Ivo of Chartres

1040-1116. Bishop of Chartres. A great canonist, he had studied first at Paris and then at Bec under Lanfranc.* In 1090, having become a celebrated teacher, he was appointed to the see of Chartres which was already famous for its school. As bishop he showed courage in opposing Philip I's proposals to desert his wife and remarry. As a result he was imprisoned in 1092. He was a moderate in his involvement in the Investiture Controversy,* suggesting that a king could not grant the spiritual office but might bestow the temporalities. In this solution he prefigured the Concordat of Worms (1122). Of his works, Panormia (seventeen books) and the Decretum (eight books) are of greatest significance. In these he brought together ecclesiastical rules from a wide background in an orderly collection, suggested ways of discovering underlying unity in the face of apparent incompatibility between authorities, and also provided good patristic documentation. In so doing he paved the way for the synthesis of the canons which Gratian was to complete, provided theological texts for many later theologians, and by his technique inspired Abelard's* Sic et Non. Under his guidance Chartres flourished, as a school both of theology and of canon law. Ivo's surviving 288 letters provide a good insight into the political and religious life of the period.