Saint Anselm was born in Aosta,  Italy in 1033. At the age of 27 became a monk of BEC in Normandy. In 1066 William the Conqueror conquered England and in 1072 reorganized the English church. Lanfranc, Abbott of Bec, became Archbishop of Canterbury. Anselm succeeded Lanfranc as Abbott of Beck. In 1087 William the Conqueror died and in 1089 Archbishop Lanfranc also passed from this world.  Two men at this time claimed to be Pope. The new king, William Rufus, refused to recognize either. Although Rufus was a man of disgraceful morals, the divided papacy prevented anyone from exercising moral supervision over England or its king. The See of Canterbury remained vacant for 4 years after Lanfranc's death. While Anselm was visiting England, Rufus was struck with a mysterious illness and in terror that he would go to hell if he died with Canterbury vacant, he begged Anselm to accept the primatial see. Anselm refused, but the bishop seized him and forcibly invested him as Archbishop. As archbishop, Anselm was in constant trouble with the King. Anselm forced Rufus to recognize Urban II as Pope. Then he tried to call a synod of Bishops to condemn the immoral practices with which the King was involved. Rufus  persuaded the same Bishops who had forcibly invested Anselm as Archbishop. to renounce their obedience to him. Although the lay magnates came to Anselm aid, He finally gave up his constant quarreling with the King and in 1097 went into voluntary exile. After the death of King Rufus in 1100, Anselm returned, was shortly exiled again, but finally returned again in 1106, where he remained as Archbishop until his death in 1109.  Anselm was no politician because he was without any sense of compromise or proportion in worldly matters. He had a wholly intransigent conscience, but he had also a sweetness of disposition, a humility and a control of the temper that disarmed even the hardest headed men of affairs. He had a moral greatness, which was also an intellectual and spiritual greatness. He is the first doctor of the church after the dark ages, who is still a living force in philosophy and theology. His expression "credo ut intellegam,"- I believe that I may more fully understand, is  indeed an inspiration for a strong faith in our age of materialism. As Archbishop of Canterbury, Anselm was not at his greatest, but he did one thing of lasting value: he  revitalized the devotion to the traditional English saints. And he undoubtedly helped to promote that affection for all things English which is found even among churchmen of Norman ancestry after his day. He thus helped to heal the emotional schism, which the Norman conquest of William in 1066 had opened in English life. His feast day is April 21st.