The founder of the Carthusians, Bruno, a native of Koln, but master of
the Cathedral school at Rheims, also took the eremitic life as his
model for the individual. To this end he planted his monastery near
Grenoble, in the wild solitude of the Chartreuse, which gave its name
to the whole Order and to each individual house. In addition to a very
rigorous form of asceticism his rule imposed on the members an almost
perpetual silence. The centre of the life of the Carthusian monk was
not the cloister, but the cell which to each individual was, except on
Sundays and festivals, at the same time chapel, dormitory, refectory,
and study. The Carthusian rule has been described as "Cenobitism
reduced to its simplest expression"; but despite the growing wealth of
the Order, the rigour of the life was well maintained, and of all the
monastic bodies it was the least subjected to criticism and satire.

[Sidenote: Fontevraud.]

A different type of founder is represented by Robert of Arbrissel, in
Brittany, who, although he attracted disciples by the severity of his
life as a hermit, was really a great popular preacher, whose words
soon came to be attested by miracles. He was especially effective in
dealing with fallen women, and the monastery which he established at
Fontevraud, in the diocese of Poitiers, was a double house, men and
women living in two adjacent cloisters; but the monks were little more
than the chaplains and the managers of the monastic revenues, and at
the head of the whole house and Order the founder placed an Abbess as
his successor. The rule of this Order imposed on the female members
absolute silence except in the chapter-house.

[Sidenote: Cluniac Congregation.]