GILBERT FOLIOT (d. 1187)  , bishop of Hereford, and of London, is first mentioned as a monk of Cluny, whence he was called in 1136 to plead the cause of the empress Matilda against Stephen at e Roman court . Shortly afterwards he became prior of Clu ; then prior of Abbeville, a house dependent upon Cluny . In 1139 he was elected abbot of Gloucester . The appointment was confirmed by Stephen, and from the ecclesiastical point of view was unexceptionable . But the new abbot proved himself a valuable ally of the empress, and her ablest controversialist . Gilbert's reputation grew rapidly . He was respected at Rome; and he acted as the representative of the primate, Theobald, in the supervision of the Welsh church . In 1148, on being nominated by the pope to the see of Hereford, Gilbert with characteristic wariness sought confirmation both from Henry of Anjou and from Stephen . But he was an Angevin at heart, and after 1154 was treated by Henry II. with every mark of consideration . He was Becket's rival for the primacy, and the only bishop who protested against the king's choice . Becket, with rare forbearance, endeavoured to win his friendship by procuring for him the see of London (1163) . But Gilbert evaded the customary profession of obedience to the primate, and apparently aspired to make his see independent of Canterbury .

On the questions raised by the Constitutions of

Clarendon he sided with the king, whose confessor he had nowbecome . He urged Becket to yield, and, when this advice was rejected, encouraged his fellow-bishops to repudiate the authority of the archbishop . In the years of controversy which followed Becket's flight the king depended much upon the bishop's skill as a disputant and diplomatist . Gilbert was twice ex-communicated by Becket, but both on these and on other occasions he showed great dexterity in detaching the pope from the cause of the exile . To him it was chiefly due that Henry avoided an open conflict with Rome of the kind which John afterwards provoked . Gilbert was one of the bishops whose excommunication in 1170 provoked the king's knights to murder Becket; but he cannot be reproached with any share in the crime . His later years were uneventful, though he enjoyed great influence with the king and among his fellow-bishops . Scholarly, dignified, ascetic in his private life, devoted to the service of the Church, he was nevertheless more respected than loved . His nature was cold; he made few friends; and the taint of a calculating ambition runs through his whole career . He died in the spring of 1187 . See Gilbert's Letters, ed . J .

A .

Giles (Oxford, 1845); Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, ed . J . C . Robertson (Rolls series . 1875—1885) ; and Miss K . Norgate's England under the Angevin Kings (1887) . (H . W . C .