Cluniac Monasticism
Assess the strengths and weaknesses of Cluniac monasticism between the tenth and twelfth centuries.
The nature of Cluny lay in the circumstances of it’s foundation. It was endowed with a measure of independence by it’s founder, Duke William, allowing the monks to elect their own abbot, placing the abbey directly under the guardianship of St Peter and the Apostolic See. As a house dedicated to reviving strict Benedictine observance Cluny was not unique, but it was this indepencence, the succesion of talented abbots and it’s organisation set up by Abbot Berno that laid the foundations of the abbey’s later greatness.
The independence granted Cluny in it’s foundation charter was esssential in the development of Cluny free from the interference of lay magnates and local bishops. It’s direct dependence on Rome was not initially of great importence; other foundations had beemn bequeathed to the apostles before. However, this was an important foundation upon which later abbots were to build. By seeking papal approval for Cluniac reforms the abbots forged a valuble direct link to the papacy, whilst gain officail public regognition and endorsement of the Cluniac regieme. In obtaining the right to accept monks from other orders in 931 Odo had confirmed the righht of the Cluniacs to reform others houses, while Cluny gained freedom from the local bishops under Abbot Odilo in 998. it was ‘the subsequent growth, under far straiter papal oversight, of Cluny’s exemption from episcopal control in spiritual matters, that did most to consolidate Cluny’s subject houses under it’s own central authority’ . This meant Cluny was immune to challenges to it’s authority from both without and within the church. Cluny became of particular note to sucessive Popes, with it’s reputation for reform, and the papacy continued to support the cluniacs, with Pope John XIX giving Cluny’s monks complete freedom from interference whereever they were in 1024.
However, this would have been nothing without the exemplary spiritual life that was seen to exist at Cluny. The continual use of vocal prayer was popular with the laity, with many wishing to be included in the prayers of the monks. The personal qualities of the abbots were also much admired, as was the way of life practised at Cluny. The cluniac model of benedictine obervence was seen by many by the time of Abb...
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... riches of success. The Cluniacs were criticised by those who favoured a more eremetic style of monasticism, and the stricter Cistercians. They were also criticised by laymen and other factions within the church. As an order, their popularity was on the wane by the twelfth century.
The main strenghts of cluniac monasticism lay in its independence, it’s early spiritual energy, it’s observence of the benedictine rule and it’s sainly abbots. These provided very well for Cluny for a significant period, but over-growth of the order led to a slackening in observence of the Rule, and with the disasterous abbacy of Pons and a basic shift in religious opinion these strenghts became weaknesses that
Bibliography
Evans, Monastic Life at Cluny 910-1157 (Oxford University Press, 1931)
Ed. Hunt, Cluniac Monasticsm in the central middle ages, (Macmillan, 1971)
Lynch, The Medeval Church, (Longman, 1992)
Cowdrey, The Cluniacs and the Gregorian Reform, (Oxford, 1970)
Lawrence, Medeval Monasticism, (Longman, 1989)
Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages, (Pelican, 1970)
Ed. Holmes, The Oxford Illustrated History of Medeval Europe, (Oxford, 2001)
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