Canterbury

The seat of English Christianity since Augustine of Canterbury's mission in 597. Anselm served as archbishop here and fought two kings over the church's freedom while writing the treatises that founded scholastic theology. In its cathedral Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170: with John of Salisbury, the great political philosopher of the age, standing witness.

Canterbury was the seat of the English church, built around the shrine of Augustine of Canterbury and, after 1170, of the murdered Thomas Becket. Anselm was archbishop here from 1093 and spent much of the office fighting two kings over who had the right to appoint bishops, going into exile twice. He had written the Proslogion years earlier at Bec in Normandy. At Canterbury, between exiles, he finished Cur Deus Homo, which asked why God became man and answered it as a problem in justice rather than a mystery.