Anselm of Canterbury

(ca. 1033-1109)
He was born in Aosta (Piedmont, Italy) in a noble Lombard family. Forced to leave the house, entered the famous monastery in Beke (Normandy), where in 1060 he was tonsured, and in 1063 succeeded his teacher, Lanfranc at the rank of Prior. In 1078 he was elected abbot of the abbey, and visited the possession of his monastery in England, where he acquired many friends. After the death of Lanfranc, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, King William Redhead, opposing the universal desire to see Anselm succeeded Lanfranc, Archbishop of four years had a vacant chair and lost only in 1093. Anselm demanded that the signs of his dignity has been awarded the Archdiocesan his dad, not the king. Although the dispute was settled, Anselm still served in 1097 in Rome, where he remained until 1100 until a successor William Rufus, Henry I, did not call him back at the archiepiscopal chair. The dispute over the secular investiture broke out with renewed force, . and it has been resolved only in 1107, . when the parties agreed that, . that the bishops should provide adequate homage to the rulers of his country, . but the symbols of their spiritual dignity they may serve only the Church,
. Anselm of Canterbury died 21 April 1109 and was canonized in 1494. In the Western church holy day of remembrance on April 21
. In the area of Christian doctrine Anselm offered a new interpretation of the dogma of redemption, . according to which Christ's sacrifice was not a ransom to the devil for mankind sinned, . as it was customary to think until, . and redemption, . brought by God for humanity,
. This new interpretation soon gained universal acceptance. Considering the problem of relationship between faith and reason, Anselm in the spirit of Augustinian scholars argue that faith is a prerequisite for rational speculation. His famous sayings - for example, 'faith, which requires understanding' (fides quaerens intellectum) or 'I believe, to understand' (credo ut intelligam) - became a sort of slogans of the Augustinian school, and most of his followers - down to the time of St.. Albert the Great and St.. Thomas Aquinas - shared his views on the relationship between faith and reason. However, the main merit of Anselm was that he formulated a so-called. ontological proof of God's existence, designed to show that from the very concept of God is a necessary consequence of its existence, then this proof is developed, discussed and refuted by many eminent philosophers. Among the major works of Anselm include Monologue (Monologion), . Addition of reasoning (Proslogion), . On Truth (De veritate) and Why God became man (Cur Deus homo); recently devoted to the presentation of Anselm's famous doctrine of the meaning of the atoning sacrifice of Christ.,