Anselm of Havelberg

ANSELM OF HAVELBERG: Bishop of Havelberg, later archbishop of Ravenna; d. 1158. He took an active part in ecclesiastical and still more in political affairs under the emperors from Lothair III. to Frederick I. Having joined the Premonstrants he went to Magdeburg, probably influenced by Norbert, who consecrated him in 1129 bishop of Havelberg. As such he labored zealously for the order, to whose duties especially belonged the organization of the church in the Wendic countries, and founded a Premonstrant chapter in Havelberg. In 1135 Lothair III. sent him as ambassador to Constantinople in the hope of effecting a union against Roger of Sicily. He held a friendly conference on the principal points of controversy between the Eastern and the Western Churches, with the archbishop of Nicomedia, and afterward at the request of Pope Eugenius III. wrote three “Dialogues,” descriptive of it. In 1147 he took part as papal legate in the crusade against the Wends, and then devoted several years to the affairs of his bishopric. The Emperor Frederick I. employed him again on political missions; he sent him to Constantinople in 1154, when he wished to secure a Greek princess for his wife, and in 1155 caused him to be chosen archbishop of Ravenna. In the same year Anselm was successful in mediating between Frederick and the Pope (Giesebrecht, v. 59, 64). His writings, besides the one mentioned above, treat especially of the relation between canons and monks, which was much discussed in his time. They are in MPL, clxxxviii.

S. M. Deutsch.

Bibliography: Spieker, Anselm von Havelberg, in ZHT, vol. x., part ii. (1840) 1-94; W. von Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, iv.-v., Brunswick, 1874; Hauck, KD, vol. iv. passim.