Saint Anselm and His Biographer

This is a study of Anglo-Norman monastic life and thought between about 1060 and 1130 as seen through the lives and writings of two men: Anslem, Archbishop of Canterbury, the most penetrating intellect between Augustine and Aquinas and the more commonplace observant Eadmer, his biographer. Taken together, the writings of the two men embrace almost every side of contemporary monastic experience. Professor Southern surveys all these aspects as they affect the writings of Anselm and Eadmer. In the first part of this book, he studies Anselm's development as a writer and statesman. In the second part, attention is directed to the community at Canterbury, which provided the background for Anselm's life as archbishop and gave him, in Eadmer, his closest disciple and biographer. The work concludes with a study of Eadmer's writings, especially of his Life of Anselm and with an assessment of the importance of the two men as complementary examples of the Benedictine life of the period.