Bec
A Benedictine abbey in Normandy, founded in the eleventh century by its first abbot, Herluin, on his own land. Lanfranc and Anselm were its priors, and Anselm wrote the Proslogion here.
Bec lies in a valley of Normandy, between Rouen and Lisieux. Eadmer says that its first abbot, Herluin, built the monastery from the ground on his own inherited land, and that Lanfranc was its prior when Anselm of Canterbury became a monk there (Eadmer, Life of Anselm 1.6–7 (Rule, p. 320)). He places the writing of the Proslogion in the years when Anselm was himself prior (Eadmer, Life of Anselm 1.19 (Rule, pp. 333–334)). Anselm was “before Abbot of Bec” when he was made archbishop of Canterbury in 1093 (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 1093).
What happened here
- about 1078 to 1098, estimated dateAnselm: Faith Seeking Understanding
Anselm, monk of Bec and later archbishop of Canterbury, sets out to understand by reason what he already believes. The Proslogion argues that God cannot be thought not to exist; Cur Deus Homo argues that only a God-man could make satisfaction for sin.
Primary sources
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 1093avalon.law.yale.edu