Camaldoli, Italy
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a trusted adviser of the Emperors Henry II and Otto III, set out to renew monastic life, as part of the great movement for Church reform then in progress in the West. With this in mind cells were built in remote spots so that the individual monk might devote himself to contemplation. The Rule thus established attracted many adherents, and in 1012 the mother house of the new Order was built here, in the little town of Camáldoli, at an altitude of 800m/2,625ft. Soon afterwards some monks moved still higher up to find solitude at a height of 1,100m/3,600ft on the Campo Amabile, in what is now the Éremo di Camáldoli. During the 12th century the Camaldolese Order flourished, but in later centuries it was torn by dissensions and splits and never developed into a great and powerful Order.