William of Tyre describes him as "a military man, very magnificent and generous, a great favourite of the common people and with those of knightly birth.
The records of this church are few and Ralph only appears as archbishop in two documents late in the pontificate of his predecessor at Antioch, Bernard of Valence, the first Latin patriarch.
[2] The king's bailiff, Rainald I Masoir, and the party that favored a marriage between Constance and Raymond of Poitiers have often been suspected by historians.
[7] According to William of Tyre, the power-sharing arrangement in Antioch did not succeed: the lord patriarch in his customary way behaved more arrogantly, believing himself superiro to the lord prince, and he was, indeed, deceived; for the prince thought it most shameul that he had exacted an oath of fealty from him and ... began to behave hostilely towards him and, dispensing with the oath he had taken, allied with his enemies.
In the spring of 1137, the Byzantine emperor John II Comnenus attacked Prince Leo I of Cilicia, defeated him and in the summer invaded Antioch.
[10] In March 1138 Innocent published an encyclical directed at Latin Christians serving in the Byzantine army, threatening them with damnation if they participated in an attack on Antioch.
[11] In May 1138, John II returned to Antioch, where Ralph, released from prison, presided over the ceremony in the cathedral of St. Peter that marked the end of the Byzantine campaign.
His change of fortune was probably the result of the papal encyclical, since John required Innocent's assistance in building up an anti-Sicilian alliance.
[12] Early in his episcopate, Ralph entered into conflict with an archdeacon named Lambert and another canon, Arnulf, over the apportionment of revenues.
When Ralph landed at Brindisi, he was immediately arrested by men sent by King Roger II of Sicily, and placed in the custody of Arnulf's family while awaiting a summons.
[15] Although Ralph was permitted to stay in Antioch while awaiting the arrival of Alberic, it appears that Raymond was exercising some of the juridical authority of the patriarchate contrary to canon law.
[15] In February 1140, the prince and the Antiochene Haut Cour (high court) heard a claim launched by the prior and seneschal of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on some property which had been held by the monastery of Saint Paul's in Antioch since the First Crusade.
[16] The meeting lasted until 2 December and was attended by the patriarch of Jerusalem, the archbishops of Apamea, Caesarea, Cyrrhus, Hierapolis, Nazareth, Tarsus and Tyre, and the bishops of Beirut, Bethlehem, Jabala, Latakia and Sidon.
The clergy of the County of Tripoli did not show, probably forbidden by their count, and only the Edessan archbishops (Hierapolis and Cyrrhus) and that of Apamea sided with Ralph.
He refused to attend the synod, and Archbishop Serlo of Apamea questioned its authority to proceed in the absence of the defendant, perhaps on the grounds that he had not been duly summoned.