He died at peace on April 21st, 1109, having wrought to no small purpose for religious liberty and the independence of the clergy.
(The demand for political and social independence always follows the struggle for independence in religion.) Anselm spent the greater part of his life after his enthronement at Canterbury in battling for independence of the Crown; a century later Archbishop Stephen was to carry the battle still further, and win wider liberties for England from the Crown.
Of Anselm's general love of liberty and hatred of all tyranny many stories are told.

One fact may be recalled.

The Church Synod, which met at Westminster in 1102, at Anselm's request, attacked the slave trade as a "wicked trade used hitherto in England, by which men are sold like brute animals," and framed a Church rule against its continuance.
In spite of this decree, serfdom lingered in England for centuries, but hiring superseded open buying and selling of men.

(The African slave trade was the work of the Elizabethan seamen, and was excused, as slavery in the United States was excused, by the Protestant Churches on the ground of the racial inferiority of the negro.) THOMAS A BECKET AND HENRY II.
Resistance to autocracy is often more needed against a strong and just king than it is against an unprincipled profligate.

Henry II.'s love of order and peace, the strength and energy he spent in curtailing the power of the barons, and in making firm the foundations of our national system of petty sessions and assize courts have made for him an enduring fame.