the first slopes, he saw women, the servants of the King, reaping grain carelessly and idly. He would accuse them to their Lord. He went up across the summit and came to the King's hall. He found Him there alone with His seneschal, for it was autumn and He had sent His servants to gather the harvest. The Lord called the boy as he entered; and he went and sat at His feet. The Lord asked kindly (jucunda affabilitate) whence he came and what he wished. He replied just as he knew the thing to be (juxta quod rem esse sciebat). Then, at the Lord's command, the Seneschal brought him bread of the whitest, and he was there refreshed in His presence. In the morning he verily believed that he had been in Heaven and had been refreshed with the bread of the Lord."
A pious mother had been the boy's first teacher. Others taught him Letters, till he became proficient, and beloved by those who knew him. He wished to be made a monk, but a neighbouring abbot refused his request, fearing the displeasure of Anselm's father, of whom the biographer has nothing good to say. The youth fell sick, but with returning health the joy of living drew his mind from study and his pious purpose. Love for his mother held him from overindulgence in pastimes. She died, and with this sheet-anchor lost, Anselm's ship was near to drifting out on the world's slippery flood. But here the impossible temper of the father wrought as God's providence, and Anselm, unable to stay with him, left his home, and set out across Mount Senis attended by one clericus. For three years he moved through Burgundy and Francia, till Lanfranc's repute drew him to Bec. Day and night he studied beneath that master, and also taught. The desire to be a monk returned; and he began to direct his purpose toward pleasing God and spurning the world.
But where? At either Cluny or Bec he feared to lose the fruit of his studies; for at Cluny there was the strictness of the rule,[1] and at Bec Lanfranc's eminent learning would "make mine of little value." Anselm says that he was not yet subdued, nor had the contempt of the world become strong in him. Then the thought came: "Is this to be a monk to wish to be set before others and magnified above them? Nay, become a monk where, for the sake of God, you will
- ↑ "Districtio ordinis," Vita, i. 6. This indicates that liberal studies were not favoured in Cluny at this time, cir. 1060.
