--- title: "Proslogium and Monologium" author: "Anselm of Canterbury" translator: "Sidney Norton Deane" languages: [en] shelf: "Mystics" section: 43 of 60 url: https://scriptura.si/works/anselm-proslogium-and-monologium/43/ cite: "Anselm of Canterbury, tr. Sidney Norton Deane, Proslogium and Monologium, section 43. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/anselm-proslogium-and-monologium/43/" --- # Proslogium and Monologium *Anselm of Canterbury, tr. Sidney Norton Deane* Faith seeking understanding, and that than which nothing greater can be thought. ## 43. Chapter XXI Source: https://scriptura.si/works/anselm-proslogium-and-monologium/43/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/anselm-proslogium-and-monologium/43/#p-N [¶0] How great a burden sin is. [¶1] Anselm. Suppose that you did not owe any of those things which you have brought up as possible payment for your sin, let us inquire whether they can satisfy for a sin so small as one look contrary to the will of God. [¶2] Boso. Did I not hear you question the thing, I should suppose that a single repentant feeling on my part would blot out this sin. [¶3] Anselm. You have not as yet estimated the great burden of sin. [¶4] Boso. Show it me then. [¶5] Anselm. If you should find yourself in the sight of God, and one said to you: “Look thither;” and God, on the other hand, should say: “It is not my will that you should look;” ask your own heart what there is in all existing things which would make it right for you to give that look contrary to the will of God. [¶6] Boso. I can find no motive which would make it right; unless, indeed I am so situated as to make it necessary for me either to do this, or some greater sin. [¶7] Anselm. Put away all such necessity, and ask with regard to this sin only whether you can do it even for your own salvation. [¶8] Boso. I see plainly that I cannot. [¶9] Anselm. Not to detain you too long; what if it were necessary either that the whole universe, except God himself, should perish and fall back into nothing, or else that you should do so small a thing against the will of God? [¶10] Boso. When I consider the action itself, it appears very slight; but when I view it as contrary to the will of God, I know of nothing so grievous, and of no loss that will compare with it; but sometimes we oppose another’s will without blame in order to preserve his property, so that afterwards he is glad that we opposed him. [¶11] Anselm. This is in the case of man, who often does not know what is useful for him, or cannot make up his loss; but God is in want of nothing, and, should all things perish, can restore them as easily as he created them. [¶12] Boso. I must confess that I ought not to oppose the will of God even to preserve the whole creation. [¶13] Anselm. What if there were more worlds as full of beings as this? [¶14] Boso. Were they increased to an infinite extent, and held before me in like manner, my reply would be the same. [¶15] Anselm. You cannot answer more correctly, but consider, also, should it happen that you gave the look contrary to God’s will, what payment you can make for this sin? [¶16] Boso. I can only repeat what I said before. [¶17] Anselm. So heinous is our sin whenever we knowingly oppose the will of God even in the slightest thing; since we are always in his sight, and he always enjoins it upon us not to sin. [¶18] Boso. I cannot deny it. [¶19] Anselm. Therefore you make no satisfaction unless you restore something greater than the amount of that obligation, which should restrain you from committing the sin. [¶20] Boso. Reason seems to demand this, and to make the contrary wholly impossible. [¶21] Anselm. Even God cannot raise to happiness any being bound at all by the debt of sin, because He ought not to. [¶22] Boso. This decision is most weighty. [¶23] Anselm. Listen to an additional reason which makes it no less difficult for man to be reconciled to God. [¶24] Boso. This alone would drive me to despair, were it not for the consolation of faith. [¶25] Anselm. But listen. [¶26] Boso. Say on.