The abbey became too small for its members and it was necessary to send out bands to found new houses.

If Columbanus's abbey at Bobbio in Italy became a citadel of faith and learning, Luxeuil in France became the nursery of saints and apostles.

* 1382: Gdynia became property of the Cistercian abbey in Oliva, now Oliwa.

He had been a descendant of the Israelite tribe of Issachar ; he had been educated by his grandfathers, who had both been physicians to the court of Good King René of Provence ; he had attended Montpellier University in 1525 to gain his first degree: after returning there in 1529 he had successfully taken his medical doctorate ; he had gone on to lecture in the Medical Faculty there until his views became too unpopular ; he had supported the heliocentric view of the universe ; he had travelled to the north-east of France, where he had composed prophecies at the abbey of Orval ; in the course of his travels he had performed a variety of prodigies, including identifying a future Pope ; he had successfully cured the Plague at Aix-en-Provence and elsewhere ; he had engaged in scrying using either a magic mirror or a bowl of water ; he had been joined by his secretary Chavigny at Easter 1554 ; having published the first installment of his Propheties, he had been summoned by Queen Catherine de ' Medici to Paris in 1556 to discuss with her his prophecy at quatrain I. 35 that her husband King Henri II would be killed in a duel ; he had examined the royal children at Blois ; he had bequeathed to his son a ' lost book ' of his own prophetic paintings ; he had been buried standing up ; and he had been found, when dug up at the French Revolution, to be wearing a medallion bearing the exact date of his disinterment.

When Otto II became Holy Roman Emperor in 973 ( he was co-emperor with Otto I from 967 ), he appointed Gerbert the abbot of the monastery of Bobbio and also appointed him as count of the district, but the abbey had been ruined by previous abbots, and Gerbert soon returned to Rheims.

A document found at the abbey states that Richard became subprior in 1159.

In 1162 Richard became prior of the abbey and remained in this position until his death in 1173.

Winfrid taught in the abbey school and at the age of 30 became a priest ; in this time, he wrote a Latin grammar, the Ars Grammatica, besides a treatise on verse and some Aldhelm-inspired riddles.

In the 13th century, the abbey and the town became an independent principality, over which the abbots ruled as territorial sovereigns ranking as Princes of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1873, the head of the abbey came to an agreement with a Parisian cheese-seller granting exclusive rights of distribution, and the cheese soon became popular.

Henry designated Westminster, where St Edward had founded the abbey, as the fixed seat of power in England and Westminster Hall duly became the greatest ceremonial space of the kingdom, where the council of nobles also met.

The abbey eventually became the seat of the South Saxon bishopric, where it remained until after the Norman Conquest, when it was moved to Chichester by decree of the Council of London of 1075.

In the decades after its foundation the abbey was the recipient of considerable endowments, as seen from the dedication of 26 altars donated by individual benefactors and guilds and it was an important centre of pilgrimage after Dunfermline became a centre for the cult of St Margaret ( Malcolm's wife and David's mother ), from whom the monastery later claimed foundation and for which an earlier foundation charter was fabricated.

It was presided over by eleven abbots, and became financially unstable largely due to forward selling its wool crop, and the abbey was criticised for its dire material and physical state when it was visited by Archbishop John Romeyn in 1294.

When the abbey was dissolved, he retired, and later became 1st Bishop of Gloucester.

The abbey became part of the diocese of Lincoln in 1542 and was moved to the diocese of London in 1550.

With the reformation and the end of monastic services, the east end of the abbey church became redundant.

The abbey was founded in 1100 and became a double monastery, with both monks and nuns on the same site.

In the early years the Plantagenets were great benefactors of the abbey and while Isabella d ' Anjou was abbess, Henry II's widow Eleanor of Aquitaine became a nun there.

The abbey later became a prison from 1804 to 1963, in which year it was given to the French Ministry of Culture.

In 998 he established a Benedictine abbey at Sherborne and became its first abbot.

Ethelstan the Etheling, son of Ethelred the Unready, left " land at Mordune " to the abbey of Christ and St. Peter in his will of 1015, which became the site of the first Saxon parish church of St Lawrence.

The abbey was extensively remodelled in 1633 for the coronation of Charles I.

James wore it to his consort's coronation in the same year at the abbey church of Holyrood.

His relics were transferred to the abbey of Corbény in Champagne, where they played a part in the coronation ceremonies of kings of France, crowned at Reims, and the tradition of laying on of hands.

Hedwig and her daughter-in-law, Henry's II widow Anna of Bohemia, established a Benedictine abbey at the site of the battle in Legnickie Pole, settled with monks coming from Opatovice in Bohemia.

On 17 February 1818, workmen breaking ground on the new parish church to be built on the site of the eastern choir of Dunfermline Abbey uncovered a tomb before the site of the former abbey high altar.

The site of the tomb in Dunfermline Abbey was marked by large carved stone letters spelling out " King Robert the Bruce " around the top of the bell tower, when the eastern half of the abbey church was rebuilt in the first half of the 19th century.

Finglas was originally the site of an Early Christian abbey, the origin of which has been associated, from early times, with the name of St. Cainnech, or Canice, the patron of Kilkenny, said to have founded it in 560 A. D.

The rest of the abbey was dismantled over the next 15 years, although part of the site was converted to a palace.

Abbot Alexander set about finding a more suitable place for the abbey and came across a site in the heavily wooded Aire Valley occupied by hermits.

* An abbey is founded at the site of Mönchengladbach.

The church occupies the site of the ancient chancel and transepts of a large medieval Benedictine abbey, which was sacked in 1560 during the Scottish Reformation and permitted to fall into disrepair.

The presence of Scone two miles ( 3 km ) northeast, the main royal centre of the Kingdom of Alba from at least the reign of Kenneth I mac Ailpín ( 843 – 58 ), later the site of the major Augustinian abbey of the same name founded by Alexander I ( 1107 – 24 ), enhanced Perth's early importance.

It is well known as the site of the Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat, which hosts the Virgin of Montserrat sanctuary and which is identified by some with the location of the Holy Grail in Arthurian myth.

St James's Church and School was built on a portion of the site of the abbey between 1837 and 1840.

Reading Gaol was built in 1844 on the eastern portion of the abbey site, replacing a small county Gaol on the same site.

James Wheble sold the rest of his portion of the abbey site to Reading Corporation to create the Forbury Gardens, which were opened in 1861.

The abbey school still survives in the form of Reading School, a state grammar school, albeit in different buildings on a different site.

Some remains of the former Abbey Mill still remain alongside the Holy Brook at the south of the abbey site.

The Grade I listed site is now operated by English Heritage as 1066 Battle of Hastings, Abbey and Battlefield, which includes the abbey buildings and ruins, a visitor centre with a film and exhibition about the battle, audio tours of the battlefield site, and the monks ' gatehouse with recovered artefacts.

Displays include the different buildings on the site and their uses, the abbey's impact on the community, the construction, architecture and sculptures of the buildings, artifacts and sculptures, and the role of the abbey in present times.

Constructed to the south side of the cathedral close to the site of the original chapter house of the abbey, the new ' Chapter House ' cost around £ 1 million and was officially opened on 8 June 1982 by Queen Elizabeth.

The site of the abbey is protected as a scheduled monument.

The abbey was the site of numerous royal weddings.