What was the Cluny Reform movement?

A young medieval duke named William I of Aquitaine founded the Abbey of Cluny in AD 910, in Burgandy, France. The Cluny Abbey was not a reforming agency at first but just another monastery, approved by the pope and following the Rule of St. Benedict and the legislation of Benedict of Aniane. The monks at Cluny emphasized liturgical precision, daily prayers, and ritual schedules. They popularized the Gregorian chant, pioneered the opus Dei, or “work of God,” and pressed monastic life into manual labor and intellectual pursuits. Their discipline soon became a reforming movement as it addressed lazy adherence to the Benedictine Rule.

The monks of Cluny intensified devotion to Mary and highly prized liturgical hours (Lauds, Terce, Vespers, Matins, et. al). They sang the Psalms, ushered in processions, and above all observed Holy Mass. For the monks, everything was held together by sacred music and architecture. They believed that these contributed to the rites and rituals of the church and were in active participation with the rhythm of heaven itself.

Such rigor provided an incentive to fight three great abuses inflicting the church at that time: simony, the buying or selling of church offices; lay investiture, the appointment of bishops and abbots by kings or feudal lords; and immorality among the clergy. The Cluny Reforms, also called the Cluniac Reforms, were led by Abbot Berno, the first governor of the abbey and a supporter of monastic reform.

The spiritual renewal prompted by the Cluny Reforms led to the formation of a civil order. In the Cluny system, the monastery would rely on local satellite farms called doyennés managed by lay brothers, or conversi. The brothers supplied the monastery similar to how, under feudalism, the peasants provided for the king. The monastery appointed department heads to serve under the lord abbot: the sacristan watched over the church and liturgical furnishings, the chamberlain handled the money and purchasing, the cellarer administered food provisions, and the hosteller and almoner oversaw the distribution of surplus food and entertaining any guests of nobility who might visit.

The second abbot of Cluny, Odo, took the reform movement even further. Odo undertook to spread the reforms to other locales, with Cluny as the center. Before long, other bishops were asking Odo to reform their own churches and monasteries. Odo would agree on the condition that the reformed churches and monasteries would come under the authority of Cluny. Once reformed, a monastery would be ruled by a prior instead of an abbot. Those priors would be committed to the authority of the abbot of Cluny and not the local feudal lord. In time, reform initiatives spread over western Europe.

The tidal wave of Cluny Reform brought greater attention back to the individual and the primary good of peace. In the Cluny Reforms were the seeds of dismantling feudalism and changing society forever. Cluny started schools for children, foundations and libraries, and also scriptoria for the production of books. It became a center for scholarly activity, ancient text preservation, philosophy, the liberal arts, as well as a model of regimented spiritual and physical work.

The last abbot of Cluny associated with the reform movement was Hugh, who died in 1109. For two hundred years, the reforms of Cluny helped to reshape feudal society and remind Catholics of the purpose of the church.