Founded in 910 to return to the authentic monasticism of Saint Benedict, the abbey of Cluny led a revolution in the medieval Church. Wresting secular hands from control of monastic offices and finances, the great Burgundian monastery and its hundreds of daughter houses inspired eleventh-century churchmen to seize control of the Church from petty lords and outraged emperors. Powerful and respected, the Cluniac Order cast a long shadow over the European Church, but its very position of leadership brought prosperity into the cloister and, in its train, complacency. The Cistercians were founded...
Founded in 910 to return to the authentic monasticism of Saint Benedict, the abbey of Cluny led a revolution in the medieval Church. Wresting secular ...