Lecture 29: monastic Reform
encouraged a sense of belonging to a broader reform movement
(“the Cluniac Reform”).• Another innovation, this one perhaps more problematic, was that
Cluny effectively dropped the manual labor side of the Rule’s motto
of labora—such menial work was assigned to “lay brothers”—in
favor of a complete concentration on prayer, above all, in the divine
office (the opus Dei) and the Mass (Eucharist).
o The monastery thus became involved in making petitions and
saying intercessory prayers for the monks themselves and for
others, who made donations to the monks so that such prayers
might be said.o Significant patronage from those seeking supernatural
help enabled the construction of grand buildings at Cluny
and the making of fine altar vessels and vestments for
liturgical practice.o The “work” component of the Rule for choir monks was
expressed not by plowing in the fields but in intellectual labor:
The library and scriptorium were sites for study, teaching,
and the copying of manuscripts. Out of such labor arose the
distinctive monastic culture that has been called by Jean
LeClercq, “the love of learning and the desire for God.”• Almost inevitably in such circumstances, however, wealth and
power had their own corrupting effect on the rigor of monastic life.
o The magnificent clothing and vessels adorned not only the altar
but also the abbot’s table; the food was not only good but, often
enough, a pretentious display. Worldliness—at least at the
level of those members of the nobility who served as abbots—
crept into meals that Benedict had conceived as simple
and unadorned.o The entry of the nobility into the monastery and their inevitable
ascent to power led, in turn, to the almost inevitable election
of abbots of Cluny as bishops, thus extending even further the