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CHAPTER IV.
THE PRIMACY OF ANSELM AND THE ACQUISITION OF NORMANDY.[1]
1093-1097.
Character of the early years of William Rufus. 1087-1092. The story of the first five years of the Red King's reign may be written with little, if any, forsaking of strict chronological order. The accession, the rebellion, the affairs of Normandy, the affairs of Scotland,*
- ↑ During this chapter, the authorities for the life of Anselm become of primary importance. We have the invaluable help of the two works of Anselm's friend and faithful companion, the English monk Eadmer, afterwards Bishop-elect of Saint Andrews. Both Orderic and William of Malmesbury speak of Eadmer with the deepest reverence, and cut short their own accounts of Anselm, referring to his. He first wrote the Historia Novorum, and then the Vita Anselmi as a kind of supplement, to bring in certain points more purely personal to his hero. The subject of the Historia Novorum we might call "Anselm and his Times." The subject of the Vita is naturally Anselm himself. Eadmer's history is of course most minute and most trustworthy for all that concerns Anselm; other matters he cuts short. In most cases one can see his reasons; but it is not easy to see why he should have left out the mission of Geronto recorded by Hugh of Flavigny (see Appendix AA). Along with the works of Eadmer, we have also a precious store in the Letters of Anselm himself (see Appendix Y), which, besides the picture which they give of the man, throw a flood of light on the history. All these materials, with the other writings of Anselm, will be found in two volumes of Migne's Patrologia, 158 and 159. I have used this edition for the Letters and for the Life; the Historia Novorum I have gone on quoting in the edition of Selden. I need hardly say that Anselm's English career, with which alone I am concerned, is only one part of his many-sided character. I have kept mainly to the history of Anselm in England; I have cut short both his early life and even the time of his first banishment. With his theology and philosophy I have not ventured to meddle at all. Anselm has had no lack of biographers from the more general point of view; Hasse (Anselm von Canterbury, Leipzig, 1852), Charles de Rémusat (Saint Anselme de Cantorbéry, Paris, 1853), Charma (Saint-Anselme, Paris, 1853), Croset-Mouchet (S. Anselme
