What Anselm means is that: first, the Devil willed something that was not granted to him by God; second, that he performed an autonomous-independent act of volition, as if his will was subject to no one (nulli subdita fuit). By this he acted inordinately, because the right to will with absolute independence, not being subject to any external power, pertains exclusively to the will of God. This is Anselm’s interpretation of the biblical description of sin as the desire to ‘be like God’ (Gen 3:5). However, later in ch. 6 we learn that this desire to be like God is not exactly the efficient cause of the angel’s fall. Anselm leaves this question partially unanswered. We do not know what exactly the angels willed instead of willing what they were supposed to. Yet the cause of the Fall is definitely not the very will to ‘be like God’, otherwise the Son, who wills to be like the Father, would have to be unjust
What Anselm means is that: first, the Devil willed something that was not granted to him by God; second, that he performed an autonomous-independent act of volition, as if his will was subject to no one (nulli subdita fuit). By this he acted inordinately, because the right to will with absolute independence, not being subject to any external power, pertains exclusively to the will of God. This is Anselm’s interpretation of the biblical description of sin as the desire to ‘be like God’ (Gen 3:5). However, later in ch. 6 we learn that this desire to be like God is not exactly the efficient cause of the angel’s fall. Anselm leaves this question partially unanswered. We do not know what exactly the angels willed instead of willing what they were supposed to. Yet the cause of the Fall is definitely not the very will to ‘be like God’, otherwise the Son, who wills to be like the Father, would have to be unjust