An erudite Latin scholar born in Jerusalem around 1130, and a second-generation crusader schooled within sight of the Templar palace at the cathedral school attached to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, William had finished his education in Paris and Bologna—the two leading universities in Europe—before returning to the East to pursue a career in the Church. He eventually rose to become archdeacon and finally archbishop of Tyre—a spiritual rank second only to the patriarch of Antioch.
