be in charge of convents. The abbess or prioress should be "superior in rank" and "obeyed without murmuring". Caesarius ensured that the abbesses of the convents would be free of forced obedience to the local diocesan bishop by obtaining a Papal letter exempting the convent from episcopal authority. He also wrote the Regula sanctarum virginum, the first known rule specifically created for a convent. This rule featured a combination of old and new restrictions on monastic life, including the surrender of private property, obedience to God through the abbess, and chastity for life, which served the dual purpose of protecting the enclosure of the convent's members and limiting the intrusion of the secular world. Rise By the 7th century, the Irish missionary St. Columbanus had established the most famous convent in Gaul, Luxeuil Abbey. Following the death of her husband Clovis II in 657, St. Balthild, the Queen Regent of Neustria and Burgundy became patron of the community, thereby promoting the example of Luxeuil's mixed rule — the combination of Benedictine and Columbanian monasticism — throughout medieval Europe. Balthild was responsible for the foundation of an abbey of nuns at Chelles around 659, a double monastery, where she retired following her vacation of the regency of the Merovingian throne. Around this same time, the brother of the bishop Audoens, Ado, formed the famous double monastery of Jouarre, also in Gaul. These two monasteries shared many of the same features: they both housed male and female religious communities within the same enclosure, though these groups lived apart, and they shared a common church for liturgical offices. Both monasteries were administered by a single head, typically an abbess, a reflection of Caesarius of Arles’ view about the management of female houses. While the inspiration for these religious houses came from Columbanus’ missions in Gaul, he himself never established female religious institutions. The amount of influence Irish monasticism might have played in the foundation of these Frankish double houses is unclear. In the 5th century, the monastery of St. Brigit of Kildare was a community of men and women living together without strict separation, but there is little evidence as to whether it was traditional or an anomaly. The involvement of Columbanus’ successors, Eustace and Walbert of Luxeuil, is well-documented. The Rule of a Father for Virgins, attributed to the latter abbot, established the mother role of the abbess as very similar to