 The outlines of the Cistercian reform were adumbrated by Alberic, but it received its final form in the "Carta caritatis" ("Charter of Charity"), which was the defining guide on how the reform was to be lived.This document governed the relations between the various houses of the Cistercian order, and exercised a great influence also upon the future course of western monachism.From one point of view, it may be regarded as a compromise between the primitive Benedictine system, in which each abbey was autonomous and isolated, and the complete centralization of Cluny, where the Abbot of Cluny was the only true superior in the entire Order.