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English Writers and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception
The well known Doctor of the Church, Anselm, was born of a German stock, as his name implies, at Aosta in 1036. In 1053 he entered the Benedictine order at Bec in Normandy where Lanfranc was at that time abbot. In 1078 he was himself elected abbot of the monastery, and in this capacity was brought into relation with William the Conqueror and William Rufus. During an illness of the latter, he was chosen Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of 1093 and his appointment was confirmed by the king. Serious misunderstandings soon arose between them on the questions of investiture and Church property, and Anselm was obliged to go to Rome, where he remained until the king’s death. Further misunderstandings, moreover, soon arose between him and William’s successor, Henry I., which detained him in France, until an agreement was arrived at in 1106, by which he was enabled to return to England and to his bishopric. He died there on the 21st April 1109.
His nephew, Anselm the younger, came from Lombardy, and as a youth had entered the monastery of St Michael at Chiusa, and received his theological training from the Benedictines of Canterbury.[866] After his uncle’s death, he was for a short time abbot of St Saba in Rome. In 1115 he was chosen by the pope to bring the pallium to the newly elected Archbishop of Canterbury, Radulf. As legate, he strongly maintained the rights of the pope in the election of bishops, and consequently fell under King Henry’s displeasure, and had to retire to France until a reconciliation had been effected between the King and Pope Calixtus II. He was then elected abbot of Bury St Edmond’s and confirmed as such in 1121. Here he remained until his death on the 11th January 1148. The attempt of a section of the chapter of St Paul’s in 1136 to make him bishop led to no result, but rather caused him much annoyance.
The Anglo-saxon, Eadmer or Edmer, was a disciple and faithful attendant of the older Anselm. Born in Kent, he entered the monastery at Canterbury and accompanied Anselm in his banishment to Rome. After Anselm’s death, he lived in retirement from which he emerged for a short time in 1120 to be Bishop of St Andrews in Scotland. But after a year he resigned and returned to his monastery, where he died after 1124. He wrote a history of England, a number of lives of English saints, and some theological treatises, two of which were in praise of the Mother of God (De Excellentia Virg. Mariæ and De Quatuor Virtutibus Mariæ). It has been recently conclusively proved that he is also the author of a treatise on our Lady’s conception (De Conceptione S. Mariæ), hitherto generally attributed to one or other of the two Anselms.[867] In his work on the Excellences of our Lady, in which her share in the work and sufferings of Christ is brought into prominence, Eadmer adopts a neutral position with regard to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, and admits the possibility that she was purified from original sin only at the Annunciation. In the last-named composition, however, which advocates the introduction of the festival, he endeavours to establish the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, and defends it warmly, and not unskilfully, against many objections, having, as he says, upon more mature consideration of the matter, recognised its correctness. The circumstance that this is the first treatise which aims especially and avowedly at defending this opinion, endows it with a special interest.