Anselm of Canterbury crafted the ontological argument for the existence of God, an idea philosophers still wrestle with a thousand years later. But his intellectual life was only half the story. As Archbishop, he clashed repeatedly with two English kings over the independence of the church.

This episode examines how a quiet Benedictine monk from Aosta became one of medieval Europe’s fiercest defenders of ecclesiastical freedom, and why his logical proof remains one of philosophy’s most debated propositions.

• The ontological argument explained in plain language
• His bitter standoffs with William Rufus and Henry I
• How exile twice became his tool of political resistance
• Why his motto faith seeking understanding changed Christian theology