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 CLUNY

73

CLUNY

Over a century ago, when persecution relaxed somewhat, the diocese, despoiled of all its ancient churches, schools, and religious houses, had to be fullj' equipped anew. About 100 plain churches were erected between 1800 and 1850. Recently a fourth of these have been replaced, especially in towns, and the new structures are admirably de- signed and finished. Between 1800 and 1907, not- withstanding great difficulties and loss by emigration, besides 10:j parish churches, all the existing schools, colleges, religious and charitable institutions were built, and all are now doing useful and excellent work.

BRAnv. Rerords of Cork. Cloynr. and Ross (Dublin. 1864); Bradt, Episcopal Succession in England, Scotland, and Ireland (Rome, 1876): Caulfield, ed.. Rotulus Pipce Clonen^is (Cork, 1869); Archdall (ed. MoranI, Monasticon Hibernicum (Dublin. 1873); Irish Catholic Directory (Dublin, 1907).

John 0'Riord.\n.

head of an order consisting of some 314 monasteries. These were spread over France, Italy, the Empire, Lorraine, England, Scotland, and Poland. Accord- ing to the "Bibliotheca Cluniacensis" (Paris, 1614) 825 houses owed allegiance to the Abbot of Cluny in the fifteenth century. Some writers have given the number as 2000, but there is little doubt that this is an exaggeration. It may perhaps include all those many other monasteries which, though not joining the congregation, adopted either wholly or in part the Cluny constitutions, such as Fleury, Hirschau, Farfa, and many others that were subject to their influence.

During the first 250 years of its existence Cluny was governed by a series of remarkable abbots, men who have left their mark upon the history of Western Europe and who were prominently concerned with

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(Fr.

Cluny, CoNGREG.^TioN OF (Cluni, Cltigni, or (.'lugny), the earliest reform, which became prac- tically a distinct order, within the Benedictine fam- ily. It originated at Cluny, a town in Saone-et- Loire. fifteen miles north-west of Macon, where in 910 William the Pious, Duke of Aquitaine, founded an abbey and endowed it with his entire domain. Over it he placed St. Berno. then Abbot of Gigny, imder whose guidance a somewhat new and stricter form of Benedictine Hfe was inaugurated. The re- forms introduced at Cluny were in some measure traceable to the influence of St. Benedict of Aniane, who had put forward his new idea,s at the first great meeting of the abbots of the order held at Aachen (.\ix-la-Chapelle) in 817, and their development at f'luny resulted in many departures from precedent, chief among which was a higldy centralized form of government entirely foreign to Benedictine tradition. The reform quickly siirea<l beyond the limits of the Abbey of Cluny, partly by the founding of new houses and partly by the incorporation of those al- ready existing, and as all these remained dependent upon the mother-house, the Congregation of Cluny came into being almost automatically. Under St. Berne's successors it attained a very widespread in- fluence, and by the twelfth century (L'luny was at the

all the great political questions of their day. Among these were Sts. Odo, Mayeul, Odilo, and Hugh, and Peter the Venerable. Under the last named, the ninth abbot, who ruled from 1122 to 1156, Cluny reached the zenith of its influence and prosperity, at which time it was second only to Rome as the chief centre of the Christian world. It became a home of learning and a training school for popes, four of whom, Gregory VII (Hildebrand). Urban II, Paschal II, and Urban V, were called from its cloisters to rule the Universal Church. In England the Cluniac houses numbered thirty-five at the time of the dissolution. There were three in Scotland. The earliest founda- tion was that of the i>riory of St. Pancras at Lewes (1077), the prior of which usually held the position of vicar-general of the .\bbot of Cluny for England and Scotland. Other important English houses were at Castlcacre, Montacute, Northampton, and Ber- mondsey.

After the twelfth century the power of Cluny de- clined somewhat, and in the sixteenth it suffered much through the civil and religious wars of France and their consequences. The introduction also of commendatory abbots, the first of whom was ap- liointcd in l.i28, was to some extent res|ionsible for its decline. Amongst the greatest of its titular prel-