Geoffrey Grossus' lengthy life of Bernard of Abbeville leaves unanswered many questions. Comparison with contemporary sources suggests that Bernard Was a career churchman with ail interest in ascetism and tire apostolic life, who left his original house in Poitiers because, of resistance to reforms that he had introduced as abbot. A successful search, for a patron enabled him to establish all entirely new community at Tiron in the Perche, where he was able to implement his ideas, although the community did not remain at the forefront of monastic thinking after the death of its charismatic founder is 1116
