Walter of Châtillon

It was probably during his student years that he wrote a number of Latin poems in the Goliardic manner that found their way into the Carmina Burana collection.

One line, referring to Virgil's Aeneid, is sometimes quoted: Many poems in his style, or borrowing his themes, have been attributed to Walter on insufficient evidence.

In addition to his poems, Walter wrote a dialogue refuting Jewish thought and biblical interpretation and a treatise on the Trinity, and he was possibly the author of Moralium dogma philosophorum.

David Townsend summarizes one commentary on Walter's life as follows:[1] Thereafter he entered into the service of Guillaume des Blanches Mains (William of the White Hands), brother-in-law of Louis VII, uncle of Philip Augustus, archbishop of Sens and subsequently of Reims.

According to the anecdote, Walter was jealous of William's sexual liaison with a cleric named Berterus; he took his revenge by contriving the recitation of a scurrilous jingle at the papal curia, thus effectively 'outing' the archbishop (and himself) before the Pope....