Priory of Saint-Arnoul, Crépy-en-Valois

The Priory of Saint-Arnoul, named after a legendary fifth-century bishop of Tours, is located in Crépy-en-Valois in France. It was founded between 935 and 943 by Count Ralph II of Valois as a chapter of canons regular, then re-founded as a Benedictine abbey by Count Walter II in 1008. In 1076, Count Simon, on a pilgrimage to Rome, offered it to Abbot Hugh of Cluny as a daughter house. Their meeting was itself the work of Pope Gregory VII. Hugh returned to France with Simon and personally stayed at Saint-Arnoul to reform it along Cluniac lines, against the resistance of the monks. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the priory prospered through numerous gifts. The west wall and the Romanesque crypt, both preserved today, were built in the final decades of the eleventh century. The main buildings, in use until the dissolution of the priory, were constructed in the Gothic style in four separate campaigns between 1170 and 1260. ()