 In 1214 he was chosen abbot of Clairvaux, and, in 1217, abbot of Cîteaux and general of his order, in succession to Arnaud Amaury, the first Legate of the Albigensian Crusade.While he was in Rome on the business of the order, Pope Honorius III created him cardinal, on 8 January 1219, and later charged him as Papal legate with two important missions