How we have just seen it Louis XI instituted the order of the Knights of the Mount Saint Michael! This very pious king went four times to the Mount. At the time of its last passage, it asked the installation of the iron cage. The Mount Saint Michael Mount becomes thus a prison. From 1523, the monks do not elect any more their chief. It is the king in person who designates the new abbot: that is called the commende. Generally, this abbot is not an ecclesiastic, and it is often made name to benefit from the incomes of the abbey. The monks, starting from this date do not find any more a motivation in their spiritual life and although the pilgrims are always also numerous they forsake the abbey. The monks who were to sixty pennies the prélature of Robert de Thorigny are nothing any more but thirteen in 1580. In 1591, the alarming threat of the war of religion approaches the Mount Saint Michael Mount. The Protestants want to take the abbey. Under the orders of Montgomery, a group of men approaches night, to the foot of the abbey. There, thinking of obtaining the assistance of an enemy soldier bought a few days before, they wait until this one hoist them inside the building. And, in fact, the Protestants find themselves soon with more than eighty in the monastery. Montgomery, astonished not to hear any noise of battle inside request to the one of its more faithful soldiers to go up. Arrived in the storeroom, not seeing any as of his, it includes/understands the stratagem and howls to warn its chief “Treason, Trahison!” Hearing that the Protestants fled leaving behind them ninety eights as of theirs.

In 1594, the lightning falls again on the bell-tower from the abbey. The arrow is completely destroyed and part of the frame of the church is reduced in ashes. The abbot refuses to make undertake repairs, they are only fifteen years later that bell-tower is rebuilt. The abbots who ignore their abbey, the pilgrims who come fewer, and the lassitude of the monks are the causes of a great upheaval to the Mount. In 1622, the monks are replaced by nine Bénédictins monks of the Congregation of Saint-Maur (of Mauristes). These monks, are extremely cultivated. Wishing to make divide to know to them, they open a school where ten pupils follow courses. Unfortunately Mauristes are poor builders. Instead of repairing the three spans of the nave of the church which threatened to break down, they demolish them. In the place of the left hole they build a frontage of a rather ugly style.

The dash brought by Mauristes will be of short duration because the system of the commende ruin the abbey. The incomes of the monastery break down and the monks are involved in debt. The precariousness of the abbey is large, the Revolution completes its ruin. In 1790, the monks are driven out abbey. All the goods are sold in 1792. With the Revolution, the Mount Saint Michael Mount becomes a true prison. From 1792, three hundred priests are locked up in the walls of the abbey. They will be released in 1799. Their continuations will be interned convicts. All the rooms of the abbey are transformed into workshops. The prisoners will be up to seven hundreds to work in these parts, also to increase surface usable, a floor separates the abbey church. The prison authorities completely forsake the maintenance of the buildings and in 1817, the old hotel trade, built during the reign of Robert de Thorigny, breaks down.

In 1834, a fire is declared in the abbey church transformed into workshop with hats. The roof is destroyed and the repair work is too modest compared to the width of the damage. Each day the abbey is made ugly a little more. Fortunately famous men, mainly of the writers (Hugo, Flaubert…), afflicted by such a disaster, make pressure on the government. Lastly, in 1863 the prison is to remove. The abbey is rented with the bishop of Coutances. Monks live the abbey again. The pilgrims return to animate the Mount Saint Michael Mount. The hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops again open their doors with increasingly many visitors.

The abbey which threatens ruin of any share is classified with the register of the historic buildings in 1874. The monks are again expelled, but this time for a cause right. The architect Edouard Corroyer is named to undertake work of restoration. It is its maidservant Annette Poulard who is at the origin of the famous omelette always very appraisal today. Work of restorations gives to the Mount Saint Michael Mount its current appearance when in 1898 the arrow is completed. At the time of the celebration of the millenium of the Mount in 1966, monks formed a small community. Installed in the home abbey, they remain since at the year on the small island. The city as for it accomodates a constant flood visitors, 3 million per annum, and it is also a little thanks to that that the Mount Saint Michael Mount is today what it is.