ANSELMO di LAON (Anselmus Laudunensis). – Theologian, b. at Laon (?) ca. 1050, d. there on 15 July 1117.
A. was probably a pupil of Anselmo di Aosta (or di Canterbury), when the latter directed the school of Bec (Normandy); he may have taught for some time in Paris, and then, together with his brother Rodolfo, directed the cathedral school of Laon for several decades. According to contemporary sources, students from all the countries of Europe flocked to it, among them a Guglielmo di Champeaux and a Gilberto Porretano. Toward the end of his life he was offered several bishoprics, including that of Laon, all of which he consistently refused, retaining his chair until his death. A.’s school, together with the cathedral school of Paris, directed by his disciple Guglielmo di Champeaux, represents the beginning of scholasticism proper. A large number of writings from these two schools have been preserved, and it is not always possible to assign them distinctly to one or the other. To date, approximately 600 pieces are known and for the most part published (including complete works and fragments). Of particular importance among them are two types of “sentences”: the so-called nonsystematic ones, which, in the form of questions without a systematic connection, treat the most varied subjects and anticipate the scholastic literary genre of the “questions”; and the systematic sentences, in which certain theological themes are treated in a systematic synthesis: in these one must see the first beginnings of the scholastic “sums.” The principal sources for the nonsystematic sentences are two codices: the Liber Pancrisis (id est totus aureus), now Troyes ms. 425, and ms. Avranches 19, which probably served as a model and source for the Liber Pancrisis. Both present a collection of sentences, taken partly from patristic literature and partly from “modern” authors, among whom A. and his brother Rodolfo, Guglielmo di Champeaux, and Ivo di Chartres deserve special mention. Approximately 85 pieces are expressly attributed to A. (ed. Lefèvre, V. BIBLICA.). It is more difficult to establish the author of the systematic collections of sentences, the principal ones being: Principium et causa omnium (also called Sententiae Anselmi, ed. Bliemetzrieder, V. BIBLICA.); Prima rerum origo; Sententiae divinae paginae (ed. Bliemetzrieder). It is almost certainly not the case that these were composed by A. himself, just as it is unlikely that they are so-called reportationes, that is, notes taken at his lectures; rather, they are treatises compiled in A.’s school on the basis of particular writings and the master’s oral teachings, and perhaps also those of his pupils. The Sententiae Anselmi (Principium et causa omnium) were certainly composed after A.’s death, perhaps by his brother Rodolfo, who died only in 1134 or 1136 (Lottin, V. BIBLICA.).
The systematic position adopted in these sums is based entirely on the authority of the Church and the Fathers and is alien to every form of rationalism. It is understandable that Pietro Abelardo abandoned A.’s school after only a few days, declaring that he was wasting his time there. The range of theological themes treated is still relatively limited: creation, the fall of the angels and of man, original sin, the necessity of the Incarnation; among the doctrine of the Sacraments: Baptism, the Eucharist, and Matrimony; and the special problems of excommunication and simony. The more difficult themes of the Trinity, the hypostatic union, and transubstantiation are still absent. A.’s school provides the first outlines of a theology that subsequent centuries were to develop and complete. The beginnings of scholastic theology are not to be found, as was long believed, in Ugo di S. Vittore and Abelardo, but in the schools of A. di Laon and Guglielmo di Champeaux. A.’s works of biblical exegesis were also of great importance. An ancient tradition designated A. as the author of the Glossa interlinearis, while the corresponding marginal glosses, known by the name Glossa ordinaria, were attributed to Valafriolo Strathone. In reality, the Glossa interlinearis and the Glossa ordinaria should not be separated; for the Middle Ages they together formed “the Gloss,” and one part of this comprehensive gloss—that is, the commentary on s. Paolo, on the Psalms, and perhaps also on the Gospel of s. Giovanni—is the work of A. In addition, a (unpublished) commentary on the Gospel of s. Matteo, Enarrationes in Cantica canticorum and in Apocalypsim (PL 162) are attributed to him, whereas the Enarrationes in Matthaeum (PL 162) do not belong to him. A list of the writings of A.’s school known to date, with indications of the editions, can be found in Lottin (v. BIBLICA).