ABSTRACT
The text of the Institutions affirms that customs were established 'so that what the mother upholds immutably, her daughters should also observe uniformly'. The contents of the codex encourage an assumption that this mother house is the abbey of the Paraclete. All the five priories of the Paraclete were founded before 1157. Institutions of the Paraclete type, as Father Waddell tells people, are also found at Cluny and at Citeaux. The author’s independence does not imply a lack of esteem for Abelard nor a systematic rejection of his Rule. Nor does it imply a systematic ‘Cistercianization’ of the administration of the Paraclete. The abbey commemorated Abelard’s connection with the abbey of Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys by celebrating the feast of St Gildas as a feast with twelve lessons. The antiphons, responses, verses, short lessons and collects are mainly Cisterican. Most remarkably Fr Waddell has shown how Abelard planned the Holy Week Office at the Paraclete.
