Berengar was the Bishop of Venosa. He is mentioned for the last time at Christmas 1096.

The son of Arnaud d'Échauffour, he became a monk in Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche

Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche

The Abbey of Saint-Evroul or Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche is a former Benedictine abbey in Normandy, located in the present commune of Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame-du-Bois, Orne, Basse-Normandie...

 as a youth. He was a student of Abbot Thierri.

Berengar joined his uncle, Robert de Grantmesnil, in exile in January 1061, when William II of Normandy banished him for violence. According to Orderic Vitalis

Orderic Vitalis

Orderic Vitalis was an English chronicler of Norman ancestry who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th and 12th century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England. The modern biographer of Henry I of England, C...

, Robert and Berengar stopped in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 and met Pope Nicholas II

Pope Nicholas II

Pope Nicholas II , born Gérard de Bourgogne, Pope from 1059 to July 1061, was at the time of his election the Bishop of Florence.-Antipope Benedict X:...

. In 1062, Robert founded Sant'Eufemia on land donated by Robert Guiscard

Robert Guiscard

Robert d'Hauteville, known as Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, from Latin Viscardus and Old French Viscart, often rendered the Resourceful, the Cunning, the Wily, the Fox, or the Weasel was a Norman adventurer conspicuous in the conquest of southern Italy and Sicily...

 in Calabria

Calabria

Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....

.

In 1063, the Guiscard granted Berengar the church of SS Trinità di Venosa and made him abbot, an important post, as Venosa was the mausoleum of the Hauteville family

Hauteville family

The family of the Hauteville was a petty baronial Norman family from the Cotentin which rose to prominence in Europe, Asia, and Africa through its conquests in the Mediterranean, especially Southern Italy and Sicily...

. Pope Alexander II

Pope Alexander II

Pope Alexander II , born Anselmo da Baggio, was Pope from 1061 to 1073.He was born in Milan. As bishop of Lucca he had been an energetic coadjutor with Hildebrand of Sovana in endeavouring to suppress simony, and to enforce the celibacy of the clergy...

 confirmed Berengar as abbot and, in 1093 or 1094, Urban II

Pope Urban II

Pope Urban II , born Otho de Lagery , was Pope from 12 March 1088 until his death on July 29 1099...

 made him bishop.

Berengar is most famous for his writings against Berengar of Tours

Berengar of Tours

Berengar of Tours was a French 11th century Christian theologian and Archdeacon of Angers, a scholar whose leadership of the cathedral school at Chartres set an example of intellectual inquiry through the revived tools of dialectic that was soon followed at cathedral schools of Laon and Paris, ...

 made between 1078 and 1079. He disputed with him in Rome in those years, when the memorialist was forced to recant. A manuscript of his polemic is preserved in the library of King's College

King's College, Aberdeen

King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and an integral part of the University of Aberdeen...

, University of Aberdeen

University of Aberdeen

The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...

.

Sources

• Ghisalberti, Alberto M. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani: IX. Rome, 1967.
• Morin, G. "Bérenger contre Bérenger." Récherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale. IV, 2 (1932), pp 109–133.