that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand. For
this too I believe, that unless I first believe, I shall not
understand.") But after the faith is held fast, the attempt must be made
to demonstrate by reason the truth of what we believe. It is wrong not
to do so. _"Negligentiae mihi esse videtur, si, postquam confirmati
sumus in fide, non studemus quod credimus, intelligere."_ ("I hold it to
be a failure in duty if after we have become steadfast in the faith we
do not strive to understand what we believe.") To such an extent does he
carry this demand for rational explanation that, at times, it seems as
if he claimed for unassisted intelligence the power of penetrating even
to the mysteries of the Christian faith. On the whole, however, the
qualified statement is his real view; merely rational proofs are always,
he affirms, to be tested by Scripture. (_Cur Deus homo_, i. 2 and 38;
_De Fide Trin_. 2.)

The groundwork of his theory of knowledge is contained in the tract _De
Veritate_, in which, from the consideration of truth as in knowledge, in
willing, and in things, he rises to the affirmation of an absolute
truth, in which all other truth participates. This absolute truth is God
himself, who is therefore the ultimate ground or principle both of
things and of thought. The notion of God comes thus into the foreground
of the system; before all things it is necessary that it should be made
clear to reason, that it should be demonstrated to have real existence.
This demonstration is the substance of the _Monologion_ and
_Proslogion_. In the first of these the proof rests on the ordinary
grounds of realism, and coincides to some extent with the earlier theory
of Augustine, though it is carried out with singular boldness and
fulness. Things, he says, are called good in a variety of ways and
degrees; this would be impossible if there were not some absolute
standard, some good in itself, in which all relative goods participate.
Similarly with such predicates as great, just; they involve a certain
greatness and justice. The very existence of things is impossible
without some one Being, by whom they are. This absolute Being, this
goodness, justice, greatness, is God. Anselm was not thoroughly
satisfied with this reasoning; it started from _a posteriori grounds_,
and contained several converging lines of proof. He desired to have some
one short demonstration. Such a demonstration he presented in the
_Proslogion_; it i