|
|
 The
monastery of Cluny (in France, northwest of Lyons) was a center for the
reform and spiritual renewal of Western monasticism in the tenth and
eleventh centuries. It was founded in 909 under Abbot Berno, as a reformed
monastery, observing the Benedictine Rule with a strictness unusual at the
time. Many monasteries in Europe at that time were dominated by a nearby
king or nobleman. It was intended that Cluny should be independent of all
but papal jurisdiction.
Its second abbot was Odo (born 879 at Tours, monk in 909, abbot in 927, died
18 November 942--one of my sources says 944). He obtained papal and royal
charters which guaranteed the monastery freedom from outside interference.
Under his guidance Cluny attracted many men seeking to follow its
discipline, and Abbot Odo was instrumental in introducing the Cluniac
observances into many Italian monasteries as well. He insisted on silence,
simplicity of diet, and strict observance of chastity for his monks, but he
was not rigid of temperament: many stories survive of his generosity to the
poor and to prisoners. Because he had no wordly ambitions, he was often
called to mediate disputes between men in power.
The third abbot was Aylward, who held office from 942 to 965. He was blind
from 954 on.
Mayeul (or Maieul or Maiolus) was born at Avignon around 906, became a
clergyman, was made archdeacon of Macon, and fled to Cluny in order to avoid
being made bishop of Besancon. At Cluny, he was made librarian and bursar.
When Abbot Aylward became blind, he appointed Maiolus his assistant, and in
965 at the death of Aylward he became abbot. Under his guidance, Cluniac
influence expanded, but by example and advice rather than by jurisdiction.
Maiolus had the support and admiration of the Emperors Otto I and Otto II,
and the latter wanted to make him Pope in 974, but he refused. When old, he
chose Odilo as his successor, and retired to contemplation and penance. He
died on 11 May 994.
Odilo, the fifth abbot, was born around 962, became a monk as a young man,
was made assistant to Mayeul in 991, and became abbot in 994. He held office
for 55 years, during which time thirty abbeys accepted Cluny as their mother
house, and its practices were adopted by many more which did not affiliate.
Thus the Cluniac reform spread through Burgundy, Provence, Auvergne, Poitou,
and much of Italy and Spain. The abbot of Cluny appointed priors for the
daughter houses, which were thus permanently under a central jurisdiction,
making the Cluniac monasteries (or some of them) into the first monastic
order in the modern sense. In Abbot Odilo's day, there was a great deal of
fighting of minor wars, raids, and skirmishes between feudal lords and
others. Odilo reduced the effect of this by persuading the combatants
throughout most of France and some other regions to agree that churches and
monastic holdings were strictly off limits in fighting, and that there was
to be a truce from Fridays to Mondays, as well as throughout all of Advent
and Lent, to enable all parties to worship unmolested. Odilo wrote many
sermons and poems on the mystery of the Incarnation, and his references to
the role of Mary as the means through whom the Incarnation took place
greatly influenced Bernard of Clairvaux a century later. Odilo instituted
the observance of 2 November as All Souls' Day, a day of prayer at first for
the dead brothers of the Abbey and later for all who had died in the faith
of Christ. In the years from 1028 to 1033, when crop failures created great
hunger among the poor in the vicinity of Cluny, he melted down and sold most
of the treasures of Cluny to relieve them. As an abbot, he held both himself
and his monks to a strict observance of the Rule, but he said that he would
rather be damned for being too merciful than for being too severe. He died
in 1049 at the age of 87.
Hugh, the sixth abbot, was born in 1024, the oldest son of a Burgundian
nobleman (the count of Semur), entered Cluny when about 16, and became abbot
when only 25 years old. He was abbot for 60 years, during which time the
number of monastic houses that recognized Cluny as their mother house grew
from about 60 to about 2000. It was under his abbacy that the Cluniac reform
was introduced into England (at Lewes in Sussex in 1077). He increased the
control of the mother house over the daughter houses (at the cost, as some
have thought, of a certain flagging in their spiritual enthusiasm). Hugh was
an accomplished diplomat sent at various times by nine different popes to
conduct delicate negotiotiations in Hungary, Toulouse, Spain, and all over
Europe. He mediated between pope and emperor in the confrontation at Canossa,
and must be reckoned as one of the most influential figures of his day. He
died 29 April 1109.
The seventh abbot, Pons (or Pontius), was a secular-minded, contentious
nobleman, unsuited to be an abbot. He took office in 1109, and by 1122 had
created such a turmoil and so many factions that the Pope asked him to
resign.
The eighth Abbot of Cluny was Peter the Venerable, born in 1092, prior of
Vezelay in 1112, and elected abbot of Cluny in 1122. In 1125, when Peter was
away, Pons returned with a band of armed men and seized control of the
monastery. The Pope intervened and imprisoned Pons, who died in prison the
following year. Peter was then involved in a dispute with Bernard of
Clairvaux (see 20 August), the spokesman of the Cistercian monasteries, and
disposed to view the Cluniac monasteries as in some sense a rival
organization, who accused the Cluniac houses of being insufficiently strict
in their monastic observances. Peter, instead of replying indignantly,
considered the complaints, made some changes where he thought that changes
were needed, and ignored the complaints that he considered ill-grounded. In
1140, when Bernard had succeeded in having the views of Abelard condemned
(see 21 April), Peter gave Abelard shelter at Cluny, persuaded the Pope to
deal mildly with Abelard, and reconciled Abelard and Bernard. He refused to
have anything to do with the preaching of the Second Crusade, saying that
the moslems should be met, not with armies, but with scholars prepared for
rational dialogue. He sponsored the first translation of the Koran into
Latin, so that Christian missionaries could understand what the moslems they
were about to meet believed. He served as papal envoy to Aquitaine, England,
and various states in Italy. He wrote religious tracts, poems, hymns, and
many letters, of which about 200 survive. He defended the Jews against
persecution and false accusations. He was abbot for thirty-four years,
during which time Cluny was the most influential abbey in Europe. He died 25
December 1156, and with his death the golden age of Cluny was over. But it
had lasted for well over two centuries, and had done much to advance Western
civilization, both in spiritual and in secular terms.
|
|
