Cluny Abbey

Cluny Abbey

Cluny Abbey in 2004
Location within France
Monastery information
Order	Benedictine
Established	910
Disestablished	1790
Dedicated to	Saint PeterandSaint Paul
Diocese	Autun
People
Founder(s)	William I, Duke of Aquitaine
Site
Location	Cluny,Saône-et-Loire,France
Coordinates	46°26′03″N4°39′33″E
Website	cluny-abbaye.fr

Cluny Abbey(French:[klyni];French:Abbaye de Cluny,formerly alsoCluniorClugny;Latin:Abbatia Cluniacensis) is a formerBenedictinemonastery inCluny,Saône-et-Loire,France. It was dedicated toSaints PeterandPaul.

The abbey was constructed in theRomanesque architectural style,with three churches built in succession from the 4th to the early 12th centuries. The earliestbasilicawas the world's largest church until theSt. Peter's Basilicaconstruction began in Rome.

Cluny was founded by DukeWilliam I of Aquitainein 910. He nominatedBernoas the firstabbotof Cluny, subject only toPope Sergius III.The abbey was notable for its stricter adherence to theRule of St. Benedict,whereby Cluny became acknowledged as the leader of westernmonasticism.In 1790 during theFrench Revolution,the abbey was sacked and mostly destroyed, with only a small part surviving.

Starting around 1334, theAbbots of Clunymaintained a townhouse in Paris known as theHôtel de Cluny,which has been a public museum since 1843. Apart from the name, and the building itself, it no longer possesses anything originally connected with Cluny.

Coat of Arms of Cluny Abbey: "Gules two keys insaltirethe wards upwards and outwards or overall a sword in pale argent ".

History

Foundation

In 910,William I, Duke of Aquitaine"the Pious", andCount of Auvergne,founded the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny on a modest scale, as themotherhouseof the Congregation of Cluny.The deed of gift includedvineyards,fields, meadows, woods, waters, mills, serfs, and lands both cultivated and uncultivated. Hospitality was to be given to the poor, strangers, and pilgrims.It was stipulated that the monastery would be free from local authorities, lay or ecclesiastical, and subject only to the Pope, with the proviso that even he could not seize the property, divide or give it to someone else or appoint an abbot without the consent of the monks. William placed Cluny under the protection of Saints Peter and Paul, with a curse on anyone who should violate the charter.With the Pope across the Alps in Italy, this meant the monastery was essentially independent.

In donating his hunting preserve in the forests ofBurgundy,William released Cluny Abbey from all future obligations to him and his family other than prayer. Contemporary patrons normally retained a proprietary interest and expected to install their kinsmen as abbots. William appears to have made this arrangement with Berno, the firstabbot,to free the new monastery from such secular entanglements and initiate theCluniac Reforms.The appropriate deeds made all assets of the added Abbey sacred, and to take them was to commit sacrilege. Soon, Cluny began to receive bequests from around Europe – from the Holy Roman Empire to the Spanish kingdoms from southern England to Italy. It became a powerful monastic congregation that owned and operated the network of monasteries and priories, under the authority of the central abbey at Cluny. It was a highly original and successful system, The Abbots of Cluny became leaders on the international stage and the monastery of Cluny was considered the grandest, most prestigious and best-endowed monastic institution in Europe. The height of Cluniac influence was from the second half of the 10th century through the early 12th. The first nuns were admitted to the Order during the 11th century.

Cluny and the Gregorian reforms

A plan of the Abbey.

Cluny III, reconstruction.

The reforms introduced at Cluny were in some measure traceable to the influence ofBenedict of Aniane,who had put forward his new ideas at the first great meeting of the abbots of the order held at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) in 817.Berno had adopted Benedict's interpretation of the Rule previously atBaume Abbey. Cluny was not known for the severity of its discipline or its asceticism, but the abbots of Cluny supported the revival of the papacy and thereformsofPope Gregory VII.The Cluniac establishment found itself closely identified with the Papacy. In the early 12th century, the order lost momentum under poor government. It was subsequently revitalized under AbbotPeter the Venerable(died 1156), who brought lax priories back into line and returned to stricter discipline. Cluny reached its apogee of power and influence under Peter, as its monks became bishops, legates, and cardinals throughout France and the Holy Roman Empire. But by the time Peter died, newer and more austere orders such as theCistercianswere generating the next wave of ecclesiastical reform. Outside monastic structures, the rise of English and Frenchnationalismcreated a climate unfavourable to the existence of monasteries autocratically ruled by a head residing in Burgundy. ThePapal Schismof 1378 to 1409 further divided loyalties: France recognizing a pope at Avignon and England one at Rome, interfered with the relations between Cluny and its dependent houses. Under the strain, some English houses, such asLenton Priory,Nottingham,were naturalized (Lentonin 1392) and no longer regarded as alien priories, weakening the Cluniac structure.

By the time of theFrench Revolution,revolutionary hatred of theCatholic Churchled to the suppression of the order in France in 1790 and the monastery at Cluny was almost totally demolished in 1810. Later, it was sold and used as a quarry until 1823. Today, little more than one of the original eight towers remains of the whole monastery.

Modern excavations of the Abbey began in 1927 under the direction ofKenneth John Conant,American architectural historian ofHarvard University,and continued (although not continuously) until 1950.

Organization

The Abbey of Cluny differed in three ways from other Benedictine houses and confederations:

• organisational structure;
• prohibition on holding land by feudal service; and
• emphasis on theliturgyas its main form of work.

Cluny developed a highly centralized form of government entirely foreign to Benedictine tradition.While most Benedictine monasteries remained autonomous and associated with each other only informally, Cluny created a large, federated order in which the administrators of subsidiary houses served as deputies of the Abbot of Cluny and answered to him. The Cluniac houses, being directly under the supervision of the Abbot of Cluny, the head of the Order, were styledpriories,not abbeys. The priors, or chiefs of priories, met at Cluny once a year to deal with administrative issues and to make reports. Many other Benedictine monasteries, even those of earlier formation, came to regard Cluny as their guide. When in 1016Pope Benedict VIIIdecreed that the privileges of Cluny be extended to subordinate houses, there was further incentive for Benedictine communities to join the Cluniac Order.

Partly due to the Order's opulence, the Cluniac monasteries of nuns were not seen as being particularly cost-effective. The Order did not have an interest in founding many new houses for women, so their presence was always limited.

The customs of Cluny represented a shift from the earlier ideal of a Benedictine monastery as an agriculturally self-sufficient unit. This was similar to the contemporaryvillaof the more Romanized parts of Europe and themanorof the more feudal parts, in which each member did physical labor as well as offering prayer. In 817 StBenedict of Aniane,the "second Benedict", developed monastic constitutions at the urging ofLouis the Piousto govern all the Carolingian monasteries. He acknowledged that the Black Monks no longer supported themselves by physical labor. Cluny's agreement to offer perpetual prayer (laus perennis,literally "perpetual praise" ) meant that it had increased a specialization in roles.

As perhaps the wealthiest monastic house of the Western world, Cluny hired managers and workers to do the traditional labour of monks. The Cluniac monks devoted themselves to almost constant prayer, thus elevating their position into a profession. Despite the monastic ideal of a frugal life, Cluny Abbey commissioned candelabras of solid silver and goldchalicesmade with precious gems for use at the abbey Masses. Instead of being limited to the traditional fare of broth and porridge, the monks ate very well, enjoying roasted chickens (a luxury in France then), wines from their vineyards and cheeses made by their employees. The monks wore the finest linenreligious habitsand silkvestmentsat Mass. Artifacts exemplifying the wealth of Cluny Abbey are today on display at theMusée de Clunyin Paris.

Cluniac prayer

O God, by whose grace thy servants, the HolyAbbots of Cluny,enkindled with the fire of thy love, became burning and shining lights in thy Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and may ever walk before thee as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth, one God, now and forever.

Cluniac houses in Britain

Main article:Cluniac priories in Britain

All but one of the English and Scottish Cluniac houses which were larger than cells were known aspriories,symbolising their subordination to Cluny. The exception was the priory atPaisleywhich was raised to the status of an abbey in 1245 answerable only to the Pope. Cluny's influence spread into the British Isles in the 11th century, first atLewes,and then elsewhere. The head of their order was the Abbot at Cluny. All English and Scottish Cluniacs were bound to cross to France to Cluny to consult or be consulted unless the abbot chose to come to Britain, which occurred five times in the 13th century and only twice in the 14th.

Arts

At Cluny, the central activity was the liturgy; it was extensive and beautifully presented in inspiring surroundings, reflecting the new personally-felt wave of piety of the 11th century. Monastic intercession was believed indispensable to achieving a state of grace, and lay rulers competed to be remembered in Cluny's endless prayers; this inspired the endowments in land and benefices that made other arts possible.

Model of Cluny III

Model of Cluny III-white sections still survive

The fast-growing community at Cluny required buildings on a large scale. The examples at Cluny profoundly affected architectural practice in Western Europe from the tenth through the twelfth centuries. The three successive churches are conventionally called Cluny I, II and III. The construction of Cluny II, ca. 955–981, begun after the destructiveHungarianraids of 953, led the tendency for Burgundian churches to be stone-vaulted.

Cluny III

In 1088, the abbotHugh of Semur(1024 – 1109, abbot since 1049) started the construction of the third and final church at Cluny, which was to become the largest church building in Europe and remained so until the 16th century, when in Rome thePaleochristian St. Peter's Basilicawas replaced by thepresent church.Hézelon de Liègewas called to act as architect for the new church in 1088.

The building campaign was financed by the annualcensusestablished byFerdinand I of León,ruler of a united León-Castile, some time between 1053 and 1065. (Alfonso VIre-established it in 1077, and confirmed it in 1090.) Ferdinand fixed the sum at 1,000goldenaurei,an amount which Alfonso VI doubled in 1090. This was the biggestannuitythat the Order ever received from king or layman, and it was never surpassed. Henry I of England's annual grant from 1131 of 100marksofsilver,not gold, seemed little by comparison. The Alfonsine census enabled Abbot Hugh (who died in 1109) to undertake construction of the huge third abbey church. When payments in aurei later lapsed, the Cluniac order suffered a financial crisis that crippled them during the abbacies ofPons of Melgueil(1109–1125) andPeter the Venerable(1122–1156). The Spanish wealth donated to Cluny publicized the rise of the Spanish Christians, and drew central Spain for the first time into the larger European orbit.

Library

The Cluny library was one of the richest and most important in France and Europe. It was a storehouse of numerous very valuable manuscripts. During the religious conflicts of 1562, theHuguenotssacked the abbey, destroying or dispersing many of the manuscripts. Of those that were left, some were burned in 1790 by a rioting mob during theFrench Revolution.Others still were stored away in the Cluny town hall.

The French Government worked to relocate such treasures, including those that ended up in private hands. They are now held by theBibliothèque nationale de Franceat Paris. TheBritish Museumholds some sixty or so charters originating from Cluny.

Burials

• Herman I, Margrave of Baden
• Philip I, Duke of Burgundy
• Pope Gelasius II

Cluny's influence

TheConsecrationof Cluny III byPope Urban II,12th century (Bibliothèque Nationale de France).

The abbey at Cluny was themotherhouseof the Congregation of Cluny.

In the fragmented and localized Europe of the 10th and 11th centuries, the Cluniac network extended its reforming influence far. Free of lay and episcopal interference, and responsible only to the papacy (which was in a state of weakness and disorder, with rival popes supported by competing nobles), Cluny was seen to have revitalized the Norman church, reorganized the royal French monastery atFleuryand inspired StDunstanin England. There were no official English Cluniac priories until that ofLewesin Sussex, founded by the Anglo-Norman earlWilliam de Warennec1077. The best-preserved Cluniac houses in England areCastle Acre Priory,Norfolk, andWenlock Priory,Shropshire. It is thought that there were only three Cluniac nunneries in England, one of them beingDelapré AbbeyatNorthampton.

Until the reign ofHenry VI,all Cluniac houses in England were French, governed by French priors and directly controlled from Cluny. Henry's act of raising the English priories to independent abbeys was a political gesture, a mark of England's nascent national consciousness.

The early Cluniac establishments had offered refuges from a disordered world but by the late 11th century, Cluniac piety permeated society. This is the period that achieved the final Christianization of the heartland of Europe. By the twelfth century there were 314 monasteries across Europe paying allegiance to Cluny.

Pope Callixtus IIwas elected at thepapal election, 1119at Cluny.

Well-born and educated Cluniac priors worked eagerly with local royal and aristocratic patrons of their houses, filled responsible positions in their chanceries and were appointed to bishoprics. Cluny spread the custom of veneration of the king as patron and support of the Church, and in turn the conduct of 11th-century kings, and their spiritual outlook, appeared to undergo a change. In England,Edward the Confessorwas later canonized. In Germany, the penetration of Cluniac ideals was effected in concert withHenry IIIof the Salian dynasty, who had married a daughter of the duke of Aquitaine. Henry was infused with a sense of his sacramental role as a delegate of Christ in the temporal sphere. He had a spiritual and intellectual grounding for his leadership of the German church, which culminated in the pontificate of his kinsman,Pope Leo IX.The new pious outlook of lay leaders enabled the enforcement of theTruce of Godmovement to curb aristocratic violence.

Within his order, the Abbot of Cluny was free to assign any monk to any house; he created a fluid structurearound a central authority that was to become a feature of the royal chanceries of England and of France, and of the bureaucracy of the great independent dukes, such as that of Burgundy. Cluny's highly centralized hierarchy was a training ground for Catholic prelates: four monks of Cluny becamepopes:Gregory VII,Urban II,Paschal IIandUrban V.

An orderly succession of able and educated abbots, drawn from the highest aristocratic circles, led Cluny, and the first six abbots of Cluny were all canonized:

1. St.Berno of Cluny(died 927)
2. St.Odo of Cluny(died 942)
3. St.Aymard of Cluny(died 965)
4. St.Majolus of Cluny(died 994)
5. St.Odilo(died 1049)
6. St.Hugh of Cluny(died 1109)

Odilo continued to reform other monasteries, but as Abbot of Cluny, he also exercised tighter control of the order's far-flung priories.

Decline and destruction of the buildings

Starting from the 12th century, Cluny had serious financial problems mainly because of the cost of building the third abbey (Cluny III). Charity given to the poor also increased the expenditure. As other religious orders such as theCisterciansin the 12th and then theMendicantsin the 13th century arose within the Western Christian church, the competition gradually weakened the status and influence of the abbey. Furthermore, poor management of the abbey's estates and the unwillingness of its subsidiary priories to pay their share of the annual taxable quotas annually reduced Cluny's total revenues.

In response to these issues, Cluny raised loans against its assets but this saddled the religious order with debt. Throughout thelate Middle Ages,conflicts with its priories increased. This waning influence was shadowed by the increasing power of thePopewithin the Catholic Church. By the start of the 14th century, the pope was frequently naming the abbots of Cluny.

Although the monks – who never numbered more than 60 – lived in relative luxury during this period, the political and religious wars of the 16th century further weakened the abbey's status in Christendom.For instance with theConcordat of Bolognain 1516 overseen byAntoine Duprat,Francis I,the king of France, gained the power to appoint the abbot of Cluny fromPope Leo X.

Over the next 250 years, the abbey never regained its power or position within European Christianity. Seen as an example of the excesses of theAncien Régime,the monastic buildings and most of the church were destroyed in theFrench Revolution.Its extensive library and archives were burned in 1793 and the church was given up to plundering. The abbey's estate was sold in 1798 for 2,140,000 francs. Over the next twenty years the Abbey's immense walls were quarried for stone that was used in rebuilding the town.

A view of the surviving remnants of the abbey

Although it was the largest church in Christendom until the completion of Rome'sSt. Peter's Basilicain the early 17th century, little remains of the original buildings. In total the surviving parts amount to about 10% of the original floor space of Cluny III. These include the southern transept and its bell-tower, and the lower parts of the two west front towers. In 1928, the site was excavated by the American archaeologistKenneth J. Conantwith the backing of theMedieval Academy of America.Ruined bases of columns convey the size of the former church and monastery.

Since 1901 it has been a center of theÉcole nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers(ENSAM), an elite school of engineering.

See also

• Bible de Souvigny
• Abbot of Cluny
• Basilica of Paray-le-Monial
• Berno of Cluny
• Le jongleur de Notre-Dame
• History of medieval Arabic and Western European domes

Further reading

• Bainton, Roland H. (1962).The Medieval Church.Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company Inc.
• Bishko, Charles Julian.Spanish and Portuguese Monastic History 600–1300,VIII. "Liturgical Intercession at Cluny For the King-Emperors of Leon":Bernard'sConsuetudinesin historical context.
• Bouchard, Constance Brittain. (2009)Sword, Miter, and Cloister: Nobility and the church in Burgundy, 980–1198(Cornell UP)
• Boucheron, Patrick, et al., eds. (2019)France in the World: A New Global History(2019) pp 120–125.
• Conant, Kenneth J. (1975) "Cluny Studies, 1968–1975."Speculum50.3 (1975): 383–390.
• Conant, Kenneth John. (1970) "Mediaeval Academy Excavations at Cluny, X."Speculum45.1 (1970): 1–35.
• Cowdrey, H. E. J.(1970).The Cluniacs and the Gregorian Reform.
• Evans, Joan (1968).Monastic Life at Cluny 910–1157.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Lawrence, C. H. (2015).Medieval Monasticism.4th ed.
• Marquardt, Janet T. (2007).From Martyr to Monument: The Abbey of Cluny as Cultural Patrimony.
• Mullins, Edwin(2006).In Search of Cluny: God's Lost Empire.
• Melville, Gert (2016).The World of Medieval Monasticism: Its History and Forms of Life(Liturgical Press)
• Rosenwein, Barbara H. (1982).Rhinoceros Bound: Cluny in the 10th Century.

External links

• ICOMOS, Monumentum, Vol. 7, 1971, K. J. Conant,The history of Romanesque Cluny as clarified by excavations and comparisons(PDF)
• (Universität Münster: Institut für Frühmittelalterforschung) Cluny.(in English) Scholarly portal to many aspects of Cluny.
• Christopher Golden, "Cluniac Order"Archived2008-10-06 at theWayback Machine
• Cluny abbey on the site Bourgogne Romane
• Societas Christiana Encyclopedia:The Cluniac movement
• Charter of the Abbey of Cluny
• Large archive of photographs of the abbeyArchived2007-09-14 at theWayback Machine
• The History of Romanesque Cluny Clarified by Excavations and Comparisons, by K.J. Conant(pdf)
• Paradoxplace – Cluny Page – Photos
• High-resolution 360° Panorama of theCluny Abbey | Art Atlas
• Google Earth view