Benares, to study the languages, antiquities, and sacred
laws of the Hindus ; but the capture of Pondicherry
obliged him to quit India. Returning to Europe in an
English vessel, he spent some time in London and Oxford,
and then set out for France. He arrived in Paris in May
1762, without fortune or the desire of acquiring it, but
esteeming himself rich in the possession of one hundred
and eighty Oriental manuscripts, besides other curiosities.
The Abbo Barthelemy procured for him a pension, with
the appointment of interpreter of Oriental languages at the
Royal Library. In 1763 he was elected an associate of
the Academy of the Belles Letters ; and began to arrange
for the publication of the materials he had collected during
his Eastern travels. In 1771 he published in three vols.
4to, the Zend-Avesta, containing collections from the sacred
writings of the Persians, a life of Zoroaster, and fragments
of works ascribed to that sage. The work was a very im
portant} accession to our stores of Oriental literature. Sir
John Malcolm (Hist, of Persia, vol. i. p. 193, note) refers
to the Zend-Avesta as the most authentic source of infor
mation on the religion and institutions of the great Persian
legislator. In 1778 he published his Legislation Orientale,
in which he controverted the system of Montesquieu, and
endeavoured to prove that the nature of Oriental despotism
had been greatly misrepresented. His Recherches His-
toriques et G Gograpliiqv.es sur I lnde appeared in 1786, and
formed part of Thieffenthaler s Geography of India. The
Revolution seems to have greatly affected him. During that
period he abandoned society, and shut himself up in literary
seclusion. In 1798 he published in 2 vols. 8vo, L Inde en
Rapport avec I Europe, a work remarkable for its invectives
against the English, and its numerous misrepresentations.
In 1804 he published in 2 vols. 4to, a Latin translation
from the Persian of the Oupnek kat or Upanischada, i.e.,
secrets which must not be revealed. It is a curious mix
ture of Latin, Greek, Persian, Arabic, and Sanscrit. (See
Ed. Rev., vol. i. pp. 412-421). On the reorganisation of
the Institute, Anquetil was elected a member, but soon
afterwards gave in his resignation. He died at Paris 17th
January 1805. Besides the works named above, he was
the author of several others on subjects connected with
the history and antiquities of the East. See Biographic,
Universelle; Monthly Revieie, vol. Ixi. ; Lord Teignmouth s
Life of Sir William Jones.
ANSELM,
Archbishop of
Canterbury, was born in
1033, at or near
Aosta, in
Piedmont. His family was accounted noble, and was possessed of considerable
property. Gundulph, his father, was by birth a
Lombard, and seems to have been a man of harsh and violent temper; his mother, Ermenberga, was a prudent and virtuous woman, from whose careful religious training the young Anselm derived much benefit. At the early age of fifteen he desired to devote himself to the service of
God by entering a convent, but he could not obtain his father’s consent. Disappointment brought on an
illness, on his recovery from which he seems for a time to have given up his studies, and to have plunged into the gay life of the world. During this time his mother died, and his father’s harshness became unbearable. He left home, and with only one attendant crossed the
Alps, and wandered through
Burgundy and
France. Attracted by the fame of his countryman,
Lanfranc, then
prior of
Bec, he entered
Normandy, and, after spending some time at
Avranches, settled at the
monastery of
Bec. There, at the age of twenty-seven, he became a
monk; three years later, when
Lanfranc was promoted to the
abbacy of
Caen, he was elected
prior. This office he held for fifteen years, and then, in
1078, on the death of
Herluin, the warrior monk who had founded the
monastery, he was made
abbot. Under his rule
Bec became the first seat of learning in
Europe, a result due not more to his intellectual powers than to the great moral influence of his noble character, and his loving, kindly discipline. It was during these quiet years at
Bec that Anselm wrote his first
philosophical and
religious works, the
dialogues on
Truth and
Freewill, and the two celebrated treatises, the
Monologion and
Proslogion. Meanwhile the convent had been growing in wealth, as well as in reputation, and had acquired considerable
property in
England, which it became the duty of Anselm occasionally to visit. By his mildness of temper and unswerving rectitude, he so endeared himself to the
English that he was looked upon and desired as the natural successor to
Lanfranc, then
archbishop of
Canterbury. But on the death of that great man, the ruling sovereign,
William Rufus, seized the possessions and revenues of the
see, and made no new appointment. About four years after, in
1092, on the invitation of
Hugh,
earl of
Chester, Anselm with some reluctance, for he feared to be made
archbishop, crossed to
England. He was detained by business for nearly four
months, and when about to return, was refused permission by the king. In the following year
William fell ill, and thought his
death was at hand. Eager to make
atonement for his
sin with regard to the
archbishopric, he nominated Anselm to the vacant
see, and, after a great struggle, compelled him to accept the
pastoral staff of office. After obtaining
dispensation from his duties in
Normandy, Anselm was
consecrated in
1093. He demanded of the king, as the conditions of his retaining office, that he should give up all the possessions of the
see, accept his spiritual counsel, and acknowledge
Urban as
Pope in opposition to the
anti-pope,
Clement. He only obtained a partial consent to the first of these, and the last involved him in a serious difficulty with the king. It was a
rule of the church that the
consecration of
metropolitans could not be completed without their receiving from the hands of the
Pope the
Pallium, or
robe. Anselm, accordingly, insisted that he must proceed to
Rome to receive the
pall. But
William would not permit this; he had not acknowledged
Urban, and he maintained his right to prevent any
Pope being acknowledged by an
English subject without his permission. A great
council of churchmen and nobles, held to settle the matter, advised Anselm to submit to the king, but failed to overcome his mild and patient firmness. The matter was postponed, and
William meanwhile privately sent messengers to
Rome, who acknowledged
Urban and prevailed on him to send a
legate to the king bearing the
archiepiscopal pall. A partial reconciliation was then effected, and the matter of the
pall was compromised. It was not given by the king, but was laid on the
altar at
Canterbury, whence Anselm took it. Little more than a
year after, fresh trouble arose with the king, and Anselm resolved to proceed to
Rome and seek the counsel of his
spiritual father.
