Monasticism began as a counter-cultural movement in the church but soon it became the ‘heart of culture.’ The Rule of Benedict provided it a stable foundation, but gradually the observance of the Rule collapsed in many monasteries. There was a general feeling that the original spirit of monasticism as foreseen by Benedict was lost. The reform undertaken by the monastery of Cluny was the first reform of Benedictine monasticism. It was founded by William of Aquitaine in 909, and it grew into a vast monastic empire in the next two centuries, consisting of several hundred houses spread throughout western Europe. The idea was to go back to the old monastic ideal of extra mundum, that is, monasteries should be cut off from contact with the outside world and free from all external pressures and obligations. This was clearly expressed in the foundation charter, which authorized the monks to choose their own abbot after the death of the first one without interference by any outside influence. In order to guarantee this immunity, the Cluniac monasteries were placed under the protection of the Pope. This bond later developed into a special relationship of mutual advantage, which enabled the Cluniac monasteries to achieve a unique position of independence, privilege and power.

Much that was characteristic of the Cluniac ideal was the creation of St Odo (c. 879-942), abbot form 927-42. He gave the monastic vocation a new theology and a new sense of mission. In the face of the evils existing in the society, the only safe way to salvation lay through repentance and conversion and entry into the monastic life. The monks constituted the real church created by the Holy Spirit. The consolidation of the empire progressed under St Odilio (994-1048) and St Hugh (1049-1109). Papal exemptions and privileges and freedom from oversight of bishops brought in a flood of endowments and as a result the stringency of the early days was soon forgotten and there began the accumulation of wealth and a craving for grandeur and pomp. Soon Cluniac monasteries symbolized a disgraceful aberration from the austere simplicity of the rule of Benedict. Until the completion of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the monastic Church of Cluny was the largest Church in Christendom.

The Cluniac teaching that the world was irremediably sinful and that the life of the monk was the only sure way to salvation struck a deeply responsive chord in the minds of many men who were oppressed by the need to make satisfaction for their sins and were fearful of the impending Day of Judgment. Those who could not join the monastic life would at least gift land or a child to the monastery. The child would pray for the family for years to come. The liturgical life stressed unending vocal prayer and long hours of choral prayer, occasions for which multiplied year after year. With Benedict thirty-seven psalms were prayed daily but with the Cluniacs the number of psalms to be prayed daily was a hundred and thirty-eight. So prayer and praise of God became the chief occupations of the monks although according to Benedict’s rule, prayer was only one of the three activities of the monks side by side with work and study. But according to the Cluniacs, the monk was to be united with God through the practice of unbroken prayer. The next value was silence. The importance of silence was theologically justified by saying that it was the chief characteristic of God. With the Cluniac monks, prayer for the dead became a general practice in the Church. The feast of All Souls was first introduced by St Odilio in 998. This was in keeping with the wish of monastic patrons that the monks should pray for their dead. Soon ordinary people also began to give money to the monastery to pray for their dead. Thus the custom emerged as a universal practice.

The Cluniac movement lasted for two hundred years, but excessive wealth, the crushing burden of continuous vocal prayer and rituals, too much emphasis on community and lack of concern for the individual and his need for solitude brought about its downfall. But the monastic ideals of simplicity, solitude and prayer would live on, giving birth to many other reform movements.

Isaac Padinjarekuttu
(Professor of Church History at Oriens Theological College, Shillong)