Horror- at the world, and writhing under his own contamination, he cast body and soul into the ascetic life. That was the harbour of escape from the carnal temptations which threatened the soul's hope of pardon from the Judge at the Last Day. Therefore Peter is fierce in execration of all lapses from the hermit-life, so rapturously praised with its contrition, its penitence, and tears. His ascetic rhapsodies, with which, as a poet might, he delighted or relieved his soul, are eloquent illustrations of the monastic ideal.[1]
Other men in Italy less intelligent than Damiani, but equally picturesque, were held by like ascetic and emotional obsession. Intellectual interest, however, in theology was less prominent, because the Italian concern with religion was either emotional or ecclesiastical, which is to say, political. The philosophic or dialectical treatment of the Faith was to run its course north of the Alps; and those men of Italian birth—Anselm, Peter Lombard, Bonaventura, and Aquinas—who contributed to Christian thought, early left their native land, and accomplished their careers under intellectual conditions which did not obtain in Italy. Nevertheless, Anselm and Bonaventura at least did not lose their Italian qualities; and it is as representative of what might come out of Italy in the eleventh century that the former may detain us here.
The story of Anselm is told well and lovingly by his companion Eadmer.[2] His life, although it was drawn within the currents of affairs, remained intellectual and aloof, a meditation upon God. It opens with a dream of climbing the mountain to God's palace-seat. For Anselm's boyhood was passed at Aosta, within the shadows of the Graian Alps.[3] Surely the heaven rested upon them. Might he not then go up to the hall where God, above in the heaven, as the boy's mother taught, ruled and held all?
"So one night it seemed he must ascend to the summit of the mountains, and go to the hall of the great King. In the plain at
- ↑ Extracts will be given post, Chapter XVI., together with Damiani's remarkable Life of Romuald.
- ↑ Migne 158, col. 50 sqq.
- ↑ Anselm was born in 1033 and died in 1109. His works are in Migne 158, 159. See also Domet de Verges, S. Anselme (Les grands Philosophes, 1901).
