23 Facts About Cluny Abbey

Cluny Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saone-et-Loire, France.

Cluny Abbey was constructed in the Romanesque architectural style, with three churches built in succession from the 4th to the early 12th centuries.

Cluny Abbey nominated Berno as the first abbot of Cluny, subject only to Pope Sergius III.

The abbey was notable for its stricter adherence to the Rule of St Benedict, whereby Cluny became acknowledged as the leader of western monasticism.

Soon, Cluny Abbey began to receive bequests from around Europe – from the Holy Roman Empire to the Spanish kingdoms from southern England to Italy.

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Reforms introduced at Cluny Abbey were in some measure traceable to the influence of Benedict of Aniane, who had put forward his new ideas at the first great meeting of the abbots of the order held at Aachen in 817.

Cluny Abbey was not known for the severity of its discipline or its asceticism, but the abbots of Cluny Abbey supported the revival of the papacy and the reforms of Pope Gregory VII.

Cluny Abbey reached its apogee of power and influence under Peter, as its monks became bishops, legates, and cardinals throughout France and the Holy Roman Empire.

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

Cluny Abbey developed a highly centralized form of government entirely foreign to Benedictine tradition.

When in 1016 Pope Benedict VIII decreed that the privileges of Cluny Abbey be extended to subordinate houses, there was further incentive for Benedictine communities to join the Cluniac Order.

Customs of Cluny Abbey represented a shift from the earlier ideal of a Benedictine monastery as an agriculturally self-sufficient unit.

Cluny Abbey acknowledged that the Black Monks no longer supported themselves by physical labor.

Artifacts exemplifying the wealth of Cluny Abbey are today on display at the Musee de Cluny in Paris.

Cluny Abbey's influence spread into the British Isles in the 11th century, first at Lewes, and then elsewhere.

All English and Scottish Cluniacs were bound to cross to France to Cluny Abbey 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.

The examples at Cluny Abbey profoundly affected architectural practice in Western Europe from the tenth through the twelfth centuries.

The Spanish wealth donated to Cluny Abbey publicized the rise of the Spanish Christians, and drew central Spain for the first time into the larger European orbit.

Cluny Abbey library was one of the richest and most important in France and Europe.

Free of lay and episcopal interference, and responsible only to the papacy, Cluny Abbey was seen to have revitalized the Norman church, reorganized the royal French monastery at Fleury and inspired St Dunstan in England.

Cluny Abbey 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.

Cluny Abbey had a spiritual and intellectual grounding for his leadership of the German church, which culminated in the pontificate of his kinsman, Pope Leo IX.

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