_The Abbey of Citeaux._--The reform of the Benedictine orders became a pressing necessity, and St. Robert, Abbot of Solesmes, entered upon the task about 1098. St. Bernard continued it, after having quitted his abbey, with twenty-one monks of the order, to take refuge in the forest of Citeaux, given him by Don Reynard, Vicomte of Beaune. His main achievement was reorganisation of such a nature as to deal effectually with the decay of primitive simplicity throughout the order, which had completely lost touch with monastic sentiment. "Frequent intercourse with the outside world had demoralised the monks, who attracted within their cloister walls crowds of sightseers, guests, and pilgrims. The monasteries which, down to the eleventh century, were either built in the towns, or had become centres of population in consequence of the Norman and Saracen invasions, retained their character of religious seclusion only for a certain number of monks, who devoted themselves to intellectual labours. Besides which, the brethren had become feudal lords, holding jurisdiction side by side with the bishops, and St. Germain-des-Près, St. Denis, St. Martin, Vendôme, and Moissac owned no over-lordships but that of the Pope. Hence arose temporal cares, disputes, and even armed conflicts, among them. The greed and vanity of the abbots at least, if not of their monks, made itself felt even in religious worship, and in the buildings consecrated thereto."[46] [46] Anthyme St. Paul, _Histoire Monumentale de la France_. St. Bernard, in an address to the monks of his day, reproves their degeneracy, and censures the exaggerated dimensions of the abbey churches, the splendour of their ornamentation, and the luxury of the abbots. O vanity of vanities! he exclaims, and folly great as vanity! The Church is bedecked in her walls, but naked in her poor! She overlays her stones with gold, and leaves her children without raiment! The curious are given distractions, and the miserable lack bread! It was to suppress such abuses that the Cistercian order was founded by St. Robert and St. Bernard, and also to put an end to the disputes arising from ecclesiastical jurisdiction by making the new abbeys dependencies of the bishoprics. They were to be built in solitary places, "and to nourish their inmates by agriculture. It was forbidden to found them over the tombs of saints, for fear of attracting pilgrims, who would bring worldly distractions in their train. The buildings themselves were to be solid, and built of good freestone, but without any sort of extraneous ornament; the only towers allowed were small belfries, sometimes of stone, but more usually of wood."[47] [47] _Ibid._