o The size of monastic houses also led to the specialization of
activities, so that the delicate balance between work and prayer
stressed by the Rule of Benedict could be lost. And the more
monks were separated from the realities of hard manual labor,
the more their existence could be seen—by others, as well as
themselves—as privileged.o An unintended corollary of community size and noble
patronage was a growth in material prosperity, which led to the
paradox of “poor” monks who “called nothing their own” living
in grand buildings with
splendid ornament.The Abbey of Cluny
• The founding of the Abbey
of Cluny in Burgundy in the
year 910 by William I, duke
of Aquitaine, began a two-
century period of influence
for that monastery.
• Cluny deliberately set out to
initiate a reform movement,
and it was, consequently,
innovative in its approach
to the Rule of Benedict.
Duke William served as
a generous patron to the
monastery. This patronage
liberated its first abbot, Benno, from any allegiance to secular
powers and enabled him to establish a direct allegiance to Pope
Sergius III.• Cluny served as the “mother house” of an extended organization
of monasteries and nunneries subordinate to it, with only Cluny
having an abbot. The purpose of this centralization was to ensure a
uniform and strict observance of the Rule in all the houses. It alsoCluny served as the “mother house”
of a congregation of monasteries
and nunneries that were subordinate
to it; under abbot Hugh between
1049 and 1109, more than 1,000
Benedictine houses belonged to the
Cluniac order.© iStockphoto/Thinkstock.