XXVIII. Anselm of Laon

The other Anselm, scholastic and dean of the Church of Laon¹, agrees, if indeed he himself is the author of those commentaries on Matthew² which for a long time it was customary to attribute to Anselm of Canterbury. For, discussing the words of the Lord’s Prayer³, “Thy will be done,” he has these things⁴, most apposite to the present matter:

There are two wills in God: one of mercy, which is not coercive and takes nothing away from free choice, by which⁵ he wills all men to be saved, which nevertheless is placed in their free will. There is another which is of the effects of things, of which it is said⁶: “He has done all things whatsoever he willed”; no one can resist this, of which it is said⁷: “Who resists his will?” This always accords with providence, but the other does not always. For if through mercy he should will concerning some wicked man that he be just and should confer his grace upon him, and nevertheless that man through free choice should contradict him and not consent to the grace of God, this will of God does not accord with providence, because, although through sweetness he confers grace, nevertheless he knows that the man will not consent. But that will which is of the effects is one permitting, another approving. The permitting is that by which he effects evil whenever he wills. But the approving is that by which he makes good whenever he wills, and each is from justice. Therefore men resist the will of mercy and do not resist the will of justice.

From these both the distribution of the divine will and the sincere character and rationale of each part become excellently known. First the distribution becomes known, since one is and is called the will of mercy and sweetness, the other the efficient will and that of justice. Then the sincere rationale of each becomes known, since their origin, their mutual relation, their relation to human liberty, and their amplitude are clearly explained.

For the origin of the efficient will is justice, but that of the other is mercy, the most sweet nature of God and the propensity for doing good which is implanted in him.

They are so related to one another that the will of mercy goes before and the will of justice follows; the former first fulfills its parts, and the latter then discharges its office.

Wherefore by the will of justice God executes in men and does concerning men what he foreknew that he would effect in them and concerning them, whether they themselves will or do not will. But by the will of mercy he passes by no one whom he does not anticipate with benefits and does not suffuse with the graces of his sweetness; yet he leaves it intact for each whether to repay love to the divine love which goes before or ungratefully and proudly to despise it. Hence those who cannot resist the will of justice very frequently resist the will of mercy, with the greatest crime and to their own greatest harm. Arnold of Chartres, Abbot of Bonneval, writes excellently⁸:

In original sin the corruption of nature had deserved to be cast away and exterminated; but because the will was not in fault, God provided a remedy for the general condemnation and tempered the sentence of his justice, removing the hereditary burden from the offspring and mercifully purging away the leaven of primitive corruption by washing and medicinal anointing. But indignation and anger not undeservedly return upon those who, after the grace of this indulgence, have voluntarily wandered through sins, who abuse their own choice and are led by will, not necessity. Nor does any gain remain for them in the death of Christ, but the benefits they have despised most justly condemn them. Now God does not immediately avenge their contempt, nor does the anger of the judge run through each offense, nor has he closed the doors and manifold channels of the fountain of his mercy; but he meets those who flee and compels the desperate to return, showing them the way of repentance, than which none broader is found; and to those who return he grants that the sacraments they have injured may again be able to profit them,

and if repentance were not present in those men, they could in no way thereafter experience the effect of those sacraments.

God, namely, assigned the first parts to mercy and provided for lost men by that established order of reparation, so that only those should experience the vengeance of justice who had despised the gifts of mercy with an ungrateful and hardened mind.