He was born between 1060 and 1064 at Gaeta from an illustrious family of Pisa, one of the four main historical Marine Republics of Italy. He became a monk of Monte Cassino, was taken to Rome by Pope Urban II (1088–99), and made papal subdeacon (August 1088) and cardinal deacon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin (probably on September 23, 1088). As chancellor of the Holy Roman Church from 1089 to 1118, he drastically reformed the papal administration, establishing a permanent staff of clerks for the papacy, overcoming the previous custom of relying on Roman notaries to write papal documents, and introducing the minuscule curial script. His tenure also established the precedent that the papal chancellor should always be a cardinal, and should hold the office for life or until he was elected pope.