ALBERICO, VESCOVO DI OSTIA

ALBERICO, bishop of Ostia. — From the Abbey of Cluny, born in the second half of the 11th century, died at Verdun in 1146. He was first sub-prior of the said monastery and later, around 1130, abbot of Vézelay. In 1136, Peter the Venerable opposed the appointment of A. as bishop of Langres, but some time later Innocent II appointed him cardinal-bishop of Ostia and sent him to England as legate to settle the dispute between David I, king of Scotland, and Stephen of Blois. On 13 December 1138 he took part in a council at Westminster, at which Thibaud, abbot of Bec, was elected archbishop of Canterbury. He later went to Antioch and in 1145 to France, where he worked with St Bernard and Geoffrey, bishop of Chartres, against the heretic Henry. Some letters of his correspondence with St Bernard survive.