[1022] Eadmer, Vit. Ans. i. 1. 3. “Ille in suo proposito perstans oravit Deum, quatenus infirmari mereretur, ut vel sic ad monachicum quem desiderabat ordinem susciperetur.”
[1023] Will. Malms. Vita Wlst. 245. See N. C. vol. ii. p. 470. The confession of Anselm in this matter comes out in his sixteenth Meditation, p. 793 of Migne’s edition. The passage seems to imply more serious offences than would have been guessed from the more general words of Eadmer, i. 1. 4. The meditation is addressed to a sister. If this means his own sister Richeza or Richera, it must have been before her marriage with Burgundius. See his Epistles, iii. 43.
[1024] See William Fitz-Stephen, iii. 21, Robertson, and the remarkable story in William of Canterbury, i. 5, Robertson.
[1025] Vit. Ans. i. 1. 45. See N. C. vol. ii. p. 228.
[1026] Vit. Ans. i. 1. 6. He is made to say; “Ecce, inquit, monachus fiam. Sed ubi? Si Cluniaci vel Becci, totum tempus quod in discendis litteris posui, perdidi. Nam et Cluniaci districtio ordinis, et Becci supereminens prudentia Lanfranci, qui illic monachus est, me [al. mihi] aut nulli prodesse, aut nihil valere comprobabit. Itaque in tali loco perficiam quod dispono, in quo et scire meum possim ostendere, et multis prodesse.”
[1027] See N. C. vol. ii. p. 110. His election to the priorship is recorded in the Life, i. 2. 9. There is no mention of any such dislike to the promotion on Anselm’s part as is recorded at his later election as abbot. The whole account of Anselm’s monastic life, as given by Eadmer and followed by his modern biographers, is of the deepest interest. I have noticed only a few special points here and there.
[1028] See the story in the Life, i. 4. 30.
[1029] Ib. i. 4. 35. His name is given as Cadulus.
[1030] Eadmer, Vit. Ans. i. 36. The scene between the monks and the abbot-elect, the mutual prayers and prostrations, are very like to the later scene when he is named archbishop at Gloucester. The command of the Archbishop of Rouen comes out emphatically; “Vicit quoque et multo maxime vicit præceptum, quod, ut supra retulimus, ei fuerat ab archiepiscopo Maurilio per obedientiam injunctum, videlicet, ut, si major prælatio quam illius prioratus exstiterat ipsi aliquando injungeretur, nullatenus eam suscipere recusaret.”
[1031] Ord. Vit. 530 B. “De hospitalitate Beccensium sufficienter eloqui nequeo. Interrogati Burgundiones et Hispani, aliique de longe seu de prope adventantes respondeant: et quanta benignitate ab eis suscepti fuerint, sine fraude proferant, eosque in similibus imitari sine fictione satagant. Janua Beccensium patet omni viatori, eorumque panis nulli denegatur charitative petenti.”