The most important influence among the new orders undoubtedly fell to the Cistercians, who rose rapidly from humble beginnings to a unique position. In 1075 a monk named Robert founded a small convent at Molême in northern Burgundy, where he strove to carry out with absolute literalness and fidelity the rule of St. Benedict. [Sidenote: The Cistercian Order and Robert of Molême.] The monks found the austerities of their abbot so painful that they rebelled, and in 1098 Robert left Molême in despair, accompanied by the few zealots, conspicuous among whom was the Englishman Stephen or Harding. The little band settled down at Cîteaux, between Dijon and Châlon, a desolate spot which derived its name from the surrounding pools of standing water. There was founded the famous abbey, which was to give its name to a new departure in monastic history. At first the brethren lived in excessive poverty and isolation. But the fame of their holiness gradually brought them adherents, and from 1113, when the young Burgundian nobleman, Bernard of Fontaines, applied for admission with thirty of his kinsmen, the growth of Cîteaux was rapid. The monastery overflowed, and swarm after swarm of monks established daughter houses elsewhere. In 1115 Bernard himself, whose strong will and saintly character had won for him in two years a leading position, led one of these migrations to Clairvaux, of which house he became abbot. Stephen the Englishman was now abbot of Cîteaux, and showed a capacity for organisation which soon made the single poor monastery that he ruled the mother of a great order. In 1119 he obtained Calixtus II.’s approval for the famous ‘Charter of Charity,’ the constitution which he had devised for Cîteaux and its daughter houses. [Sidenote: Carta Caritatis, 1119.] The movement soon spread like wildfire, and hundreds of Cistercian monasteries were founded throughout Christendom.