 He is said to have remarked that he was more powerful in La Réole than the king of France (then Robert II), since nobody feared the power of the king.In fact, the Fleury mission was under the protection of Amalvi, viscount of Bézeaune.When Abbo was assassinated on 13 November 1004, according to the contemporary chronicler Adhemar of Chabannes, Bernard punished the assassins, "some he hanged, other he sent to the flames", and gave all the disputed monastic property and the monastic church of St Peter itself to the French monks from Fleury who had accompanied Abbo.