After studying the arts at Toulouse and law at Orleans and Bologna, he became a canon at Bordeaux and then vicar-general to his brother the archbishop of Lyons, who in 1294 was created cardinal bishop of Albano.
In 1507 he took up his residence in the Benedictine Abbey of St Germain des Pres, near Paris; this was due to his connexion with the family of Brigonnet (one of whom was the superior), especially with William Brigonnet, cardinal bishop of St Malo (Meaux).
The rest of his life was spent in peaceful obscurity as cardinal-bishop of Porto and legate of the mark of Ancona.
So urgent was the need of restoring union at any cost that even prelates who had taken an active part in the work of the council of Pisa, such as Pierre d'Ailly, cardinal bishop of Cambrai, were forced to admit, in view of the fact that the decisions of that council had been and were still contested, that the only possible course was to reconsider the question of the union de novo, entirely disregarding all previous deliberations on the subject, and treating the claims of John and his two competitors with the strictest impartiality.
He was created cardinal-bishop of Ostia in 1078 by Gregory VII., to whom he displayed such loyalty, especially as papal legate in Germany (1084), that he was imprisoned for a time by Henry IV.
