Not content with his residence at Chatillon, he repaired to Bologna in Italy, where he studied the civil and canon law. On his return to France he became the secretary of two successive Archbishops of Rheims, the latter of whom, by the name of William,--a descendant by his grandmother from William the Conqueror,--occupied this place of power from 1176 to 1201. The secretary enjoyed the favor of the Archbishop, who seems to have been fond of letters. It was during this period that he composed, or at least finished, his poem. Its date is sometimes placed at 1180; and there is an allusion in its text which makes it near this time. Thomas a Becket was assassinated before the altar of Canterbury in 1170; and this event, so important in the history of the age, is mentioned as recent: "_Nuper--caesum dolet Anglia Thomam_." The poem was dedicated to the Archbishop, who was to live immortal in companionship with his secretary:[36]-- "Vivemus pariter, vivet cum vate superstes Gloria Guillermi nullum moriture per aevum." The Archbishop was not ungrateful, and he bestowed upon the poet a stall in the cathedral of Amiens, where he died of the plague at the commencement of the thirteenth century.[37] This does not appear to have been his only work. Others are attributed to him. There are dialogues _adversus Judaeos_, which Oudin publishes in his collection entitled "Veterum aliquot Galliae et Belgii Scriptorum Opuscula Sacra nunquam edita." This same Oudin, in another publication, speaks of a collection, entitled "Opuscula Varia," preserved among the manuscripts in the Imperial Library of France, as by Gaultier, although the larger part of these Opuscula have been attributed to a very different person, Gaultier Mapes, chaplain to Henry II., King of England, and Archdeacon of Oxford.[38] But more recent researches seem to restore them to Philip Gaultier. Among these are satirical songs in Latin on the world, and also on prelates, which, it is said, were sung in England as well as throughout France. Indeed, the second verse of the epitaph already quoted seems to point to these satires:-- "Perstrepuit _modulis_ Gallia tota _meis_." In these pieces, as in the "Alexandreis," we encounter the indignant sentiments inspired by the assassination of Becket. The victim is called "the flower of priests," and the king, _Neronior est ipso Nerone_.[39] But these poems, whether by Walter Mapes or by Philip Gaultier, are now forgotten. The "Alexandreis" has had a different fortune.