[2] The young Ansfried studied secular and clerical subjects under another paternal uncle, Robert, Archbishop of Trier, before attending the cathedral school at Cologne.

When Otto was in Rome the following year to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor, he directed Ansfried to keep close at hand with the sword as a precaution against any unforeseen eventualities.

Because of his Christian commitment, he was highly respected and an important knight of the emperor's circle, holding rich possessions along the Meuse, in Brabant and Gelderland.

[1] In 985, Otto III granted Ansfried the right to mint coins at Medemblik,[4] on the north-south shipping route through the Vlie, as well as, the income from tolls and tax collecting.

However, in 995, Emperor Otto III and Bishop Notker of Liège persuaded the reluctant Ansfried to assume the then vacant see of Utrecht.

The elderly count laid down his sword on the altar of Saint Mary in Aachen and was ordained priest and consecrated eighteenth Bishop of Utrecht in the same ceremony.

Ansfried is portrayed holding a small church building (as a founder); as a knight with weapons at his feet, because he renounced the knighthood; with a bishop's miter and staff; or as a Benedictine monk.