GILBERT FOLIO. - Bishop of Hereford and of London, d. 17 February 1187, was among the opponents of St. Thomas Becket in the struggle against Henry II for the rights of the Church in England.
Of a noble Anglo-Norman family, having become a monk at Cluny, he was later its abbot. In 1136 he advocated at Rome the cause of Matilda, daughter of Henry I, against Stephen of Blois, who had usurped the kingdom from her and had been recognized by the Pope. In 1139 he was elected abbot of St. Peter's of Gloucester and continued to support, without success, the party of Matilda.
He was created bishop of Hereford in 1148 and in 1162 was an opponent of Becket in the candidacy for the primatial see of Canterbury. To win him over, Becket had him elected, the following year, bishop of London, but G., while accepting the appointment, refused his primate the ritual profession of obedience and worked to make his own 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, put to the vote in the assembly of Clarendon by Henry II. Subsequently he became confessor to Henry himself, lending him valuable aid in the struggle against the primate Becket, and remained in his see even after two excommunications by the latter. Nevertheless his hostility did not prevent him from censuring the murder of the holy archbishop perpetrated by Henry's knights.
He was a learned man, blameless and austere in his private life; he promoted the good of religion among the faithful of whom he was pastor, but because of his cold and calculating nature he was more feared than loved, followed everywhere by the reputation of ill-concealed ambition. Of his writings there survive a great many letters, written as abbot and as bishop, and a commentary on the Song of Songs.