Circa 1042-1099
Pope

Family Business. The characteristic activity of the second son of virtually any large medieval family was as a member of the Church. This type of activity was carried out to the fullest by Eudes or Odo of Lagery, after his able "apprenticeship" with Bruno, head of the Cathedral School of Reims; Hugh, abbot of Cluny; and Pope Gregory VII. Scholars know about his life from his own writings and administrative papers as Canon and Archdeacon at Reims, Prior at Cluny, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, Papal Legate in France and Germany, and Pope Urban II, as well as from the accounts of many others writing of events between 1065 and 1099. Eudes was from a family of established noble knights in service to the counts of Semur, and his earliest education at the Cathedral School in Reims was almost certainly arranged by his pious parents.

Three...