Guéranger then left Tours and moved to Le Mans, where he began to publish various historical works on the liturgy, such as "De la prière pour le Roi" (October 1830) and "De l'élection et de la nomination des évêques" (1831), their subject being inspired by the political and religious situation of the day. Denouncing what he saw as anti-liturgical tendencies in the French Church of his day, his writings drew the praise of the clergy but also the opposition of a vocal faction among the French bishops. In 1831 the derelict Priory of Solesmes, which was about an hour's journey from Sablé, was put up for sale and Guéranger now saw a means of realizing his desire to re-establish, in this monastery, monastic life under the Rule of St. Benedict. His decision was made in June 1831, and in December 1832, thanks to private donations, the monastery became his property. The Bishop of Le Mans now sanctioned the Constitutions by which the new society was to be organized and fitted subsequently to enter the Benedictine Order. On 11 July 1833, five priests came together in the restored priory at Solesmes, and on 15 August 1836 publicly declared their intention of consecrating their lives to the re-establishment of the Order of St. Benedict. In a brief issued on 1 September 1837, Pope Gregory XVI, himself a Benedictine, raised the rank of the former Priory of Solesmes to that of an abbey, and constituted it the head of the French Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict. Guéranger was appointed the Abbot of Solesmes (on 31 October) and Superior General of the congregation. Those members of the little community he had formed who had received the monastic habit on 15 August 1836, made their solemn profession under the direction of the new abbot, who had pronounced his own vows at Rome on 26 July 1837. From then on, Guéranger's life was given up to developing the young monastic community, to procuring for it the necessary material and resources, and to inspiring it with an absolute devotion to the Church and the Pope. Amongst those who came to Solesmes, either to follow the monastic life or to seek self-improvement by means of retreats, Dom Guéranger found many collaborators and valuable steadfast friends. Dom Pitra, afterwards Cardinal, renewed the great literary traditions of the Benedictines of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; Bishops Pie of Poitiers and Berthaud of Tulle, Père Lacordaire, the Count de Montalembert and Louis Veuillot, were all interested in the abbot's projects and even shared his labours.