But amidst his absorbing cares as a teacher, the Prior of Bec found time for philosophical speculations to which we owe the scientific inquiries which built up the theology of the Middle Ages.
His famous works were the first attempts of any Christian thinker to elicit the idea of God from the very nature of the human reason.

His passion for abstruse thought robbed him of food and sleep.

Sometimes he could hardly pray.

Often the night was a long watch till he could seize his conception and write it on the wax tablets which lay beside him.

But not even a fever of intense thought such as this could draw Anselm's heart from its passionate tenderness and love.