ANSELMO di HAVELBERG. — He was first bishop of Havelberg in Brandenburg (1129–55), then archbishop of Ravenna (1155–58), with the honorary title of exarch; he died near Milan on 12 August 1158, in the camp of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who was besieging the city. Probably a native of the region of Liège, A. was one of the first disciples of St. Norbert, whose funeral he presided over (6 June 1134). He resided more often at the court of the German emperor than in his diocese, took a keen interest in the political affairs of his time, and was entrusted with several embassies.
In 1135–36 he was sent by Emperor Lothair to the court of Byzantium and took advantage of the opportunity to work for the union of the Churches. At the request of Pope Eugene III, he later committed to writing (1149–50) his conversations with the metropolitan of Nicomedia, Nicetas; these constitute his principal work, entitled Dialogues, divided into three books. They deal chiefly with the procession of the Holy Spirit, the supremacy of the Pope, and unleavened bread (PL 188, 1091–1248).
Having gone to Thessalonica in April 1155, he again discussed the union with Basil of Acrida (cf. J. Schmidt, Des Basilius aus Akrida, Erzbischof von Thessalonich bisher unedierte Dialoge, Munich 1901); as papal legate, during the crusade against the Wends, or northern Slavs, who had devastated his diocese (1147), he succeeded, toward the end of his life, in reconciling Frederick Barbarossa with the Pope. Endowed with genuine diplomatic talent, he pursued a policy of conciliation between the Holy See and the German emperor, which sometimes caused him difficulties. He worked zealously to spread the Premonstratensian Order.
Besides the Dialogorum libri tres adversus Graecas, he left: 1) an Epistola apologetica pro ordine canonicorum regularium, addressed to Abbot Egbert of Huysburg (PL 188, 1119–40); 2) Tractatus de ordine pronuntiandae litaniae ad Fridericum, episc. Magdeburgensen (published by Winter, in Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 5 (1882), pp. 144–45); 3) letters to Wibald of Stavelot, collected by Ph. Jaffé (Bibliotheca rerum germanicarum, passim). The treatise De ordine canonicorum regularium (PL 188, 1093–1139) cannot be attributed to him.