§ 84. The Convent of Cluny.
Marrier and Duchesne: Bibliotheca Cluniacensis. Paris 1614 fol. Holsten.: Cod. Regul. Mon. II.
- Lorain: Essay historique sur l’ abbaye de Cluny. Dijon 1839. Neander III. 417 sqq. 444
sq. Friedr. Hurter (Prot, minister in Schaffhausen, afterwards R. Cath.): Gesch. Papst Innocenz
des Dritten (second ed. Hamb. 1844), vol. IV. pp. 22–55.
After the decay of monastic discipline during the ninth and tenth centuries, a reformation
proceeded from the convent of Cluny in Burgundy, and affected the whole church.^384
It was founded by the pious Duke William of Aquitania in 910, to the honor of St. Peter
and St. Paul, on the basis of the rule of St. Benedict.
Count Bruno (d. 927) was the first abbot, and introduced severe discipline. His successor
Odo (927–941), first a soldier, then a clergyman of learning, wisdom, and saintly character, became
a reformer of several Benedictine convents. Neander praises his enlightened views on Christian
life, and his superior estimate of the moral, as compared with the miraculous, power of Christianity.
Aymardus (Aymard, 941–948), who resigned when he became blind, Majolus (Maieul to 994),
who declined the papal crown, Odilo, surnamed "the Good" (to 1048), and Hugo (to 1109), continued
in the same spirit. The last two exerted great influence upon emperors and popes, and inspired the
reformation of the papacy and the church. It was at Cluny that Hildebrand advised Bishop Bruno
of Toul (Leo IX.), who had been elected pope by Henry III., to seek first a regular election by the
clergy in Rome; and thus foreshadowed his own future conflict with the imperial power. Odilo
introduced the Treuga Dei and the festival of All Souls. Hugo, Hildebrand’s friend, ruled sixty
years, and raised the convent to the summit of its fame.
Cluny was the centre (archimonasterium) of the reformed Benedictine convents, and its
head was the chief abbot (archiabbas). It gave to the church many eminent bishops and three popes
(Gregory VII., Urban II., and Pascal II.). In the time of its highest prosperity it ruled over two
thousand monastic establishments. The daily life was regulated in all its details; silence was imposed
for the greater part of the day, during which the monks communicated only by signs; strict obedience
ruled within; hospitality and benevolence were freely exercised to the poor and to strangers, who
usually exceeded the number of the monks. During a severe famine Odilo exhausted the magazines
of the convent, and even melted the sacred vessels, and sold the ornaments of the church and a
crown which Henry II. had sent him from Germany. The convent stood directly under the pope’s
jurisdiction, and was highly favored with donations and privileges.^385 The church connected with
it was the largest and richest in France (perhaps in all Europe), and admired for its twenty-five
altars, its bells, and its costly works of art. It was founded by Hugo, and consecrated seventy years
afterwards by Pope Innocent II. under the administration of Peter the Venerable (1131).
The example of Cluny gave rise to other monastic orders, as the Congregation of the
Vallombrosa (Vallis umbrosa), eighteen miles from Florence, founded by St. John Gualbert in
1038, and the Congregation of Hirsau in Württemberg, in 1069.
(^384) Cluny or Clugny (Cluniacum) is twelve miles northwest of Macon. The present town has about four thousand
inhabitants. Its chief interest consists in the remains of mediaeeval architecture.
(^385) The wealth of the abbey was proverbial. Hurter quotes from Lorain the saying in Burgundy:
"En tout pays ou le, rent vente,
L’ Abbaye de Cluny a rente."