GILBERTO FOLIO. – Bishop of Hereford and London, d. 17 February 1187; he was among the opponents of s. Tommaso Becket in the struggle against Enrico II for the rights of the Church in England.
Of noble Anglo-Norman family, he became a monk at Cluny, and later became its abbot. In 1136 he advocated in Rome the cause of Matilde, daughter of Enrico I, against Stefano di Blois, who had usurped her kingdom and had been recognized by the Pope. In 1139 he was elected abbot of S. Pietro di Gloucester and continued, without success, to support Matilde’s cause.
He was made bishop of Hereford in 1148, and in 1162 was Becket’s opponent in the candidacy for the primatial see of Canterbury. To win his friendship, Becket had him elected bishop of London the following year; but G., although accepting the appointment, refused his primate the customary profession of obedience and worked to make his diocese independent of Canterbury. In January 1164 he was among the leaders of the majority of bishops who subscribed to the articles gravely injurious to ecclesiastical liberties, which Enrico II had caused to be approved at the assembly of Clarendon. He subsequently became the confessor of Enrico himself, giving him effective assistance in the struggle against the primate Becket, and remained in his see even after Becket had excommunicated him twice. Nevertheless, his hostility did not prevent him from condemning the murder of the holy archbishop perpetrated by Enrico’s knights.
He was a learned, irreproachable, and austere man in his private life; he promoted the good of religion among the faithful
over whom he was pastor, but because of his cold and calculating nature he was more feared than loved, everywhere followed by the reputation of poorly concealed ambition. Of his writings, very many letters have survived, written when he was abbot and bishop, as well as a commentary on the Cantico dei Cantici.