Guido Pisano

Who is Guido Pisano?

Guido Pisano was a prelate and diplomat from Pisa. He probably belonged to the family of the counts of Caprona, and was promoted to the College of Cardinals and appointed to the deaconry of Santi Cosma e Damiano by Pope Innocent II on 4 March 1132. Between 10 and 11 December 1146 he was created Papal chancellor by the Pisan Pope Eugene III. He was widely travelled, intervening in Spain, Portugal, France and Germany, and well-connected, to Wibald, to Anselm of Havelberg and to a succession of popes as well as several emperors and kings.

Guido served as a Papal legate to the Spains on three occasions. His first visit probably took place in 1133–34, his second in 1135–37 and his third and final in 1143. During the first he went to León, there to either preside over a synod or attend the royal court, to resolve in favour of Bernardo of Compostela a dispute with his archbishop, Diego Gelmírez, and to confirm the election of Berengar as Bishop of Salamanca, also against Diego's wishes. During the second he presided over a synod in Burgos, which granted an indulgence to the Confraternity of Belchite, and on 26 November 1143 during the third he held a council at Girona, where Count Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona granted of fifth of the territory he had conquered from the Moors to the Knights Templar. On his way through southern France on his first legation, he resolved in favour of the abbey of Saint-Thibéry a dispute over the church of Bessan with the monastery of La Chaise-Dieu.