there lived the King of kings ; thence was
diffused all over the world the salvation of the human
race. Let your highness therefore consider what a
very conspicuous favour from God it is that He should
have chosen you to be king in this city ; and with
what desire and zeal that man should devote himself to
the will of God and His service, whom He has made to
be king there. I pray therefore, I adjure, I warn you,
my lord and my friend, to try so to govern yourself
and all beneath you according to the law and will of
God, that you may set a bright example by your life
to all the kings of the earth. May the Lord Jesus
Christ so reign in your heart and over your actions,
that you may, with King David your predecessor, reign
234 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
for ever in heaven. Amen. Know that I pray daily
for you, poor though my prayers be.
80. To G., CANON OF ST QUINTIN.
Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, to his
beloved brother and friend G., Canon of St Quintin :
greeting, and may God ever guide you by His wisdom.
I hear that your fellow-brethren of B., canons of the
church of St Quintin, wish, not inconsiderately, but for
many reasons, to remove the Lord O., who is at present
your abbot, from that dignity, and to substitute your
fraternity in his place, but they fear lest your devout self
should not easily consent to their intention, on account
of your love for the peace you at present enjoy. Since
therefore they know that you love my individual self ;
and hope you will believe in my advice rather than in
that of anyone else, they beg me to lay before your
charity what I think about it. Now if in the body of
Christ we are members one of another, and it is
specially so in a congregation of religious ; if anyone
will not allow the other members, and yet more, the
whole body, to make use of him as a member, I do
not see how he can prove himself a member of that
body ; and if that body be the body of Christ, how he
can show himself to be a member of Christ. And there
is another thing ; that no one who acts rightly wishes
to live for himself alone ; but exactly as he desires and
believes that if he is a member of God all the advan
tages of other members will be his in a future life, so
ought he to will that if there be aught of good in him it
should belong to others in this present life. Therefore,
so far as I may, I advise, and pray you, son, brother,
and dearest friend, that if the whole, or the greater
part, of your community, with the approval of the
To Matilda, Queen of the English. 235
reverend bishops of Carnotes and Paris who were your
nursing fathers, should pressingly elect you to what I
named above, by no means to shun it or stand out
against persuasion. I even consider it better for you
lovingly to preserve in your mind the peace of contem
plation while actively fulfiling the work of brotherly
charity, than if despising others prayers and their need
you were to choose contemplation alone. Farewell.
8 1. To MATILDA, QUEEN OF THE ENGLISH.
To Matilda, illustrious Queen of the English, Anselm,
Archbishop of Canterbury, sends the blessing of God
and his faithful service and prayers.
I speak briefly, but from the heart, as to a person for
whom I greatly desire that she should advance from an
earthly kingdom to a heavenly. When I hear anything
about you which does not please God nor become you,
if I neglect to warn you, I neither fear God, nor do I
love you as I ought. After I left England I heard that
you are managing the churches which are in your hands
otherwise than is good for them and for your own soul
I am unwilling to say here how you are acting,
according as it is reported to me, because to none is it
better known than to yourself. Therefore I beg you as
my mistress, advise you as my queen, warn you as my
daughter (as indeed I have done before now), to cause
the churches of God which are in your power to know
you as a mother, a nurse, a kind mistress and queen.
And I say this not only as to them, but as to all
churches in England to which you extend your help.
For He who saith " he that doeth wrong shall receive
for the wrong that he hath done," excepts no one.
Again I beg and advise and warn you, my beloved
mistress and daughter, to turn this over diligently in
236 Selections from the Letters of St Ansehn.
your mind, and if your conscience bears you witness that
you have herein anything to correct, to hasten to correct
it, so that in the future you offend not God, so far as by
His grace this is possible to you, and make Him
merciful to you for the past if you see you have
offended. For it is not, of a certainty, sufficient for any
one to desist from evil, unless he takes care to make
all possible satisfaction for what has been committed.
May Almighty God so ever guide you as that He may
repay you with eternal life.
82. To COUNT HUGO.
Anselm the archbishop to his lord and beloved
friend, Count Hugo, greeting, and God s blessing, and
his own.
The bearer of this, a Cluniac monk, complains that
you have taken and are keeping prisoner a certain
monk of Cluny, and that another, lately made a monk
and now dead, has been carried off by your men and
buried where it pleased them. If these things are so, I
am very much grieved on your account, because they
have not been done at all as becomes you. Wherefore
I desire, pray, and advise you, as a friend, to restore
without delay the monk whom you have prisoner ; and
since you captured him, offer to make reparation for
that. Your own honour alone requires you to do this.
But afterwards, if you have any claim upon this monk,
make complaint thereof, and you shall be compensated
according as justice requires. As to the dead man also
I advise you to offer to make amends as shall be most
fair and just. But I tell you also plainly, as a man
whose honour and worth are dear to me, that if you do
not what I say, you will be much blamed ; and I also,
did I fail in doing what ecclesiastical discipline enjoins
To Count Haco. 237
to be done in such a case, should be reproached by
many. I greet your wife, my beloved daughter.
83. To COUNT HACO.
Anselm, by the grace of God Archbishop of Canter
bury, to Haco, Count of the Orkneys, greeting, and the
blessing of God.
I hear that for want of teachers the people under
your rule do not know and practise the Christian
religion as they ought But I am very glad to learn
by the report of the bishop whom you now have by
God s grace, that your prudence readily receives the
Word of God, and any salutary advice. Relying on
this, I send your earnestness my letter of admonition
to you to follow carefully the preaching and teaching
of the said bishop ; and to seek, so far as in you lies,
that your people may do the same. For you can do
nothing by which you might better attain the remission
of your sins and the glory of eternal life, than by ad
monishing your people to fulfil the religion of Christ,
and attracting them to it in every way you can.
Which you might fulfil, God helping you, if, as I have
told you just now, you submit yourself in devout and
holy humility and with genuine good-will to your bishop.
If by the inspiration of God you will yield to my advice
and exhortation, I pray God Almighty Himself to
direct and guard both you and all your people by His
grace, and from my heart I send you the benediction
and absolution of God, and my own humble prayers.
Almighty God so make you to live in this world as
that in the next world you may be united to the
blessed company of angels. Amen.
238 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
84. To HENRY, KING OF THE ENGLISH.
To his dearest lord, Henry, by the grace of God
king of the English, Anselm, Archbishop of Canter
bury, offers his faithful service and faithful prayers.
I hear that you command William, Bishop-Elect of
Winchester, to go out of the diocese and out of
England, because he did not receive the consecration
which the Archbishop of York and the other bishops
wanted to confer upon him. Wherefore I entreat and
advise you, and that as a faithful archbishop addressing
his lord and king, not to believe in the advice of those
who counsel you thus, for to my mind I cannot see
that this is to your honour. For it is well enough
known that to me belongs his consecration, nor ought
any other to do it except with my authority ; and this
I am prepared, should need arise, to prove by argu
ment, as such a matter ought to be proved. If therefore
you expel him from your kingdom so that I cannot
perform that consecration canonically, it appears to me
that you are depriving me of my office without any
legal reason why you should do so. Therefore I pray
you to allow him to remain in peace in his diocese, at
least until the end of my journey of inspection, that in
the meantime I may be permitted to give him the
consecration which I ought.
85. To RICHARD, A MONK.
Anselm, by the grace of God archbishop, to his
dearest brother and son, Richard, monk of Bee, greeting,
and the blessing of God.
When you know how much I love you, you ought
not entirely to despise my advice and injunctions, and
by thus despising them vex me and the abbot to whose
care I commended you. Now I have so often warned,
To Wilier mus. 239
advised, and enjoined you to moderate your indiscreet
abstinences and bodily austerities according to the
command of the aforesaid abbot ; you have so often
promised to obey my will and his in this matter, and
yet you still obstinately stick to your own way. I am
afraid that while you want to have a reward, or rather
obtain reputation or foolish self-glorification for your
self-denial, you may instead be incurring punishment
for disobedience. Assuredly since simple obedience
deserves a greater reward than unusual abstinence from
food, so he is more severely punished by whom the
former is despised than by whom the latter is neglected.
For obedience can save a man without this kind of
abstinence ; but without obedience such abstinence can
avail only to condemnation. Yield therefore, yield,
and put yourself entirely at your ruler s disposal, if you
wish to obey me, if you wish to please me, if you wish
to retain my love for you, if you wish to prove yours
for me, and therefore do not wish to vex me and the
abbot you are under, and to annoy the brethren among
whom you live, by your indiscretion. For it is plain
enough that your bodily frame and your natural
temperament cannot bear what your rashness presumes
to do. May the Almighty Lord lead you in His way
and in His truth. Amen.
86. To WILLERMUS.
Anselm the archbishop to his beloved son Willermus,
greeting, and the blessing of God, and his own.
I well know that you love me with a great and deep
affection, and therefore I cannot help returning your
love. You love me as a Father in God to whom you
committed your whole self without reserve, and I who
received you with sincere affection, love you as a son.
From God you learnt to love me, and God gave to me
240 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
to love you. Therefore since our mutual affection
comes from God, it cannot be destroyed, nor ought it
to be, unless some offence against God should cause
this. Therefore as you wish to retain my affection,
strive with all your might to avoid offending God. I
like you to love me, but I like better that you should
love yourself. Love yourself, and as to affection, you
possess me. By keeping my admonition in mind, you
will always keep in mind the love of God, and in that,
my love ; I cannot always be present with you. May
God, who is present everywhere, guard you. I would
admonish you to be always in His presence.
87. To HERBERT, BISHOP OF THIOFORD.
Anselm, servant of the Church of Canterbury, to
Herbert, Bishop of Thioford, greeting.
As to the priests about whom your prudence asks
for advice, I am sure that nothing is to be relaxed of
what was settled in the council. But since they prefer
to resign whatever appertains to the priest s office,
rather than their wives : if any who can be found are
leading regular lives, let them act for the others ; but if
none or few such are to be found, give orders that in
the meantime monks shall say mass for the people
wherever they may be, and consecrate the Body of the
Lord, which shall be taken by the clergy to the sick.
The same clergy shall by your command receive con
fessions in place of the others, and bury the bodies of
the dead. All this you may enjoin even upon monks
of advanced age, until this obstinacy of the priests
shall, by God s visitation, yield ; it will not last long if
God be favourable to us, providing we persist in what
has been begun. As to baptism, you know that who
ever baptises, it is Christ who baptises. Enjoin
earnestly all lay people, great and small, on behalf of
To his Nephew. 241
God and of all us who settled this in the council, that
if they call themselves Christians, they should help you
to expel from the churches and from their possessions
priests who are disobedient to the council, and to put
worthy ones in their stead. And if those expelled
break out either against those who are willing to serve
the Church chastely, or in any other manner of rash
ness and pride, let all Christians be against them and
exclude them not only from their own society, but also
from the lands they hold, together with their female
belongings, until they come to a better mind.
88. To HIS NEPHEW.
Anselm the archbishop to his dear nephew Anselm,
greeting, and blessing.
The anxiety and sadness you feel about your dear
mother, I also endure. I had therefore begged the
lord abbot of Cluny to receive her into the convent of
the Lord s handmaidens at Marcinneus ; which he for
love of me freely granted ; and the handmaidens of
the Lord were willing also. So I have by letter and
by my messenger begged the Cluniac abbot and his
nuns, as humbly and earnestly as I could, to give my
sister up to me for this. But they would by no means
consent ; rather were much excited against me and
thought I had done them dishonour. But I shall not
yet give up trying to carry through by some means
what I have begun. But if I cannot, we must not, you
ind I, be overcome with inconsolable sadness, but
patiently commit ourselves and her to the providence
of God. For I hope in God that He will not suffer her
to be tempted by any inconveniences beyond what she
is able to bear, but that He will so lead her through the
many trials which she has since her infancy borne, and
will bear to the end, as that He may cause her to enter
Q
242 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
into His rest. But I, so far as I am able, shall never
cease to help her in every way so long as I live. Now,
as to yourself; I desire and enjoin you on no account
to be idle, but to resolve daily to improve in that for
which I left you in England. Try to understand the
value of correct grammar ; accustom yourself to com
pose daily, chiefly in prose ; and do not be too fond of
writing in a difficult style, but rather write plainly and
clearly. Always, except when necessity compels, speak
in Latin. Above all aim at a steady life and sober
ways. Avoid much talking; for a man gains more by
being silent and hearing what others say, and by re
flecting on how he may profit by that and by their
example, than by volubly displaying his own knowledge
without being thereto obliged by any necessity. Greet
your teacher kindly from me; to him I should really
like to be of use (did God give me the opportunity),
both for your sake and for that of the other brothers he
is teaching and on account of his own sterling character.
But in the meantime ! have laid this before the lord
prior and begged him earnestly to treat him so kindly
as that he will not be sorry to have attached himself to
you. Farewell.
89. To BERNARD AND HIS MONKS.
Anselm, by the grace of God archbishop, to the
Lord Prior Bernard and the other brethren living in the
monastery of St Alban, greeting and blessing.
The brethren sent to me by your affection reported
that some doubt had arisen among you, and some dis
cussion, because in the writings of the Catholic Fathers
you sometimes find it said that in Christ God and man
are united in one substance, and again sometimes, that
two substances, the divine and the human, are one
person in Christ. It may seem a contradiction that in
To Bernard and his Monks. 243
one substance should be human nature and divine, so
as to be one person, and two substances in the same
person ; but if it be rightly understood how they say
one substance is in Christ more than one nature, or
more than one substance one person, it will be seen that
there is nothing contradictory there. For we believe in
one God, and confess Him to be Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. Now when we say one God, we only say one and
so we understand. But when we say Father and Son
and Holy Ghost, we say and believe more ; but we have
the command of God that we ought to say God in the
singular and not as more than one, as it is written :
" Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." But
of those three, that is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, we
find not in prophet, or apostle, or evangelist, that under
one name they name them in the plural, whereby they
would signify that plurality which we understand in
them ; they never say they are three persons, or three
substances, or three almighties, or anything of this
kind. From this want the Catholic Fathers when they
spoke of those three, chose out all by which those three
could be named plurally. The Greeks chose the name
"substance," the Latins the name "person;" but wholly
so as that what we understand by " person," that and
no other do they understand by " substance." There
fore as we say that in God there are three persons in
one substance, so they say that there are three sub
stances in one person, neither understanding nor be
lieving anything different from what we do. Therefore
since they have not names by which they could properly
signify those three, as I said before, when the Greeks
said there were three substances, but we said three
persons, both gave to the two names as in reference to
God that meaning which was most generally understood
among them by that word, and which they could not
244 Selections from the Letters of St Anselm.
really express by any word. Thus therefore as we say
that there is one person of the Father, another of the Son,
another of the Holy Ghost, and that in that wherein the
Son of God is other than the Father, He is not other than
the Virgin s Son, but is one and the same ; He is a Per
son other than the Father, and not other than the Son
of the Virgin, but the same Person : so the Greeks say
that the Word, which is the Son of God, is another
substance than the Father, and not another than took
man s nature. When therefore we find in the writings
of Catholic Fathers that there are in Christ more natures
than one, but one substance ; and when again we find
that there are more than one substance, but one person ;
we do not take the word "substance" in the same
sense ; but when we say " one substance," we under
stand the same as by the word "person." But when
we say there are in Him more than one substance, but
one person, we mean by the word " substance the same
as what we meant by the word " nature." On this
account therefore, since the faith of Greeks and Latins
is one and the same, they sometimes say "person,"
although the Latins rarely do this. But that the
Greeks predicate in God one Person, three substances,
is declared by St Augustine in his book "On the
Trinity." I think I have sufficiently answered what
you asked, my brethren, so far as I understand the
question to be discussed among you, although much
might have been said about Trinity and plurality, how
the Word is One with the Father and yet not One alone,
and One alone with the human nature He took, and yet
not One.
J. EAIN AND SONS, PRINTERS, ..EDINBURGH.
Ancient and Modern Library
of Theological and Mystical
Literature
Well printed on antique paper, neatly bound in cloth,
and uniform with this volume.
St ANSELM, Archbishop of Canterbury (1033-1109).
Cur Deus Homo? Why was God Made Man? With a
Life of St Ansel m, and a Selection of his Letters, cr
8vo, 272 pages.
Originally published at 2s 6d net. Edinburgh, 1909
" One of the purest-minded men of genius. "CARL YLE.
" For Anselm was a philosopher, the philosopher of the eleventh
century." F. D. MAURICE.
St AUGUSTINE, Bishop of Hippo (354-430).
The City of God, De Civitate Dei, trans, by J. H[ealey]
in 1610, 2 vols cr 8vo, 752 pages.
Originally published at 2s 6d net. Edinburgh, 1 909
" Such men excel in the broad statement of great truths which
flash at once with vivid evidence on the minds which receive them.
The very words seem to glow with life; and even the sceptical
reader is half-awakened by them to a kindred and similar warmth.
Such are the men who move the creeds of mankind."
WALTER BAGEHOT.
Dr EDWARD BENHAM.
Prayer-Book (The) of Queen Elizabeth, 1559, com
prising the Litany and Suffrages, Collects, Epistles and
Gospels to be used for Holy Communion, Special
Ministrations and Consecrations, &c. ; a complete reprint
in the original form and style, to which are appended
some occasional forms of prayer issued in her reign ;
with an historical introduction by Dr Edward Benham,
cr 8vo, cloth, 291 pages.
Originally published at 2s 6d net. Edinburgh, 1909
Prof. E. BURTON, D.D., Late of Oxford University,
Archbishop WAKE, and WILLIAM REEVES, M.A.
Apostolic Fathers of the First and Second Centuries,
including a History of the Church, by Professor E.
Burton, D.D., an Essay on the Right Use of the
Fathers, by William Reeves, M.A., and selected works
by the Fathers, with explanatory introductions by
Archbishop Wake and the Editor The Epistles of
Barnabas and of Clement of Rome, The Shepherd of
Hennas, The Epistles of St Ignatius, of St Poly carp, The
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, The Epistle to Diognetus,
and oj the Church of Smyrna concerning the Martyrdom of
St Polycarp, 2 vols cr 8vo, 556 pages.
Originally published at 5s net. Edinburgh, 1909
JOHN KA YE (Formerly Lord Bishop of Lincoln).
The First Apology of Justin Martyr, Addressed to the
Emperor Antoninus Pius, with some account of his
writings and opinions by John Kaye, cr 8vo, 262
pages.
Originally published at 2s 6d net. Edinburgh, 1912
3
Rev. E. II. LANDON, M.A.
The Councils of the Holy Catholic Church, from the
First at Jerusalem in 50 A.D. to the Council of West
minster in 1888, arranged alphabetically, with the
salient points and decrees of each Council, New Edition,
with considerable Additions, Appendix of Latin and
English Names, Index, 2 vols cr 8vo, 826 pages.
Originally published at 6s net. Edinburgh, 1909
WILLIAM LAW (1686-1761).
Defence of Church Principles : Three Letters to Bishop
Hoadly of Baiigor, 1717-1719, a brilliant, witty, and
forcible survey of the great Barigor Controversy and
enunciation of true Church Principles, ed. by J. D.
Nash, M.A., and Bishop Gore of Birmingham, cr 8vo,
344 pages.
Originally published at 2s 6d net. Edinburgh, 1909
Postage 4d per volume extra
PUBLISHED BY
JOHN GRANT, BOOKSELLER
31 GEORGE IV. BRIDGE, EDINBURGH
St. Anselnu
Cur Deus Homo,
BC.
6:74
C p
1909
