 Born in Aosta,  Anselm  (1033–1109) became a monk at Bec in Northern France and, eventually, Archbishop of Canterbury. At a time when thinkers referred ostentatiously to their authoritative sources, ancient and patristic, Anselm wrote dialogues and monographs that scarcely mentioned an author. Having fully absorbed both Boethian logic and many facets of Augustine’s thought, he could use them to engage in his own reasoning. He not only hit on—by his own account in a flash of inspiration—an unprecedented argument for God’s existence (the “Ontological Proof”; see entry on  ontological arguments),  but elaborated and brilliantly advocated a notion of the will’s freedom Augustine had the sense to avoid, which cast a long shadow from Scotus to Kant and beyond.