Abbey of Saint Wandrille to Bobbio Abbey and then to Romainmôtier Abbey, where he remained for ten years. In 648 he returned to Normandy and established the monastery of Fontenelle, using the Rule of Saint Columbanus, which he had known at Bobbio; the deed of gift of the land is dated 1 March 649. He first built a Carolingian style basilica dedicated to Saint Peter, nearly long, which was consecrated by Saint Ouen in 657. (This church was destroyed by fire in 756 and rebuilt by Abbot Ansegisus (823–33), who added a narthex and tower). The monastery was extremely successful at first, and produced
Westminster Abbey Westminster, is in the Bayeux Tapestry. Some of the lower parts of the monastic dormitory, an extension of the South Transept, survive in the Norman Undercroft of the Great School, including a door said to come from the previous Saxon abbey. Increased endowments supported a community increased from a dozen monks in Dunstan's original foundation, up to a maximum about eighty monks. The abbot and monks, in proximity to the royal Palace of Westminster, the seat of government from the later 12th century, became a powerful force in the centuries after the Norman Conquest. The Abbot of Westminster often was