Eadmer

Eadmer, a learned monk of Canterbury about the end of the 11th century, the devoted friend of Archbishop Anselm, to whom he had been sent by Pope Urban. There also he remained in the same favour with St Anselm's successor, Archbishop Ralph, until 1120, when at the request of King Alexander I. he went to Scotland to become Bishop of St Andrews. There was already a controversy between Canterbury and York for jurisdiction over the see of St Andrews; while that see asserted its independence of either. Eadmer claimed to be consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, but the Scottish king naturally refused to recognise this right, and accordingly the monk returned to Canterbury, whence eighteen months later he sent his renunciation of all claims to the bishopric. He died, it is supposed, in 1124. He tells us that from his childhood he was a diligent observer of contemporary events, especially in church affairs; and this habit has given more than usual interest to his writings, which show no little literary dexterity in their clearness and selection merely of such historical details as are really significant. The most valuable are his Historia Novorum, first printed by Selden in 1623, and his Vita Anselmi, first published at Antwerp in 1551. Both were printed in the Benedictine edition of Anselm's works (Paris, 1721), and have been edited (1884) in the 'Rolls' series by Martin Rule. His lives of St Dunstan, and St Bregwin of Canterbury, and of St Oswald of York, were printed by Wharton in the second part of his Anglia Sacra (1691).