Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/330

 282 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE in other places, but instead of each being an independent community under its own abbot, as had hitherto been the case with Benedictine monasteries, all were subordinated to the abbot of the mother monastery at Cluny, who appointed a prior for each instead of allowing the local monks to elect their head. He also visited these priories to see that their discipline conformed to Cluniac standards, and the priors met in general assemblies under his presi- dency. The popes showered Cluny with favors ; Christians deluged it with gifts and legacies; by 1150 there were over three hundred priories. A reform movement now began in the Church at large, which was perhaps due in large measure to the influence Church of Cluny, whose branches were scattered over th^eSventh Catholic Europe and whose monks were often century called to high posts in the Church. Moreover, the Cluniac monasteries to some extent reformed the parish priesthood by the following method. Usually the lord of the manor or some other person or institution that had en- dowed the local parish church with most of its property pos- sessed the right to nominate to the bishop a candidate for the office of parish priest. In other words, most parishes had lay "patrons" who had the right of "presentation" to the ecclesiastical "living." Cluny now made it an especial object to acquire among its extensive properties as many "advowsons" or rights of patronage of this sort as possible in order to be able to fill the priesthood with holier men. It was now felt that the Church as a whole should be freed from the control of kings and feudal lords as Cluny had been, and more than that, that the spiritual power should always take precedence over the temporal power and that kings and lords should be subject to the correction of the clergy and the pope. To insure further that the clergy should not become worldly, it was felt that the rules against the mar- riage of the clergy must be strictly enforced, as is the case to-day in the Roman Catholic priesthood. In the West since the later Roman Empire the clergy above the rank of subdeacon had been forbidden to lead