The Order of Cluny (or Cluniac order) was a monastic order of the Catholic Church following the Rule of Saint Benedict. It was founded in the 10th century and suppressed at the end of the 18th century.
At the beginning of the 10th century, a desire to reform monasticism arose within the Catholic Church. This restoration was based on the Rule of Saint Benedict, which governed monastic life down to its smallest details. The rule, created by Saint Benedict of Nursia in the 6th century, underwent significant development, notably through the work of Benedict of Aniane three centuries later. Its application was nevertheless limited by the traditions that became established in the abbeys, as well as by ignorance of the rule itself. Cluny Abbey then rose to prominence, with the support of the papacy, the nobility and the Holy Roman Empire, gathering under its direction a growing number of priories and abbeys, thus becoming the centre of the most important monastic order of the Middle Ages, whose influence extended over much of Western Europe.
Cluny Abbey in the 10th century The foundation
The Order of Cluny was a very large Benedictine order. It was created by William I of Aquitaine, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Mâcon, by a deed drawn up at Bourges on 11 September 909 (or 910) donating the estate of Cluny "to the apostles Peter and Paul" — that is, to the Roman Church — in order to found there a monastery. The monastery was situated in the Mâconnais. Papal protection guaranteed its independence from local power, whether lay or episcopal, endowing it throughout the 10th century with privileges. In the abbey's foundation charter, it was thus decided that the abbot would be freely elected by the monks, an important point of the Benedictine rule. The charter violently condemned those who would transgress it.
The case of Cluny was not isolated. In this period, numerous estates were bequeathed to the papacy, such as Vézelay. The prestige of the 9th-century pontiffs was great. The reform they supported also found expression in the monastery of and Fleury-sur-Loire. In 914, the monastery of Brogne was founded and became an influential centre under its founder, Gerard. At Toul, Verdun and Metz, there was a desire to withdraw from the world.
William the Pious chose Abbot Berno, abbot of Baume and of in the Jura, a member of the family of the counts of Burgundy and an important figure of the reform. He died in 926, having also been entrusted with the priory of Souvigny from 921.
The first expansion of Cluny In 926, a few months before his death, Berno designated Odo to succeed him. He was a travelling companion of Berno, close to his predecessor's conceptions. He travelled from monastery to monastery to consolidate the Reform. In 931 he obtained the right to reform other abbeys, granted by Pope John XI. Some monasteries renounced the election of their own abbot and adopted the Cluniac model, but this was still rare. Cluny's influence grew, but there was as yet no organisation properly speaking. The monastery obtained the right to mint coinage, and schools were opened, as well as the library. By the time of Odo's death in 942, Cluny's influence had spread considerably.
Abbacy of Majolus of Cluny (954–994)
Aymard succeeded him and continued his work. But he went blind in 948 and consequently appointed a coadjutor, Majolus, who ultimately directed Cluny from 954 until 994. Majolus organised the reform with great piety and grandeur. Born into a great and wealthy family of lords of Valensole, he drew on his considerable experience of administration. He sought to strengthen the power of Cluny. The so-called "Cluniac" rule was adopted by other monasteries, which formed around Cluny a veritable "monastic empire" of autonomous priories subject to the common government of the abbot of Cluny. The weakening of the reform in Germany and Lorraine reinforced Cluny's place within monasticism. The order relied on the high aristocracy, the emperor, the king of Burgundy, the counts and the bishops. New Cluniac monasteries were founded, and others were converted by restoring discipline. The Order of Cluny was then present in the Jura, Dauphiné, Provence, the Rhône valley, southern Burgundy and the Bourbonnais. It comprised some thirty highly dynamic establishments.
Majolus was nicknamed "the arbiter of kings" for his relations with the aristocracy. His prestige was great, and he refused the papal office in 973. He was notably a friend of the future king of France Hugh Capet and had very strong ties with the Holy Roman Empire, which enabled Cluny's expansion eastward. His funeral was paid for by Hugh Capet; he was beatified shortly afterwards, then canonised.
A powerful order (11th century)
After the great expansion of the 10th century, the Order asserted its power between the 11th century and the first half of the 12th. It gained in organisation through the drafting of customs (), precise regulations that adapted the Rule of Saint Benedict to circumstances. These monasteries only truly formed an organisation at the end of the 12th century. It was in the 13th century, under the abbacy of Hugh V, that the order acquired a genuinely structured organisation. It is generally considered that the Order of Cluny numbered more than 1,000 establishments, great and small, in the second half of the 12th century.
Abbacy of Odilo of Mercœur (994–1048)
In 994, Odilo of Mercœur became abbot of Cluny and directed it for 55 years. Son of the lords of Mercœur, he was in contact with the most illustrious figures of his time. In 998 he obtained from Pope Gregory V independence from the bishopric of Mâcon, a right extended to all Cluniac abbeys in 1024 by Pope John XIX. These papal concessions gave birth to the (Cluniac church). Odilo seized the opportunities presented to the order in an era troubled by the collapse of Carolingian structures and the birth of feudal society. He no longer counted on the protection of the high aristocracy and came to terms with the lords, the rising force of the year one thousand. He sought to calm the violence of the age, supporting the Truce of God and Peace of God. He assisted the chivalry and offered to all the spiritual services of his monks, which favoured lineages. He developed the vocation (sometimes forced) of younger sons of great families. Cluny's policy of association and the creation of large establishments declined, and small convents developed. These were strictly controlled by Odilo, either directly or through the great abbeys. At Odilo's death, there were 70 convents, and Cluny had associated itself with powerful abbeys, which sometimes retained considerable autonomy.
From 1024, the monasteries attached to the mother abbey were themselves also exempted from diocesan authority; they thus depended only on Cluny and the pope.
Abbacy of Hugh of Semur (1049–1109) In 1049, Hugh of Semur became abbot. He continued Cluny's rise to power in the line of Odilo. He was a Burgundian, from Semur-en-Brionnais. He possessed great eloquence and a political sense in the image of his predecessor. He completed Cluny's integration into the newly born feudalism. Many more small convents were created. The hierarchical principle was somewhat relaxed around 1075, when Cluny accepted genuine abbeys into the order, so as to make room for the old system of Benedictine monasticism and not have to forgo integrating numerous establishments — such as Vézelay — ready to join the Order of Cluny in order to benefit from papal exemption, but unwilling to fall to the rank of a simple priory. During his abbacy, great abbeys were incorporated: Moissac (Tarn-et-Garonne), (Ariège), Figeac (Quercy) and Saint-Martin-des-Champs in Paris (1079). The order extended into Spain, Italy and England, numbering 10,000 monks. The first Cluniac house in England was Lewes Priory, founded c.1080.
In 1089, Hugh of Semur began the construction of the largest church in Christendom, Cluny III.
Through Abbot Hugh, the order played a role of the first importance in the Investiture Controversy that pitted the papacy against the Germanic Emperor.
Crisis and restoration (12th century)
The abbot's power contested In 1109, after the abbacy of Hugh II, which lasted only a few weeks, Pons of Melgueil was elected abbot (1109–1122). He was a southerner, a skilled negotiator, but intransigent. He played a very active role in the ending of the Investiture Controversy and continued the order's policy of grandeur, including the construction of Cluny III, a gigantic abbey church that swallowed up all donations, including a substantial one from Castile. It was doubtless the order's first financial difficulties that gave rise to opposition to the abbot, the reasons for which are still poorly understood. Criticism was voiced of a cooling of fervour, just as a new Benedictine monasticism emerged, that of Cîteaux, founded in 1098. Pons asked to meet Pope Callixtus II and resigned at the end of this interview, the content of which remains unknown. Abbacy of Peter the Venerable (1122–1156) Peter of Montboissier, better known as Peter the Venerable, replaced him in 1122. He was a cultivated and very skilful man. He had to face the unexpected return of Pons in 1126, after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Pons retook power at Cluny by using his influence and armed force. He was finally excommunicated, and Peter the Venerable regained control of the monastery. He restored peace and re-established discipline after the laxity that had set in. The finances were in a lamentable state after the violence: mercenaries had been hired with gold from the Treasury. Peter attempted to impose sound estate management, with the help of Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester, who brought his knowledge and his wealth from England. Traditions were restored, but the Order of Cluny seemed to sink into a slow decline after the death of Peter the Venerable in 1156, who was succeeded by Hugh III of Frazans, deposed in 1161.
Cluny's influence on the West (10th–13th centuries)
A monastic network in the service of the Gregorian Reform
In the 12th century, what is called the Order of Cluny — which was not strictly speaking a monastic order but an association of monasteries directed by one and the same abbot — included among its priories the "five daughters" of Cluny: the , the priory of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Souvigny, the , the priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs in Paris, and Saint Pancras Priory, Lewes, in England.
The various monasteries, spread across a large part of Western Europe, were grouped into ten provinces: Cluny, France (Paris basin), Auvergne, Bourbonnais, Gascony, Poitou, Provence, Lombardy, Germany, England and Spain. At its height, the number of Cluniac monks is estimated to have been between 9,000 and 12,000.
Directly subject to the Holy See, Cluny was in the 11th century the effective instrument of the success of the peace institutions and of the Gregorian Reform. Several popes and papal legates came from Cluny (including Gregory VII). The Cluniac network spread the principles of the reform against simony and Nicolaism, and intervened in the Investiture Controversy.
Cluniac ideology The "Cluniac ideology" appeared around the year one thousand. It took shape under the abbacy of Odilo and asserted itself under the abbacies of Hugh of Semur and Peter the Venerable, the latter rejecting the new monasticism. This ideology was characterised by a conception of monasticism resting on: prayer, reading, meditation on the sacred texts, liturgical chant, contrition and an asceticism that must not, however, impair the divine office — all accompanied by attachment to the pope.