Oliba was a great writer and from his scriptorium at Ripoll flowed a ceaseless stream of works which are enlightening about his world.

[2] His father was Oliba Cabreta, the count of Besalú, Cerdanya, Berga and Ripoll, and his mother was Ermengard of Empúries.

This was in addition to the already established principle of the movement: to protect peasants, the clergy and other defenceless individuals by threat of excommunication.

So influential was Oliba that, in 1023, King Sancho III of Navarre consulted him on the propriety of marrying his sister Urraca to her second cousin, Alfonso V of León.

He also created the Assemblies of Peace and Truce, the seeds of the future Catalan Corts, to aid the nobles in the administration of the realm.