EARNER OF CANTERBURY, a man of considerable mark in the beginning of the 12th c., would seem, from his name, to have been the child of English parents. At an early age, he entered the Benedictine monastery of Canterbury; and when St. Anselm, in 1093, was made archbishop of that see, Eadmer became one of his most devoted friends, sharing his exile, watching his death-bed, ordering his burial, and writing the chron icle of his life. Eadmer continued at Canterbury, in high esteem with St. successor, archbishop Ralph, until 1120, when, at the request of king Alexander I., he went to Scotland, and was there chosen bishop of St. Andrews. The question of lay investiture of ecclesiastical benefices was then in its crisis; there was a controversy between Canterbury and York for jurisdiction over the see of St. Andrews; that see, again, asserted its independence of either of the English metropolitans; and Eadmer seems to have added to all these perplexities a difficulty as to his monastic allegiance. "Not for all Scotland," he said to the Scottish king, "will I renounce being a monk of Canterbury." The king, on his side, was equally unyielding; and the issue was the return of Eadmer to his English monastery, unconsecrated, indeed, but still claiming to be bishop of St. Andrews. He was made precentor of Canterbury, and died, it
supposed, in Jan., 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. The most valuable are his Historic Novorum, or history of his own times, first printed by Selden in 1623, and his Vita Anselmi, or Life of St. Anselm, first published at Antwerp in 1551. Both these works are included in the selection of his writings published by the Benedictines of St. Maur (as a supple ment to their edition of the works of St. Anselm), in 1 vol. fol. (Paris, 1721). His of St. Odo, St. Dunstan, and St. Bregwyn, of Canterbury, and of St. Wilfrid and St. Oswald, of York, were printed, some of them, by Wharton, in the second part of his. Anglia Sacra (Loud. 1691), and others by Gerberon in his Anselmi Opera (Paris, 1675). The history of Eadmer, in relation to the bishopric of St. Andrews, is given at consid erable length by lord Hailes, in his Annals of Scotland, vol. i. pp. 59-71; and, still bet ter, in Mr. Grub's Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, vol. i. pp. 209-217 (Edin. 1861)•