CLUNY, ABBEY AND CONGREGATION OF.
Foundation, 910 (§ 1).
Odo, Second Abbot, 927-941 (§ 2).
Odilo, Fifth Abbot, 994-1049 (§ 3).
Reforming Influence (| 4).
Peter the Venerable, Abbot 1122-55 (§ 5).
DecHne (§ 6).
The abbey of Cluny was the seat, and its congregation the result of an early and far-reaching reform of the Benedictine order. At the beginning
RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Clermont Cluny
of the tenth century, after Frankish civilization and religious institutions had suffered from the incursions of the Normans and Saracens, a general movement of monastic reform began,
1. Founda- which is associated with the abbey of tion 910. Cluny in the diocese of Macon and the
present department of Saone-et-Loire. This was founded by Duke William the Pious of Aquitaine in 910, and Berno, a Burgundian of noble family, who had already distinguished himself by the reform of two other abbeys, was placed at its head. The act of foundation placed it under the special protection of the apostles Peter and Paul, and of the pope, which meant exemption from all other jurisdiction, temporal or spiritual. This relation, while it protected the abbey from the exactions and ambitions of local magnates, committed it to a constant interest in the development of the papal power.
The Benedictine rule formed the basis of the new institutions, with the addition of the capitularies of Aix-la-Chapelle of 817 and the reforms of Benedict of Aniane. Special stress was laid upon the renunciation of private property and the abstinence from the flesh of quadrupeds, and silence was enjoined. The recitation of the psalms and reading of Holy Scripture were enforced, and unconditional oljedience to the strict monarchical government
of the abbot required. On Berno's
2. Odo, Sec- death in 927 his disciple Odo sucond Abbot, ceeded him. The new abbot, a man
927-941. of singular spiritual and intellectual power, undertook a wide reform of monastic life, on the strength of a privilege of John XI. (931) which permitted him to assume the oversight of more than one monastery and to receive at Cluny monks from those houses which had not been reformed. He succeeded in bringing back a number to primitive strictness, though most of them remained independent of Cluny. With the support of Leo VIL and Alberic, the secular ruler of the city, he reformed several abbeys in Rome itself, as well as other Italian monasteries, including Subiaco and Monte Cassino. When he died in 941 at Tours the reform had spread throughout all France, and as far south as Palermo. His sermons and other writings with a life by an Italian monk are in MPL, cxxxiii.
Under Berno's successor Aymard there were 160 monks at Cluny, but as yet only five of the larger abbeys were directly under the jurisdiction of its abbot. Majolus, its next head, was highly esteemed and favored by the emperor, Otto I., who was credited with a design to place all the monasteries in his German and Italian dominions under Cluny. Majolus died in 994, and was succeeded by Odilo, a typical eleventh century abbot in
3- Odilo, his combination of rigorous asceticism Fifth Abbot, and mystical piety with wise and skil-
994-1049. ful management. Under him the reform spread into Spain, and through the influence of Cluny the native rule of Isidore was generally replaced by that of Benedict. From Odilo's time dates the definite beginning of a " congregation," the reformed or newly founded monasteries being placed in permanent dependence upon
the mother house. He had a great influence upon the youthful Otto III., though not equal to that of the Italian reformers, with whose work the French is now for the first time demonstrably connected (see Camaldolites). Poppo carried the movement into Germany, becoming abbot of Stablo in the diocese of Liege and of St. Maximin in that of Treves, and wielding a powerful influence under Henry II. and Conrad II., the latter of whom entrusted to him a number of great imperial abbeys, including St. Gall.
By degrees the reform movement widened to embrace social life outside the monastery walls. The efforts of Odilo to enforce the " Truce of God," a notable blessing to agriculture and commerce, are universally recognized as important. The reformers attacked the problems of
4. Reform- general church life, combating simony, ing Influ- clerical marriage, and the uncanonical
ence. marriages of the laity. A definite program, however, was first laid down by Abbo of Fleury and the reformers of Lorraine, in the full enforcement of the canon law. Henry III. found powerful support in the leaders of the movement, especially Odilo and Petrus Damianus, for his efforts to improve the condition of the Church; and when the papacy, now raised from its degradation, took the lead in the general effort for betterment, it found its main allies in the monks of Cluny. They were not, however, at first decidedly on the side of the pope as against the emperor, and in the conflict between Henry IV and Gregory VII. the successor of Odilo, Hugo I. (1049-1109), remained practically neutral. His influence was especially great under Urban II., the first Cluniac pope. In 1089 he began the building of the great basilica, the largest church in the world after St. Peter's at Rome. The first Cluniac house was established in England with the help of William the Conqueror, and, though there were not many direct colonies in Germany, the spirit of Cluny spread there through the cognate reforms of St. Blasien and at Hirschau.
The first symptoms of decline appeared under Abbot Pontius, who in 1114 mediated between Paschal II. and Henry V and four years later offered an asylum to Gelasius II. fleeing from the emperor, as Anselm of Canterbury had found one there in 1097. The deposition of Gelasius and the election of his successor Calixtus II. took place in the abbey. Under Ptter the Ven-
5. Peter the erable the Consuetudines Cluniacenses Venerable, were drawn up. In contrast with the
Abbot aristocratic constitution of the Cis- 1122-55. tercians, they emphasize the monarchical and centralized system of Cluny. Without the permission of its abbot no novice might be received into the congregation, and each must present himself at the mother house within three years from his reception for the abbot's benediction. Peter arrested the process of decline, and the congregation had 314 houses at his death. But the predominant position of Cluny began to be taken by the Premonstratensians, and then still more by the Cistercians. The declaration of Hugo III. for the imperial claimant of the papacy in
01un7 Cocceius