Cluny

CLUNY (Cluniacum, CLUNI). - City in the Rhône region, department of Saône-et-Loire, diocese of Mâcon, with the remains of the Benedictine abbey of the same name, called the "second Rome," and the ideal center of the reformist tendencies of the late Middle Ages.

I. HISTORY OF THE ABBEY

The act of foundation of Sept. 11, 910 (reported by A. Bruel, pl. 1) designates C. as a "free monastery" under the protection of Rome. Its founders are William, Duke of Aquitaine (d. 918), and the blessed abbot Berno of Baume (d. 927). The classical age of C. (910-1156) is characterized by its influence and by its administration at the hands of capable and holy abbots. St. Odo (927-42, or 948) concluded in 931 the very important union with Rome (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 3854). The holy abbots Maiolus (954-94), Odilo (994-1048) and Hugh (1049-1109) established Cluniac religious supremacy over Europe. After the failure of Pons (resigned 1122, excommunicated 1126), C. reached under Peter the Venerable the height of its power (400 monks at C., the greatest extent of the Congregation; in 1131 the basilica of Hugh was completed, a magnificent building with five naves). The period of internal reforms (1156-1621) revealed a weakening of the capacity for expansion; it led to numerous attempts at reform from within, and to the cession of the right of independence to the French Crown (1258), whereby it became a commendam of the Crown, and it suffered considerable losses (fire of 1157, Hundred Years' War, plundering of the library's treasures on the occasion of the Huguenot uprising [1562], loss of the foreign communities through the reform of the 16th century). The period of decline (1621-1790) began with the breaking of the Congregation into the two groups of reformed and non-reformed under the abbot Jacques de Veny d'Arbouze (1621-29). Cardinal Richelieu, as commendatory abbot, united (1629-42) C. for ten years with the Maurists. His successor, Cardinal Mazarin, united C. with the Congregation of St-Vanne (1654-61), a union that was broken in 1661. Under the last commendatory abbot, Cardinal Dominique de la Rochefoucauld (1757-90), only 40 monks still lived at C. The execution of the state decree of suppression of Feb. 19 and from March 20, 1790 was completed in July 1791. The last conventual Mass in the basilica of Hugh was celebrated on Oct. 25, 1791. On Apr. 21, 1798, the sale of the lands to private individuals was proceeded with for two million fourteen thousand francs. The destruction of the abbey buildings began in Sept. 1801. In June-July 1811 the nave of the church was blown up in order to lay a road through it, for which the inhabitants of C. had to hear from Napoleon I the harsh words: "Allez, vous êtes des vandales!".

II. ORGANIZATION OF THE CONGREGATION

The foundations of the constitution were the Consuetudines, the Statuta of the abbots, of the General Chapters, and of the Roman pontiffs. The Consuetudines of the time of Odo (D. Albers, Consuetudines monasticae, II, pp. 1-24) are an elaboration of the provisions of Benedict of Aniane (d. 821; ibid., III, pp. 154-56); the second redaction dates to 1000-30 (ibid., II, pp. 31-61). Another redaction is from the year 1043 (ibid., I, p. 1 ff.). For the redaction of Bernard (1063-87) and Ulrich (1079), cf. below, bibl. From the 12th century onward many complementary Statuta follow (texts in Marrier, pp. 1053-76, 1457-70, 1471-1541-1616). The structure of Cluny is based on an immense donation of real property (documents in A. Bruel, Recueil, I-VI). The hierarchy of offices (camerarius, cellarius, cantor, etc.) was later increased (forestarius, sepiarius, harengerius), and the traditional deanery replaced by the new constitution of the priory. In the Cluniac social stratification are found: priests and lay monks; nutriti, coming from the institution of the Oblates (suppressed by Peter the Venerable) and later the conversi; finally affiliates, officials and servants. In the Congregation of Cluny, however, the "civil procurator" (advocatus) was not known. The structure of the Cluniac Congregation is founded on three constitutive principles: the feudal principle of traditio, the Anian idea of union under control, and the scheme, already known from the time of Gregory the Great, of a principal monastery and an affiliated monastery. The Congregation thus constituted was articulated into five unequal groups: a) the group of priories immediately subject (the so-called "Quinque Filiae" of Cluny, Lewes in England, La-Charité-sur-Loire, St-Martin-des-Champs [Paris], Souvigny, Sauxillanges, to which certain abbeys that retained the abbatial title, such as Camprodon, St. Benedict in Polirone, etc., must in some way be added); b) the priories mediately subject (that is, the monasteries subject to the "Quinque Filiae"); c) the group of incorporated abbeys; d) the abbeys placed only under direct supervision and not incorporated, in which Cluny directs or validates the election of the abbot (Vézelay, Moissac, St-Martial of Limoges, etc.); and e) the abbeys entrusted temporarily for reform (Fleury, St-Maur-des-Fossés, Marmoutier). The head of the Congregation was the "prior abbas" (Marrier, p. 1406), whose authority at the beginning of the 13th century was already shared with 10 provincial heads (camerarii); Gregory IX (28 July 1231) limited it further by means of the General Chapter and the definitors (4, then 15). The abbot's revenues came from real property, from chancery income and from taxes. The fiscal total of 1377 amounted to 16,122 pounds.

III. SPIRITUAL CHARACTERISTICS

The aspiration to integral monasticism impressed evident characteristics on Cluny, so that its type differs clearly from that of the family, royal and imperial abbeys. They are: a) the liturgical ideal, later transformed into a kind of ritualism, constituted by the prolongation of the Opus Dei by means of the Oratio Trina; by votive offices; by special psalms and by long processional rites. The office of the choir replaced manual labor and study (Petrus Ven., Statutum, 67, in M. Marrier, p. 1272); b) the Ideals of liberty, contained in the founding Charter of 910, for which the Cluniacs fought against the oppression coming from the feudalistic system of the family churches. The need for liberty created the priory system of Cluny (emancipation of the lower French Church of the 11th century from the hands of the laity), and the recent institution of the conversi (Charité-sur-Loire) impelled Cluny to erect great monasteries and to overthrow the "civil Procurators" (reform of Hirsau); and it finally led Cluny to carry these ideas to the higher Church by means of Gregorianism; c) the Union with Rome. Cluny from 910 to 1258 used Rome as a counterweight to lay feudalism but above all to episcopal feudalism. The ideal of liberty, culminating in the 10th century in exemption, led the Cluniac circles of the 11th-12th centuries to a certain psychosis of emancipation with alternating successes. Distant echoes of these struggles are cann. 615-18 of today's CIC; d) the will to reform. The abbots of the classical period (915-1156) made of this legacy of Benedict of Aniane, by means of indefatigable labor (desudati labores, says the Vita Odilonis, in M. Marrier, p. 1814), a characteristic of Cluny; e) Centralism. The accomplished reform was to be guaranteed by union in a Congregation (Hugh the Great in the case of Lézat [Bruel, Recueil, IV, p. 563, n. 3454 of 5 Nov. 1073]). In this way, from as early as 929, a feudal hierarchy grew, directed by a central authority which, despite anti-feudal resentments, was rooted in the last analysis, in spite of everything, in the idea of the family church.

The characteristic points of the centralistic ideal of Cluny are: the tendency toward the stable right of ordinatio, the already mentioned system of the priory, the right of visitation of the major abbot, and, curiously, the continual oppositions within the Congregation itself against the centralistic system.

IV. EXTENT OF THE REFORM

C.'s reforming activity had two aims: the spread of the reform and the annexation of the reformed monastery to the Congregation. One must therefore distinguish two groups of Cluniac monasteries: the reformed ones and those annexed to the Congregation. The monasteries annexed to the Congregation of C. had reached the number of 17 by 937. In 994 there were 37, by 1048 there were 65, and under Peter the Venerable, it is said, 2000 (M. Marrier, p. 600). The most recent re-examination of the question for the 12th-14th centuries gave respectively 1174 and 1450 houses (G. de Valous, II, pp. 179-271; Schmitz, I, p. 138). According to an early and provisional statistic the reformed houses amount to 1629. The overall extent of Cluniac influence from the 11th to the 14th century thus comes to at least 2795 and respectively 3079 communities.

Statistics, by country, of the reforming influence: a) France. The Cluniac Congregation (from 929) with 960 dependent houses in French-speaking territory. The primitive reform of southern France (from 929) not aggregated to C.: Aurillac alone had 65 dependent houses. Add to these: Tulle, St-Jean-d'Angély, St-Pons-de-Thomières, Genouillac and others. Group of Fleury (from 930) with more than 20 communities. Group of Marmoutier (from 982) with 8 houses. Movement of Dijon (from 990) with more than 60 houses in French-speaking territory. Group of Le Bec, near Rouen, with 18 houses (second half of the 11th century).

b) Italy. The reform of Odo (936-41) with about a dozen communities in central and southern Italy. Group of Dijon-Fruttuaria (from 1003) with ca. 39 houses in northern Italy. The union of Farfa (beginning of the 11th century) with the 683 churches existing in its temporal domain. The union of La Cava (from 1079) with 77 abbeys, 100 priories and 33 obediences. The Italian union of C. (from the end of the 10th century) with ca. 54 houses.

c) Germany. The Alemannic Cluniac union (from 1050) with ca. 22 houses in German-speaking territory. Group of the reform of St. Blasien (from 1068-72) with ca. 36 houses in northern and southern Germany. Group of Siegburg (from 1070) with 19 communities of the Fruttuaria type. Movement of Hirsau (from 1077-79) with ca. 100 communities of the Cluniac type. Group of Anchin, in the Pas-de-Calais (from 1087), with ca. 40 houses in Belgium and Flanders.

d) Spain. Group of S. Juan de la Peña in Aragon (from 1020) with 65 houses. Group of S. Vittoriano de Asán in Aragon (Orma, Taberna, Ovarra, etc.). Group of Oña in Castile (from 1032) with 73 dependent houses. Group of S. Pedro de Cardeña in Castile (from 1035) with 5 reformed houses. Group of Silos in Castile (from 1041) with 15 dependent houses. Group of Sahagún (from 1079) with 138 dependent houses. Group of Arlanza near Burgos in Castile (end of the 11th century) with 30 reformed houses. The priory union of C. from 1045 with 27 houses (center: S. Zoilo de Carrión) and the union of Moissac affiliated to C. (from 1073-78) with 4 dependent abbeys and a certain number of priories.

e) England. Reform of William the Conqueror (from 1066) who into the 36 existing abbeys successively called 29 abbots from the movement of Dijon (Jumièges, Fécamp, Bernay, Cérisy), 15 from the movement of Bec, 3 from C. itself and 2 from Marmoutier. The English priory union of C. (1077) with 43 communities still counted 35 houses at the time of the suppression of 1536.

f) East. Under Peter the Venerable (1122-56) there existed a colony of C. at Civitot near Byzantium, a house at Patras, two abbeys in Palestine (Mount Tabor and S. Maria in the valley of Josaphat).

g) Poland and Hungary. They likewise show Cluniac influences in the 11th century.

V. METHODS OF CONQUEST

The methods by which this number was reached cannot always be called happy ones. From the 11th century onward the will to conquer increasingly prevailed over the original ideal of reform. The honest methods of the early period (attracting the owners of churches to one's own cause, and the deployment of monastic qualities) were replaced: a) by contempt for the ideals of others; b) by inducing others to reform under disciplinary pretexts; c) by carrying out reform by imposing oneself with coercive methods under the appearance of constitutional struggle.

VI. CAUSES OF THE RISE AND DECLINE

The expansion of Cluny was caused by the monastic qualities of certain eminent leading personalities who were able, from the very origins, to impose themselves on communities genuinely in need of reform. To this was added the superiority of well-defined statutes, the brilliant organization of international scope, and the central position in the heart of the Latin West. For economic development, the wise cultivation of the monastic ideal, of the remembrance of the dead and of the opportunity to offer suffrage for them proved important. All this, however, was brought fully to the fore only by Cluny's singular exemption from the civil and ecclesiastical feudal order (double exemption) and by its close union with Rome. What led Cluny to decline was not so much the economic and social changes of the 12th-13th centuries or the losses of men in the 14th century (plague) as rather the numerous excesses (centralism, ritualism, excessive spiritualism, exaggerated rule of silence, etc.) and internal shifts (deficiency of the will to reform, growing coldness toward Rome, surrender of the exemption, increasing feudalization of the claustral offices; cf. Molitor, I, p. 151) as well as the structural weakness of the entire system, with its abnormalities and its inequalities in its constituent elements. The Cluniac attempt to monopolize monasticism favored, from the 12th century onward, a backlash of ideals of liberty. In the often painful competition with new types of orders (Cîteaux), the Cluniac system proved by then to be outdated.

VII. CUSTOMS OF THE CLUNIACS

The scapular cowl is ankle-length, sleeveless, full of folds, open on one side and tied several times. The full-length cowl, without a hood, is ankle-length with long sleeves as wide as the arm, puffed and closed like a shirt. Manner of wearing it: both cowls (as opposed to the common one of monks) are as a rule worn at the same time. Color: more or less black or dark.

VIII. IMPORTANCE OF CLUNY

1. For the West

a) Its social thought, of international scope, manifested itself in the care of the poor and of the transit routes for pilgrims, in the colonization of vast lands and above all in the propagation of the movement for peace (the Truce of God). With its position of criticism toward the feudal world order, C. largely anticipated the social ideas of its time (A. Schulte).

b) In the cultural sphere it did not reach the scientific height of other monasteries, despite its intense scribal activity (the library of C. in the 12th century counted 570 manuscripts; cf. L. Delisle, pp. 259-81), the very wide influence of the scriptorium (H. Fichtenau, Mensch und Schrift, Vienna 1946, pp. 158-76) and the broad political horizon of Cluniac historiography (Spörl). The cultural importance of C. lies rather in the architectural influences that spread from the basilica of St. Peter, of 981 and of 1131, in Burgundy, in the Empire and along the itinerary of St. James of Compostela (achievement of the victory of the technique of vaulted construction over the flat basilical ceiling, accentuation of grandiosity and of monumental sculpture, acceptance of Ibero-Arab influences, reduction of the crypt, etc.).

c) Its political will conceived, already in the days of Odilo, the European ideal (Schreiber, p. 418). Long before Gregory VII and 30 years before 1096, C. was mobilizing the "reconquista" and saving Spain for Europe (Schmitz, I, p. 146; Chagny, p. 247). The European union, the drawing together of peoples in trade and customs, the mediation between princes and particularly between the sacerdotium and the imperium (Canossa, 1077) revealed C. as a personification of medieval universalism. It is worth noting, however, that by means of the ancient monastic idea of "libertas," carried by the Cluniac branch of Dijon onto the plane of international politics, C. became the ferment of the splitting of Western unity (Humbert of Moyenmoutier).

2. For the papacy

The Cluniac communities were at a certain point a school of popes (Gregory VII, Urban II, Paschal II); they were the unconditional representatives of the universal episcopate, the natural allies in the struggle against the system of the proprietary church, promoters of reform synods already before Gregory VII, active allies of the Gregorian ideas and points of support for the same. The position of C., as a great power, was felt for the first time by Gregory VII as a troublesome competition, and his program of reforms, after 1080, was noticeably restricted.

3. For monasticism

a) C. realized the historical mission of Benedict of Aniane within the monastic sphere (ritualism, reform, foundation of a "community under control," anti-feudalism). With the fulfillment of the anti-feudal idea, with its innovations and with its aggressive policy, C. opened a deep gulf between itself and the reformed monasticism of Gorze (K. Hallinger, chaps. 1-5).

b) In the monastic-juridical sphere, C. emphasized the opposition "corporation-lordship" (reabsorbing effect of the Cluniac system of the priory), with reconstruction of ecclesiastical patronages of a capitalistic tendency. In reaction C. became a negative premise of the more developed communities of Cîteaux and Prémontré, thus preparing the way for the medieval corporations (G. Schreiber, pp. 135-37, 429-32). The juridical influence of C. stands out more through its anti-feudal position, that is, from the demand for liberty contained in the act of foundation (910), from the self-investiture of the newly elected superior, from the step against the "civil procurator" and from the tendency toward exemption (K. Hallinger, pp. 360-92).

c) C. exercised its influence in the field of piety and liturgy. The classical age of C. (especially the homiletic and hagiographic writings of the great abbots) lived in the idea of Gregory the Great, of Bede, and of the Anian reform. However, only Anselm of Bec-Canterbury (d. 1109) and John the Little of Fécamp (1028-78) brought dogmatic-mystical contributions. The "Temporale" of the Cluniac liturgy contains only the great Mysteries of the Redemption. The richer "Santorale" contains as specific things the memory and the translation of the great abbots of C., of Sts. Florencia and Consorcia (20 and 22 June), of the holy abbot Lautenius (2 Nov.), the commemoration of the dead (2 Nov.) etc., and the days of dedication of the basilica of 15 Feb. and 25 Oct. (for the liturgical manuscripts, cf. A. Wilmart, Manuscrits liturgiques de C., in DACL, III, II, cols. 2074-92; for the calendar, cf. V. Leroquais, Les Bréviaires mss. des bibliothèques publiques de France, I, Paris 1934, pp. CIV-CVII). On the division of the psalms, the votive Masses, etc., cf. G. de Valous, I, p. 414 ff. Characteristic signs of the piety of the classical age of C. are: solemnity, display, long duration of the functions, love for the psalms, but above all the "piety of the Mysteries" in the Opus Dei and in their annual cycle. Particular devotions (Holy Cross, Mary Most Holy, day of the dead) burst forth impetuously. On the other hand St. Bernard begins the movement opposed to these forms of piety, counterposing to the "Cluniac decorum" the "affective impulse." C. and the monasticism of the time thus elaborated in their customs the common foundation of the liturgical prescriptions of Benedict of Aniane in an opposite manner (cf. on this K. Hallinger, chap. 5, pp. 632-716).

BIBL. GENERALE: Fonti: 1. Narrative: Giovanni di Salerno, Vita Odonis: Pl. 133, 43-89; cf. E. Sackur, in Neues Archiv., 15 (1889-90), pp. 105-16; Odilo, Vita Maioli, in Acta SS. Mai, II, Parigi 1866, pp. 683-88; Nalgod, Vita Maioli, ibid., pp. 657-683; cf. E. Sackur, in Neues Archiv., 12 (1886-87), pp. 503-516; id., ibid., 16 (1890-91), pp. 180-81; W. Schultze, ibid., 14 (1888-89), pp. 545-64; L. Traube, ibid., 17 (1891-92), pp. 402-407; Jotsaldus, Vita Odilonis: Pl. 142, 897-940; cf. E. Sackur, in Neues Archiv., 15 (1889-90), pp. 117-26; id., ibid., 24 (1898-99), pp. 728-35; Gilo, Vita Hugonis, ed. A. L'Huillier, Vie de s. Hugues, Solesmes 1888, pp. 565-618.

2. Diplomatiche: M. Marrier, Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, Parigi 1614; P. Simon, Bullarium Ordinis Clus., Lione 1680; G. Duckett, Charters and records of C., 2 voll., Lewes 1890; [A. Bernard]-A. Bruel, Recueil des Chartes de l'abbaye de C., 6 voll., Parigi 1876-1904; B. Albers, Consuetudines monasticae, 5 voll.; I. Stoccarda 1900; II-V, Montecassino 1903-12.

Per la biblioteca e l'archivio, cf. L. Niepce, Bibliothèque de l'aurienne abbaye de C., in Revue Lyon, 1881, p. 215 sgg.; L. Delisle, Le cabinet des mrs. de la bibliothèque Nationale, II, Parigi 1874, pp. 458-85; A. Bénet-J. Bazin, Archives de C., Mâcon 1884.

Letteratura: R. Bauerreiss, in LThK, II, pp. 993-97; E. Sackur, Die Cluniacener in ihrer kirchlichen und allgemeingeschichtlichen Wirksamkeit, 2 voll., Halle 1893-94; D. Besunier, Recueil historique des archevêchés, évêchés, abbayes et prierés de France, Parigi 1726, ed. riveduta dai benedettini di Ligugé (Archives de la France monastique, 4), Ligugé 1906, pp. 1-39; Académie de Mâcon, Millénaire de C., 2 voll., Mâcon 1910; Fr. L. Bruel, C. Album historique, ivi 1910; U. Berlière, L'ordre monastique des origines au XIIe siècle, Maredsous 1924, pp. 219-261; J. Virey, L'abbaye de C., Parigi 1924; L. M. Smith, C. in the XI and XII centuries, Londra 1930; L. H. Champly, Histoire de l'abbaye de C., 3e ed., Parigi 1930; J. Evans, Monastie life at C., Oxford 1931; G. de Valous, Le monachisme clunais des origines au XIVe siècle, I-II (Archives de la France monastique, 39-40), Ligugé 1935 (cf. la recensione di L. Kern, in Humanisme et Renaissance, 5 [1938], pp. 467-71); Cottineau, I, pp. 816-25; B. Mahn, L'Ordre cistercien et son gouvernement, Parigi 1945; Ph. Schmitz, Histoire de l'Ordre de S. Benoît, 4 voll., Maredsous 1942-48 (l'opera completa conserra di 6 voll.) e trad. tedesca di L. Râber, 2 voll., Einsiedeln 1947; K. Hallinger, Garze-Kluny, Studien zu den monastischen Lebensformen und Gegensätzen im Hochmittelalter, Roma 1948; A. Chagny, C. et son empire, 4e ed., Parigi 1949.

Cassio Hallinger

IX. RESTORATION OF CLUNY

This attempt at restoration is due to the Benedictine scholar dom Mayeul (in the world Charles Arthur) Lamey, b. at Strasbourg on 17 March 1842, d. at Aosta on 15 June 1903. Ordained priest at Flavigny, diocese of Dijon, on 24 Sept. 1870, he professed on 14 Oct. 1878 at Delle (Alsace), an exiled novitiate of the Swiss Benedictine abbey of Mariastein. At the beginning of 1879 he gathered his companions in the ancient Benedictine priory of Grignon (Côte-d'Or, diocese of Dijon); they were to devote themselves principally to the study of the sciences, especially astronomy, and of the philosophy of nature. Having obtained from Msgr. A. L. Perraud, bishop of Autun, on 24 July 1888, the canonical establishment of the new Cluny, a part of the community of Grignon settled in a small house situated on the site of the glorious abbey of Cluny (11 Sept. 1888). The other part of the community later left Grignon and took up residence (31 Dec. 1893) in the ancient Cluniac priory of Sts. Mayeul and Odilo at Souvigny (Allier). But the sectarian action of the French government against the religious Orders forced, in 1901, d. Lamey and his associates to abandon the two priories and to seek refuge at Aosta, where they revived the 11th-century Benedictine priory of St. Benignus. The war of 1914-18 and the scant recruitment of new members, to which the too narrow and specialized character of their scientific studies certainly also contributed, gradually thinned the promising neo-Cluniac community, so that today it numbers no more than a single monk. By virtue of the Ius postliminii, d. Lamey claimed for his community, despite lively opposition, the Cluniac privileges, among them that of the ancient liturgy.

In its time the scientific work of d. Lamey and his associates was highly esteemed, especially by the Academy of Sciences of France. The results of their scientific and historical research are to be found chiefly in the following periodical publications: Proslogium [from fasc. VIII, 1903; Cluniacense], Bulletin de l'Observatoire de Grignon [from fasc. VIII, 1903; Des observatoires et laboratoires des Bénédictins de l'Observance de C.] pour l'avancement des sciences et de la philosophie de la nature (9 fasc., 1887-1909); Monologium Cluniacense, Bulletin d'histoire, de philosophie, et de théologie des Bénédictins de l'Observance de C., pour le développement de l'intelligence de la Foi et de la Sapience divine (1 vol. of 68 nos., 1891-1903); Echos de C., published to commemorate the ninth centenary of the institution of the Commemoration of the Dead by Odilo (1 vol. of pp. 170, 1898-1901).

A. Pietro Frutaz

X. ART OF CLUNY

1. The basilica and the sacred buildings

The church of the abbey of C. was, without doubt, for the imposingness of its mass, for the beauty and grandeur of its forms, one of the highest architectural manifestations of the Middle Ages. It was composed of two clearly distinct building bodies. A large church with five naves founded by Abbot Hugh in 1089 according to the plans of the canon Hézelon, who had gone to C. to enter the community of those monks, and a sort of vestibule, with three naves, called a narthex, begun in 1220 by Abbot Roland of Hainault. A monumental complex of which the plan published here gives a very clear idea. The primitive church, that of Abbot Hugh, was a large basilica 140 m. long and 35 wide, had five naves and two transepts. The vault of the main nave was fully 35 m. high from the ground, those of the two naves adjacent to it were 18 m. high and those of the other two lesser ones 12 m. from the ground.

The presbyterial zone, which together with the double transept was the most characteristic of the whole construction, culminated in an apse supported by 8 gigantic pillars beyond which ran an ambulatory where 5 radiating chapels opened. The choir contained 250 stalls and in the church there were 20 altars.

A characteristic element of the ancient abbey church of C. were its four gigantic bell towers. The largest, square, rose at the crossing of the great nave with the first transept. It had most imposing structures and in its belfry housed 18 large bells. At the ends of the same transept rose two other bell towers with 4 bells each, octagonal, called respectively of St. Catherine and of the Holy Water. The latter is still standing at the entrance of the Bourbon chapel.

The fourth bell tower, called of the lamps, rose at the crossing of the lesser transept and was likewise octagonal.

The portal of the ancient church, 6 m. high and 3 wide, was adorned with magnificent sculptures as were also the capitals of the eight columns that supported the apse.

This church, having become insufficient for the needs of worship and for the great ceremonies celebrated there, was extended at the beginning of the 13th century with a three-naved construction 35 m. long divided into five bays: a sort of new church added to the primitive one, in turn preceded by a façade flanked by two square towers of which the ground-level structures remain with a grandiose portal more than 8 m. high and adorned with a rose window fully 10 m. in diameter.

From the plan it is clearly revealed how of this gigantic church there remain only the lower structures of the two towers that flank the entrance to the narthex, the bell tower of the Holy Water, the 15th-century Bourbon chapel and the adjacent ones of St. Stephen and St. Martial plus some other space that arose against the great right transept. Very little, and the regret is in a certain way increased by contemplating the precious remains of the primitive construction, above all the admirable capitals of the eight gigantic columns of the choir, fragments of friezes, of columns and of altars of the Romanesque age and a notable series of tombstones and of reliefs and sculptures with the emblems of the artisans of C. These remains, to be considered among the cornerstones of French Romanesque sculpture, are today gathered in the museum housed in the ancient section of the abbatial palace built by John of Bourbon, while in the other section, due to Abbot Jacques d'Amboise, is the town hall of the city.

The two constructions preserve fairly well the original characters which are respectively of the second half of the 15th century and of the beginning of the 16th. To Abbot d'Amboise is also due the complete rebuilding of the Hôtel de C. (end of the 15th century), the Parisian residence of the abbots of C., since 1849 the seat of the museum of medieval antiquities.

Another ancient building that rises next to the remains of the abbey church is the so-called palace of Pope Gelasius, who in 1119 died at C., in a building later transformed by the addition of an elegant Gothic façade by Abbot Bertrand de Colombier (1295-1308). The palace, which had undergone transformations in the time of Card. Richelieu, was rebuilt in its façade in Gothic forms during the 19th century.

The abbey church of C. was also one of the most important pictorial centers of the Romanesque period in France and its decorations, of which little more than the memory remains, were widely imitated in the other churches of the Order (v. also BENEDICTINE, ART) and above all in those of Auvergne and Burgundy. In the monastery of C. during the 11th century and then in the following ones codices were also written and illuminated that reflected the artistic splendor of the environment in which they had been created. This is testified to by a precious lectionary of the 11th century (Paris, National Library, ms. lat. 2246) decorated with most beautiful miniatures, as well as other codices illuminated on the examples of C. in the abbey of Dijon and in the other monasteries of the Order, above all at Limoges, at Moissac, Figeac, etc.

Impressive for the grandeur and harmony of their structures are also the great abbatial buildings that arose in the 18th century through the work of Abbot Jacques Dathoze, but remained unfinished because of the Revolution. Of particular interest appear the beautiful façade with its unfinished pediments and the ample galleries and porticoes of the cloister, harmonious in their proportions, which develop overall for a length of 700 m. The building, cared for in every least detail, then had in the staircases wrought-iron railings that can be considered among the most beautiful things of that kind of work. Immense too are the gardens with their centuries-old lime trees, among which is famous the one that according to legend would have offered the refreshment of its shade even to the monk Abelard.

The small town of C., despite the destructions wrought there by men and by time, preserves, besides the abbatial constructions that have now been recalled, a series of interesting buildings that confer on it a particular character. Of the three ancient parish churches, that of St. Maiolus, whose origin goes back to the 10th century, is completely in ruins, but of the other two, that of St. Marcellus, built around 1159, still preserves a beautiful Romanesque bell tower, and the other of Notre-Dame keeps evident its character as a building begun during the Romanesque age and continued during the 13th century in Gothic style. Also to be remembered are the chapel of the hospice of St. Blaise (15th century) which was reserved for foreigners, the bridge de la Levée, and numerous houses where the characters of the Romanesque age are still evident.

Emilio Lavagnino

2. Architecture of C

In the period of the greatest splendor of the Cluniacs, while the mother church of the Order is being renewed (whose high altar Urban II consecrated in 1095), in the principal European countries abbeys arise that attest to its diffusion (in France that of Moïssac; in Italy that of St. Antimus near Siena and of Cava dei Tirreni; in Spain, particularly in Navarre).

It is still a matter of controversy whether the Order's vast building activity gave rise to particular architectural forms: Rivoira denies it, limiting the work of the Cluniacs to the reworking of schemes derived from the Lombards; Michel and Bertaux maintain it, emphasizing its importance. Between the two tendencies Toesca concedes that this movement did in fact contribute elements of its own to architecture. These are to be sought particularly in the arrangement assumed by certain parts in the churches of the Order, in which the existence of a narthex is sometimes noted, and in which the development of an ambulatory around the choir, from which deep radial chapels project, is characteristic; and also in the decoration, which is richer and of unusual forms, especially in the capitals.

These new elements and characteristics also influenced contemporary religious buildings, among them the cathedrals of Acerenza and Aversa, St-Sernin in Toulouse, St. Martial in Limoges, and the shrine of St. James of Compostela. The Cluniac architectural current, however, was short-lived in the face of the prevailing of the new Cistercian forms, which would mark the decisive transition to the Gothic. - See Pl. CXXII.

Mario Zocca