It was founded by Saint Norbert in 1120 on waste land that had previously belonged to the Abbey of St. Vincent, to whom it had been given by a former Bishop of Laon; the monks of St. Vincent's had tried in vain to cultivate it. As shown in the charter of donation the place was called "Præmonstratus", or "pratum monstratum" ("Pré-montré" or Prémontré), probably from a clearing made in the forest. The name, however, easily lent itself to the adapted meaning of "locus praemonstratus", "a place foreshown", as for example in the life of Godfrey of Cappenberg, one of Norbert's first disciples (1127):