BREME, ABBEY OF ST PETER OF. — Founded in 929 in the town of the same name (Bremetum, Bremitum or Bremidum) in the Lomellina (now in the diocese of Vigevano) by Margrave Adalbert, father of King Berengar II, to receive the dispersed monks of Novalesa (q.v.), which had been destroyed by the Saracens.
The abbey of B. soon rose to great prestige and power, so much so that in the 12th century it possessed churches and lands in the dioceses of Pavia, Vercelli, Asti, Ventimiglia, Turin, Geneva, Vienne, Embrun, Milan and Grenoble, as is evident from the bull of Eugenius III dated 9 February 1152. The rich possessions of the abbey soon became the object of covetousness by certain noble families, which, aggravated by the system of commendation, led it slowly, especially between the 14th and 15th centuries, to material and moral ruin, completed by the sackings and violence perpetrated during the struggle between France and Spain (early 16th century). On 23 June 1543 the abbey of B. was in fact united to the Olivetan monastery of St Bartholomew in Strada in Pavia; some time later it recovered its independence, but was definitively suppressed in 1785. Its last monks took refuge in the abbey of St Mary of Graces in Novara. Its rich archives shared the fate of the abbey’s fortunes; the few documents relating to it, scattered hither and thither, have recently been collected and published by L. C. Bollea.
The abbey of B. acquired all the rights of Novalesa, which became one of its priories after restoration work carried out under Abbot Gezone of Breme (c. 980–1002). From the beginning of the 13th century this priory began to work towards independence from the abbey of B.; this attempt was then politically favoured by the counts of Savoy, so that in 1601 it again received the title of abbey.
In the abbey of B. c. 1050 the *Chronicon Novaliciense* was composed, as L. C. Bollea has conclusively demonstrated (pp. 98–102) against its last editor, C. Cipolla (*Monumenta Novalicensia vetustiora*, II [Fonti per la Storia d’Italia, 32], Rome 1901).
The abbot of Breme, Pellegrino, composed between 955 and 972 the hymn *Omnipotentis Dei et Genitoris*, sung in all the dependent priories of B. on the feast of the Assumption (cf. *Chronicon Nov.*, V, 6).