Nevertheless, despite difficulties arising from poverty and opposition on the part of the community, he reformed the monastery and in 1176 transferred it to Æbelholt, dedicated to the Paraclete, in Sjælland (now Region Hovedstaden), near the present-day town of Hillerød. As abbot, William worked to institute the standards of religious discipline emerging from reform centers in the heartlands of Latin Christendom. These included a stricter insistence on claustration. William also worked to establish closer links among Danish church institutions similarly committed to ecclesiastical rigor. These included other communities in the Augustinian tradition (such as Vestervig), but also extended to Cistercian houses, most notably the monks of nearby Esrum Abbey.