If the secular Church changed considerably during the course of the twelfth century, the pace of change within monasticism was slower. From the time of the Norman conquest onwards the south Italian Church was dominated by the great Benedictine monasteries. While the period of their greatest influence and efflorescence was between c. 1060 and c. 1130, they remained by far the most significant element within the monastic part of the Church right through the twelfth century. There were other influences as well, notably a local eremitic movement, the impact of which was modest but far from negligible, although as time went on this tended to become subsumed into the mainstream Benedictine tradition. By contrast, the ‘new religious orders’ that were so influential and successful in northern Europe had little impact upon the kingdom of Sicily until the 1190s. They were, however, to become much more influential during the thirteenth century.

The Norman conquest undoubtedly benefited Benedictine monasticism. It led to a number of new foundations by the Normans themselves, notably those by the new rulers: Venosa and the various Calabrian abbeys founded by Robert Guiscard and his brother Count Roger, and the three Sicilian houses set up by the latter in the late 1080s and early 1090s (above, pp. 85–9). Other Norman aristocrats followed their example, notably Guiscard's nephew Count Geoffrey of Conversano, who founded the abbeys of St Stephen at Monopoli and S. Maria at Nardo, as well as the nunnery of S. Maria at Brindisi.