that of abbot. In this Rule, Walbert asserts that abbesses share many of the powers of an abbot, including the ability to hear confessions from their nuns and absolve them of their sins. These abbesses were often of noble birth, either direct or distant descendants of the family that founded the monastery. Between the start of the 6th century and the mid-8th century, when double monasteries went into decline, over one hundred double monasteries or convents had been founded in Gaul. The double monasteries of Anglo-Saxon England were heavily influenced by the monastic system of Gaul. Hilda of Whitby, the abbess of the most famous double house in England, originally intended to join her sister at Chelles in 647, where many other daughters of English nobility were educated. Instead, she remained in England, where Bishop and later Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne trained her in monasticism. Here she continued the Gallic tradition of noble female heads of double monasteries at Whitby Abbey, which she directly modelled after a combination of Aidan’s influence and the Rule followed by contemporaries at Chelles and Jouarre. By order of King Oswiu, in 664 Hilda hosted the Synod of Whitby, which brought together representatives from the Celtic and Roman churches to resolve ecclesiastical differences between them, including the Easter Controversy. Whitby became known as a school for bishops, and produced five during Hilda’s governorship, according to Bede's Historia. The prominent position held by double monasteries in England is further reinforced by the fact that Whitby served as a place of retirement and burial for several Anglo-Saxon kings in the seventh century. It also fostered significant cultural achievements, such as the poems of Cædmon. Beyond Whitby, Anglo-Saxon England cultivated double monasteries including Ely, which was founded by Queen (and later Saint) Etheldreda of Northumbria. After spending twelve years refusing to consummate her marriage, Etheldreda was granted the land for Ely by her husband, King Ecgfrith of Northumbria. Another renowned double house, Barking Abbey, followed the Gallic tradition of separation of the sexes with one exception: after death, under Hildelith, abbess of Barking, both male and female burials were combined into a single mass grave. Anglo-Saxon missionaries to the Continent founded double houses there, one example is the double monastery of Heidenheim, Bavaria, founded by Saint Willibald around 742, and later led by his sister, Saint Walpurga. A characteristic unique to Anglo-Saxon religious establishments was the simultaneous institution