A religious order founded by St. Robert, a Benedictine, in the eleventh century. They became so powerful, that they governed almost all Europe both in spirituals and temporals. Cardinal de Vetri, describing their observances, says, they neither wore skins nor shirts, nor ever ate flesh, except in sickness; and abstained from fish, eggs, milk and cheese: they lay upon straw beds in tunics and cowls; they rose at midnight to prayers; they spent the day in labour, reading, and prayers; and in all their exercises observed a continual silence.