During his long episcopate he achieved the economic security of his see in the face of labour difficulties, annexed the diocese of Traetto to his own in or soon after 999, and witnessed the decline and replacement of his family in Gaeta.
[2] Towards the end of 998 he participated in a synod in Rome under Pope Gregory V.[2] After the death of Andreas, bishop of Traetto, who last appears in documents in 999, he united the Traettan diocese to his own.
He disputed the rights to Spinio (Spigno Vecchia) with his nephew, Count Daufer II of Traetto, but they came to an agreement and divided the place later that year.
[5] Bernard called in the assistance of the imperial missus of the region, Notticher, who travelled to Gaeta, Traetto, and Castro Argento to settle other labour disputes which had arisen and were costing the diocese heavily.
When the missus demanded that John and Anatolius submit to trial by combat (unheard of in Gaeta, where Byzantine law was the rule), they instead swore an oath that their mother had been a freewoman and paid a pound of gold, which Notticher accepted.