The Cluniac order under Abbot Hugh 1049-1109

Abstract

St. Hugh the Great,1024-1109, was sixth in a distinguished line of abbots who had made Cluny, founded in 909, famous. During his abbacy, Ulrich and Bernard definitively recorded oral and written custom. The horarium, mainly liturgical, was already established, but growth in the order and considerable rise in numbers (causing notable building developments) had profound effects on the life of the abbey, whose privileges, especially as regards episcopal immunity, multiplied. The monastery was governed by an expanding body of administrative and disciplinary officials. Greater use of money, the increase of scattered resources, and heavier expenditure, characterised the economy of the period. The greatest expansion of the order occurred under Hugh, though he tended to discourage it. A coincidence of factors caused monasteries to be founded or annexed in hitherto unpenetrated parts of France and Switzerland, and in Spain and Italy where the adoption of customs in independent monasteries had already prepared the way. Cluniacs also went for the first time to England, what is now Belgium, Germany and even the Levant. The beginnings of a system establishing a juridical link between Cluny and these monasteries appeared. Abbeys were reduced in rank to priories, except for some less fully incorporated. Dependent monasteries had, in turn, priories dependent on them. All monks made profession at Cluny and recognised Hugh as abbot; he controlled the appointment of abbots and priors. Annual payment of cens was not yet general. Once the spirit and basic pattern of life had been implanted, however, Cluny allowed dependent priories to develop with a reasonable measure of independence. The foundation of Marcigny in 1054 marked the introduction of Cluniac nuns who were strictly enclosed and governed by Cluniac monks. Hugh's abbacy was decisive, contributory and outstanding in many ways, though symptoms of later disasters were already apparent.