who, on his election to the priorship, had bidden him by virtue of holy obedience to accept both that and any higher preferment which might come in his way.[1] The election of Anselm to the abbacy marks a stage in our story. It was in his character of abbot that he was first brought into relations with England; in that character he paid his first visit to the land which was presently to make him her own.
Bec under Anselm.
His widespread fame.
The fame of the new Abbot of Bec and of his house,
great already, now grew still greater. Learning had
shone at Bec ever since Lanfranc came thither; but
hitherto it had shone only in the second rank. It now
took the chief seat in the person of Abbot Anselm. He
was sought by men from all parts as a friend, a teacher,
a spiritual adviser. Of the open-handed hospitality of
Bec it was not, we are told, for Norman neighbours to
speak; those might speak who had found their way
thither from the distant lands of Burgundy and Spain.[2]
The whole Latin world drank in with eagerness the
teaching of Anselm.[3] Scholars of all lands came to sit
at his feet. Noble ladies in their widowhood sought his
neighbourhood and spiritual direction, and received the
- ↑ 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."
- ↑ 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."
- ↑ Ib. A. "Fama sapientiæ hujus didascoli per totam Latinitatem divulgata est, et nectare bonæ opinionis ejus occidentalis Ecclesia nobiliter debriata est."
