Anselm of Laon

(ANSELMUS LAUDINENSIS.)

Died 15 July, 1117, one of the famous theologians of the Middle Ages, known from his learning as Doctor Scholasticus. He was educated at the abbey of Bee, under St. Anselm of Canterbury, who made him acquainted with the new scholastic theology . From 1076 he taught for a while with much distinction at Paris, and co-operated with William of Champeaux in establishing the university there. He returned to Laon about the end of the eleventh century and set up a theological school which became so famous that Abelard, then thirty years of age, who was teaching philosophy at Paris, removed to Laon in order to study theology under him. Anselms chief work is his "Glossa interlinearis", a commentary on the whole Vulgate (Antwerp, 1634), one of the two chief exegetical works of the Middle Ages, the other being the "Glossa ordinaria" of Walafrid Strabo. His known writings are found in Migne, P.L., CLXII, 1187-1660.