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
^■s:^^-
(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-
