By the end of the 12th century, again in imitation of Cîteaux, Cluniac monasteries
were for the first time being organized into a true order, with institutionalized relations
among the houses that followed Cluny’s interpretation of Benedictine monasticism. This
organization took its final form in 1231, and chapters-general and organized regional
leadership took the place of the personal relations between Cluny’s abbot and the
monasteries affiliated with Cluny. During the 14th and 15th centuries, economic
difficulties multiplied, and a number of powerful men with no interest in furthering the
monastic life took the post of abbot.
Constance B.Bouchard
[See also: BENEDICT, RULE OF ST.; CISTERCIAN ORDER; CLUNY; HUGUES
DE CLUNY; MONASTICISM; ODILO; ODO; PETER THE VENERABLE]
Bernard, Auguste, and Alexandre Bruel, eds. Recueil des chartes de l’abbaye de Cluny. 6 vols.
Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1876–1903.
Hallinger, Kassius, ed. Consuetudines Cluniacensium antiquiores cum redactionibus derivatis.
Sieburg: Schmitt, 1983.
Maurier, Martin and André Duchesne, eds. Bibliotheca Clunia-censis. Mâcon: Protat, 1915.
Peter the Venerable. The Letters of Peter the Venerable, ed. Giles Constable. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1967.
Bouchard, Constance B. “Merovingian, Carolingian and Cluniac Monasticism: Reform and
Renewal in Burgundy.” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 41(1990):365–88.
Constable, Giles. “Cluniac Administration and Administrators in the 12th Century.” In Order and
Innovation in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honor of Joseph R.Strayer, ed. William C. Jordan,
Bruce McNab, and Teofilo F.Ruiz. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976, pp. 17–30.
Hunt, Noreen. Cluny Under Saint Hugh, 1049–1109. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press,
1968.
Rosenwein, Barbara H. Rhinoceros Bound: Cluny in the 10th Century. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
——. To Be the Neighbor of Saint Peter: The Social Meaning of Cluny’s Property, 909–1949.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989.
CLUNY
. Though the great monastery of Cluny (Saône-etLoire) is in ruins today, it is important
historically for the tremendous influence it had as both a political and an economic
center. Kenneth John Conant dedicated his life to the study of the site, and it is through
his reconstructions that one can understand the monastic complex as it once was.
The community was founded in 909 by Duke William I the Pious of Aquitaine and his
wife, with Berno (r. 910–27), abbot of nearby Baume, as the first abbot. Berno
constructed the first church on the site, Cluny I (915–27). No archaeological remains
indicate the structure of this original church. Berno’s successor, St. Odo (r. 927–42),
obtained papal privilege to bring other monasteries under the authority of Cluny. The
expansion of the order under Odo necessitated the need for a larger church. In 955,
construction of Cluny II was begun (dedicated 981, completed ca. 1040). The church had
a seven-bay nave, side aisles, and a narthex. It was crossed by a long and narrow transept
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