Born in Rome around 1243, joined the Hermits of St. Augustine to 1260 and was a pupil of Thomas Aquinas in Paris between 1268 and 1272 by Bishop Stephen Tempier, author of the sentences of 1270 and 1277, were confronted by what some own theses were also censored in the past year. He went to Italy, where he remained in various positions of his order until he agreed to recant in 1285, when he returned to Paris and was professor of theology until 1292, when he became general prior of his order. Boniface VIII appointed him archbishop of Bourges in 1295, serving until his death in 1316, having been active in church politics of his time.

He was the author of several works, among which his De regimine principum written for King Philip the Fair of France, one of the most read and commented later books, and De ecclesiastica potestate, which defends the rights of the pope and Church against the temporal power.