Eadmer (b. circa 1060, d. 1124) was a monk of Canterbury, and the confidential adviser of Anselm. He was elected Bishop of St. Andrews, but, owing to a misunderstanding, was never consecrated. He wrote several ecclesiastical biographies and theological tracts, besides a “Life of St. Anselm” (Vita Anselmi), and a “History of His own Times” (Historia Nervorum), extending from 959 to 1122. Both these works rank very high as authorities for the reigns of William II. and Henry II., and the Vita Anselmi is one of the chief sources of information with regard to the archbishop. Eadmer’s works were published at Paris, 1721.

  Eadmer is a trustworthy historian.

  As a writer, Eadmer appears under three characters, those of a historian, of a compiler of lives of saints, and of a theologian. His principal historical work, the “Historia Novorum,” or history of his own times, in six books, is the most valuable work we possess relating to the events of the reign of William Rufus, and of the earlier part of that of Henry I…. The life of Anselm, in two books, forms a necessary supplement to this history. The “Historia Novorum” was first printed by Selden: it appears to have been very popular in the twelfth century, and is spoken of in high terms of praise by William of Malmesbury…. Eadmer’s theological and miscellaneous writings are brief, and without importance.

  One distinction belonging to Eadmer’s narrative is the nearly entire absence of miracles. He probably considered it improper to introduce such high matter into a composition which did not profess to be of a sacred or spiritual nature. Much of his work, however, is occupied with ecclesiastical transactions, which indeed formed almost the entire home politics, and no small part of the foreign politics also, of that age. He has in particular entered largely into the great controversy between the crown and the pope about investiture; and one of the most curious parts of his history is a long and detailed account which he gives of his own appointment to the bishopric of St. Andrew’s in Scotland, and his contest about his consecration with the stout Scottish king, Alexander I.

  The work, (“Historia Novorum”) is more of an ecclesiastical than a political history. Written with great clearness and elegance.

  It is in the writings of Eadmar, a Benedictine monk of Canterbury, that we find the first indications of original and independent thought and the first faint glimmer of a promise heralding the new national literature. The two most important works of Eadmar are his history of his own times, “Historia Novorum,” and his “Biography of Archbishop Anselm,” in which he gives a faithful and somewhat minute account of affairs in England from the time of the Conquest to the year 1112. These works are distinguished for their accuracy of statement and for the soundness of judgment displayed in their composition; and, in describing the struggles of Anselm with William Rufus in defense of the claims of the church against the despotic exactions of kingly authority, they occasionally rise to the dignity and value of genuine literature. They are the most trustworthy authorities that we have for the history of the period immediately succeeding the Conquest.