Vaughn, Sally N. Anselm of Bec and Robert of Meulan: The In-
nocence of the Dove and the Wisdom of the Serpent. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1987.
Burcht Pranger
ANSELM OF LAON (ca. 1050–1117)
As schoolmaster at the cathedral of Laon, Anselm stands
at the beginning of an era that saw the expansion of lit-
eracy and intellectual training beyond the cloister walls,
reaching out to a burgeoning urban population. Through
a curriculum that focused on the study of the Bible and
basic Christian principles of belief and daily living,
Anselm helped to channel both the spiritual awakening
that was sweeping Europe and the ecclesiastical reform
that was an important focus of the Gregorian papacy.
Anselm composed commentaries on several books
of the Bible, including Isaiah, Matthew, the Psalms,
the Song of Songs, the opening chapters of Genesis,
and Revelation. With his brother Ralph and a younger
contemporary, Gilbert the Universal (later schoolmaster
at Auxerre and then bishop of London), Anselm began to
compile a commentary that was to become the standard
(Glossa ordinaria) for the Bible by the end of the 12th
century. Anselm and his associates digested, abbreviat-
ed, supplemented, and otherwise edited the vast deposit
of commentaries produced by the Christian authors of
late antiquity and the Carolingian era, placing the longer
comments in the broad margins of Bibles designed for
this purpose and the shorter comments between the lines
of the biblical text itself. Anselm was responsible for
the Glossa ordinaria for the Psalms, for the epistles of
Paul, and perhaps for the Fourth Gospel as well.
Equally important were Anselm’s collections of
theological opinions (sententiae). They ranged over the
whole spectrum of Christian teaching, from God and
Creation to redemption and the sacraments, but focused
on such current issues as the nature of marriage and
relations with Jews, who had been severely persecuted
in the wake of the First Crusade.
Anselm was one of the more successful scholars in
addressing the need for a trained and competent clergy,
able to deal with the needs of the newly emerging so-
ciety. Some of the most distinguished theologians of
the 12th century studied with him, including Gilbert of
Poitiers and William of Champeaux. However infl uential
Anselm was as the central fi gure of a school for teaching,
he did not establish a school of thought characterized
by a common set of assumptions.
See also Gilbert of Poitiers
Further Reading
Anselm of Laon. Sententie divine pagine and Sententie Anselmi,
ed. Franz P. Bliemetzrieder. In Anselms von Laon system-
atische Sentenzen. Münster: Aschendorff, 1919.
Bliemetzrieder, Franz P., ed. “Trente-trois piéces inédites des
ceuvres théologiques d’Anselme de Laon.” Recherches de
théologie ancienne et médiévale 2 (1930): 54–79.
Lottin, Odon, ed. “Nouveaux fragments théologiques de 1’école
d’Anselme de Laon.” Recherches de théologie ancienne et
médiévale 11 (1939): 305–23; 12(1940): 49–77; 13(1946):
202–21, 261–81; 14 (1947): 5–31.
Bertola, Ermenegildo. “Le critiche di Abélardo ad Anselmo di
Laon ed a Guglielmo di Champeaux.” Rivista di fi losofi a
neoscolastica 52 (1960): 495–522.
Cavallera, Ferdinand. “D’Anselme de Laon à Pierre Lombard.”
Bulletin de literature ecclésiastique 2 (1940): 40–54,102–
14.
Colish, Marcia. “Another Look at the School of Laon.” Archives
d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge 53 (1986):
7–22.
Flint, Valerie I.J. “The ‘School of Laon’: A Reconsideration.”
Recherches de téologie ancienne et médiévale 43 (1976):
89–110.
Ghellinck, Joseph de. Le mouvement théologique du Xlle siècle.
2nd ed. Bruges: De Tempel, 1948.
Landgraf, Artur Michael. Introduction à l’histoire de la litérature
théologique de la scolastique naissante, ed. Albert-Marie
Landry, trans. Louis-B. Geiger. Montreal: Institut d’Études
Médiévales, 1979.
Smalley, Beryl. The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages. 3rd
ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 1983.
Weisweiler, Heinrich. “Le recueil de sentences ‘Deus de cuius
principio et fi ne tacetur’ et son remaniement.” Recherches de
théologie ancienne et médiévale 5 (1933): 245–74.
Mark ZierANSGAR, SAINT (c. 801-865)
Also known as the “Apostle of the North,” St. Ansgar
was born in Picardy around 801 and died in Bremen
on February 3, 865, the date of his feast day. He was
educated at the Benedictine monastery at Corbie, and
in 822 was sent as a teacher to the monastery of Corvey
in Westphalia. When King Harald Klak of Denmark
converted to Christianity in 826 at the court of Em-
peror Louis the Pious, Ansgar was recommended by
Archbishop Ebo of Reims and Abbot Wala of Corvey
to undertake missionary activity in Denmark. After the
expulsion of Harald from the country, Ansgar traveled
to Sweden, where King Björn permitted him to found
the fi rst church in Scandinavia at Björkö. In 831, Ansgar
was consecrated fi rst bishop of Hamburg, and in 832
was named by Pope Gregory IV as papal legate for the
Scandiavian and Slavonic mission. Ansgar entrusted
the mission of Sweden to Gausbert, and focused his
attention on converting Denmark. In 834, through the
patronage of Emperor Louis, the monastery of Turnhout,
Flanders, was assigned to Ansgar as a training center
and source of revenue for the Scandinavian mission. But
in 845, the Christian mission suffered a severe setback
when the Vikings plundered Hamburg. In 847, Ansgar
was appointed to the see of Bremen, which was united
with Hamburg in 847/8, and he began his missionaryANSGAR, SAINT