Anselm of Laon (Anselmus Laudunensis)

ANSELM OF LAON (Anselmus Laudunensis). - Theologian, b. at Laon (?) ca. 1050, d. there on 15 July 1117.

A. was probably a disciple of Anselm of Aosta (or of Canterbury), when the latter was directing the school of Bec (Normandy); perhaps he taught for some time in Paris, and then, in the company of his brother Ralph of Laon, he directed for several decades the cathedral school of Laon, to which, as contemporary sources report, students flocked from all the countries of Europe, among them a William of Champeaux and a Gilbert de la Porrée. Toward the end of his life various bishoprics were offered to him, among them that of Laon, which he constantly refused, keeping his chair until his death. The school of A., together with the cathedral school of Paris, directed by his disciple William of Champeaux, represents the beginning of scholasticism proper. From these two schools a great number of writings has been preserved, whose distinct attribution to one or the other is not always possible. Up to the present day ca. 600 pieces are known and for the most part published (between complete works and fragments). Of particular importance among them are two types of "sentences": the so-called non-systematic ones, which in the form of questions without a systematic connection treat the most varied subjects and prelude to the literary genre of the "questions" of scholasticism; and the systematic sentences, in which certain theological themes are treated in a systematic synthesis: in these one must see the first beginning of the scholastic "summae". For the non-systematic sentences the principal sources are two codices: the Liber Pancrisis (id est totus aureus), today Troyes ms. 425, and ms. Avranches 19, which probably served as model and source for the Liber Pancrisis. Both present a collection of sentences, taken in part from patristic literature and in part from "modern" authors, among whom special mention should be made of A. and his brother Ralph, William of Champeaux and Ivo of Chartres. To A. are expressly attributed ca. 85 pieces (ed. Lefèvre, v. bibl.). More difficult is to establish the author of the sums of systematic sentences, of which the principal ones are: Principium et causa omnium (also called Sententiae Anselmi, ed. Bliemetzrieder, v. bibl.); Prima rerum origo; Sententiae divinae paginae (ed. Bliemetzrieder). It is almost excluded that these were composed by A. himself, just as it is not probable that they are so-called reportationes, that is, notes taken in his lectures; they are rather treatises compiled in the school of A. on the basis of particular writings and of the oral teaching of the master and perhaps also of pupils. The Sententiae Anselmi (Principium et causa omnium) were certainly composed after the death of A., perhaps by his brother Ralph, who died only in 1134 or 1136 (Lottin, v. bibl.).

The systematic position taken in these sums is based entirely on the authority of the Church and of the Fathers, and is alien to all rationalism. It is understandable how Peter Abelard, after only a few days, abandoned the school of A., declaring that there he was wasting his time. 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; from the doctrine of the Sacraments: Baptism, the Eucharist, Matrimony, and the special problems of excommunication and simony. The more difficult themes of the Trinity, of the hypostatic union, of transubstantiation, are still missing. The school of A. gives the first outlines of a theology, which the following centuries were to develop and complete. The beginnings of scholastic theology are not to be found, as was long believed, in Hugh of St. Victor and Abelard, but in the schools of A. of Laon and of William of Champeaux. Of great importance too were the works of biblical exegesis of A. An ancient tradition designated A. as the author of the Glossa interlinearis, while the corresponding marginal glosses, known under the name of Glossa ordinaria, were attributed to Walafrid Strabo. In reality the Glossa interlinearis and the Glossa ordinaria are not to be separated; for the Middle Ages they form together "the Gloss", and a part of this composite gloss, that is, the commentary on St. Paul, on the Psalms, and perhaps also on the Gospel of St. John, is the work of A. Moreover there are attributed to him a commentary (unpublished) on the Gospel of St. Matthew, Enarrationes in Cantica canticorum and in Apocalypsim (PL 162), while the Enarrationes in Matthaeum (PL 162) do not belong to him. A list of the writings of the school of A. so far known, with indications of the editions, is found in Lottin (v. bibl.).

Anneliese Maier