Anselm of Havelberg[1] (c. 1100 – 1158) was a
Germanbishop,
statesman, secular and religious ambassador to
Constantinople. He was a
Premonstratensian, a defender of his order[2][3] and a critic of the
monastic life of his time, and a theorist of Christian history. According to
Friedrich Heer, "the peculiar course of Anselm's life made this much-travelled man the theologian of development, of progress, of the right of novelty in the Church".[4]
Anselm was sent by
Lothair III, Holy Roman Emperor, to Constantinople in 1136.[6] in the hope of a Byzantine alliance. He held theological discussions with
Nicetas of Nicomedia,[7] an account of which he wrote later as his Dialogues, at the request of
Pope Eugenius III. His account tended to play down the theological differences, including the
filioque clause,[8]
but was more stark on the political issues. A later encounter with
Basil of Achrida in 1154 proved fruitless.[9]
He lived in a time where there was a growth in the diversity of religious orders, in his first book the Dialogues (c. 1149), unlike those who were scandalized by the novelty of these new orders, he saw these orders as part of God's plan for the renewal of the church. In his Dialogues, he mentions "They devise for themselves a new [way] of psalmody; they establish new ways of abstinence and measures of food; and follow neither the monks who fight under the rule of
Benedict nor
Augustine".[10]
Anselm's works include De ordine canonicorum regularium, Apologeticum pro ordine canonicorum regularium, and the three Dialogi (Greek title Antikeimenon[12]), in the Patrologia Latina.
Notes
^Anselm von Havelberg, Anselmus Havelbergensis, Anselmus episcopus Havelbergensis.
^"Chapter Six". Archived from
the original on 2007-02-19. Retrieved 2007-03-12.: "Anselm of Havelberg (+ 1158), in his Apologetic Epistle, showed that the active life and the contemplative life - later referred to as the "mixed life" can be perfectly blended in the life of the canons".
^[1]: :The first treatise on the mixed life was that of the regular canon Anselm of Havelberg, who argued that the supreme model of religious life, Christ, practiced contemplation and action equally".
^The Intellectual Life of Europe (English translation, 1966), p.90.
^[2]: "Again in 1135 Lothair III had sent as ambassador to John Comnenus a Premonstratensian Canon Anselm afterwards Bishop of Havelberg, who held a debate with Nicetas Archbishop of Nicomedia. According to the report which he subsequently drew up at the request of Eugenius III, the points discussed were the procession of the Holy Ghost, the use of unleavened bread and the claims of Rome".
^I. S. Robinson, The Papacy 1073-1198 (1990), p.182.