Editing Fontevraud Abbey (section)

===Fontevraud===

Around 1100 Robert and his followers settled in a valley called ''Fons Ebraldi'' where he established a monastic community. Initially the men and women lived together in the same house, in an ancient ascetic practice called [[Syneisaktism]]. This practice had been widely condemned by Church authorities, however, and under pressure the community soon segregated according to gender, with the monks living in small [[priories]] where they lived in community in service to the nuns and under their rule. Sometime before 1106, [[Fulk IV, Count of Anjou]] gave a significant property gift to the abbey.{{sfn|Mews|2006|p=135}}

They were recognized as a religious community in 1106, both by the [[Bishop of Angers]] and by [[Pope Paschal II]]. Robert, who soon resumed his life of itinerant preaching, appointed [[Hersende of Champagne]] to lead the community. Later her assistant, Petronilla of [[Chemillé]], was elected as the first abbess in 1115.

Robert wrote a brief Rule of Life for the community, based upon the [[Rule of St. Benedict]]. Unlike the other monastic orders characterized by [[double monasteries]], the monks and nuns of the Order of Fontevrault followed the same Rule. In his Rule, Robert dealt with four principal points: silence, good works, food and clothing, encouraging the utmost in simplicity of life and dress. He directed that the [[abbess]] should never be chosen from among those who had been brought up at Fontevrault, but that she should be someone who had had experience of the world (''de conversis sororibus''). This latter injunction was observed only in the case of the first two abbesses and was canceled by [[Pope Innocent III]] in 1201. At the time of Robert's death in 1117, there were about 3,000 nuns in the community.<ref name=CE />
 
In the early years the [[Plantagenet]]s were great benefactors of the abbey and while Isabella d'Anjou was the [[abbess]], King [[Henry II of England|Henry II]]'s widow, [[Eleanor of Aquitaine]], made the abbey her place of residence.<ref name="Melot 1971"/> Abbess Louise de Bourbon left her crest on many of the alterations to the abbey building which she made during her term of office.
[[File:Richard1TombFntrvd.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Tomb effigy|Tomb effigies]] of King [[Richard I of England]] (right) and Queen [[Isabella of Angoulême]] (left)]]