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Synopsis
Towards the end of the ninth century,
monastic life had sunk very low in France, partly because the monasteries had
grown wealthy and were badly governed, and partly on account of the uncertainty
which prevailed in all public life. Duke William of Aquitania, called the
Pious, thought to save monasticism by reforming it. In 910 he founded a new
monastery at Clugny, Cluniacum in Burgundy, endowed it well, and placed at its
head Berno, a descendant of the ruling family of Burgundy, and Abbot of Beaume
in the diocese of Dijon. Berno enforced the strictest observance of the rules
of St. Benedict; and this severity struck a rich
vein of sympathy in the time. The monastery immediately filled up with monks.
Under his successor Odo (927-941) seventeen other monasteries joined the
congregation of Clugny; and the success of the establishment continued
increasing under Aymardus (941-948), Mayolus (948-994), and Odilo (994-1048).
Clugny became the reformer, not only of the order of St. Benedict, but of monastic life in general. Its
rules, Consuetudines Cluniacenses, first collected in the beginning of
the eleventh century by the monk Bernard (HERRGOTT: Vetus Disciplina Monastica, Paris, 1726), then in 1070 by the monk Ulric
(D’ACHERY: Spicilegium, T. I.), and finally by Petrus Venerabilis (Biblioth. Cluniacen., p.
1353), were generally adopted; while the popes vied with each other in
conferring new privileges on the establishment. Its abbots bore the title of archiabbates. Alexander II. decreed that no bishop or other prelate
could lay the ban upon the place. Urban II. gave the abbot episcopal emblems,
and exempted the monastery and its estates from the jurisdiction of the Bishop
of Mâcon. Towards the end of the eleventh century three popes —
Gregory VII., Urban II., and Paschalis II. — issued from the congregation.
The monastery itself was the largest in Christendom. In 1245 it received at one
time Pope Innocent IV. and the French king, with their whole retinue. Its
church was one of the most magnificent built during the middle ages, ornamented
with wall and glass pictures, and embroidered tapestries, and stocked with
furniture of gold and bronze.
In the beginning of the twelfth century the
discipline slackened; and the establishment was impoverished during the
incompetent rule of Pontius. He finally abdicated, and went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; but on his return
he fell upon the monastery, and sacked it. Under Petrus Venerabilis it rose again. The number of monks
increased from two hundred to four hundred and sixty; and three hundred and
fourteen abbeys belonged to the congregation; but the improvement was only
temporary. The further history of Clugny is a steady decline. The abbot lost
his power. In order to defend itself against the counts of Châlons,
Clugny invoked the protection of the French king, and the monastery - was
surrounded with walls, and transformed into a fortress. Both the popes and the
French kings interfered in the election of abbots. In the beginning of the
sixteenth century the office became a commendam in the House of Guise. In 1744
a royal ordinance placed the establishment under the jurisdiction of the Bishop
of Mâcon. The internal decay, however, was still worse. In vain Abbot Yvo
of Vergy (1269) founded the College de Clugny at Paris in order to encourage
studies and literary pursuits among the monks. In vain several abbots tried to
introduce reforms, or at least to better the discipline. The whole result was a
split in the order between the old Cluniacenses and the Reformates, which gave
rise to much haggling, and even scandal. The whole organization was in a state
of dissolution when the Constituent Assembly (1790) confiscated the property,
and sold the church and the buildings to the city. The church was broken down.
The last abbot, Cardinal Dominique de la Rochefoucauld, whose rare visits to
Clugny had been marked by drinking-bouts arid lascivious festivities, died in
1800.
C. Schmidt, "Clugny," Philip
Schaff, ed., A Religious Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of Biblical,
Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology, 3rd edn, Vol. 1. Toronto,
New York & London: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1894. pp. 501-502
 |
George Floyd
Duckett, Charters and Records among the Archives of the Ancient Abbey at
Cluni, 2 Vols. Lewes: Printed for subscribers [by] H. Wolff,
1888. |
|
Giles
Constable, Cluniac Studies. London: Variorum Reprints, 1980. Hbk. ISBN:
0860780546. pp.350. |
|
Herbert
E.J. Cowdrey, The Cluniacs and the Gregorian Reform. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1970. Hbk. ISBN: 0198264291. pp.289. |
|
Joan
Evans, The Romanesque Architecture of the Order of Cluny. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1972. Hbk. ISBN: 0576151289 . pp.296. |
|
Joan
Evans, Monastic Life at Cluny, 910-1157. Shoe String Press, US, 1983.
Hbk. ISBN: 0208003657. |
|
Noreen
Hunt, ed. Cluniac Monasticism in the Central Middle Ages. Readings in
European History. London: Shoe String Press, 1971. ISBN: 0208012478. |
|
Lucy M. Smith, Cluny in
the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. London: Philip Allan, 1930. pp. xxviii
+ 348. |
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