He had a role in the controversy between Henry II of England, who was Roger's cousin, and Archbishop Thomas Becket.
[2] Roger was a younger son and he was educated for a short period with the future king, Henry II.
Roger was afterwards ordained priest, and consecrated Bishop of Worcester by Thomas Becket,[3] on 23 August 1163.
[3] He adhered loyally to Thomas, and though one of the bishops sent to the pope to carry the king's appeal against the archbishop, he took no active part in the embassy, nor did he join the appeal made by the bishops against the archbishop in 1166, thus arousing the enmity of the king.
Pope Alexander III, who frequently employed him as delegate in ecclesiastical causes, spoke of him and Bartholomew Iscanus Bishop of Exeter as "the two great lights of the English Church".