§ 63. THE MONKS OF CLUNY. 335
not without feeling over the memory of Pontius' action that Bernard wrote, comparing1 the simple life at Citeaux with the laxity and luxury prevailing at Cluny.
This tract, famous in the annals of monastic controversial literature, Bernard opened by condemning the lack of spirituality among his own brethren, the Cistercians. "How can we," he exclaims, " with our bellies full of beans and our minds full of pride, condemn those who are full of meat, as if it were not better to eat on occasion a little fat, than be gorged even to belching with windy vegetables! " He then passed to an arraignment of the Cluniacs for self-indulgence in diet, small talk, and jocularity. At meals, he said, dish was added to dish and eggs were served, cooked in many forms, and more than one kind of wine was drunk at a sitting. The monks preferred to look on marble rather than to read the Scriptures. Candelabra and altar cloths were elaborate. The art and architecture were excessive. The outward ornamentations were the proof of avarice and love of show, not of a contrite and penitent heart. He had seen one of them followed by a retinue of sixty horsemen and having none of the appearance of a pastor of souls. He charged them with taking gifts of castles, villas, peasants, and slaves, and holding them against just complainants.2 In spite of these sharp criticisms Peter remained on terms of intimacy with Bernard. He replied without recrimina tion, and called Bernard the shining pillar of the Church. A modification of the rule of St. Benedict, when it was prompted by love, he pronounced proper. But he and Bernard, he wrote, belonged to one Master, were the soldiers of one King, confessors of one faith. As different paths lead to the same land, so different customs and costumes, with one inspiring love, lead to the Jerusalem above,
1 Apologia ad Guillelmum. Migne, 182, 895-918.
2 To this charge Peter replied that such property was much better in the hands of the monks than of wild laymen.
336 THE MIDDLE AGES. A. I). 1049-1201.
the mother of us all. Cluniacs and Cistercians should ad monish one another if they discerned errors one in the other, for they were pursuing after one inheritance and following one command. He called upon himself and Bernard to remember the fine words of Augustine, "have charity, and then do what you will," habe charitatem et fac quicquid vis.1 What could be more admirable ? Where shall we go for a finer example of Christian polemics ?
After Peter's death the glory of Cluny declined.2 Six hundred years later, 1790, the order was dissolved by the French Government. The Hotel de Cluny, the Cluniac house in Paris, once occupied by the abbot, now serves as a museum of Mediaeval Art and Industry under the charge of the French government.3
The piety of Western Christendom owes a lasting debt to Cluny for the hymn "Jerusalem the Golden," taken from the de contemptu mundi written by Bernard of Cluny, a contem porary of Peter the Venerable and St. Bernard of Clairvaux.4
Jerusalem the Golden, With milk and honey blest, Beneath thy contemplation Sink heart and voice opprest. I know not, oh, I know not What social joys are there, What radiancy of glory, What light beyond compare.
*Ep., 1.28; Migne, 189, 156. A number of Peter's letters to Bernard are preserved, all of them laying stress upon the exercise of brotherly affec tion. In strange contrast to his usual gentleness, stands his sharp arraign ment of the Jews. See § 77 on Missions to the Jews.
2 The election of the abbot was taken out of the hands of the monks. Dar ing the Avignon captivity the popes, and later the French king, claimed the right to appoint that official. The Guises had the patronage of the abbey for nearly a hundred years. In 1627 Richelieu was appointed abbot.
3 The Hotel de Cluny was a stopping place for distinguished people. There Mary, sister of Henry VIII. of England, resided during her widowhood and there James V. of Scotland was married, 1537, to Madeleine, daughter of Francis I. The municipality of Cluny purchased the abbey buildings and in part dismantled them.
4 See Schaff, Christ in Sony, and Julian, Hymnoloyy.