Matthew of Albano
MATTHEW OF ALBANO
Cardinal; b. in the country of Laon, France, perhaps 1085; d. Pisa, Italy, Dec. 25, 1135. He studied at Laon under the celebrated master anselm, then left to become a priest at Laon. The disordered life of the clergy determined him instead to enter the Cluniac priory of St. Martindes-Champs at Paris (1110), where he became prior seven years later. Matthew was one of the leading monastic reformers of the 12th century and was active both in France and in northern Italy. He was a friend of the abbot of Cluny, peter the venerable, and defended him against the deposed Abbot Ponce before Pope honorius ii, who created Matthew cardinal bishop of Albano in 1125. Honorius's successor, innocent ii, sent Matthew as legate to France in 1127 and to Germany in 1128 to restore monastic discipline there. Following the Council of pisa in 1134, he was invited by bernard of clairvaux to restore Milan to papal obedience and he died soon after returning to Pisa.
Bibliography: Patrologia Latina ed j. p. migne, 189:913–936, vita; 173:1261–68, letters. Histoire littéraire de la France 13:51–55. u. berliÈre, "Le Cardinal Matthieu d'Albano, 1085–1135," Revue Bénédictine 18 (1901) 113–140, 280–303. c.j. von hefle, Histoire des conciles d'apres les documents originaux 5.1:668–672. j. leclercq, Pierre le Vénérable (Paris 1946).
[d. s. buczek]