Cluny Abbey Today, however, hardly anything remains of the impressive monastic complex, only a small part of the original architectural ensemble remains: the largest church and the south wing of the crossing. In 1790, with the French Revolution, the very inhabitants of Cluny dismantled the monastery bit by bit. Concept King William of Aquitaine gave the land of Burgundy to the French monk Bernon to found a monastery, the Benedictine Order of Cluny. The art of the Cluny Abbey, conveyed through the important mass of Mont-Saint-Vincent and the open walkways through the forest in Autumn, was inspired by the initiative of the builder Etienne, in the architecture of the Church of Saint-Lazarus. The eleventh century was the greatest splendor of the Order, the abbey was soon quite small for the large number of monks who were housed and and they began to form priories and expand its own facilities. Thus emerged Cluny II, built by the abbot Majolus around the year 970, and especially the impressive Abbey of Cluny III, initiated by the Great Hugo and finished in mid-twelfth century by Abbot Peter the Venerable. By then the abbey had become a powerful monastic rule of incredible proportions that showed extreme obedience to the Pope and had acted as intermediary in major conflicts between monarchs and between states. During its highest peak, Cluny Abbey extended its power in France, Germany, Italy, Britain and the Iberian Peninsula. Spaces Abbey The monastery was expanded around the cloister garden with open space for a central square and an open gallery that provides access to the estate. In the north wing, the gallery of the faculty communicates with the church and the remaining three branches are open to the chapter room, the dining hall and administrative placements. On the top floor of the cloister are located dormitories of the monks, who reach the transept of the church via a staircase. The distribution of other units, such as the house of Abad, the school of novices, warehouse, cellar, stables, the guest house for pilgrims, the garden and the cemetery, is variable depending on the land, climate, the number of monks and the richness of the community. Cluny I - Cluny II The liturgical life of the eleventh century was developing in the church at 948; a nave and basilica with no roof and surrounded by aisles, the transept of the length of seven arches was cut by a narrow crossing, and at the ends of each of its arms opened a semicircular apse. The deep choir, comprising a straight aisle and a semicircular apse, was flanked by two enclosed chapels and linear exterior walls. Among the aisles of the choir that led to these chapels, and chapels further away from the crossings, were two long rectangular rooms divided internally, which means narrow corridors, connected by a single party at the crossings with the sanctuary. The chapels were constructed in a phased manner. The Nrtex preceded the nave, surrounded by towers of the next generation. Later was added a cloister. In the eleventh century, the church of Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux, 50 meters long, was small, so it was built at its northern flank. An abbey church, whose amplitude far exceeds that which had been done in the West: a long nave with 11 arches, surrounded by double cathedrals that add to its length, and the two transepts and ambulatory with radial catehdrals. Cluny III In the 1088 Cluny III was built on the foundations of the abbey church of Cluny I (Odn) and Cluny II (Mayeul) because they were too small for the community of monks. The Church of Cluny, with a floor of five naves in the main body of the church and two crossings, has the floor plan of the shape of an archbishop's cross. What precedes the pulpit is an atrium or portico of three naves of 187 meters in length, with double crossings, 6 bells and 12 chapels in the apse. The sanctuary was surrounded by an ambulatory with five apsidal chapels. So colossal a project, 100 years later, began to weaken in the financial aspect, and its power began to fall as they dispersed throughout Europe over 1000 orders, that eventually ceased to depend on the parent, becoming more autonomous. Structure and Materials Cluny III The largest nave was covered with a barrel vault with double pointed arches and naves with low vault edges. It also has staggered basilica, where the light reaches all three levels. The arches and the wall above were treated as a "screen skeleton" between the semi-attached columns supporting the arches of the cross-barrel vault run. The clerestory, with three windows on each corridor, and the main shafts of the supports were divided into three overlapping elements. The crossing, with great illumination from its many windows, consisted of three cylindrical vaults. With the introduction of a second crossing, which was a centralized structure independently, the proportions of the presbytery were increased. The western facade of the church had a profound recessed portal, which was the first instance of such and then become a characteristic feature of Gothic cathedrals.

Cluny Abbey

Cluny Abbey in 2004Cluny Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Sane-et-Loire, France. It was built in the Romanesque style, with three churches built in succession from the 10th to the early 12th centuries.Cluny was founded by William I, Duke of Aquitaine in 910. He 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. The establishment of the Benedictine Order was a keystone to the stability of European society that was achieved in the 11th century. In 1790 during the French Revolution, the abbey was sacked and mostly destroyed, with only a small part of the Abbey surviving.Starting around 1334, the Abbots of Cluny maintained a townhouse in Paris known as the Htel de Cluny, which has been a public museum since 1843. Apart from the name, it no longer possesses anything originally connected with Cluny.FoundationIn 910, William I, Duke of Aquitaine "the Pious", and Count of Auvergne, founded the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny on a modest scale, as the motherhouse of the Congregation of Cluny. In donating his hunting preserve in the forests of Burgundy, William released Cluny Abbey from all future obligation 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 first abbot, to free the new monastery from such secular entanglements and initiate the Cluniac Reforms. The Abbots of Cluny were statesmen 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 female members were admitted to the Order during the 11th century.Organisation

A view of the abbeyThe Abbey of Cluny differed in three ways from other Benedictine houses and confederations: organisational structure; prohibition on holding land by feudal service; and having the liturgy as its main form of work.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 styled priories, 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 1016 Pope Benedict VIII decreed 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 contemporary villa of the more Romanized parts of Europe and the manor of the more feudal parts, in which each member did physical labor as well as offering prayer. In 817 St Benedict of Aniane, the "second Benedict", developed monastic constitutions at the urging of Louis the Pious to 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 tradition labor 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 gold chalices made 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) and wines from their vineyards and cheeses made by their employees. The monks wore the finest linen religious habits and silk vestments at Mass. Artifacts exemplifying the wealth of Cluny Abbey are today on display at the Muse de Cluny in Paris.Cluniac Houses in BritainAll but one of the English and Scottish Cluniac houses which were larger than cells were known as priories, symbolising their subordination to Cluny. The exception was the priory at Paisley which 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 at Lewes, 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 he did five times in the 13th century, and only twice in the 14th.ArtsAt 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.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. In building the third and final church at Cluny, the monastery constructed what was the largest building in Europe before the 16th century, when St. Peter's in Rome was rebuilt. The construction of Cluny II, ca. 955-981, begun after the destructive Hungarian raids of 953, led the tendency for Burgundian churches to be stone-vaulted.

Cluny III, reconstruction.The building campaign was financed by the annual census established by Ferdinand I of Len, ruler of a united Len-Castile, some time between 1053 and 1065. (Alfonso VI re-established it in 1077, and confirmed it in 1090.) Ferdinand fixed the sum at 1,000 golden aurei, an amount which Alfonso VI doubled in 1090. This was the biggest annuity that the Order ever received from king or layman, and it was never surpassed. Henry I of England's annual grant from 1131 of 100 marks of silver, 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 the Islamic gold coin later lapsed, the Cluniac order suffered a financial crisis that crippled them during the abbacies of Pons of Melgueil (1109 1125) and Peter 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.LibraryThe 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, the Huguenots sacked the abbey, destroying or dispersing many of the manuscripts. Of those that were left, some were burned in 1790 by a rioting mob related to the excesses of the French 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 the Bibliothque nationale de France at Paris. The British Museum holds some sixty or so charters originating from Cluny.Cluny's influenceIn 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, responsible only to the papacy, which was in a state of weakness and disorder with rival popes supported by competing nobles, Cluniac spirit was felt revitalizing the Norman church, reorganizing the royal French monastery at Fleury and inspiring St Dunstan in England. There were no official English Cluniac priories until that of Lewes in Sussex, founded by the Anglo-Norman earl William de Warenne c 1077. The best-preserved Cluniac houses in England are Castle Acre Priory, Norfolk, and Wenlock Priory, Shropshire. It is thought that there were only three Cluniac nunneries in England, one of them being Delapr Abbey at Northampton.Until the reign of Henry 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.

Pope Callixtus II was elected at the papal election, 1119 at 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 Confessor was later canonized. In Germany, the penetration of Cluniac ideals was effected in concert with Henry III of 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 the Truce of God movement to curb aristocratic violence.Within his order, the Abbot of Cluny was free to assign any monk to any house; he created a fluid structure around 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 became popes: Gregory VII, Urban II, Paschal II and Urban V.An orderly succession of able and educated abbots, drawn from the highest aristocratic circles, led Cluny, and three were canonized: Saints Odo of Cluny, the second abbot (died 942); Hugh of Cluny, the sixth abbot (died 1109); and Odilo, the fifth abbot (died 1049). Odilo continued to reform other monasteries, but as Abbot of Cluny, he also exercised tighter control of the order's far-flung priories.Cluny and the Gregorian reforms

Cluny was not known for its severity or asceticism, but the abbots of Cluny supported the revival of the papacy and the reforms of Pope 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 Abbot Peter 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 the Cistercians were generating the next wave of ecclesiastical reform. Outside monastic structures, the rise of English and French nationalism created a climate unfavourable to the existence of monasteries autocratically ruled by a head residing in Burgundy. The Papal Schism of 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 as Lenton Priory, Nottingham, were naturalized (Lenton in 1392) and no longer regarded as alien priories, weakening the Cluniac structure.By the time of the French Revolution, the monks were so thoroughly identified with the Ancien Rgime that the order was suppressed in France in 1790 and the monastery at Cluny 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 of Kenneth John Conant, American architectural historian of Harvard University, and continued (although not continuously) until 1950.Decline and destruction of the buildingsStarting from the 12th century, Cluny had serious financial problems, caused mainly by the construction of the third abbey. Charity given to the poor increased the expenditure. The influence of the abbey weakened gradually as other religious orders rose (Cistercians in the 12th, then Mendicants in the 13th century). Bad management of the grounds and unwillingness of the subsidiary companies to pay the annual taxable quota helped to lessen Cluny's revenue. Cluny raised loans which entailed it with debt. The conflicts with the priories multiplied and the authority of the pope became heavier. To the 14th century, the pope frequently named the abbots. The crises of the end of the Middle Ages and the wars of religion in the 16th century weakened the abbey a little more. The monks lived in luxury and there were not more than about 60 monks in the middle of the 15th century.[1] With the Concordat of Bologna in 1516 overseen by Antoine Duprat, the king gained the power to appoint the abbot of Cluny.[citation needed]The years following the French Revolution were fatal to all the monastic buildings and its church. In 1793, its archives were burned and the church was delivered to plundering. The abbey estate was sold in 1798 for 2,140,000 francs. Until 1813, the abbey was used as a stone quarry to build houses in the town.[citation needed]Today, there remain only the buildings built under the Old Mode as well as a small portion of Cluny III. Only the southern transept and its bell-tower still stand; the ruined bases of columns give an idea of the size of the rest of the church. The surviving structure represents less than 10% of the floor area of Cluny III, which was the largest church of Christendom, until the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, five centuries later. The abbey has sheltered since 1901 a forming center of the cole nationale suprieure d'arts et mtiers (ENSAM) of the engineers of the Art-and-Trades (Gadzarts, in student's slang).[citation needed]In 1928, the site was excavated and recognized by the American archaeologist Kenneth J. Conant with the backing of the Medieval Academy of America.[citation needed]

Cluny Abbey FactsCluny Abbey is a monastery that was built in France in 910. It was one of the chief Benedictine, Christian monasteries of its time and it helped to bring stability to the European society. William I, Duke of Aquitaine donated the land for the Abbey from his own hunting preserve. The Cluny Abbey was considered to be the most prestigious, grandest and splendid monastery in Europe. Most of it was destroyed during the French Revolution in 1790, and today most of it is in ruins.

Cluny Abbey had the largest church in the world until St. Peter's Basilica was built in the 17th century.

Abbot Berno was the first Abbot of the abbey, who served directly under Pope Sergius III.

Cluny Abbey was founded by Benedictine monks. It wasn't until the 11th century that women were admitted to the order.

In the 12th century, Cluny Abbey had at least 10,000 monks! It was considered to be the monastic empire'.

Pope Urabn II named Abbey Cluny the light of the world' in 1098.

The church in Cluny Abbey stood at an amazing 656 feet in height.

Much of Cluny Abbey was designed with Romanesque architecture. It even held Romanesque sculptures that are considered to be masterpieces today.

The library in Cluny Abbey was at one time considered to be the most important and the riches library in all of Europe. It contained many important and valuable books (manuscripts).

Although monks traditionally led a frugal life, the monks at Cluny Abbey were well taken care of. There were solid gold and silver chalices with gems for mass. Monks usually ate porridge and broth, but not the monks at Cluny Abbey. They enjoyed wine, cheese and roasted chicken. They wore silk and linen clothing for mass. The monks at Cluny Abbey devoted most of their time to prayer and did not have to do physical labour.

Beginning in the 12th century the abbey began to have serious financial problems. It's thought that the financial trouble began because of the cost of building the third abbey. The amount of money that was donated to the poor also increased during this time as well, which was a strain on abbey funds.

In 1562 the abbey was attacked by the Huguenot and many of the books in the library were destroyed or stolen. The stolen books could not be recollected as they fell into private hands.

In the 1790s, the French Revolution is blamed for the destruction of most of the abbey.

Whatever was left of Cluny Abbey was sold afterwards. It sold for approximately 2,140,000 francs (almost the same in U.S. dollars) in 1798.

Napoleon used the material from the ruined abbey to build a horse-breeding center in 1806.

Today a small portion of the third church and the bell tower remain.

Other French monuments were influenced by Cluny Abbey including La Charite-sur-Loire, Autun Cathedral and Paray-le-Monial

Proof of the wealth of the abbey can be seen at the Musee de Cluny in Paris, where there are artifacts on display.

The Abbey of ClunyLink to France - Photo and History PagesBurgundy Centre South

The first of the major monastic reform movements, Cluny (to the West of Macon in Burgundy) was established by Duke William the Pious in 910 and placed under the direct protection of the Pope. The Abbey exerted huge influence in the ten hundreds, particularly through the Abbots Odilo and Hugh, and several of its Abbots became Popes. It was rebuilt twice to accommodate more monks - Cluny II in 981 and Cluny III- said to cover a bigger area than the present day Pentagon - between 1088 and 1130. The illustration below (reproduced from "The Papacy" by Paul Johnson) shows the French Clunaic Pope Urban II (1042 - 1088 - 1099 (57)) consecrating something at Cluny III. It was Urban who launched the First Crusade in 1095.

Sadly, hardly any of the old Cluny buildings remain today. At its height the Abbey had over 1,000 dependencies scattered over Europe. These were mostly called Priories rather than Abbeys. Each Priory was run by a Prior appointed by Head Office in Cluny, and all monks had to pledge allegiance to the Abbot of Cluny, not their own Prior. Other administrative procedures were equally centralist and authoritarian, and it is easy to see how the more participative governance systems set up by the Cistercians (like monks electing their own abbots and pledging allegiance to them) proved more attractive and robust, particularly when Cluny fell into the incompetent hands of Abbot Pons between 1109 and 1122. Whilst the Cistercians and then the mendicant orders took over the religious running, Cluny steamed on as an abbey and movement under the momentum of its huge endowments. In fact it had almost completed another major rebuild in the seventeen hundreds when the French Revolution led to its being sold and dismantled ..... with just one end of the huge abbey transept and the (not that old and not that attractive) cloisters and dormitory buildings eventually saved for posterity.

The abbey of Cluny, located in east central France, was founded in 910 by Duke William the Pious of Aquitaine. Greatly admired for its strict observance of the Benedictine rule at a time when most monasteries had grown lax, Cluny inspired monastic reform throughout Europe, which led to general ecclesiastical reform. Unlike previous Benedictine establishments, Cluny created a centralized form of government over other monasteries by founding new houses and incorporating existing abbeys; these subordinate monasteries were known as priories. At the same time, the mother house at Cluny was subject only to the pope, making it the most powerful monastic establishment in Europe. By the 12th century there were more than 300 Cluniac monasteries in France, Italy, Britain, the Holy Roman Empire and Poland. Several remarkable abbots governed Cluny over the years, and four of its members became popes: Gregory VII, Urban II, Paschal II and Urban V. The admiration for Cluny led to numerous donations and endowments that enriched the abbey and its many priories. The town that had grown up around the monastery benefited, as well. The abbey church, constructed from about 1088 to 1130, was the largest church in the world until St. Peter's was built in Rome. The power of Cluny began to decline after the 12th century, and both the abbey and the town suffered during the wars of religion in the 1500s. The abbey was suppressed during the French Revolution and closed in 1790. The abbey church was for the most part demolished in the early 19th century, although its ruins testify to its former grandeur to this day.