 So great, however, was the resistance, and so serious the disturbances that ensued, that the attempt to reform Cîteaux itself and the general body of the houses had again to be abandoned, and only local projects of reform could be carried out.The Protestant Reformation, the ecclesiastical policy of Joseph II, the French Revolution, and the revolutions of the 18th century almost wholly destroyed the Cistercians.But some survived, and since the beginning of the last half of the 19th century there has been a considerable recovery.