Ivo is claimed to have studied at the Abbey of Bec in Normandy under Lanfranc of Canterbury, where he would have met Anselm of Canterbury, the great scholastic theologian. In 1067 or not much later, he became, at the desire of his bishop, prior of the canons of Saint-Quentin at Beauvais. As Bishop of Chartres and a canonist he contended strongly against simony and opposed King Philip I of France's repudiation of his wife Bertha of Holland in order to marry Bertrade of Anjou in 1092. Ivo was briefly imprisoned for this opposition.