Damiani was too big a man to remain in obscurity, hence he became Bishop of Ostia and in 1058 was made Cardinal. In the papal court he was a very prominent personage, serving as legate on many an important mission, and in 1061 was almost chosen Pope. He was the spiritual counsellor and censor of seven Hildebrandine popes, and called himself the "Lord of the Pope" and Hildebrand's "Holy Satan." He won the confidence of Henry III. and exercised great control over Henry IV. He died in 1072 just a year before Hildebrand became Pope.[433:1] Next to Peter Damiani both in time and importance comes Hildebrand. From the scanty sources concerning his youth it is known that he was born in Tuscany at Saona about 1020 of parents in humble circumstances. His father's name was Bonizo, but whether he was of Teutonic or Roman race, or whether his occupation was that of a carpenter, a farmer, or a goatherd, are unsettled questions. His mother is unknown, but she had a brother who was Abbot of St. Mary's on the Aventine in Rome and one of the twenty churchmen who helped the Pope celebrate mass. To that uncle's monastery in the Eternal City young Hildebrand was early sent and there studied Latin, rhetoric, mathematics, music, dialectics, and the Church Fathers. There too he became imbued with the venerableness of Holy Rome and the sacred authority of the Chair of St. Peter, so that in the stormy days of his old age he could write that St. Peter had nourished him from childhood. Under these surroundings it was but natural that he should decide to be a monk. Soon he was driven to ascetic severities, probably by the corruptions and abuses thrust upon him from all sides. In this monastery he met such men as Odilo, Abbot of Clugny, leader of the reform movement in France, who was accustomed to make St. Mary's his stopping place when in Rome; Archbishop Laurentius of Amalfi, who may have taught him the classics; and Archpresbyter John Gratian, a teacher in St. Mary's, who later purchased the papal crown and became Pope Gregory VI.