Editing Pope Gregory VIII (section)

==Cardinal==
In 1156, [[Pope Adrian IV]] made him [[cardinal-deacon]] of Sant'Adriano, and on 14 March 1158 he became [[cardinal-priest]] of [[San Lorenzo in Lucina]]. As a [[papal legate]] of [[Pope Alexander III]], he was sent to teach canon law throughout Europe in the 1160s, and was sent to [[Portugal]] to crown [[Afonso I]]. He also brought an offer of reconciliation in 1163 to [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Frederick I Barbarossa]], whom Pope Alexander III had excommunicated in 1160. Alexander also sent him to England to investigate the murder of [[Thomas Becket]], and he absolved [[Henry II of England|King Henry II]] of the murder during the [[Council of Avranches]]. From 1177 to 1179, Alberto also served as a legate in Italy and in February 1178 was named [[Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church]]. As Chancellor he   generally pursued a conciliatory line toward the Emperor; in the controversy over the disputed succession of the [[Archbishop of Trier]] he argued strongly in favor of setting aside both the pro-papal candidate [[Folmar of Karden]] and the pro-imperial [[Rudolf of Wied]], and allowing the canons of Trier to hold a new election, but was overruled by [[Pope Urban III]].<ref>''Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit'', Vol. VI, p. 130.</ref> It was in this position that di Morra "...compiled a ''Forma Dicendi'', a collection of official papal acts, and also completed a codification of the cursus, a compilation of the very stringent rules governing the euphonious arrangements of sentence endings and phrasing in papal acts. In his honor, the cursus was called ''stylus gregorianus''."<ref>Philippe Levillain, ed. The Papacy: An Encyclopedia, New York: Routledge, 2002, 653.</ref> These two documents were very influential in shaping the rhetoric used in papal documents. Shortly before his election to the papacy, Alberto founded a monastery in his hometown of Benevento.