In 1098 he was elected Bishop of Noyon.

He found this town in the same state in which he had seen that of Cambrai.
The burghers were at daily loggerheads with the metropolitan clergy, and the registers of the Church contained a host of documents entitled _Peace made between us and the burghers of Noyon._ But no reconciliation was lasting; the truce was soon broken, either by the clergy or by the citizens, who were the more touchy in that they had less security for their persons and their property.

The new bishop thought that the establishment of a commune sworn to by both the rival parties might become a sort of compact of alliance between them, and he set about realizing this noble idea before the word commune had served at Noyon as the rallying cry of popular insurrection.

Of his own mere motion he convoked in assembly all the inhabitants of the town, clergy, knights, traders, and craftsmen.

He presented them with a charter which constituted the body of burghers an association forever under magistrates called jury-men, like those of Cambrai.