Peter of Lucedio
He was on especially good terms with Pope Innocent III, in whose general reform of the clergy in Lombardy he played a major role.
In January 1180 he became the first abbot of San Giovanni di Rivalta Scrivia, a church that became with Peter's appointment a daughter house of Lucedio and a subject also of the bishop of Tortona.
He built up the manors of Montarolo, Leri, Ramazzana, Pobietto, Cornale and Gazzo in the region of Vercelli and won a dispute over property with the monastery of San Genuario.
[1] Owing to his skills as an administrator, Peter served several times as a papal judge-delegate alongside Bishop Albert of Vercelli in the 1190s.
On 20 July 1191, Albert and Peter handed down a judgement in favour of the cathedral of Genoa against the church of Santa Maria di Castello.
Sometime between 1195 and 1198, Albert and Peter settled a dispute between the canonry of Oulx and the monastery of San Giusto di Susa in favour of the former.
In 1200, alongside Boiamondo, abbot of Chiaravalle della Colomba, he settled a property dispute between the bishop of Tortona and the Humiliati on the one side and the Knights Templar on the other.
In late 1200 or early 1201, Innocent sent the representatives of the Humiliati to present their proposed rule of life (propositum vitae) to Peter and Albert.
It has been alleged that he deliberately withheld the letter from the army, but this is unlikely, since Peter retained the confidence of Innocent III until the pope's death.
With Cardinal Soffredo of Santa Prassede, he convinced Boniface's new Greek wife, Maria, widow of Emperor Isaac II, to convert to the Catholic faith.
In a letter addressed to the pope on 25 August 1203, the Emperor Alexius IV credited Peter, whose zeal he praises, as one of several who persuaded him to restore communion between the Eastern and Western churches.
[1] Peter returned to western Europe in 1205, after receiving news of his election as abbot of La Ferté, the mother house of Lucedio.
He left La Ferté and took up his post in Ivrea, but as soon as he realized its poor financial situation he abandoned the diocese without informing the cathedral chapter, intending to take up life in a hermitage.
In the spring of 1207, Innocent III appointed him one of the "visitators and provisors of Lombardy" charged with a general reform of the clergy within that region.
In this capacity, Peter worked with Albert's successor at Vercelli, Lotario Rosario, and Gerardo da Sesso, abbot of Tiglieto (a sister house of Lucedio).
In November 1208, he was back in Piacenza with Gerardo and Archbishop Umberto IV of Milan to depose Crimerio for having given in to the consuls' demands.
There Innocent entrusted him with letters addressed to the cathedral chapter of Antioch, the clergy of the patriarchate and the garrison of Cursat Castle.
[1] Innocent III praised Peter for accepting the patriarchate of Antioch out of "love and the virtue of obedience" rather than for worldly advancement, ambition or prestige.
