Cluny’s prestige was great because of the influence of its founders, the status of
Saint Peter, and the fame of the monastery’s elaborate round of prayers. The Cluniac
monks fulfilled the role of “those who pray” in dazzling manner. Through their
prayers, they seemed to guarantee the salvation of all Christians. Rulers, bishops, rich
landowners, and even serfs (if they could) gave Cluny donations of land, joining their
contributions to the land of Saint Peter. Powerful men and women called on the
Cluniac abbots to reform new monasteries along the Cluniac model.
The abbots of Cluny came to see themselves as reformers of the world as well as
the cloister. They believed in clerical celibacy, preaching against the prevailing norm
in which parish priests and even bishops were married. They also thought that the
laity could be reformed, become more virtuous, and cease its oppression of the poor.
In the eleventh century, the Cluniacs began to link their program to the papacy. When
they disputed with bishops or laypeople about lands and rights, they called on the
popes to help them out.
The popes were ready to do so. A parallel movement for reform had entered
papal circles via a small group of influential monks and clerics. Mining canon
(church) law for their ammunition, these churchmen emphasized two abuses:
nicolaitism (clerical marriage) and simony (buying church offices). Why were these
two singled out? Married clerics were considered less “pure” than those who were
celibate; furthermore, their heirs might claim church property. As for simony: the new
profit economy sensitized reformers to the crass commercial meanings of gifts; in
their eyes, gifts given or received by churchmen for their offices or clerical duties
were attempts to purchase the Holy Spirit.
Initially, the reformers got imperial backing. In the view of German king and
emperor Henry III (r.1039–1056), as the anointed of God he was responsible for the
well-being of the church in the empire. (For Henry and his dynasty, see Genealogy
5.3: The Salian Kings and Emperors.) Henry denounced simony and personally
refused to accept money or gifts when he appointed bishops to their posts. He
presided over the Synod of Sutri (1046), which deposed three papal rivals and
elected another. When that pope and his successor died, Henry appointed Bruno of
Toul, a member of the royal family, seasoned courtier, and reforming bishop. Taking
the name Leo IX (1049–1054), the new pope surprised his patron: he set out to
reform the church under papal, not imperial, control.
