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THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

THE EARLY HISTORY

OF THE

MONASTERY OF CLUNY

BY

L. M. SMITH

SOMERVILLE COLLEGE, OXFORD

HUMPHREY MILFORD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE

CAPE TOWN BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS

SHANGHAI PEKING COPENHAGEN

I 920

NO

4 no

72 «7

PREFACE

Although the importance of the monks of Cluny in the social, political and religious life of the tenth and eleventh centuries has been universally acknowledged, there has been no book in English dealing with the history of the monastery Furthermore, in general histories, English, French, German and Italian, two misconceptions on the subject of Cluny had grown up: (1) that the Cluniacs were highly ascetic and uncompromising members of the Benedictine order; (2) that the Gregorian tenets originated at Cluny,^ and were pro- mulgated by the Cluniacs who thus prepared the way for Gregory VII. From that standpoint the present writer began her work on Cluny, but on going to the original sources could find no evidence in support of either theory — a conclusion she put forward in an article published in the English Historical Review.

The theory that Gregory VII. was a monk at Cluny is no longer tenable ; while Martens in his remarkable book on Gregory VII. maintains that the theocratic doctrine originated with Hildebrand himself, and was developed, not by the monks, but by a small group of ecclesiastics within the secular Church. The fallacy of the first theory was exposed by Sackur in his Cliiniacenser in ihrer kirchlichen und allgemeingeschiichtlicheii Wirksamkeit. Sackur, however, is in- terested in tracing the work of the monastic groups which emanated from or were influenced by Cluny, rather than in the history of the monastery itself It therefore seemed to

vi THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

the present writer that there was room for original work on the subject ; for that work the storehouse of facts is the Recueil des chartes de Cluny published in Bruel's five volumes, which, as far as she knows, have not hitherto been worked over in detail.

As grantee, scholar and fellow, she wishes to acknowledge her indebtedness to the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, and to express her thanks to Miss Duffy and the Rev. J. Richards for having read the proofs of this book.

L. M. S.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Original Authorities

Adalberonis Carmen. Annales Benedict!, iii. Baluze, ii. Benedict! Chron. Benedicti Regula.

BolL AA.SS. April II., May II., Sept. III. Bouquet, ix., x.

Bruel. Recueil des chartes de Cluny, i.-iv. Destr. Farf. Flodoardi chron., iii. Gall. Christ, ii. Gesta abb. Gemblac. Gesta episc. Tull. Havet. Lettres de Gerbert. Joannis XIX. papae epist. Labb^. Concilia, viii., ix. Mabillon. Ann., v. Mabillon. AA.SS., v. Mabillon. Vetera Analecta, ii. Mansl Concilia, xix. Marrier. Bibl. Clun.

Migne. Pat. Lat, 103, 132, 133, 139, 141, 142, 159. Miracula sci Mansneti. Miracula sci Benedicti, Miracula sci Gorgon iL Mon. Germ. Script. Pertz, vii., viii., xiii. Mon. Germ. Hist. Sickel, i., ii. Udalricus Consuet. Clun.

Vita anonynia Odonis, Bibl. Nat. Paris, 5566. Vita Halinaixii. B GL ^v

Vita Joh. Gorz. 1 I f^ 7

vii ^ - r-

.Sfe5

viii THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

Modern Authorities

Butler. Benedictine Moiiachism.

Dresdner. Kultur und Sittengeschichte der ital. Geistliclikeit. Grutzmacher. Die Bedeatimg Benedict von Nnrsia und seiner Kegel. Grandidier. Histoire d'Alsace.

Huberti. Studien zur Rechtsgeschichte der Gottesfrieden. KlucivHOLM. Geschichte der Gottesfrieden. Lavisse. Histoire de France, ii. 2. Neiies Archiv, vii., xv. Pignot. Histoire de Cluni.

Pfister. Etudes sur le regne de Robert le Pieux.

Sackur. Die Cluniacenser in ihrer kirchlichen und allgemeingeschlicht- lichen Wirksamkeit.

CONTENTS

CHAP. HAOE

I. Introduction — Early AVestern Moxasticism . . 1

11. Origins of Cluny — Berno, first Abbot . . 9

TIL Odo, second Abbot of Cluny — Early Life — Customs

AT the Monastery of Baume — Building of Cluny 1 7

IV. Fleury . . . . . . . 39

v.. Papal and Royal Charters granted to Cluny — Gifts

TO Cluny . . . . . .47

VL Odo's reforming Activity — Reform in Upper Lorraine 56

VI I. Odu's last Years and Death — His Writings . 68

VIII. Odo's Character . . . . .78

IX. Aymardus, third Abbot of Cluny — His Blindness and

Death — Gifts to Cluny . . . .88

X. Maiolus, fourth Abbot of Cluny — Early Life — Rela- TroNs with the Saxon Emperors — Refusal of the Papal Chair — Maiolus and Fleury — Death . 100

XI. Maiolus' reforming Activity — Gifts to Cluny . 114

XII. Maiolus' Character — Miracles . . .130

XIII. Odilo, fii-th Abbot of Cluny — Early Likk — Relations with Popes and Emperors — Royal Charters to Cluny . . . .143

XIV. Attack on Ci.uny by feudal Lords — Strife wuh the

Episcopate — Satire of Adalbero of Kheims . 155

ix

X THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

(HAP. PAGE

XV. Cluny and the Peace Movement — Pax Dei and Treuga

Dei — All Soulh' Day . . . .170

XVI. Increase of Cluniac Influence — Cluniacs in Spain —

Gifts to Cluny . . . . .185

XVII. Odilo's Death — Character and Miracles . . 199

INDEX . . . . . . . .221

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION — EARLY WESTERN MONASTICISM

More than a thousand years ago, on the site of duke William of Aquitaine's hunting-lodge, the little monastery of Cluny was founded, an event that seemed of such small importance that the founder hesitated to turn out his hunting dogs in order to make room for the monks. Yet in less than two hundred years the name of that small monastery had become famous throughout Europe, and Cluny head of an international system ; where onee the monks had built their wooden houses ' according to their skill and knowledge ' arose a new and famous school of architecture ; where once the modest building had been retarded through lack of funds, rose the church of St. Peter, the admiration and wonder of the world ; where once the dogs had barked, echoed the stately ritual of the most famous musical centre of Europe ; and on the site of the former hunting-lodge rose a monastery so extensive in size, that St. Louis of France and his courtiers could stay there without one of the monks having to leave his cell. Cluny, once a tiny vill, hidden in the black valley, had by then become an international meeting-place better known than Paris itself.

But all these things had been added unto her. Cluny's chief work, a work which made her known as the spiritual head of Europe and her monks renowned as the savers of souls, lay in the reform she inaugurated, the spiritual enthusiasm she reawakened in monastic life, and the establishment of one uniform and universal rule in the monasteries of the West. This was no mean achievement, for society had been overturned by the invasions of the barbarians, and the monasteries, defence-

1 B

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less and rich, had been one of the chief objects of attack. There were monasteries to be rebuilt, restored, refounded, and, above all, to be brought under one rule.

It is very fitting that the pied-d-terre of the Cluniac abbots at Paris should have been built next the ruins of the thermae and palace of the Roman Emperors, for Cluny stood for the con- tinuance of the old Roman tradition in the regular church, as against the Teutonic element. The Roman monastery had been a community possessing certain rights. The monasteries built or organised under Teutonic influence were rather the appanages or possessions of the founder and his relatives, the Roman idea being too abstract for the ignorant feudal baron to grasp. To the latter the monastery was another form of property which might be inherited, given away, split up, and divided according to the founder's wish, monasteries being held by seven or eight owners much in the same way as a fief. It followed from this that the right of electing an abbot was often claimed by the founder, and delegated by him to his descendants and relatives. St. Benedict, on the contrary, had laid down that freedom of election belonged to the monks. In consequence of the feudal- ising tendency the monk regarded his abbot somewhat in the light of a feudal chief. The vows he made on entering the monastery he made in the presence of the abbot, on whose death he felt himself free to leave the house. ^ Having dedicated his life voluntarily, the monk of the Teutonic school still felt that he remained an individual, with a right to his individual will and judgement. This was against the Roman principle strenuously upheld by the Cluniacs, i.e. the monk once a monk was a monk for life and one of a permanent community. His will had passed into his abbot's keeping.

In the Teutonised system, no one rule was accepted as the standard for the Empire. The founder could exercise his indi- vidual preference among the many rules, i.e. from the more

^ It was quite usual for a monk to pass from one house to another. St. Benedict put an end to this by introducing the vow of stabiHty.

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 3

ascetic Eastern to the more moderate Western.^ Nor when a rule was once adopted were its tenets rigorously adhered to, again a consequence of Teutonic individualism. To the free Teutonic spirit, to the rough feudal lord, who at the end of a life of hard fighting founded or retired to a monastery, the monotony of regular discipline, however moderate, must have, proved very irksome, and voluntarily to follow that discipline an idea almost beyond his comprehension. Hence abuses crept in, such as are mentioned in the Vita Odonis, e.g. change in the hour of matins that the night's rest should not be broken, richer and warmer clothing, ^ occasional changes from fish and vege- tarian diet, holiday visits to friend and family, no fixed rules as regards fasting — the zealot being allowed to fast more, the indifferent less. All these points, which sometimes seem to be given an exaggerated importance in the Vita, yet fall into their places as the outward and visible signs of that larger significance, i.e. the maintenance of the Roman ideals of discipline and uni- formity, as against the Teutonic ideal of individualism. This' was the more important in that the monasteries were coming under the influence, not of the finer elements of the age, but of the reactionary tendencies of the feudal baron.

Before the Teutonic spirit could attain the old Roman ideal a long training was required. The Roman spirit stood for dis- cipline, for the recognition of abstract rights, for the community. This was the training Cluny was to give, and the work Cluny was to do, i.e. to bring back to monasticism the ideals of discipline, uniformity, and obedience, a work successfully inaugurated by the greatest of her abbots. ' After Benedict and his disciple Maurus may come as the chief restorer of the monastic order in Gaul, and a distinguished reformer of the

1 The best -known were those of Antony, Pachomius, Basil, Macarius, Aiirelian, Cassian, Bonatus, Cacsarius of Aries, rolunibanus, all of which were more severe than the Benedictine.

- St. Benedict allowed his monks eight hours' sleep on end for the greater part of the year, but they had to rise at 2 a.m. for matins. He also allowed for the climate and permitted warmer clothing than the Egyptian rules.

4 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

rule, Odo ; Odo, tlie first father of the order of Cluny who took up the task of renewing the dead and almost forgotten fervour of monastic life.' ^

The rule which the Cluniacs followed was the Benedictine,^ and one result of their work was to establish it throughout the West. It was eminently suited for their reform, in that it was not rigid and that it held up a standard of life attainable by the many. Unfortunately, little or nothing is known of the early history of this rule which had not been able to compete with older and better-known rules, and before the seventh century had received little or no recognition outside Italy.^ In the South of Europe the rule of Caesarius of Aries had been generally adopted, in the North that of Columbanus of Luxeuil. Before the Benedictine could triumph, it required influential supporters. When Gregory the Great sent Augustine to England, he entrusted him with a letter addressed to the clergy of Gaul, advocating the adoption of the Benedictine rule. Little more is known about the rule till we find Charlemagne attempting to revive it in pursuance of the reform begun by Boniface and Pippin. He sent to Monte Cassino to have the rule copied and brought to Aachen. Not that the monastic movement per se owed much to Charlemagne, for his object in supporting it was educative rather than religious. He valued monasticism mainly for the opportunities it afforded for study, and the monasteries as a training ground for scholars whom later he might employ at his court, and in carrying on the administration of his empire.*

^ Marrier, Bibl. Clun. p. 58, Veniat post magnum Benedictum et eius dis- cipulum Mauriim, summus ordinis monastici in Galliis reparator, precipuus regulae reformator, Odo. Odo, inquam, primus Cluniacensis ordinis pater qui emortuum iam et pene ihique sepultum monastici propositi fervor em resuscitare suo conamine aggressus est (Peter the Venerable's address to the priors and subpriors of Cluny, c. 1140).

2 Sci Benedicti Regida, 116, Constituenda est erga nobis dominici schola servitii In qua institutione nihil asperum, nihil grave nos conslituturos speramus.

^ Grutzmacher, Die Bedeutung Benedict von Nursia u seiner Kegel.

* Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, ii. p. 573. Charlemagne did not allow the rule to be followed in at least one point, viz. free election of the abbots by the monks: only four monasteries in Germany, Lorsch, Fulda, Hersfeld, St. Gumbert, were granted this privilege.

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 5

There was thus a wide field of work for the first purely monastic reformer who should arise, and he came in the second Benedict, Benedict of Aniane. He, however, began his career as an opponent of the Benedictine rule which he spurned, despising it as fit only for novices and weaklings. ^ ' He himself afflicted his body with the most rigorous fasts, and for so long left it unwashed that he resembled a beast rather than a man.' To his first religious fervour the Eastern rules alone seemed to reach a fitting height of asceticism, and he despised the Bene- dictine rule just because it held up a standard of life possible to the many. In time he learned to value it for this very reason, and to take it as his standard of reform.

Benedict had taken his vows at St. Sequanus', Dijon, where he remained for five years, till the brothers wished to make him abbot. Foreseeing the impossibility of turning the laxity of his fellow-monks to the strict observance of the rule, he fled to his boyhood's home. There, near the little river Aniane, he built on his father's land a cell, nucleus of the monastery later to become so famous, where, surrounded by a few friends, he strove to enforce a regime in which religious contemplation and hard work were the ideals. That interest in reading and literary work which Charlemagne and Alcuin had fostered, was dis- couraged. Special importance was laid on manual labour, the monks themselves having to till any land they acquired. Extreme simplicity and even bareness characterised the architecture of church and monastery, the consecrated vessels being made of wood, and beauty avoided as a sin. The observance of the rule was so strict that only the strong could endure. Never- theless the numbers grew, and three times Benedict found it necessary to extend the monastic buildings. The third time the severe simplicity of the earlier buildings w^as abandoned, and the monastery, which arose in pomp and splendour, was placed under the imperial protection.

Benedict instituted singers, taught readers, assembled gram-

^ The first St. Benedict himself called the rule minima inchoationis regula.

6 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

niarians skilled in the knowledge of the Scriptures, and collected a great number of books. Giving his heart to the investigation of the Benedictine rule, he went round the monasteries, ques- tioning the learned on those points in which he was ignorant, and studying all the other rules he could find. By 813 his ren- dering of the rule was followed in the most important of the Burgundian monasteries. In Aquitaine Louis the Pious placed the monasteries under his direction, and these he visited and reformed with great activity.^

On Charlemagne's death the reform received new impetus from Louis the Pious, an ardent supporter of the movement. His first care was to call Benedict to the centre of the empire to Maurmiinster, in Alsace. Later, that he might have him nearer his own person, he summoned him to Aachen, where two hours' journey from his palace the new and splendid monastery of St. Cornelius arose. This was to be the model monastery for the kingdom, though only numbering thirty monks.

With the imperial support Benedict's work prospered. Appointed by the emperor over the monasteries of the kingdom,^ he (as the Cluniacs later) laid down the principle that uniformity of custom was to be strictly observed in the reformed houses,^ differences which had hitherto been allowed to exist being ruthlessly suppressed.

In 816 a council of prelates was held at Aachen, when it was decreed that all monks should follow the Benedictine rule. A few months later (817) Louis summoned the abbots from all parts of the empire, and Benedict sat with them for several days,

^ Hauck, ibid. Two of the points on which Benedict laid especial stress were zealously promulgated later by the Cluniacs : (1) the monk was to speak no superfluous word ; (2) he was to bear himself with extreme humility before his abbot ; at the name of God he was to throw himself prostrate on the ground, at the name of his abbot to bow the knee. Hoping to sever connection with), y y the world, Benedict forbade his monks the use of their mother tongue. J

2 Migne, Pat. Lat. 103, Vita Benedicti Anianensis, cap. 50, Prefecit eum imperator cunctis in regno suo cenobiis.

^ Ibid. 50, Et una cunctis generaliter posita observatur Regula, cunctaque monasteria ita ad formam unitatis redacta sunt. . . . Uniformis mensura in potu, in cibOf in vigiliis, in modulaiionibus cunctis observanda est tradita.

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 7

' discussing the first principles of the rule, elucidating obscure and doubtful points, abolishing previous errors, and confirming useful and effective customs '.^ As a result the Aachen capi- tulary was drawn up, accepted by the abbots, and ratified by the emperor. The capitulary, which may be called a modified version * of the Benedictine rule, was to be the standard of monastic life within the empire. Inspectores were appointed by the emperor to see that it was enforced. Free election of their abbots was assured to the monks. Taken as a whole, the characteristic of the Aachen resolution was the reaction against what Charlemagne had made of monasticism, and a return to the earlier ideal, i.e. asceticism before culture.^

The rule was not rigid. Benedict continued to seek out and question those skilled in its precepts, and in especial those who had been at Monte Cassino. Various considerations led him to admit or reject certain points, and where the rule was silent or obscure he supplemented it fitly and rationally.^ He then wrote the Codex Regular U7n, a collection of all the rules prior to St. Benedict's. Working over it he next wrote the Concordia Regularum, a commentary on St. Benedict's rule, written to show the contentious ' that the first Benedict had not tampered with the rules of his predecessors but had relied on them '.*

^ Ibid. 50, Regulam ab integro discutiens cunctis obscura dilucidans, dnbia 2mtefecit, priscos errores abslulit, utiles consneludines affectusque confirmavit . . . assentientibus cunctis . . . capitularem institutum.

^ Hauck, ii. 582 et seq. Each monk was to make himself acquainted witli every word of the rule. In order to make it suitable for the climate of Gaul and Germany the monks were to wear thicker and warmer clothing and to have more food, which of course the first Benedict had permitted. Manual labour, which had been rejected in many monasteries, was reintroduced. There was no mention of theological studies, and the monks were forbidden to keep schools except for the oblati.

^ Migne, ibid. 51, Nonnulla praecipit quae aut propter concordiam unitalis aut certe propter observantiam honestatis, seu propter coyisiderationem fragilitatis admittuntur. . . . Si qua nempe minus lucide pagina Regidae pandit, aut omnino silet, rationabiliter apteque instil u it atque suppleiit.

* Ibid. 53, Fecit denique librum ex regulis diversorum patrum collectum ita ut prior B. Benedicti Regula cunctis esset . . . quem ad collectam matutinam legere iussit. Ex quo rursus ut ostenderet contentiosis nulla frivola cassaque a Benedicto edita fore, sed suam ex aliorum fultam esse Regulam ; alium collectis

8 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

With a^ enthusiastic reformer and a prince ready and anxious to support him, the work of reform went on apace. In his last years Benedict was unweariedly active in visiting and reforming the monasteries of the kingdom. On his death- bed he could rejoice at the extent of the work accomplished. The monks of St. Cornelius praised him as the man who had given back the Benedictine rule to Gaul. Nevertheless Benedict was perhaps too narrow in his outlook to carry through a universal reform. Laying over-much stress on single points, he did not see deep enough into essentials.^ That he succeeded as far as he did was largely due to the imperial support without which the movement would have collapsed after his death (821). By 829 Louis had again to call the bishops' attention to the reform, and exhort them to further it.

His zeal, however, like that of the many, waxed faint. Later it was the bishops who had to remind him that the monks had been confirmed in the right of free election of their abbots. More and more the monasteries fell into lay hands, abuses crept in, and ' by the end of Louis' reign there was as little strict observance of the rule as there had been at the beginning '.^ Then in Gaul came fresh incursions by the Northmen and Huns which prevented the development of peaceful monastic life. By the end of the ninth century only in isolated and rare com- munities did the observance of the Benedictine rule survive. It was in one of these, the little monastery of Baume, that the founder of Cluny's greatness received his training.

Regnlarum, sententiis composuit librum . . . cui nomen concordia Regularum . . . dedit ita duntaxat ut B. Benedicti praecederet sententia, eo vero rationabiliter con- venientes lunger entur. Hugo Menardus, who edited the Concordia (16.38), gives a list of 26 rules from which it was composed.

^ Hauck, ibid. iii. 591.

' Ibid.

CHAPTER II

ORIGINS OF CLUNY — BERNO, FIRST ABBOT

In the life of St. Hugh of Autun ^ there is a story ^ which links the origin of Climy to the mother of Western monasticism, Monte Cassino. In the sixth century certain distinguished men of Gaul, moved by God and the love of holy religion, sent messengers to St. Benedict begging him ^ to send monks from Monte Cassino to Gaul as instructors in the regular discipline. Benedict sent twelve monks, one of whom was his best beloved Maurus. They came to Anjou, where they founded the monastery of Glanfeuil, over which Maurus was made abbot. Under his direction the monastery prospered exceedingly. Its numbers increased, till an incursion by the Northmen forced the monks to flee farther south, where they settled at St. Savin's, Poitiers, and again by their zeal caused monastic life to flourish. St. Savin's became a model monastery which the kings of Gaul delighted to favour. Inspired by their example a certain Badillo was moved to emulation, and resolved to restore the ruined abbey of St. Martin, Autun. Having done so, he sent to St. Savin's and persuaded eighteen of the monks to settle in his new monastery, Hugh, who later became abbot, being amongst their number. Under Hugh's fostering care fruit a hundredfold was brought forth. From far and near men flocked to take their vows at St. Martin's. At this time monastic life was almost dead in Gaul, and the state of the few monasteries which had

1 AA.SS. Boll., Apr. II. cap.i . 3.

2 Rodulf Glaber (eleventh century) gives the same story. That St. ]\raur ever came to Gaul has been disputed.

' Vita Hugonis: Ut monachile institutum quod pene in illis j^cirtibus anmd- latiim deperierat aliquatenvs reforwnre saiagerent.

9

10 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

survived amidst the ruin and desolation caused by the incursions of the Northmen, a scandal. Of all the monasteries of Gaul that of Baume was the most lacking in regularity of life. The monks of St. Martin were asked to reform it, and sent thither Berno, who later became its abbot. With his name comes the connection of Baume with Cluny. Not only did Berno restore regularity of discipline at Baume, but also with his co-operation ^ duke William of Aquitaine founded the monastery of Cluny, over which Berno was appointed abbot. Thus the chain runs from Monte Cassino to Glanfeuil, from Glanfeuil to St. Savin's, Poitiers, from St. Savin's to St. Martin's, Autun, from St. Martin's to Baume, and hence to Cluny.

This information about Berno conflicts with that given in the anonymous life of Odo.^ There we are told that Berno, scion of a distinguished and wealthy Burgundian house, despised the luxuries of this world, preferring to follow the precept of the Gospel and to lay up his treasure in heaven. Therefore, helped by his relative Laufinus,^ he built the monastery of Gigny on his own land, and dowered it with no small riches. Monks settled there, and after a time Berno could rejoice that his prayers had been heard. The monastery stood forth an example of all that was best in monastic life. He endowed it with all his possessions, and himself took vows.

Later, when perfected in the rule, he, at the request of the monks and nobles of the district, became abbot. So prudently and well did he rule that his fame spread. He was asked to take over and reform Baume, a monastery said to have been founded by Columbanus himself, but which had lost both religious and temporal prosperity. Under Berno, its former reputation for holiness was restored.

These two accounts are contradictory, though they agree

1 Bruel, Recueil des chartes de Cluny, i. 285, Quod Wilhelmus quoddam monasterium Cluniacum per manus Bernonis construxit. Cf. 253, 269.

2 Discovered by Sackur, Bibl. Nat. Paris, 5566, fol. 21.

^ Gigny . . . a te tuoque consobrino nomine Laufino (Migne, 129, p. 845, Formosi papae privilegia).

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 11

in the most important particular, that the reform of Baume was undertaken by Berno. The first account makes the reform emanate from St. Martin's, Autun, from which monastery the monk Berno was sent to reform Baume ; the second makes it emanate from Gigny, which was founded by Berno when still a layman. The evidence of later charters rather supports the second authority, for they show that Baume was dependent on Gigny. Also certain principles upheld at Gigny were later adopted at Baume and Cluny. Berno, when he proceeded to Rome (894) to have the charter of Gigny confirmed, placed the monastery under the protection of the papal see.^ Its liberties were assured. The monks were free to choose their abbot,^ and were not to pay tenths (conditions which obtained both at Baume and Cluny later).

Unfortunately very little is known of the history of Gigny, which Berno seems to have left after taking over the direction of Baume. From the latter monastery he evidently exercised his authority over Gigny. At Baume his connection w^ith duke William of Aquitaine arose ; for William's retainers often visited the little monastery of Baume, and ever brought back to their lord reports of the abbot's excellent rule and adminis- tration. William, who had decided to found a monastery, felt he could not do better than consult Berno on the subject. He asked the latter about a site, but to his dismay the abbot fixed on Cluny, the favourite hunting-ground of the Duke, nay on the hunting-lodge itself.

' Impossible,' William replied, ' I cannot have my dogs removed.' Jocularly the abbot answered, ' Drive out the dogs,

^ Ibid., Ideo suggessistis nostro apostolatiii ut aj)ostolici nostri privUegii illnd sanctione muniremus . . . confirmamvs, munimus el in perpetuum sub hire et dilione atque potestate B. Petri et nostra confirmatum stabilimus. . . . Ut yiulli homini quaynlibet dignitatem fiilcito licitum sit, aid etiam de ipsis donatoribus quamcunque vim aut aliquam oppressionem ibidem inferre . . . potius firmum et ab omnibus immutilatum citstodiatur ad ius et prolectionem beati Petri.

2 Ibid., Congregatio . . . ex seipsis secundum Deum et regulam beati Benedicti quem idoneum praeviderint concordi vote habent semper eligendi et secundum morem in abbatem sibi praejiciendi.

12 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

and put monks in their place, for thou canst well think what reward God will give thee for dogs, and what for monks.' ^

Struck by these words William ordered the building to begin.

Apart from this legend, the origins of Cluny ^ remain in obscurity. In the three original sources, William's deed of gift, Berno's will, and the Vita Anonyma, no precise information is given about the founding of the abbey.

. The Vita account, which is evidently based on Berno's will, runs as follows. When the success of Berno's reform at Baume was known, the religious and powerful men of the day, not only those living in the neighbourhood but even those from distant parts, being grieved that monastic life had almost perished in Gaul, resolved to place other monasteries under his direction. The famous duke William of Aquitaine gave him the two distant monasteries of Deols and Massay, where he instructed the monks in the regular discipline. Next William gave him property at Cluny where a monastery was to be built, a work which Berno at once began with as much zeal as goodwill. In a short time the walls of the church arose, a habitation for the monks was planned, and no small pains taken for the whole work. But alas, before even the walls of the monastery rose above ground, it was bereft of its master, nay rather of its parent, by the death of the duke, and left a posthumous child. As William died in 918, and the charter of foundation was drawn up in 910, the building could not have proceeded with any great

^ Vita Hugonis, cap. ii. 13.

2 Both the royal charters (anno 927) mention Berno as having built the monastery. (1) Quod Wilhelmus quoddam monaster ium Cluniacum per manus Bernonis construxit. (2) Quod a Wilhelmo per manus Bernonis constructum est. The vill Cluny was given to the bishop of Macon in 802. He gave it and another vill to the count of Macon in exchange for 3 vills (Bruel, i. 4, 6). From the count it passed to Ava, sister of William of Aquitaine. She willed it to her brother (893) in exchange for an alod which she was to hold for life. The charter of gift (Bruel, 53) describes Cluny as a vill with churches, chapels, manors, vine- yards, meadows, pasture-land, plantations of trees, cultivated and unculti- vated land, waters and water- courses. All was given to William except twenty serfs. If William had a legitimate son or daughter Cluny was to descend to them.

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rapidity. Even at the date of Berno's will (c. 926) the monastery was not completed.

AVilliam's charter ^ dealt only with the deed of gift, and with his intentions regarding the monastery. Freely he gave to the apostles Peter and Paul the vill Cluny, with cortile, manor in demesne, and chapel, dedicated to the Virgin and St. Peter. Everything belonging to Cluny went with the gift — vills, chapels, vineyards, fields, meadows, woods, waters, mills, serfs, cultivated and uncultivated lands. On the site chosen the monks themselves were to build the monastery according to their skill and know- ledge. ^ There unceasing vows and prayers were to be offered up, so that with deep ardour and quick desire men might find the charm of intercourse with heaven. The Benedictine rule was to be followed. Berno was to be first abbot. On his death the monks were freely to elect their new abbot,^ neither William nor any other person daring to interfere with the election. They were to pay Rome a tribute of ten solidi every five years, and to have the papal protection and guardianship.*

According as the possessions and opportunities of the monastery allowed, hospitality was to be given daily to the poor, needy, strangers, and pilgrims, and the monastery to serve as a perpetual refuge to those who, leaving the world stripped of its goods, and bringing nothing with them but their goodwill, might find in its superfluity their abundance. Notwithstanding this clause we know that Cluny was not richly endowed. It was ' poor in possessions \^ and endowed with but fifteen coloniae.^ Lack of funds brought the building to a standstill,

1 Bruel, i. 112.

2 Ibid., Pro posse et nosse sua, corde et animo pleno locum edijicent.

^ Ibid., Haheant idem monachi potestatem et licentiam quemcumque sui ordinis eligere, nialuerint abbatem atque rectorem, ita ut nee nostra nee alicuius potestatis contradictione contra religiosam electionem impediantur.

"* Ibid., Habeantque tnitionem ipsoritin apostoloriun atque Romani pontificis defensionem.

» Bibl. Chin. p. 9 (Berno's will).

^ Migne, 142 ; R, Glaber, Hist. iii. cap. 5, Quod etiam cenobium in prima nan amplius quam quindecim terrae colonias dicitur in dotem accepisse

. 14 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

a difficulty only overcome by the second abbot's enterprise, backed by the generosity of his friends in Aquitaine.^

The most important clause of the charter, in the light of Cluny's later history, is that which assured its freedom. The monks were subject neither to William, his relations, royal officials, nor any earthly yoke. No secular prince, count, bishop, nor even the pope himself, was to seize their property,^ divide it, diminish it, nor give it to benefit another : nor were they to set an abbot over the monks against their will.^ William called on the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and on the pope, to be guardians and protectors^ of Cluny, and by canonical and apostolic authority to drive from the community of the church, and from eternal life, those who attacked or seized the property which with joyful mind and ready will he had given them. A tremendous curse was called down on any one who violated the charter.^ Thus from its origin Cluny stood for monastic autonomy.

Berno's will gives little additional information. Berno administered six monasteries — Gigny, Baume, the abbey of Aethicens with the cella of St. Lautenus, Deols, Massay, and Cluny.

1 Migne, 133 ; Vita Odonis, ii, cap. 2.

^ Bruel, i. 112, Ut ah hac die nee nostro nee parentnm nostrorum, nee fastibus regie magnitudinis, nee cuiuslibet terren^ potestatis iugo subiciantur idem monachi ibi congregati ; neque aliquis principium seeularium . . . non eoynes quisquam nee episcopus quilibet, non pontifex invadat. . . .

^ Ibid., Non aliquem prelatum super eos contra eorum voluntatem constituat.

* Ibid., Tutor es ac defensor es.

^ Ibid., Primum quidem iram Dei omnipotentis incurrat, auferatque Dens partem illius de terra viventium et deleat nomen eius de libro vitae, fiatque pars illius cum his qui dixerunt Dno Deo Recede a nobis, et cum Dathan et Abiron, quos terra ore aperto deglutivit et vivos infer nis absorbuit, perhennem dampna- tionem incurrat : sortius quoque Judae proditoris Domini effectus, aeternis cruciatibus retrusus teneatur : et ne ei in presenti seculo humanis oculis impune transire videatur, in corpore quidem propria future damnationis tormenta experiatur, sortitus duplicem direptionem cum Haeliodoro et Antiocho, quorum alter acris verberibus coercitus vix semivivus evasit : alter vero, nutu superno perculsus, putrescentibus membris et scafentibus vermibus miserrime interiit : ceterisque sacrilegis qui aerarium domus Dni temerare presumpserunt particeps existat, habeatque archiclavum, totius monarchiae ecclesiarum iuncto sibi sco PaulOf obstitorem et ameni paradisi auditus contradictor em. The final clause, that such sinners shall be compelled by the judicial power to pay a fine of 100 pounds gold, comes as an anticlimax.

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 15

Feeling death near, with the consent of the brothers, he apj)ointed Wido, one of his monks, and his relative, abbot of the first three, and Odo, equally beloved, of the second.^ Some of Gigny's property was given to Cluny, viz. the vill Alfracta, part of a meadow belonging to a certain Simon, and a fourth of the caldariae.'^ In return, the monks of Cluny were to pay Gigny twelve denarii annually in investiture. Berno begged the princes, seniores, and magnates who at the monastery had heard his will read by word of mouth to consent to monasteries, abbots, and monks remaining in that state sanctioned by royal decree, and indeed by apostolic privilege. If, as was not improb- able, strife should arise from within or from without, he begged them to uphold justice and abide by the tenor of his will. There was no injustice in his gift to Cluny, which, left a posthum- ous child ^ by duke William's death and now by his, was still unfinished. Dedicated like Gigny to the apostles Peter and Paul, it was only fitting that the new son should receive a share of the patrimony. Besides, though Cluny was poorer in posses- sions it was greater in numbers,'* — a surprising statement — ; it may be, however, that the monks who were to build the monastery themselves were living at Cluny in temporary huts. Hoping for concord Berno exhorted them to observe uniformity in the manner of life (modus conversationis) at the six monasteries, if not better at least as well as they had done hithertofore, i.e. as regards ritual, observance of silence, food and drink, and above all the giving up of private possessions.^ If any brother continued pertinaciously in error, the priores of the monasteries were mutually to decide how to correct him.

1 Bibl. Clun. p. 9, Uiiidonem meum consanguinem atque Odonem edaeque dihctiim una cum fratrum consensu mihi succedere delegavi. The last mention of Berno's name as abbot is in a charter dated 926, and the first mention of Odo's in a charter, 927.

^ Caldaria, large vessel in which water was carried to the fire (Ducange).

^ Ibid., Quasi postumus, morte . . . Ouellelnii . . . atque nunc mea imperfectus deseritur.

* Ibid., Et eerie pauperior est possessione et numerosa Jraterniiate.

^ Ibid., Unanimitas . . . in psalmodia . . . et insuper in contemptu rerum propriarunif si non melius saliem sicut hue usque fecistis.

16 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

After Berno's death concord did not long continue. Wido, though a signatory to the will, took by violence the property Berno had left to Cluny. This came to the ears of the pope (John X.), who wrote to Rudolf, king of the Franks, ordering the property to be restored (928). Wido argued that Berno's decree was illegal in that he had named no period of time nor persons in connection with the gift. The papal decision was that the monks of Cluny were to hold the land as long as any of those who had taken vows at Gigny lived at Cluny .^ He commended the abbot and monks of Cluny to the king and his fideles who were able to further the abbey's interest. Wido, therefore, gave up what he had taken — Alfracta, an alod, and half a meadow, which were never to be alienated from Cluny unless, a somewhat malicious ending, the monastery and its inhabitants ever returned to canonical or secular life.

From our three authorities all that we know about the origin of the monastery comes to this. The charter of foundation was drawn up in 910. Forthwith the work of building began, but proceeded so slowly that at William's death only the church was finished. The work was then probably left over, so that by Berno's death little more had been accomplished. This delay in building was due to lack of funds. It was only under Odo that the building was zealously undertaken, and through the generosity of his friends in Aquitaine completed.^ This, while putting forward the date of the monastery, renders more intelligible the fact that the royal charter was not obtained till 927, the papal 931.

^ Bouquet, ix. 217, Quod Berno hoc legaliter non fecit pro eo quod terminum temporis ac personarum in illo suo testamento non posuit. Quandiu ex illis monachis qui in Ginniaco professionem fecerunt aut oblati sunt apud Cluniacmn aliquis vixerit. The pope wrote directly to the king to explain the circumstances.

^ Bruel, i. 425 (anno 935 ?). As their common father Berno had dedicated both monasteries to St. Peter, had begged the monks to continue in fraternity and love, and was buried at Cluny, Wido and his domni frntres freely gave up what he had willed. In return they were to receive annually in vestitura wax to the value of twelve denarii.

CHAPTER III

Or>0, SECOND ABBOT OF CLUNY

Though Berno ^ held the title of abbot of the yet unfinished monastery of Cluny, its real history first began with Odo, the second abbot. He it was who laid the foundation of Cluny's future greatness and shaped the course of her later history. Fortunately we are better informed about the circumstances of his life than about the lives of his successors, for Odo had as his biographer his enthusiastic and devoted disciple John,^ whose vivifying love, even across the cold centuries of history, performs the miracle of making his master's figure live.

The details which John gives about Odo's childhood he learnt from Odo himself. Once when abbot and. disciple were travelling together far from the monastery, John ' laid aside his timidity, boldly raised his voice, and did not fear diligently to ask Odo to deign to tell him about his childhood and his monastic life. He, as was his custom, was silent for a little time, then his face moved by emotion, he sighed deeply, and told the story of his childhood,^ his words broken by tears and groans.'

His father was a certain Abbo, different from the men of these * modern times ' in that he was learned in the histories of old, and knew by heart the Novellae of Justinian. He was also

^ Bruel, i. 214, Presidente donino Berone abhate. The date of this charter is uncertain, 917-922. 253, Sacrosanctae el venerabili ecclesiae St. P.P. . . . in villa Cluniaco qiiam abba Berno una cum monachis ad regendurn habere videtur (anno 925). 2G9, Clun. quod monasteriuni iussu ac supplemento W. decenter in P.P. honore sub providentia Bernonis construiUtr (anno 926).

^ Migne, 133, p. 43, Vita Odonis a Joanne.

' It is not known to what part of Gaul Odo's family belonged. In a vision before his death St. Martin appeared to him and granted him leave to return to his own land, Tours, where he was buried. According to the Vila Anonyma he came from Semur. In another passage in the Vita Joanne he is called Odo Aquilanus.

17 C

18 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

familiar witli the Gospel, and was always ready to recite its })re- cepts to those around him. Among his contemporaries he was held in such esteem that from far and near men came to ask for his decision in cases of dispute, assured of his impartiality. A deeply religious man, the vigil of a saint found him ever on his knees. One Christmas as he watched through the still hours of the holy night, he was moved to beseech God ever more and more urgently for the gift of a son, a boon hitherto denied him. His prayer was heard, and his wife Arenberga, though past the age of child-bearing, bore him a son.^ As the boy grew older, often did the father dwell on the story of his birth.

Another story of his childhood Odo later learnt from his father's lips. One day Abbo entered the sejpta cuhiculi and found the baby alone. Fearful of its safety he raised the child in his arms, and confiding him to St. Martin said, ' Oh, gem of saints, receive this child.' He told no one of this incident, but St. Martin did not forget.

A third story presaged the boy's future greatness. He was sent to a ' remote district ' to be educated by a priest, who was one day visited by the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul. They demanded the boy, whom they required for their service in Eastern parts. The priest, terrified at the thought of the parents' anger should the boy be missing, implored the apostles to give up their project. This they consented to do, but only, as they explained, for the moment. The priest hastened to send the boy home.

Then came a change in Odo's life. He had probably been a delicate child, but as he grew to youth he developed such strength and vigour ^ that his father repented of having destined him for an ecclesiastical, and resolved to train him for a military career. His literary studies were brought to a close, and he was sent as a page to the court of William of Aquitaine. There his life

1 Vita ; cf. Bruel, i. 584. This charter states that a brother {germanus) of Odo's gave a church to Cluny (942-53). There is also a story in the Vita about the infant son of Odo's brother.

2 Vita Joanne, i. 8, Strenuum et conspicabilem iuvenew.

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passed in hunting and military exercises ; but this, though it might please his father's pride, was not pleasing to St. Martin, who was not content to have so promising an acolyte escape. In sleep Odo was terrified by visions. Hunting brought him no pleasure, but immense fatigue. It seemed to him that his life was given over to evil. The change from the quiet life in some remote village with the studious priest to the coarse and rough pleasures of the hardy fighting baron must have been most distasteful to the boy's sensitive temperament, all the more if he knew the story of the apostles' visit, and in the quiet fields had thought and dreamed of the service for which they needed him. Very lonely and far away from that service he must have felt, in the court even of so pious a duke as William of Aquitaine, a court thronged by many a hard-living and hard-drinking feudal baron. As the years passed, the life grew more distasteful to him, and when he entered his sixteenth year his sufferings increased so much that Abbo in alarm advised him to follow his example, and to pass in prayer the vigil of each saint. This Odo did, but received no permanent relief. Then one Christmas, as he kept his vigil, he was seized by a passion of self-reproach and fear that his life was not pleasing to Christ. In anguish he poured out his soul to the Virgin. As if in answer a terrible pain in his head tortured him. It passed, but it returned, and for three years after this he was racked with pain, was taken home, and every medical aid of the time procured for him, but with no result. Finally, his father bethought himself that the son's suffering might be a sign from St. Martin, and, marvelling at the business-like spirit of the saint, told Odo the story of his early dedication. Then mournfully and reproachfully addressing St. Martin —

' Behold,' he said, ' what gratefully I offered exactly thou hast required. Truly as is fitting thou art quick to hear our vows, but expensive art thou in business.' ^

^ Ibid. i. 9, Quod grate obtuli exacle requiris. Vere nt decet exaudibilis es in t^oto, sed car us in negotio.

20 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

But here seemed a way of escape to Odo. At the age of nineteen he hastened to Tours, where laying his shorn hair before the tomb of the saint, he vowed himself to his service, and at last received relief from his ])ain.

Becoming one of the canons of St. Martin's, for six years he remained at Tours, second to none in his fervour for the cult of the saint ; always guarding him in his heart, telling of him with his mouth, and imitating him in his life. His fervent love for St. Martin found expression in the three celebrated hymns which at this time he composed and dedicated to the saint.^

At that time Tours, one of the most important towns in Gaul and famous throughout Christendom for the eminence of its saint, could offer every luxury of the day and every kind of dissipation to a young and distinguished clerk. As patron Odo had behind him no less a personage than count Fulc of Anjou, who was only too anxious to introduce him to the wealthy circle of aristocrats who visited Tours ; whither at one time or another, kings, princes, and the most eminent men of the day found their way. Nor for spiritual benefit alone was the pilgrimage under- taken. The religious duty fulfilled, there were open to the new- comer all the pleasures which one of the wealthiest towns of Europe could offer. Not the least luxurious life was that led by the young canons, most of whom were scions of some noble house ; Odo with count Fulc behind him might have lorded it with the best. He seems to have entered into the life with some zest for a time ; for John writes : ' What crowd of magnates surrounded him and what pomp of life was his I prefer not to dwell on lest I should do injury to that poverty which after- wards he followed.' 2 But that life soon palled on him, and he spurned it. Having learnt to despise the glory of the world he longed to live only in God.

His life of the next period was very different. During the day he fatigued himself by reading and during the night by prayer.

^ Ibid. i. 10, Tres hymnos in eius laude composuit 2 Ibid. i. II.

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His reading was not confined to spiritual works. He began to study the poems of Virgil, a study which came to an untimely end. One night in a vision he saw a vase beautiful in form, but full of serpents. Immediately he recognised in the serpents the doctrines of the poets, in the vase the book of Virgil. From this he understood that the right way to slake his intellectual thirst was by Christ alone. Therefore, giving up the study of the secular poets, he turned to the Gospels and prophets. ^

Even here difficulties awaited him, for his zeal in poring over the Scriptures seemed so unnatural to his fellow-canons that they did their best to dissuade him from it.

' Why ', they barked, ' do you do such things ? Why do you want to know about strange writers ? In such study you will waste the flower of your youth. Spare yourself. Leave that unintelligible stuff, and go instead to the psalms.' Odo possessing his soul in patience paid no heed, and continued his studies.

Determined to give himself up wholly to spiritual contem- plation, he retired to a little cell about two miles from the tomb of St. Martin. 2 There for two years he lived a life of poverty, following the Gospel precept and taking no thought for the morrow. During this time his only food was daily a pound of bread and a handful of beans, ' and what is contrary to the Frankish nature, very little drink '. Having read in the rule of St. Benedict that a monk ought to sleep in his clothes,^ and not quite understanding what was meant, he obeyed, and though not a religious, yet bore the yoke of the monk. He never closed the door of his cell. There was nothing within it to steal not even a bed, for he slept on the ground. ' Nevertheless his body was not blackened by contact with the earth, nor his mind weakened by the long continuance of his fast?.' It was perhaps as well for Cluny's mission that its future abbot passed through this phase of extreme asceticism when still a young man.

' Ibid. i. 13.

- St, Martin when bishop of Tours (fourth century) called monks to Mar- moutiers outside Tours, where they lived a hermit-like life. ^ Vita Joanne i. 15, vt dormire debeant vestiti.

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Against so redoubtable an adversary Satan could not but pit his strength. Many and various were the snares he laid for Odo. One night, as he proceeded alone and unprotected to the tomb of St. Martin, the devil sent against him a pack of foxes. Guard- ing only his throat Odo went doggedly forward, till a deliverer appeared in the form of a wolf, wlio not only dispersed his assailants but thereafter became his constant companion.^ Then in several of the manuscripts follows a delightful touch. ' If this story seem incredible to the reader, let him read Jerome's life of the blessed Paul, where he will find that two lions pre- pared the tomb of the saint. If still unconvinced, let him read further the life of Ammonius, whose cell was guarded by two dragons. Or again pope Gregory's life of Jerome where we learn that sometimes a lion, sometimes a bear used to guard his asses.' Scepticism is thus refuted.

At Tours Odo was attracted to the monastic life. Having read the rule of St. Benedict his sole desire from henceforth was to follow its precepts : ' Christ now throwing on the soil that seed which was to bear forth fruit a hundred fold.' It is not surprising that he did not at this time enter a monastery, for the condition of the monasteries in Tours was so scandalous as to revolt a religious mind. At the end of his life Odo's righteous indignation still boiled over at the remembrance of the life led by the monks of Tours. To his love of St. Martin it was as the ' abomination of desolation ' that scandal should ever have touched the saint's holy places. To his attentive disciple John he described those evil days when the monks began to follow their own desires, live corrupt lives, and give up monastic customs. ^ They would wear no longer the monastic habit, but paraded about in coloured garments, wore flowing cowls and tunics, and even covered these with a cloak. Worse still, to be in the height of fashion they wore shoes so coloured and shining that

1 Ibid. i. 14.

^ Ibid. iii. 1, Persistente monastica congregatione aptid eccUsiam beati Martini Turonis coeperunt modnm suum. consuetudinesgne relinquere, ac propriis voluntatibvs rifam suam propositumque corrumpere.

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they resembled glass, which they were so afraid of soiling that they would not venture to the nightly Lands, but waited till by the light of day they might pick their steps ! These and similar things they did, defying the rule, but God was to put an end to these evils. One night, when all was quiet, a monk saw two men enter the dormitory, one with a drawn sword in his hand, the other directing him. Pointing out the monks in turn — ' Strike ', the one called to the other, ' here and here.' In time all were numbered, and the sword came nearer and nearer to the watcher till it hovered over him. With a terrible cry he adjured them — ' By the living God slay me not.' Immediately the sword was withdrawn, and of all only he escaped.^

The evil condition of monastic life Odo attributed to the invasion of the Northmen, when many of the Benedictine order returned to the world and its pleasures, and forsaking their monastic communities enjoyed once more family life, and the society of their relatives and friends.^ No longer working together for the prosperity of a particular monastery, they sought to enrich themselves. Tearing up their old garments, and not content with plain new ones, they arrayed them- selves in fine colours. Even the few who remained constant to their profession preferred outside the monastic walls to dress like laymen. The terrible consequence of this one of these monks learnt to his cost. He was sent on business outside the monastery with a companion. Before starting he divested him- self of his habit, an example which his companion virtuously refused to follow. On the journey the first monk was struck by mortal sickness. As the agony of death came upon him, he and his companion saw the vision of a throne on high, where

^ Ibid. When Odo was instructing the young monks in the regular discij)iine he would often tell them of the miserable fate which had overtaken many monks, so as to restrain their youthful temperaments, and guide them like a she])herd by the staff of terror to the joys of heaven. On one such occasion John had asked how and when motiastic life had degenerated and whether it had sunk as low in the rest of Europe as in Italy. In reply Odo told the two stories above. John first met Odo in Rome, and received his training at Pavia (p. 04) - J bid. iii. 2.

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St. Benedict sat surrounded by an innumerable army of monks. Before the throne the dying monk saw himself lie prostrate, beseeching pardon. One of the monks near the throne inter- ceded for him. St. Benedict replied that though he saw a man before him, yet, as he did not recognise the habit, he could do nothing ; it was not within his powers to discuss those of another order, or judge their lives.

. At these words despair seized the dying monk, but in a passion of pity his companion took off his habit and wrapped it round the sinner, whereupon the saint commanded the latter to arise. Awakening from sleep the companion did as he had seen himself do in the vision, and strengthening his friend by prayer, and fortifying him with the holy Eucharist, sent him forth fearless on his last journey.

Such were the incidents which struck Odo most in the life of the monks of Tours, awakening in him the desire to dedicate himself to the work of monastic reform, as the closing words of his hymn in honour of St. Martin showed :

Monastico nunc ordini Jam pene lapso ^bveni.

Meantime his fame had grown steadily. Notwithstanding his desire to remain hidden from the world in his little cell, he became one of the best-known figures at Tours, and to see him a coveted event of the pilgrimage. Those who had known him desired to recall themselves to his memory, and those who did not, sought the privilege of friendship. To all, like a flowing fountain, he offered delectable draughts ; to all, as an open library, he gave fitting example. He admonished and directed all who came to him, teaching one to condemn the world, and another not to covet its goods. He wept with prophetic soul over the evils to come, crying, * Behold, Lord, how is the city which was full of riches made desolate.' The guilty, listening to him, were terrified. The guiltless, strong in innocence, rejoiced at the consolation of his words. Thus he saved many, who to

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 25

show their gratitude wished to load him with gifts which he steadfastly refused. So it was he who, from being a pupil, began to lead his masters, and to be an example to his many followers.^

After a time, disappointed at having his solitude invaded, he betook himself to Paris in order to study. ^ There his teacher in all branches of the liberal arts was Remigius. Having finished his studies at Paris, he returned to Tours. This time the canons regarded his intellectual abilities with greater respect, and asked him to write an abridgement of the Moralia of pope Gregory the Great. Odo refused, feeling that it would be desecration to curtail so great a work. The canons accused him of laziness, ' and there was no small altercation between them daily '. Finally the pope himself descended in a vision and entrusted Odo with the task, when his scruples were removed.

It was at Tours that, through his connection with count Fulc, he made a friendship which was to change the course of his life. Fulc, fallen from grace, had abstracted two golden vases from St. Martin's treasury, and refused to give them back. A mortal illness which attacked him witnessed to the weight of the saint's displeasure. No prayer nor gift could move him to bestow on Fulc the gift of health. In a dying condition the count was carried to the saint's tomb, when Odo went to him and fear- lessly thundered, ' Give back, oh wretch, the vases which thou stolest, then only will St. Martin give thee back health.' Fulc obeyed, and straightway was healed. But to one of Odo's temperament it was not enough to have saved the count's body, he longed to save his soul by winning him to dedicate to God the life which had been miraculously restored to him. Grateful though he was, Fulc tliought this asking too much. He proposed a substitute in his friend Adhegrinus, to whom on return- ing home he told the story of his miraculous healing. Fired by the tale, Adhegrinus hastened to seek the wonder-worker,

1 Ibid. i. 17.

" Ibid. i. 19, Ibiqne dialecticam sci Avgustini Deodato fiUo missam j)er}egit et Martianum in liberalibus artibus frequenter lectitavit.

26 THE MONASTERY OF CJ.UNY

and moved by Odo's words renounced his military career, gave his possessions to the poor, and shaving his head dedicated himself to the service of God. His example was followed by several of his companions, to whom ' suddenly the world stood revealed as a sink of iniquity, and men hastening towards the bottomless hell '. No escape seemed possible except in the monastic life, and straightway they sought throughout all Francia a monastery where they might live the regular life. Unsuccess- ful in their quest they returned sorrowful, to settle in the little huts which in their first religious fervour they had built.^ But the soul of Adhegrinus was not content, and he resolved to go on pilgrimage to Rome. His way lay through Burgundy, where he stopped at the vill Baume, and received hospitality in the monastery of which Berno was abbot. There he found to his joy what he had sought in Francia in vain, a monastery where the regular life was lived, and where he could be received. Having obtained permission to remain and study the customs of the monks, and finding tliem all he could desire, he made known the glad tidings to Odo. The latter, taking with him his library of a hundred books (for he was a learned man), at once set out for Baume. ^ Difficulties awaited him. Some of the monks, ' whose life and morals ', John severely remarks, ' can be judged by the following incident,' came out to meet him, and feigning not to understand his purpose in coming attempted to weaken it. ' Hast thou ', they cried, ' come hither for thy soul's health to join a monastery which we for our souls' health have resolved to flee ? Hast thou not heard of the severity of Berno ? Alas, alas, if thou but knew'st how he treats the monks. His corrections he drives home with the whip, and those whom he whips he binds with cords, he tames their spirits in prison, he afflicts them with fasts, and even after suffering all this, the miserable monks may not obtain mercy.'

^ Ibid, i, 22, Non fuit locus in Franciae finibus ubi audierunt adfuisse monasterium in quo aut per se non issent, aut suos perlustratores non misissent et non invenientes religionis locum inter eos in quo requiescere possent.

^ Ibid. i. 23, Sumptis secum centum voluminibus librorum. . . . Quia erai vir scholasticus.

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 27

Judging from the austerity of Odo's life at Tours, this account of Berno's severity might have attracted him, but this was not so, and trembling he resolved to flee. At that moment his friend Adhegrinus appeared, and vehemently taking up Berno's defence, denounced the speakers. Then, supported by his friend, Odo entered the monastery.

The friends did not remain long together. For Odo one phase of asceticism was past which for Adhegrinus was yet to come. After three years Adhegrinus begged permission to follow the life of a hermit, and retiring to a tiny habitation among the rocks spent in solitude and penance the remaining thirty years of his life. Odo on the contrary found his soul's salvation better to be attained within the monastic community. Having thus brought him to the haven where he would be, and where he was to pass the next fifteen years of his life, we may, like the author of the Vita, turn to consider some of the customs of Baunie which later were followed at Cluny.

Unfortunately the author of the Vita gives little information about those customs, and much of what he tells is concerned with what now seem trivial details. One important fact he does mention, that Adhegrinus found the monks of Baume following the precepts of a certain father whom they called Euticus.^ The account of the latter points unmistakeably to Benedict of Aniane.

Benedict of Aniane did not regard the Benedictine rule as rigid, but modified it as he thought fitting. In what was the chief duty of Benedictine life, the opus Dei, the monks of Baume followed his adaptation of the rule, i.e. the number of psalms and prayers to be said and sung were increased. At Baunie daily 138 psalms were sung, though the number was later reduced

^ Ibid. i. 23, Fvit isdem vir temporibns LtidoHci maqni imperatoris carus regi, omnibns amabilis . . . in tavto amore apud regem li-abitus vt intra palatium. illi construeret monasterium . . . ipse enim pater Euticus inMitutor fuit haruvi cons^ieAudinum quae Jmctenus in nostril tnonasteriis liabentut,-^"^ \

^ v-c? OF ,

BT, MICH ...u.'i

COLLtGfe y ^y

28 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

by 14 because some weak souls objected that it was not fitting for the number of psalms to exceed that of prayers. During the octaves of Christmas and Easter only 75 psalms daily were sung. Every day also two masses were said and two litanies sung.^ The same division was later followed at Cluny. The rule of prescribed hours of silence that obtained at Baume was also followed at Cluny. At certain hours which were called ' incompetent ' no one dared speak within the cloisters, nor walk with another brother. In certain penitential seasons no one was allowed to speak except at the chapter. ^ In the last week of Advent and in Holy Week the deepest silence reigned day and night. On the vigil of a saint the abbot had the right of imposing silence. During prolonged periods of silence the monks either spoke with their fingers, or made signs with their eyes. By these means they could supply themselves with every necessary of daily life. According to John the life of a monk is edifying only if he has practised silence. ' Without that whatever his other virtues, even if he follow all the institu- tions of the fathers, his life is nothing worth.' ^

A third point in which Benedict of Aniane's modification of the rule was followed was in still further increasing the powers of the abbot * and reducing those of the monk. The latter had to give up his own will, and in every trifle submit himself to his abbot. This was carried to such an extent that it has been said that whereas the first Benedict taught the monk to be humble, the second made him cringe. At Baume the monk when accused of a fault threw himself prostrate at the feet of the abbot without attempting any justification. This grace of excessive humility was one in which Odo excelled, to the deep admiration of his biographer, John. One night, in what was a case of necessity, Odo

1 Ibid. i. 22. ^ j^i^ j 31

^ There were many other points which unfortunately John did not insert,

being afraid of wearying the reader.

* Butler in his Benedictine Monachism points out that the first Benedict

vested the sole power over the monastery in the abbot who had full patriarchal

powers (p. 217 et seq.).

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 29

as magister scJiolae transgressed the rule by which he should not have been alone with one of the oblati. Delighted to have caught him trii)ping, several of the monks accused him publicly in the chapter. Odo, attempting no excuse, rose and threw himself prostrate before Berno, who marvelling at his humility, yet wishing to try hira further, feigned deep indignation and con- demned him to ' excommunication '. Not even then did Odo seek to urge the extenuating circumstance, but in a passion of still greater humility prostrated himself before each of his accusers in turn, praying them to seek his pardon. After this he was dearer than ever to Berno.

A charming story illustrates Odo's humility and at the same time one of the customs of Baume. During refection, one of the monks read aloud to his fellows till stopped at the end of the meal by a sign from the abbot.^ Before this moment each monk had carefully to collect and eat his crumbs. Now among the moiiiks there was one — i.e. Odo — who always listened to the reading with such rapt attention that frequently he forgot to eat, for before the spiritual food the earthly lost its savour. One day he was so engrossed that he forgot all about his crumbs. Full of remorse he did not know what to do, for after refection the monks went straight to chapel. He hastily collected the crumbs, joined in the prayers, and after chapel threw himself prostrate before Berno. Asked in what he had sinned he stretched forth his hand full of the crumbs, which in that very moment were changed to pearls ! Great was the admiration and amazement of the brothers. The practical Berno ordered the pearls to be made into church ornaments.

The rule about the crumbs was evidently considered very important. A monk on his deathbed was heard to call despair- ingly for help. He had seen himself before the judgement seat, where the devil, holding a little sack full of all the crumbs he had neglected to eat, stood ready to accuse him. Twice

^ Ibid, i, 35. A change in the rule due to the second Benedict. Originally the abbot took his meals with the guests, but this was found impracticable.

30 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

with a terrible cry the wretched monk shrieked, ' Do ye not see, do ye not see that the devil with the sack is standing among you ? ' then fortifying himself with the sign of the cross he fell back dead. This dramatic end made a deep impression on the brothers. Ever after the crumbs were carefully collected by all.^

Odo also laid great, stress on two other points which Berno before him evidently tried hard to enforce, (1) that no private property should be held by the monks,^ and (2) that no flesh meat should be eaten. When he entered Baume the monks could not believe that he had renounced all his earthly possessions, and sent hira forth with one of their number to fetch them. As a judgement the monk accompanying him fell ill and died.

To Odo the eating of meat was the cause of all fleshly lusts. Two stories from his lips showed what direful punishment would overtake the monk who was disobedient on this point. A monk on a visit to his sister, when offered fish, said he was sick of fish and demanded flesh and wine instead. When this was served he joyfully sat down to eat. His joy was short- lived, for unable either to eject or swallow his first mouthful, ' he lost ', as John quaintly puts it, ' both food and life '. ^ Another monk on a visit home was annoyed to find no food ready. His relatives refused to be browbeaten and explained that it was not dinner-time, whereupon the monk replied that he had not ridden all night on duty to be forced at the end to fast. To appease him he was offered fish, which incensed him the more. Seeing at his feet a brood of chickens, he snatched one up and cried, ' Let this be my fish to-day.' When his friends asked in surprise if he had a dispensation to eat flesh, he casuistically explained, ' Fowl is not flesh, and fowl and

1 Ibid. i. 31.

2 The first St. Benedict regarded this as of the utmost importance. The holding of private property was to him the worst of vices {nequissimum viliiim). The monk was to have nothing of his own, and on taking vows was to give his possessions to the poor, or make them over to his monastery. In practice, however, this was found very difficult. Odo, like Pachomius, foresaw the ruin of monasticism from the holding of private property.

3 Ibid. iii. 3.

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 31

fish have one origin and equal condition, as our hymn bears witness.' Then when the chicken was placed before him, he snatched up a bone. But he too was unable to swallow, and after being unmercifully cudgelled by the onlookers he died.^

During the fifteen or sixteen years that Odo remained at Baume his life probably passed in the quiet routine of con- templation and prayer ; but not in idleness, for in a tantalisingly short sentence John explains that on his arrival at Baume, ' being a learned man, he was made schoolmaster '.^ No further information is given about the Sckola. The pupils were boys probably living at the monastery (oblati), and some of the monks. At that time Odo was thirty years old.^

Peaceful as the life was, friction was not lacking. Odo's virtues made him a prominent figure among the brethren, and this, joined to the fact that he was especially beloved by Berno, aroused the animosity of the reactionary party, those monks who found Berno's discipline too severe, and who had tried to keep Odo from entering the monastery. ' The head of this pest ' was Wido. He with his followers did not cease to oppose Odo, and to hurl false accusations and insults at his head. Each instigated the other to tempt him, even though half afraid that they might themselves be the sufferers, if Odo, more learned than they, should refuse to teach them. Wido, however, knew his man well, and assured his followers that Odo would bear these and worse injuries without any attempt at retaliation. His only weapon against his persecutors was patience, and never

^ Ibid. St. Benedict forbade the eating of flesh meat to all except the sick. But it was always a disputed point whether fowl was to be classed with meat, or with fish as in Genesis. Cf. also the hymn —

Magnae DeuH potent ine Qui ex aqiiis ortum genus Pnrtim remittis gurgiii Partim levas in aera.

^ Ibid. i. 23, Nam patri Odoni quia erat vir scholasticus, laboriosum scholae unposuerufit magisierium. By the Capitulary of 817 Benedict laid down that there should be no schools for outside pupils in the monasteries of Francia, but only for boys belonging to the monastery.

"" Ibid. i. 33.

32 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

attempting justification he flung himself, at each new trial, seeking pardon at their feet. ' This he did not from timidity, but from brotherly love, in the hope that by his patience he might correct those whom he saw incurring the divine vengeance. Checked they were, yet ever like running water they returned to their evil ways, persecuting him whom they ought to have imitated.' After Berno's death these monks returned to the world and came to a bad end !

Apart from this ill-will Odo must have passed his days in p6ace and quiet. Yet he could not be happy when he thought of his parents still enmeshed in the snares of the world. Having obtained permission from Berno he sought out his father, and persuaded him to enter a monastery. His mother took the veil, and later became an eminent abbess. His brother Bernard ^ also took vows after his infant son (still unbaptized) had been carried off by the Northmen. Miraculously saved and restored to Odo's arms, in them the child was baptized and died.^

The name of Odo's mother recalled to John a story which illustrated Odo's feeling about monasticism. Once when absent from the monastery he stayed at the house of a nobleman who was away from home, but whose daughter watched him all evening eager to learn about his life. At night she came to him secretly, and falling at his feet begged him to save her from her approaching marriage. Odo did not know what to do, knowing he would be answerable to God for the girl's soul, yet foreseeing the scandal if he, a monk, dared to take her away. Finally, ' overcome by the love of God and the girl's sobs ', he rode into

1 Bruel, i. 584. Bernardus gave Cluny a church near Lyons : Pro remedio anime mee el amite mee, et fratris mei Odonis abbatis.

^ Vila Joanne, ii. 16. A pilgrim stojDping at the monastery where John wrote, probably Salerno, on his way to Jerusalem long after told the story. The Normans when devastating the land round Tours carried off the child and his nurse eight days' journey from Tours, and across a river too deep to cross except by boat. There seemed no hope of escape. Yet the nurse passed through the ranks of the enemy, crossed the river, and in three days reached Tours, having suffered neither hunger, thirst, nor fatigue. Odo baptized the child and prayed it might die.

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 33

the night, ordering the servants to follow with the girl. Next day he left her in an oratory near Baume,^ ' where noble women were wont to come for prayer '. When he told Berno, the abbot rebuked him for having dared to act on his own initiative. Prostrate on the ground, and clasping Berno's feet, Odo besought pardon. Only after reiterated questioning would he defend himself, saying : ' Oh lord and father, ever from the moment that thou didst deign to receive me, a sinner, I have seen that thy sole care was the saving of souls. Other abbots may study to gain material things and please men. Thou, relying on mercy and virtue, seek'st through the salvation of souls to please God alone. I wished to follow thy example in saving this virgin to the glory of thy name. For although in the end her tears overcame me, yet I was not unmindful of thy reproach, but I had rather suffer the flagellation of my holy father than be held guilty for her soul. And would that I could free all the women bound in the chains of the flesh who live in this province, and thou flagellate me for each in thy pious manner.' ^ Thus he turned aside the anger of Berno, who exhorted him to strengthen the girl daily in holy instruction, lest tempted by the devil she returned to the world. This Odo did, and a few days later took her to a convent near, where not long after she died : saved, as was evident to all, for St. Paul himself came to receive her soul. The next event of importance in Odo's life was his ordination to the priesthood. Knowing that in his humility he would con- sider himself unworthy, Berno asked bishop Turpio of Limoges to ordain him, without telling Odo of his intention. When the bishop arrived, Odo was commanded on his obedience as a monk to receive ordination. So unworthy did he feel himself,

^ Mabillon, Ann. v. p. 08. There were two convents for women near Baume. one founded by 8t. Ronianiis, and situated near the Jura mountains, the other near the river Doubs, in the mountains of Besan -on. Odo refers to one of tliem in the Colhttionc^, iii. 21, when telling of the ]mnishment which overtook two of tlie nuns tliere who returned to the world. J)u(iv sdnrlinioniahs de nionaMerio pucUano)! quod iuxin xo.stnoii Bnhna situm est.

- To Odo as to Augustine marriage itself was wrong. Coll. ii. 204, Si ergo lanta est culpa in coniugali concubitu ut infans pro ilia sola puniri debcot. . . .

D

34 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

that awakening that night and feeling the priest's stole round his neck, he gave himself up to lamentation, and for long through his excessive humility could scarcely summon up courage to go beyond the gates of the monastery. Pitying his misery, Berno sent him to Limoges on a visit to bishop Turpio, a visit which led to the writing of his second book. One day when he and the bishop were discussing the evil condition of the church, Odo taking Jeremiah as his inspiration spoke with such sombre eloquence that the bishop begged him to write his words down. When Odo objected that he could not write without first obtaining his abbot's consent, Turpio himself went to Baume to obtain it. The result was the Collationes?-

Thus in teaching, in study, and in prayer, Odo's life at Baume passed. He entered the monastery when he was thirty. Fifteen or sixteen years later, Berno, feeling his strength fail, summoned the neighbouring bishops to Baume, and divested himself of ' that office of which he a sinner had been unworthy '. Then he ordered the monks to freely choose an abbot. With one accord they named Odo, whom resisting they dragged before Berno. So passionately did he declare himself unworthy, that it required the bishop's threat of ' excommunication ' to make him accept the office. Soon after Berno died (c. 927).

Whatever the contradiction of authorities as to the origins of Cluny, this fact at least is clear, that the monastery, as yet unfinished, came under the headship of the most eminent and virtuous monk of Baume. The seniores followed liim,^ i.e. probably those monks who had supported Berno in his efforts to uphold discipline. Henceforth while Cluny was to increase, Baume was to decrease. The contrast between the histories of the two monasteries shows how much Cluny owed to the per- sonality of her second abbot.

^ Vita Joanne, i. 37, Tres libellos composuit ex Jeremie vaticinio quorum textus per diver sas ecclesias est translatus.

^ Ibid,, ii. 1, Secuti sunt autem eum seniores loci illius.

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 35

Much of Odo's success may be attributed to the fact that he entered on his work as no young unbalanced monk, but as a man tried and trained in the discipline of life. Probably to that fact may be attributed his following the principle of moderation which so largely contributed to the monastery's success ; a principle befitting the times, in which, owing to the almost entire disappearance of monastic life, and the consequent licence, any attempt at discipline, however moderate, was resented. Almost fifty when he became sole abbot of Cluny, and having passed through a phase of severe asceticism at Tours, he was able to judge the evils as well as the merits of excessive devotion, in this resembling the first Benedict.

Apart from the personal character of her abbot, there seemed to be few factors working for Cluny's future greatness. The abbey was poor, and in a land to which many relics had been brought for safety, possessed none to attract popular fervour. Nevertheless in four years, thanks to the exceptional ability and deep spirituality of her abbot, Cluny had become known as a reforming centre. A great future clearly lay before her. For that future her geographical position was in her favour. She lay in the shelter of gently swelling hills, in a part of Burgundy into which neither Normans, Huns, nor Saracens seem to have penetrated. She lay near one of the pilgrim routes to Rome and near the highways of the Saone and the Rhone. More favour- able still was her position for developing her principle of monastic autonomy, situated as she was in a part of Burgundy where independence was possible. For there the authority of both Frankish king and Teutonic emperor was negligible, what semblance of power the one possessed being neutralised by the other. Cluny conveniently distant from both was practically independent of either. Nor had she anything to fear from the dukes of Burgundy, who at this time were occupied in holding back the incursions of the barbarians. Besides there was no reason why any of the three powers should have troubled about the small, insignificant, poverty-stricken monastery, and Cluny

36 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

was left free to develop. Her greatest struggle for independence, that against the attempted domination ^f her diocesan, the bishop of Macon, came after Odo's death.

Odo's first care at Cluny was to go on with the building of the monastery. Even after the work was well in hand the monks saw themselves threatened with disaster through lack of funds. Neither from Baume nor from Gigny was help to be expected. Gloom settled at Cluny. Not in vain, however, had been Odo's fervour in the cult of St. Martin. On the festival of that saint, a day ever to be celebrated with special honours at Cluny, Odo after morning celebration saw a venerable old man regarding the unfinished building. His examination finished, the old man informed the enraptured abbot that he was St. Martin himself, come to tell the monks that if they persevered and their courage did not fail, he would see that necessary funds were sent to them ! A few days after, 3000 solidi were brought as a gift from ' Gothia ' to Cluny, a sum sufficient to avert disaster and allow the monks to continue their labours. ^ Another wonder marked the com- pletion of their work. When the monks had finished the oratory, they asked the neighbouring bishop to consecrate it. On the appointed day, having either forgotten or not having realised the poverty of the brothers, the bishop was seen approaching w^th many followers. Having no provisions to feed so many the monks were in despair, when a huge animal emerged from the forest, and came near the church door, upon which — a realistic touch — the guardian incontinently fled ! Quietly and peace- ably the animal rubbed itself against the door, and remained there till the bishop arrived, when it offered itself a willing sacrifice for the needs of the brothers. They with fervent thanks to God were enabled sumptuously to feast their guests. ^

Apart from the poverty of the abbey Odo at first met with other difficulties. As an old man he warned John of the many

1 Ibid. ii. 2.

- Ibid. ii. 3. In some of the manuscripts the animal is called a boar, in others simply imrnane, probably to heighten the effect.

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 37

trials to his patience which he, as abbot, must expect. ' This he made clear, by telling of all he himself had suffered from his monks when he first became abbot, but as all of them since then have become eminent for their holiness and sanctity of life, it would ill beseem me to dwell on their earlier faults.' ^ Never- theless from the beginning Cluny flourished under Odo's fostering care, and in 927 he obtained for it a royal charter from Rudolf of Burgundy, king of the Franks. ^

How essential in his eyes the principle of the monastery's autonomy was, is seen from the fact that almost the whole of the charter is occupied with that point. The preamble reca- pitulated how duke William of Acjuitaine had founded Cluny {per manus Bernonis construxit), had under a great and terrible oath freed it from all secular domination and subjected it to Rome alone, ' for protection not domination '.^ Therefore Rudolf the king, rejoicing over the work and favouring the con- stitution, proclaimed that, according to William's testament, Cluny was freed from the interference and absolved from the authority of kings, princes, relatives of William, and all men whomsoever. What property the monastery possessed, or in the future would possess, was to be held without let or hindrance. No one was to take away its serfs or freemen.* The monks were not to pay tolls in the markets. In cases where they held part of woods or of ploughed land, they only were to receive terraticum. They could have tenths from demesne land for hospitality.^ Alfracta was to be theirs with an alod, serfs, and a manor. Other two alods which they had received were to be held in

1 Ibid. ii. 7.

- Bruel, i. 285. The charter begins : — As it is certain that God will not cast away the powerful without whom there would be no power, so it is certain that He will inquire about their works. Therefore it behoves the king to do good especially to holy church and thus to work with God, and win eternal reward.

•* Ibid., Ab omni secular i dominatu libennn sub magna et terribili adiuratione fecit. Apostolicae sedi ad tuendum non ad dominandum subligavit.

* Ibid., Homines eorum liberos ac servos nemo . . . distringat.

* Ibid., Decimas siias indominicatas ad hospitale habeant.

38 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

perpetuity. After Odo's death they were freely to elect their new abbot, and the monastery to continue in that order and administration which William had laid down.

The reform which Berno had begun, Odo not only carried out at Cluny but extended to other houses. By 930 he reformed Romainmoutier, Tulle, and Aurillac, and in 930 the old and far- famed monastery of Fleury.

CHAPTER IV

FLEURY

Fleury was at one time the most distinguished monastery of Gaul, its renown arising from the fact that the bones of St. Benedict had been translated to it from Monte Cassino. Hence its name, for on the arrival of the relics, though it was autumn the ground around the monastery burst into flowers.

By the tenth century Fleury had fallen from its high estate. Just because its reputation for holiness had been so high the scandal was the greater when the lives of its monks became a byword for infamy. ' After the end of the persecutions of the Northmen alas ! though the bodies of the monks were reunited at Fleury, their souls were in a divided state, and the monastery fell into evil ways.' At last St. Benedict himself intervened. Appearing one day to a certain brother he told him that, horrified at the conduct of the monks, he was leaving Fleury, but would return bringing from Aquitaine a man after his own heart. ^ Here was an opportunity for amendment if the monks had betaken themselves to penitence and prayer. Instead they rushed round the countryside on horseback, in the hope of finding the saint, and forcing him to return. Failing in their quest they jeered and mocked at the visionary.

Retribution swiftly fell on them, for count Elisardus, the famous warrior, ' hearing of their infamous life asked and received the monastery from Rudolf, king of the Franks, which he begged Odo to reform'. With his customary zeal Odo, accompanied by several monks, a bishop, two counts, and two of the chief men of the district, at once set out for Fleury. On

^ Vita Joanne, iii. 8. 39

40 THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY

his arrival he found the monks j)repared for resistance, ready to die rather tlian let any man enter. Several of them armed with spears and swords guarded the approach to the monastery. Others hurled down stones from the roof. Notwithstanding this brave array there was division among them. ' Alas, alas,' they cried, ' why did we not believe the story of our brother ? All things that he told us have come true, for is not this Odo of Aquitaine ? And did we not suspect that it was he of whom St. Benedict spoke ? Why did we not take the initiative, and send to him, or invite him of our own accord ? ' Only one of the monks, Wulfaldus, kept his head, and seized on the one point which could justify his companions, and put the newcomers in the wrong. He appealed to the royal charters,^ by which the abbey had been exempted from outside control, and granted priority over all other monasteries. How then dared the upstart Odo touch its rights ? Odo could only reply that he came peaceably, with no desire to injure any one's rights or person, and simply to correct irregularities. ^

Against this the monks protested, and threatened to murder him. For three days intermediaries went to and fro, and matters were at a deadlock, till Odo took the decision into his own hands. Without telling his companions he mounted an ass, and rode alone towards the monastery. When his intention dawned on his terrified companions, the bishop and the others ran after him, calling, ' Whither goest thou, father ? Dost thou not know that they are ready to slay thee ? nay, that at the very moment thev see thee, thou shalt die the death ? Dost thou then seek to cause them joy, and us inconsolable grief ? ' But not thus was Odo to be stopped, for the just man like the lion is without fear. And what seemed a miracle happened. At his approach the heart of his enemies was changed. With one accord they threw

1 Ibid. iii. 8, Precepta regalia in quibvs continebahir ut nulli ex alia congregatione ullo unquam tempore liceret eiusdem loci prioratum subire.

2 Ibid., Pacifice veni ut neminem laedam nvlli noceam sed ut incorrectos regulariter corrigam.

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 41

away their weapons, and embraced his feet. Great was the joy that day.

Odo then took over the direction of the monastery and remained alone at Fleury, while his friends returned home. He found it no easy task to carry out the reform, for though an out- burst of emotion had thrown the monks at his feet, in the ' daily round, the common task ', they were not so ready to remain there. He met with stubborn resistance to the two first principles of his reform, that no private possessions should be held within the monastery, and that no flesh meat should be eaten. Rather than share all things in common the monks preferred to squander their possessions on profligates, or to bestow them on friends outside the monastery.

Over the second point, the giving up of flesh meat, Odo had foreseen difficulties, and had come provided with large supplies of fish. But the monks laid their heads together, and over- coming their aversion to that article of diet, eagerly devoured Odo's store, so that he would be faced with the alternative, of letting them starve, or return to the eating of meat. Every day, with malicious eyes, they watched Odo's dwindling supplies, rejoicing beforehand in his dilemma when he should find himself outwitted. But they had not reckoned with his unquestioning obedience to the Gospel precept, ' Take no thought for the morrow ' ; and no shade of annoyance nor doubt crossed his serene face. ' Intrepid in faith, secure in hope, and fortified in charity,' he knew that God would provide. And indeed St. lienedict intervened. Appearing to Odo he promised to send a hundred solidi to Fleury, and later such quantity of provisions, that for long the needs of the monks would be supplied.

Considering the circumstances in which the reform had been carried out, it is not surprising that doubts as to its permanency were entertained, and that Odo was glad to have behind him the support of the temporal power. This he had from Hugh, duke of the Franks, a fact stated in the papal charter of 938, when Leo VII., confirming the privileges of Fleury, referred to the

42 THE MONASTEKY OF CLUNY

reform, which he heard had been carried through by Odo, and Hiigh.^ The pope threatened with the anathema, monks or other persons who by creating disturbances over the election of the abbot, or by attacking the property of the monastery, or by seeking to seduce the monks from their new way of life ^ showed themselves inimical to the monastery's true interests. Fleury was to be under no power except the king's. Neither he nor any other prince was to give it to bishop, canon, layman or other abbot ad dominandum. Five months before, writing to the bishops of Lyons, Bourges, Sens and Rheims, Leo expressed his sorrow over the iniquity of the times and the decline of religion, but his joy over the reform of Fleury, the work of Odo and his monks.

The reform of so eminent a monastery aroused great expect- ations. ' It is our hope,' the pope wrote, ' that if religious observance flourishes again in that monastery, the head and chief of monasteries, others as members may also revive.' ^ On the whole this hope was fulfilled, and Fleury not only recovered its old reputation but became an active centre of reform.

Before considering the reform which emanated from Fleury we may mention two of John's stories about Fleury, the first showing the jealousy that even trivial points aroused between the old order and the new. Odo with several brothers was staying at the monastery. On the Saturday evening, according to the Cluniac custom, one of them began to clean his boots. This innovation intensely annoyed a Fleurian monk, who, although it was the silence hour, could not contain his wrath, and burst forth, ' Tell me in what passage St. Benedict ever ordered his monks to clean their shoes '. On the other circumspectly making

^ Migne, 132, p. 1075, . . . conversationis comperimus quod filhis nosier Odo, venerabilis abbas in hoc monasterio et venerabilis vir Hugo dux Francorum nuper stabilierunt alacrius et securius.

^ Ibid., Sive in detrahenda vel impedienda conversatione quam novelli fratres tenere.

' Ibid., Spes nobis inest quia si in illo coenobio quod est quasi caput ac principimn observantia religiosa rejtoruerit, cetera circumqvaqve posita quasi membra convalescant.

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the sign for silence, he still more furiously continued : 'Oh, thou ! who wast accustomed to gad about the countryside on business, hast thou now come hither to preach the rule and to correct the life of thy betters ? By swearing and perjury thou who like a bird of prey wast accustomed to snatch away the substance of thy fellow-men, now impudently settest thy- self up for a saint, as if we did not know thee of old. God did not make me a serpent that after thy manner I should hiss, nor an ox that I should bellow, but a man to speak with the tongue He gave me.' Afraid to hear more the Cluniac monk fled, pursued by the insults of the other. Next day the scandal was reported at the meeting of the chapter, when the hardened sinner refused to seek pardon, and had even the audacity to maintain that he had done well, and that the other had no right to hold himself the better. Odo sorrowful at such pride adjourned the dispute to next day, that the peace and joy of the Lord's day should not be disturbed. But when the chapter adjourned, the offending brother was found to be dumb, and three days later, without absolution, he died.^

The second story shows the reverence with which Fleury was regarded. Odo was there one year for St. Benedict's day. Morning Lauds was celebrated before dawn, when St. Benedict appeared to a weary brother who had fallen asleep. With that charming familiarity incident to visions, the sleeping brother asked the saini where he had come from and what he was doing there. He had been absent from Fleury in the night, the saint replied, to rescue a monk who having left Fleury from pride had crossed to Britain, where he had died, and been seized by demons. This amazed the sleeping monk, when to his further amazement the saint explained that since its foundation there was no monk of Fleurv but had been received into eternal

^ This custom of cleaning the footgear was stopped in the twelfth century by Peter the Venerable. It had been useful in the days when the monks travelled, but when Cluny grew in size, thougli many of the monks never left the cloister, the rule was still obligatory. The monks would therefore wet two fingers, and smear their boots, so as to make a show of cleaning them.

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rest. He then asked if the brothers were well supplied with fish, and learning they were not, said they should fish not in the river but in the marsh. That day he would be present with them and would give such a sign that none could mistake his coming. When the hour of speech came, the brother told all. Fishers were sent to the marsh, but fearful of ridicule went to the river and of course caught nothing. Questioned by the oeconomus they were ignominiously driven by him to the marsh, where their catch was so enormous that they could scarcely drag it back. Then the festival dawned, and crowds were seen at the monastic gates, the halt, the blind, the paralysed, the sick, all waiting for the hour of refection, before which mass was said. When the Gloria was sung, suddenly with a loud noise the doors of the church burst open.^ All struck with terror looked round, when the blind saw, the lame walked, the deaf heard, the sick received their health, and the lamps of the church lit up. All understood that St. Benedict was with them, and none could restrain their tears of joy.

Odo would not tell the name of the monk who saw the vision, therefore it remains doubtful whether it was he or another.

Fleury's influence spread first to St. Evre's, Toul. Gauzlin, bishop of Toul, being interested in the reform movement went to Fleury to study it. On returning he brought a copy of the almost forgotten Benedictine rule, and reformed St. Evre's,^ where he appointed Archimbald, a monk of Fleury, abbot (934). The bishop retained supreme authority over the monastery. No abbot was to remove it from his jurisdiction, and the election of an abbot was valid only if ratified by him. His zeal did not stop with the reform of this, the chief monastery of his diocese. With Archimbald's help he restored Bouxieres (a convent) and reformed St. Mansuy's.^ To the latter Archimbald sent monks

^ Ibid. iii. 2. So large was the church that of all the vast multitude not one had to remain outside, - Gesta episc. Tull. c. 31. ^ Miracula S. Mansueti, SS. iv. p. 508.

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from St. Evre's from which St. Mansuy's was subsidised, but it soon lapsed again from grace, and sank into so evil a state that it had to be reformed a second time by Gerhard of Brogne. A more scandalous state of misrule prevailed at Montierender from which the abbot was expelled. The majority of the monks fled, and others under the leadership of a monk of St. Evre's were settled there.^ Fleury itself was given full rights over three monasteries as far distant as Pressy in Autun, Sacerge, and La Reole in Gascony.^ The possession of the last proved rather a misfortune than a blessing. Its monks were always turbulent, and the abbots of Fleury, though too far away to control them, were yet held responsible for the scandal of their lives. Finally, in an attempt to restore order Abbo, the greatest of the abbots of Fleury, lost his life.

Another important monastery reformed by Fleury, three years after Odo's death, was St. Remi of Rheims.^ Its monks had been forced to flee during the incursions ot the Huns (926). For years after that, Rheims was the centre of the political intrigues of the Frankish king and his opponents and no thought was given to monastic revival. Finally, Hugh, the archbishop, was moved to restore St. Remi's, and asked Archimbald of Fleury to help. By his efforts and the favour of Gerberga, mother of the Frankish Icing, the former possessions of the monastery were won back, and its old reputation restored. Within its walls Lothair was crowned, when he granted St. Remi's full immunity from dues (953). In 972 John XIII. took it under the papal protection, and confirmed its freedom from royal, secular, and episcopal control.

By the end of the tenth century Fleury had attained a position, second if not equal to Cluny, with which almost all connection had been allowed to drop. In her reform pro- paganda the influence of the monastery extended chiefly to

^ Sackur, Die Cli(ni(jcenscr in ihrer kirrh lichen mid aUgemeingrschUchtUchcn Wirksnnikeit, i. p. 17().

- Mirac. S. Benedicti, iii. c. 15, c. 4; cf. Vila Abbonis, cap. 20. ^ Mabilloii, Acta SS. v. 340.

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the north and east of Gaul, and to Lorraine ; even more distant England ^ seems to have owed much of her monastic revival to Fleury. With the tenth century the most influential days of Fleury were over, and its abbots soon sank to being mere creatures of the Crown.

^ Cf. Vita Abbonis, Vita Oswaldi.

CHAPTER V

PAPAL AND ROYAL CHARTERS, AND OTHER GIFTS

The fact that so celebrated a monastery as Fleury had been reformed by the abbot of Cluny, made a stir in ecclesiastical circles, and greatly increased Odo's renown. After that event, ' many from neighbouring regions came to follow the footsteps of the holy man, and under his direction to learn the way of obedience. In so much was the fame of his holiness noised abroad, that not only laymen and canons, but even certain bishops joined his community. Thus the ground which had been left uncultivated and choked with thorns began to bring forth new fruit ; and Odo began to shine like a star, known to kings, familiar to bishops, and beloved of magnates. And whosoever in those days built a monastery, delivered it to the authority (ius) of the father, that he might order and direct it '.^ In 931, John XI. granted a charter which contains a clause epoch-making in the history of Cluny. ' Because it is only too clear that almost all monasteries have erred from the regular life, we grant, that if any monk from any monastery should wish to pass over to your manner of living with the sole object of amending his life, that is, if his former abbot has neglected to provide regular means of subsistence for preventing the holding of private property, thou mayst receive him until such time as the conduct of his monastery be corrected.' - In the past

^ Vita Joanne.

2 Migne, 132, p. 1055, Et quia inm pene cuyicta monasteria a suo proposito praevaricantnr, conceditnus, lit si qiiis nionachus ex quoUbei monasierio ad vestram conversationem, solo duntaxat meliorayidae vitae studio traxsmigrare I'oluerit sui videlicet eius abbas regnlarem sumption ad depellendam proprietatern habendi ministrare neglexerit, suscipere vobis liceat, quousque nionasterii sui conversatio emendetur.

47

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this privilege had been granted, but very rarely. The decree of the Council of Agde ^ had forbidden any abbot to receive strange monks within his monastery, unless with their abbot's goodwill and consent. Now, however, with the express sanction of the papal authority, the way was cleared for Cluny's pro- paganda. Possession of Romainmoutier was confirmed, and the papal licence granted Odo to receive any other monastery under his authority for reform. ^

Other clauses in the charter witnessed to the papal good- will ; e.g. Cluny's quinquennial tribute of ten solidi was to be paid in order to make clearly intelligible to all, that it pertained to the holy see to guard and cherish the monastery.^ Its freedom from outside domination * was again assured, and freedom of choice at the election of an abbot, though it was added, ' that should, what God prevent, an unworthy choice be made, then any one whosoever might annul it '. The pope confirmed Cluny's possessions, and the privilege of coining money (monetam propriam) granted by Rudolf, king of the Franks. No one was to take away its serfs or attack its property, Cluny being one of those holy places to which reverence was due. Tenths which had formerly belonged to its chapels and through the modern authority of any bishop had been taken away,^ were restored {vobis ex integro restituimus). New chapels built in the neigh- bourhood were to diminish nothing from the tenths of Cluny's churches,^ and the dues which bishop Berno had granted from

^ Labbe Concilia, viii. p. 329, clause xxvii., Monachum nisi abbatis sui aut permissu aut voluntate ad alterum monasterium commigrantem nullus abbas suscipere aut retinere presumat sed ubicumque fuerint abbati suo auctoritate canonum revocentur.

- Migne, 132, p. 1057, Si coenobium aliquod ex voluntate illoruni ad quoruiti dispositionem pertinere videtur, in sua ditione ad meliorandum suscipere con- senteritis, nostram licentiani ex hoc habeatis.

3 Ibid., Ad tuendum atque fovendum.

" Ibid., Liberum ab omni dominatu cuiuscunque regis aut episcopi, sive comitis, aut cuiuslibet ex jjropinquis ipsius Willelmi.

^ Ibid., Per modernarn. quasi auctoritatem sive licentiam a quolibet episcopo subtractae sunt.

^ Ibid., Capellas si aliquae iam factae sunt vet faciendae inibi sunt, ita manere cpncedimus ut vestris ecclesiis nihil ex decimis minuatur.

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these churches were assured in perpetuity. Tenths from cultivated lands and vineyards could be reserved for hospitality. Then followed the anathema on those who broke, and the blessing on those who kept, the clauses of the charter. Next year the pope, at the request of Odo and Hugh, king of the Lombards,^ reconfirmed Cluny's privileges. ' For the highest reward will be given to those venerable places which strive to increase holiness.' Cluny's possession of Carus Locus, a monastery belonging to the jurisdiction of Rome, was confirmed. Any one who went against the charter would be anathematised by Peter the apostle, and abandoned to the devil and his atrocious minions to be burnt in the eternal fire with Judas who betrayed the Lord, and sunk with the wicked in the abyss of infernal chaos.

Six years later John's successor, Leo VIL, reaffirmed the privileges (938). He did so because of (1) his love for the apostles Peter and Paul ; (2) the good repute of the religious life at Cluny ; ^ (3) his love for his sons, kings Hugh and Lothair, who, as he had heard, cherished the monastery exceedingly. ^ He confirmed the privileges granted by John and declared Cluny free from all outside domination, as William the Pious had decreed. He reinstated Cluny in the possession of vills given by king Rudolf but claimed by the church of Lyons and of Macon. Leo based his decision on the fact that no person then living was old enough to have seen the aforesaid churches invested with any of the vills, and that the legal time for proving such cases had been spent in wrangling and dispute. All further discussion was to cease.* Any one who seized Cluny's posses- sions or the property given by the king would be excommuni-

^ Ibid. p. 1058, Quia supplicavit tua religio et interventio Hugonis glorissimi regis, dilecti fiUi nostri.

- Ibid. p. 1074, Pro religione quae ibidem tenetur.

^ Ibid., Qui locum multuni fovent.

* Ibid., Xon est tamen aliquis tain longaevae aetatis, qui unquam i)i pre- dictis ecclesiis vestituram de illis villis ullam habere vidisset ; et quia prestitutum legale tern pus ad recuperandas huiusmodi querelas pertransiit, omnis repetitio conquiescat.

E

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cated. AlKwho did good to the abbey would, if they wished to amend their lives, be absolved from their sins ; all who did harm anathematised. ^

Proofs of royal favour were also given. Three times in 931 Rudolf of Burgundy, king of the Franks, gave land to Cluny and confirmed gifts made by others. In the first charter he stated that as there was no power except from God, the powerful should humble themselves under His hand and be zealous to please Him with gifts. He therefore made known to all kings, counts, magistrates, and ministers of the kingdom that, at the request of his wife and fideles, he gave Cluny a vill and the third of a fishery {j)iscina), the middle part, with its serfs and what- ever else belonged to it. No king, count, or person of inferior rank was to interfere with the gift : ^ at the same time he confirmed the gift of Blanuscus,^ with a chapel and its lands, and reaffirmed the decree of bishop Berno of Macon over tenths (cf. i. 373), which were to be held by Cluny as of old, and not taken away by any modern authority. The second charter stated that by bending the royal ear to the just petitions of the faithful, the royal cult was furthered, and , subjects made more zealous in their fidelity. Therefore, at the request of his wife and dearest brother, the king gave seven manors in three different vills to Cluny, confirmed his former gift of the third of a fishery, with the three servants attached to it, their children and the manors which they held {quos if si

^ Ibid. p. 1068. The year before (937) the pope twice confirmed Cluny's possession of property. For it was right to give the apostolic defence to those places which asked it, and especially to Cluny, subject as it was to the papal ius. At Odo's request he confirmed possession of the curtis Escutiola with churches, houses, lands, fields, meadows, pasture, woods, thickets, apple trees, cisterns, fountains, rivers, fruitful and unfruitful trees, cultivated and uncultivated land, serfs, male and female, i.e. everything belonging to the curtis as left by count Geoffrey. A curse was pronounced on any one who attacked this property. In the same year at Odo's request he confirmed Cluny's possession of a vill and everything belonging to it, given by king Rudolf : the wording identical to the above.

2 Bruel, i. 396.

^ Ibid. Chapels, serfs, vineyards, meadows, waters, woods, mills, cultivated and uncultivated land.

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tenent), also the abbey's right to property given by two other donors. 1 In the third charter, again at his wife and brother's request, he gave the vill Salustriacus (in which he had previously given three manors), with vineyards, fields, meadows, woods, and the fishery, etc., mentioned above. ^

The next year the little society of Cluniac brothers, watched over by their gentle father and abbot Odo, remembering that ecclesiastical authority warns men in this miserable life and earthly pilgrimage to strive for eternal joys, and to flee from the waves of the world to the shore of eternal tranquillity, and afraid that they should be found unfruitful trees, built a chapel at Salustriacus, which they asked Berno, bishop of Macon, to consecrate, and in endowment {pro dote) to grant them tenths. He, not seeking his own, with the consent of his canons, granted them all the tenths from the land given by the king in Salus- triacus and the country around, tenths which formerly belonged to St. Peter's Massiacus, half of the tenths from Bulon, and other tenths from Salustriacus and Bulon which at that time went to St. Julian's Rocca, to which the new chapel was subject. No superfluous dues were to be asked from the monks, and at the synodal season the priest was to pay 2 denarii in eulogiae and 12 denarii in paratae. The bishop begged his suc- cessors to keep this agreement (932-33).^ In 939 king Louis, at the request of Hugh the Black, son of the duke of Burgundy, also confirmed Cluny's possession of Salustriacus, two other places (loci), and a third of the fishery before mentioned. At the same time he confirmed the abbey's privileges. Cluny was to remain as duke William decreed, liber et ahsolutus, subject to the Roman see ad luendum non ad dominandum : the

^ Ibid. i. 397. Three in Salustriacus.

- Ibid. i. 398. Same preamble as 397.

^ Ibid. i. 408, Kos jmnnda Clunienslum fratnnn societas cui Odo mith'i pater et abbas jne patrocinatur utilitatem monasterii nostri pro posse providentes rel utcnmque statnm divini cultus nitentes augere. Capella omni tempore Sancto Jiiliano subjecta habcatur : ubsequio non requirente superfluo ababbate vel catervis pretuxati cenobii.

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monks to choose their own abbot : tenths to be as bishop Berno granted.^

From Hugh, king of the Lombards, and his son liOthair Cluny received the curtes Savigneux and Amberieu, with chapels, land, vineyards, fields, meadows, pasture, woods, waters, mountains, valleys, hills, plains, houses, and serfs, the king retaining under his own power a fisher and five other servants (servientes). The gift was made because it was certain that for temporal gifts to venerable places dedicated to God an eternal reward would be gained. Any one disputing the gift would be condemned by God for sacrilege, and compelled to pay 100 pounds of the best gold, half to the treasury, half to the abbot (934). ^

Several gifts were made to Cluny by bishops. As early as 929 Berno, bishop of Macon, perceiving that the love of the laity grew cold, and remembering it was necessary to provide for his spiritual sons wherever they were, proclaimed to all bishops, archdeacons, and chiefs of the church that he wished to solace Cluny, bound to him in special friendship.^ There had been controversy about four of Cluny's churches in the time of his predecessor. As it was only right that the monks should enjoy tranquillity, the bishop and his congregation granted them all that his predecessors and the archdeacons had received from the four churches, with their chapels, excepting synodal eulogiae el paratae.^ As long as the monks celebrated divine service there, they were to hold the churches and their tenths, or give them away if they wished. The bishop decreed this pro signo societatis that, alive and dead, he and the monks might share in one another's good deeds. He wished all in the present and the future to remember that by ancient custom his

^ Ibid. i. 499. The preamble is the same as i. 285.

^ Ibid. i. 417. Confirmed 937 by Leo VII. at the request of the king and his son. The anathema was called down on any one who went against the gift (Migne, 132, p. 1082).

^ Ibid. i. 373, In quantum possutnus solaciari.

* Eulogia : small gift. Paratae : expenses of receiving bishops and arch- deacons when visiting rural churches (Ducange).

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see had the right to do what it would with tenths. ^ If any of his successors were tempted to go against his decree, let them remember the text, ' Cursed be he who removeth his neighbour's boundary '. The same bishop granted Cluny tenths when con- secrating the chapel at Salustriacus (p. 51). In 938 another bishop of Macon, Maimbod, gave Cluny a charter almost identical with the above (373) to which he had been a signatory. An eruption of pagans it seemed, and the violence of evil men had almost destroyed the churches which bishop Berno had placed under Cluny. ^ It therefore seemed only right to reduce their synodal returns : hence one which had paid 8 was to pay only 4 denarii, and in eulogiae 5 denarii. One parish over which the monks had been much distressed was restored to them in its entirety, and from four churches, as granted by bishop Berno, synodal eAtlogiae et paratae remitted. Three years later Maimbod, with the wife of another man, gave a vineyard, manor, and curtilus to Cluny. ^

The bishop of Autun confirmed Cluny's possession of a little chapel belonging to a church in his diocese. His pre- decessor had given it to a priest for life, and endowed it with a little land. On his death certain evil men seized it, claiming it as the bishop's heirs.* The priest therefore decided to give it to Cluny, that fitting service should be rendered to God and the legal dues restored to his church. The monks could do what they wished with it, as long as they paid the parent church 12 denarii silver annually. The bishop renounced his episcopal dues from it in favour of the monks.

From laymen in these early years there were a few gifts of churches, e.g. a certain Leotbald and his wife gave four churches,

^ Ibid., Xnrerint lecturi . , . quod nostra sedes ex antiqua consuetudine pro lege teneat, id id de nostris decitnis facere liceat.

- Ibid. i. 484, Cum ipsns ecclesias irruptio paganornni, quin etiam violentia quorumdam prnvonim, mnxima ex parte anuuUasxet visum vohis est . . . sinodali reditu le.vigare.

■' Ibid. i. olU.

•* Ibid. i. 474, I iiiuste et cum fas enndem quasi sucressores invaseraiit.

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a vill, its serfs, and other two vills with churches and serfs,^ to be held by the donors for hfe, and on their death to revert to Cluny (927). Two years later they gave the whole entirely and uncon- ditionally to Cluny. 2 A gift of a church ^ and of a chapel, St. Victor's, are also recorded.* The chapel was to pay no tenths nor dues to the secular power, for it was only right that the people's offerings should go to the monks. If any one went against the charter or asked, for the chapel, a little gift from the brothers, or seized its lands, at the day of judgement God, His holy apostles, and St. Victor, would withstand and confound him. Three deeds of sale are mentioned. A man, hoping to be snatched from the pains of hell, for 36 solidi paid by the monks gave the fourth of a church to Cluny.^ Another man, remembering that in this fragile body all should prepare for the future, since no man knoweth the hour of his death, gave three churches with all belonging to them, i.e. tenths, cultivated and uncultivated land, meadows, plains, waters, woods, vineyards. He received 50 solidi from the monks. ^ In exchange for the vill Amberieu and its church, a man and his wife willed a vill, its churches and serfs, to Cluny. They were to hold both properties for life, paying the monks 6 solidi annually. On their death all reverted to Cluny.'' A man and his brother gave Cluny a curtikis, field, half another field, and the customs of a wood, for having burnt down a church.^

Of the charters, that of John XL (931) is of course the most important as giving free scope to Cluny' s reforming activity, to the consideration of which we now turn.^

1 Ibid. i. 283. 2 ibid. i. 387.

3 Ibid. i. 471. Any one who disputed the charter was to pay a fine of three pounds gold, de auro libras Hi.

* Ibid. i. 378, Aliquod munnsculum pro ipsa capella expostulaveril.

^ Ibid. i. 239. Accipio aliquod pretium 36 solidos.

^ Ibid. i. 486, Pro ipsa scriptione accepimus 50 solidos. Aymardus is mentioned as abbot (anno 938).

' Ibid. i. 509. « Ibid. i. 310.

' Among the charters are a few which record marriage settlements. One man, for his love and goodwill toward her, gave his beloved wife a chapel in

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 55

Macon with all belonging to it and a vineyard, with all which she was to do as she willed. If the husband or his heirs later disputed the gift they were to pay a fine of three ounces gold (i. 2o4). Another husband, remembering that a man shall leave father and mother and cleave to his wife and that those whom God joined are not to be put asunder, gave to his beloved and amiah)le spouse, whom by the will of God and of his parents he had married, a vineyard and a manor with the trees and all else belonging to it — in esponcalicio as the Roman law laid down {comnienwral). She could hold, sell, or exchange the property. If he took back his gift he was to pay a fine (i. 686). Another man gave in dower to his sweetest and most amiable wife a third of all he possessed or would possess, to have, hold, sell, or exchange. If he or any one else disputed the gift they were to ]>ay a pound gold to the fisc (i. 687). Several other charters record deeds of gift or sale by women, e.g. Eva, a noble woman, sold the monks a vineyaid given her in dower by her husband for two measures of wine and of wheat (i. 315). Another woman, for the love and goodwill she bore her son, gave him and his wife a manor with all belonging to it, vineyards, fields, meadows, woods, waters, mills, and adjacent to the manor three fields and four vineyards. While she lived she was to hold half of one vineyard and its serfs (i. 231). The same or another Eva, remembering that the divine mercy in pity for human frailty allows each of the faithful to buy an eternal kingdom by giving from what God gave them, and mindful of the precept to lay up treasure in heaven, gave St. Peter in vestitura property which came to her in hereditary right, i.e. her part of two vills (as apart from what belonged to her brothers and sisters) ; also a manor. She was to hold all for life, and on her death the whole reverted to Cluny (i. 141). An Eva again, who at the end of her life was fearful at the enormity of her sins, wishing to buy an eternal reward with earthly things and make friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, gave a manor and serfs to Cluny ; also the third of a meadow and of a field {condatnina, i. 153). A few other charters record gifts by women.

CHAPTER VI

ODO 3 KEFORMING ACTIVITY

The time and the man go together. Great as Odo was, he could not have accomplished the work that he did had the times not been ripe. In the beginning of the tenth century a spirit of revolt at the coarse materialism of the day passed over society. As the best way to counteract that materialism, earnest men turned to the encouragement of monastic life. New monasteries were founded, and those that had fallen into disrepute were reformed.

But if the harvest was ready, the labourers were few, and a most important element in the reform was the personal. With- out Odo, who towers like a giant head and shoulders above his contemporaries, Cluny's later eminence could hardly have been possible. This personal element had its disadvantages as well as its advantages. Extraordinary worker and indefatigable traveller as Odo was, he could not be everywhere, and often after he had reformed a monastery its connection with Cluny was allowed to drop. But as the reform in turn went forth from the new centre, the end after all was attained : Odo sowed the seed and cared not who reaped the harvest. Like the Psalmist he might have exclaimed, ' Show Thy servants their work, and their children Thy glory.' Because of his great zeal, and his indefatigable energy in answering any call however distant, it was impossible to build up a society looking to Cluny as head. That was to come later, when his successors had more time for organisation.

Characteristic of the reform was the fact that Benedict of Aniane's modification of the rule having been adopted, the Cluniacs showed no desire to heighten its standard of asceticism.

THE MONASTERY OF CLUNY 57

As the papal charter of 931 shows, Odo looked towards the reform of monasticism as a whole, and the ideal he set before him was the establishment of uniformity, similarity, and obedience in all monasteries, rather than the encouragement of isolated instances of individual perfection. Very wisely, considering the state of the times, he worked to uphold one standard, and that a standard attainable by the many.

As abbot of Cluny, the history of Odo's life is the history of the reform. The first monastery to come under his direction was Romainmoutier, which Adelheid, duchess of Burgundy, placed under him and his monks in order that they might transform it into a priory.^ She exhorted the monks of Romain- moutier to follow the discipline and customs of Cluny. ^ Both monasteries were to be held and ruled by one abbot, and neither community to elect an abbot without the consent of the other,^ nor were the monks of Romainmoutier to substitute another for him apppinted. For it would be highly unjust if they who had been called to new life by the monks of Cluny should divide the fellowship of that monastery.* Nevertheless the regulation of St. Benedict held, i.e. if the minority of either congregation was moved by saner counsel and wished to choose a better person, the others (according to the rule) were to consent.^ It was in the power of the abbot to transfer monks from the one monastery to the other as the common advantage, or indeed the state of supplies, demanded.^ Like Cluny, Romainmoutier was to be

^ Bruel, i. 379, In 'prioreni sludeani reformare statuni.

^ Ibid., Modum conversationis . . . de Cluniaco transjertur ita conservent, nl eundem modum in viclu et vestitu, in obstiventia, in 'psalmodia, in silentio, in hosjntalitate, in vivtua dilectione et snbiectione atqiie bona obedientio, nvUatenus imminuant.

^ Semper tamen velui una congregalio . . . sub una abbote . . . no)i illis ant islis liceat sine cotnmuni consensii abbatem sibi prejicere.

* Quoniam valde iniustuvi esset, si illi qui forte velut filii Bomanis monaster io succreverinf, socialitntem Clun. qui velut patres locum resuscitant, aliquando disriderint.

^ iSi rel illius vel istius congregation is minima pars saniori consilio meliorein personam eligerc voluerit.

^ Pro utilitate transmit fa ndi.'^, sire eliam de sub-'^idiis quae forte unl loco plusquam alter i habundaverint.

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under the guardianship of Rome. Its liberties were assured and its freedom from outside control, the aid of the apostles and Rome called on, and the curse pronounced in clauses identical to those of Cluny's charter of foundation. Hugh the Black, like his mother, favoured Cluny, and intervened for Odo at the court of Conrad of Upper Burgundy. In 939 he petitioned Louis of Gaul to confirm the Cluniac charters. ^

In Auvergne, Odo's opportunity came through the goodwill of the old friend who had ordained him, bishop Turpio of Limoges. Through the influence of the bishop and his brother Aimo,^ Odo became abbot of Aurillac (928), a monastery which had sunk low under its last two abbots, men of infamous lives, but safe- guarded by the papal protection and by the privilege of immunity from outside interference which John XL had granted the monastery. This immunity the bishop and his brother over- rode, and Odo as new abbot carried through the reform. He set over the abbey a co-abbot, Arnulf, under whom Aurillac turned from its evil ways and became a distinguished centre of reform. This success at Aurillac encouraged Aimo ^ to place Tulle under Odo's direction. In doing this he overrode the claims of another monastery, St. Savin's in Poitiers, under whose jurisdiction Tulle had been placed. This did not prevent Rudolf of Burgundy from declaring Tulle free from all previous jurisdic- tion, and Odo its abbot. Having inaugurated the reform, Odo appointed as co- abbot Adacius,* under whom the monastery flourished exceedingly.

It was also owing to bishop Turpio and his brother that two monasteries in Limoges,^ St. Martial's and St. Augustine's, were reformed. Both were put under the direction of Martin, abbot of St. Cyprian's, Poitiers, a new monastery consecrated (936)

1 Ibid. i. 499.

^ Mabillon, Vetera Analecta, ii. 349, Odo . . . rogaiiis a Turpione et Aimone Tutelense abbate. ^ Sackur, i, pp. 78, 79.

^ Vita Joanne, ii. 12, Archembaldus . . . Adalasius viri nempe optima- tis.simi et multorum monachorum patres sunt effect i.

^ Sackur, i. 81 et seq.

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by archbishop Teotolo of Tours. As Teotolo was the close friend of Odo, Martin may have been in sympathy with the Cluniac movement. He himself reformed two monasteries as distant as St.-Jean-d'Angely in Aquitaine and Jmnieges in Normandy. Odo's next work was in Italy. Later in Gaul he reformed St. Peter le Vif,^ Sens (937), a monastery whose lands and buildings had been laid waste by the Huns. A monk of Fleury was appointed abbot, but squandered the revenues and let the monastic lands lie waste. The monks who had no means of subsistence rapidly dwindled in numbers until only fifteen remained. Of these finally twelve were poisoned in one night, and the monastery left desolate. For a time the archbishop of Sens used the deserted buildings as a lodge for his hunting dogs. Years passed before they were restored, and St. Peter's repeopled by monks from Fleury and Cluny. The last Frankish monastery to come under Odo was St. Julian's, Tours. St. Julian's had been devastated by the Northmen. For almost a hundred years monastic life there had ceased. Then archbishop Teotolo rebuilt the abbey (937), which he and his sister richly endowed. Hugh the Great also gave it land. When the restoration was complete, Odo was asked to inaugurate the reform. Soon St- Julian's became a well-known centre to which distinguished clerks and laymen flocked. ^

In the meantime the abbots of Aurillac and Tulle extended Odo's work. In 936 Raymond Pontius of Toulouse, nephew of the founder of Cluny, built the monastery of Chanteuge,^ which he wished to place under Odo. The latter, at that time occupied in Italy, appointed Arnulf of Aurillac abbot. Freedom from outside jurisdiction, and after Arnulf 's death freedom in electing an abbot, was assured to the monks. The count and his wife also founded St. Pontius', Narbonne, and put it under Arnulf and his monks, one of whom was made abbot. Arnulf's success there won the approval of the bishop of the diocese who begged him to reform St. Chafl[re du Monastier, from which religious 1 Ibid. i. 02. -• Ibid. ^ Baluze, ii. lo.

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life had quite disappeared. A monk of Aurillac was appointed abbot, who not only restored the abbey's reputation, but from it reformed Sainte Enimie's.^ Another disciple of Arnulf's was made abbot of St. Allyre's in Clermont, which Raymond Pontius and the nobles of Auvergne had begged Arnulf to reform.

Nor was Tulle behind as a reforming centre. Its abbot, Adacius, reformed the ruined Sarlat, restored and given to him by Bernard of Perigueux and his wife Gersindis. Declared free from outside authority the monastery was placed under the protection of the king. At the election of an abbot the advice of Odo or his successors was to be obtained.^ So worthily did Adacius rule at Sarlat that next year Bernard restored and gave him St. Sorus', Genouillac.^ He also reformed Lezat in Toulouse (944).

In the last years of his life Odo was mainly occupied with the reform in Italy, where the state of religious life was worse even than in Gaul. The land had not recovered from the invasions of the Saracens and Huns. The whole church from the papacy downwards was secularised. Country appointments were in the hands of the nobles, who presented them to their favourites ; the sale of bishoprics and spiritual offices was quite common ; children were raised to the highest offices in the church. In the upper ranks of the clergy senseless luxury ruled, in the lower the priests shared the rude joys of the people. Even the cathedral clergy were not ashamed openly to parade their wives and concubines.

In the regular church conditions were just as bad ; monastic lands lay waste and the monasteries deserted. The monks, unable to withstand the depredations of the barbarians, had fled from their communities. Only in isolated groups had a few banded together and attempted to live by the rule. Mean- while the lands of the abbeys were an easy prey to any free- booting noble who cared to annex them.^ With the advance of

1 Sackur, i. 87. ^ Mabillon, Ann. Ben. iii. 405. ^ Ibid. iii. 419.

* Dresdner, Kultur n . Sittengeschichte der ital. Geistlichkeit in X . XI. (1890).

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the tenth century there seemed some hope of amelioration, one or two zealous abbots striving to win back their old possessions. They were too few in numbers to succeed, and it was evident that no headway could be made without some strong external support. This was to come from the temporal power, from Alberic of Rome himself, who but a few years before had been an unscrupulous oppressor of the monks. ' He was too terrible,' wrote a chronicler of the century, ' and cruelly pressed his yoke on the Romans and the holy see. He took over all the monas- teries and their property, and with them rewarded his retainers.' ^ But after he had driven his stepfather from Rome, and had begun to find his position more secure, Alberic's policy changed. From being a most dangerous oppressor of the monks he became their ardent supporter. He had learnt that by enriching his supporters too freely with monastic possessions, he might make them a menace to his own power. At least so it appears to later historians, though the chronicler of the day is more charitable. ' Accordingly,' he wrote, ' our merciful Alberic struck with the fear of the Lord . . . began in all holy places with ardent mind to serve the servants of God, and to give rich support to the monasteries.' Political motives rather than this sudden conversion better explain Alberic's change of policy, which fortunately had begun some time before Odo's first visit to Rome (936). Whether or not Odo believed in the genuineness of Alberic's piety, he, seeing his opportunity, was quick to seize it. In the remaining six years of life, with the support of the secular power, he began the reform in central Italy. Under his direction several of the Roman monasteries were rebuilt. Perhaps at Alberic's suggestion, perhaps at the pope's, he first restored St. Paul's outside the walls,^ which became his head- quarters in Rome, and over which he placed his disciple Baldwin.

^ Benedicti Chron. iii, cap. 32.

- Ibid. cap. 33. Cf. Vita Joanne, i. 27, Dum Odo Romam pergeret ut monasterium intra ecclesiam beatissimi Pavli apostoli vt olim fuerat, reaedificaret cogente domno papa et universis ordinibus sacrae aedis. Cf. ibid. ii. 22, Ibi denique praeposuit discipulum suiun abbatem Balduinum.

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Next Alberic transformed the palace on the Aventine in which he had been born into the monastery of St. Mary's,^ where Hildebrand was said to have been educated. The monasteries of St. Lawrence and St. Agnes, both outside the walls, were then restored and reformed. Greater difficulty was experienced with St. Andrew's on the Clivus Scaurus ^ where a few monks remained. As they resisted the reform they were expelled, and other monks settled. Alberic restored the possessions of the monastery which had been appropriated by lay lords. Great hopes were entertained of this abbey which pope Leo strengthened with fortifications and towers. Under its abbot Alberic placed St. Sylvester's and St. Stephen's.

Little more is known about the other monasteries restored by Alberic in Rome. Probably wherever there was reform it followed the Cluniac lines, for Alberic appointed Odo director of the collective monasteries in Rome and its neighbourhood.^ He then looked to Monte Cassino, mother of Western monasti- cism, the condition of which could not have been more piteous. During the barbarian invasions, the monks, unable to protect themselves, had accepted the invitation of the prince of Capua to settle near his capital. The few who remained at Monte Cassino let the monastic lands lie waste, and led a life that was far from edifying. To restore Monte Cassino to prosperity would have required more time and labour than Odo was able to spare ; he could only improve its condition,* and appoint his disciple Baldwin abbot. The complete reform of the abbey came later. In the same neighbourhood Subiaco was in a similarly evil plight, its lands and buildings having been devastated by the Saracens.^ In 936 the buildings were restored by Alberic, who renewed its

1 Destr. Farf. cap. 7. ^ Cf. Vita Joanne, ii. 9.

'■^ Destr. Farf. cap. 7 ; Mon. Germ. xi. p. 536, Ut de Gallia faceret venire Oddonem sanctum abbatem qui tunc temporis Cluniacum gubernabat monasterium et eum archimandritam constituit super cuncta monasteria Romae adiacentia.

* Ibid., Cassinense monasterium sub illius magisterio ad normam regularis ordinis reductum est.

5 Sackur, i. 103.

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charters, which had been burnt. The pope confirmed them. Another historic monastery, Farfa, which had fallen on evil times, felt Odo's influence. The monks had been driven away by the Saracens, and the lands left desolate. After some time several of the monks returned, but only to appropriate the abbey's remaining property. They murdered their abbot, squandered the monastic revenues, and lived on the principle, ' Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' Alberic ended this scandal. According to one account he put Farfa under the authority of St. Andrew's on the Clivus Scaurus, according to another Odo himself came down on the monastery, and caused the terrified monks to flee.^ For a time a better state of things prevailed, but not for long.

A more successful reform was that of St. Elias', Nepi, given by Alberic. 2 Here Odo appointed Theodorardus, one of his disciples, abbot. Theodorardus had a hard fight to keep his monks from eating meat. He had come well .supplied with fish, which his monks soon finished, and as there was no river or lake near, he had to send round the country for more, ' till the very horses which Odo had given him were worn out by rushing hither and thither '. Finally, Odo's opportune arrival miraculously caused a stream to flow from a mountain near, and fish were kept therein.^

Odo's influence seems to have extended as far south as Naples and Salerno, where he may personally have supervised the reform.*

In Benevento, where Alberic's reforming zeal was also active, the reform probably followed the lines already laid down by Odo. In the North a new sphere of activity was opened to the

^ Destr. Farf. cap. 7.

^ Vita Joanne, iii. 7, Concessit nobis Alhericus. ^ Ibid.

' Ibid., Praefatio. .John dedicates his life of Odo to the monks of Salerno in a prologue which suggests that they knew Odo. He may have been prior there. In the story of Odo's infant nephew he reminds the brothers that it was told by a pilgrim who stopped at our monastery when going to Jerusalem the previous year.

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Cluniacs through the reform of St. Peter's, Ciel d' Oro, Pavia/ entrusted to Odo by Hugh of Lombardy.

Odo's work in Italy, aided mainly by the upper classes, and almost entirely dependent on Alberic's support, seems to have awakened in the lower classes little or no enthusiasm. That enthusiasm came after, through the reform of the Italian hermits. Yet Odo's work is striking, for he was already fifty- six years old when he began the reform in Rome. Four times in the remaining six years of his life he went that difficult journey.

A group of monasteries in Upper Lorraine, though neither directly nor indirectly reformed by the Cluniacs, seem to have felt their influence.

In Upper Lorraine the bishops had retained greater influence and power than in Gaul. The wealth of the church was in their hands, and in many cases the monastic endowments also. Their influence, however, made for political and social rather than spiritual success. The majority of them were too much occupied in worldly affairs to welcome a reawakening of spiritual life or a monastic revival, which might bring with it a recovery of monastic endowments. In that borderland, too, the disturbed years which followed the break-up of the empire were not favourable for religious revival. But at last the unsettled state of the times caused men's minds to turn with longing to some ' more abiding city '. A wave of religious fervour passed over the land, stirring up in particular the lower clergy who in the dioceses of Toul, Metz, and Verdun agitated whole-heartedly for reform, only to beat themselves in vain against the apathy of the higher clergy and bishops. In despair, therefore, many laymen and priests withdrew themselves from the world, some to seek abnegation of self in solitude, others to work out their soul's salvation in the monastic communities of more favoured lands. The most ardent,

1 Cf. ibid. i. 4. It was at Pavia that John was instructed in the regular discipline. Odo first met him in Rome two years before his death, snatched him from earthly affections, and caught him in his net. He accompanied Odo to Pavia, where the latter was detained by king Hugh, and therefore entrusted John to the keeping and teaching of a certain Hildebrand.

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whose dream it was to found a monastery in their homeland, tried hard to persuade Adalbero, bishop of Metz, to grant them a site on which to build. They asked in vain, and at last in despair resolved to set out for Italy. It was then represented to Adalbero that the scandal would be great if he let the best spirits of the diocese depart. He then reluctantly gave them Gorze.

Gorze, an old and famous monastery, founded by Chrode- gang, had degenerated, and then been destroyed by the Huns (919). It was restored, and monks entered it (933). For the first three years they suffered extreme privation, for though the bishop held supreme authority over the monastery he did not trouble to provide for the maintenance of the monks. Having reached starvation point they decided to leave, when they were saved by St. Gorgonius, their patron saint, who appeared to the bishop and commanded him to relieve their necessities. ' Thank the saint, -not me,' the bishop replied in exaspei*ated honesty to their professions of gratitude, ' for not of my own will but of his have I acted.' ^ Henceforth, along with its spiritual renown, the material prosperity of Gorze increased. Monks streamed to it from Greece, England, Burgundy, Metz, Toul, and Verdun. It was even said that no monk knew the true monastic life unless he had passed some time ' at the beehive ' of Gorze. ^

This movement arose in absolute independence of the Cluniac, and unlike it was a popular movement forced on those above from those below. Of the leaders who settled at Gorze not one was of good family. Most were of peasant birth, and only one a man of any education. ^ But all were inspired by a frenzy of asceticism in striking contrast to the Cluniac moderation. As time went on this extremist phase became modified, and though

• Boll. AA.SS. Sept. III. p. lUli. Mirac S. Oorgonii, cap. 7.

- Vila J oh. (lorz. cap. 16.

•' Eiiu)ld, archdeacon of Toul, was rich, and distinguished for liis secular and spiritual learning. But he fled from the world, and gave up all his possessions in order to live a life of penance in a small cell near the cathedral. From there he went to Gorze.

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the movement was always marked by greater asceticism than the Cluniac, in several points the latter's example was followed ; ^ e.g. exceeding fasting was discouraged, and the same fast days adopted as at Cluny ; in the recitation of the psalter, in the reading during meals, and in the division of vigils and prayers, the Cluniac custom was followed. The extreme submission of the monks to the abbot recalled the Cluniac tradition, as also the custom that the monks' boots should be cleaned on the Saturday evening. ^

Though Gorze never reached Cluny's importance, it was the centre of a not inconsiderable reform. This was largely owing to Adalbero of Metz, who, from being a lukewarm supporter of the movement, awoke to the consciousness that it was better to swim with the tide than be submerged by it. In 941 he gave the monks the monastery of St. Arnulf's, Metz, which had fallen to secular canons. The latter were expelled and were replaced by monks, with Aribert of Gorze at their head.^ More important, as extend- ing Gorze's influence to another diocese, was the reform of the ill-famed Senones in the diocese of Toul (938), a reform carried through by bishop Adalbero, Gauzlin of Toul, and the monks of Gorze."* A second monastery reformed in Toul was Moyen- moutier, given to the monks by duke Frederick of Lorraine, who was won over to the movement by Aribert. Three monks of Gorze went there.^ One became abbot, and from Moyen- moutier reformed Saint-Die, which he placed under one of his monks.^ The latter soon fell into evil ways and squandered the monastic revenues to such an extent that duke Frederick expelled him and his monks, and replaced them by secular canons.

In the diocese of Liege, owing to the enthusiasm of bishop

1 Hauck, Kirchengeschichte, iii. 357, unlike Sackur, thinks that neither of these points was adopted from Cluny. He maintains, what seems highly im- probable, that the fame of Cluny was unicnown to Gorze; cf. Sackur, i. p. 160.

■^ Some of the monks attributed this rather to an old custom of Gorze fallen into disuse.

3 Vita Joh. Gorz. cap. 67. ^ Sackur, i. p. 166.

5 Vita Joh. Gorz. cap. 70. ® Sackur, i. p. 168.

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Richer, the reform met its greatest success. He, with the help of the monks of Gorze, restored St. Peter's, Liege,^ and Stablo Malmedy.2 The former destroyed by the Normans, the latter devastated by the Danes, had passed to lay abbots. Under a former monk of Gorze, Stablo Malmedy arose more magnificent than before, a magnificence for which it paid dear. Its prosperity aroused the cupidity of the lay lords of the district by whom it was again despoiled.

More important was the foundation of Gembloux by the warrior Wigert. Having provided for the building of the monastery he retired to Gorze, where he took the habit, and there spent the rest of his life. Only once did he leave Gorze to inspect the new monastery, and appoint as its abbot his friend Erluin, a canon. ^ The latter met with some success in reforming St. Vincent's, Soigniers,* but with failure at Lobbes, which for two years he struggled to reform. After that time, blinded by the monks, and with his tongue pulled out, he returned to Gembloux.^

^ Pertz, Mori. Germ. Script, iv. p. 63.

^ Sackur, i. p. 169.

^ Man. Germ, xiii., Vita Wicberti, cap. x.

* Sackur, i. p. 171.

^ Gesta abb. Gemblac. cap. 15.

CHAPTER VII

ODO'S LAST YEARS AND DEATH — HIS WRITINGS

In contrast to the even tenor of his days at Baume, Odo's life during the fifteen years that he was abbot of Cluny was characterised by a varied activity. Not only was he a zealous reformer in France and Italy, but he is twice found working in the interests of peace between Hugh of liOmbardy and Alberic his stepson.^ Hugh had received the Lombard crown in 926, and through his marriage with Marozia was master of Rome. This led to discord with his stepson Alberic, who in 932 rose against his stepfather and drove him from Rome. Hugh retaliated by besieging the city, and laying waste the surrounding district. Intermittent warfare continued till both combatants were exhausted, when Odo was summoned to Rome by the pope to arrange terms of peace (c. 939).^ He was well fitted for the part of intermediary, being on friendly terms with both sides. For long he had known Hugh, who had several times helped to protect Cluny 's lands, in 932 had joined his name to Odo's in petitioning the pope to ratify Cluny's charters, and in 934 had

^ Flodoardi Chron. iii. p. 389, anno 942, Domnus Odo abbas pro pace agenda inter Hugonem regem Italiae et Albricum Romanum patricium apud eundem regent laborabat. Cf. Vita Joanne, ii. 9, Tempore praeterito dum Bomuleam urbetn ob inimicitiam Alberici iam fati principis praedictus Hugo rex obsideret, coepit ille intra extraque discurrere ut pacis concordiaeque monita urbem tueri a tanta obsidione. John probably wrote in 943.

2 Ibid. ii. 7, Sub idem tempus Italiam missi suynus a Leone summo pontifice ut pacis legatione fungerem,ur inter Hugonem Longobardum regem et Albericum Romanae urbis principem. John states that he first knew Odo two years before the latter's death, 941 or 942. Leo VII. died 939. Cf. Vita Leonis Bibl Clun. p. 61, Odonem vocavit Romam ut inter Hugonem regem Italiae qui Rom am obsidere ceperat et Albericum Romae principem pacis componendae sequestrem ageret. Cf. Vita Odonis Nalgodo, cap. 32.

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presented the monastery with Savigneux and Amberieu. In 936 Odo's relationship with Alberic began through the reform of the Roman monasteries, and helped to strengthen the chain binding Cluny to Rome, where the popes were but the tools of the. prince. Peace was sealed by Hugh's giving his daughter Alda in marriage to Alberic. But concord did not long continue, and probably in 941 Odo was again in Rome working for peace.^ So in manifold activity and growing fame passed the last six years of his life. ' Let those who will ', writes John, ' praise men who expel demons, make the dead to live, and other men of ill-famed works. I, least among all, will praise my Odo, first for his virtue of patience, then for his contempt of material things, then for the souls he saved, for his restoration of monasteries, his clothing, and feeding of the monks, the peace he gave to the churches, the concord to kings and princes, his guardianship of all ways, his instancy in command, his persever- ance in vigils and prayers, his respect for the poof, his correction of youth, his honour for old men, his improvement of morals, his love of chastity, his encouragement of continency, his pity for the wretched, his undefiled observance of the rule, and finally for himself, the mirror of all virtues.' His doctrine and the fame of his virtues had made him celebrated throughout almost the whole of Italy. His journeys to Rome had brought his monastery into closer touch with the papal see,^ and made him a well-known figure in the holy city, where the ardour with which he visited the sacred places became a tradition for later abbots of Cluny. In Rome he was jestingly called ' the Digger ', for so rooted in him was the practice of the rule, that wherever

^ Vita Leonis: Venit abbas sayictissimits snaque intercession e hoc obtinuit ut Albericus fiWam Hugonis conjugem acciperet.

- Vita Joanne, ii. 15. A story which to his monks was a proof of liis pro- phetic gifts seems rather proof of his influence with the pope. Hearing the bishop of Nolana lament that he had twice gone to Rome for the papal benediction which his enemies had prevented his receiving, and that he was going a third time though he feared it was useless, Odo blessed him and said, ' Know of a surety that tliis time God will grant thy desire.' In fifteen days the' bishop returned triumpliant.

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he was, standing, or walking, or sitting, lie was ever to be seen with bent head, and eyes fixed on the ground ^ (Eeg. cap. 7).

It was in Rome that the hand of Death touched him. ' The nearer he felt his vocation draw nigh, the more instantly did he afflict his body with fasting, vigils, and prayers, and the other works of holy virtue ; and as a true athlete wrenched his aged limbs with hard exercise.' As the monk's life was but the preparation for death, a long and beautiful account of his death is given in the Vita.'^

When he felt death approach, the faithful imitator and vicar of the apostles, having completed his course of excellent virtue, longed for his flesh to be dissolved. He yearned to behold St. Martin, whom he had drunk in with his mother's milk, and who had separated him as another vase of election from his mother's breast. God was merciful. St. Martin, conspicuous in grace of form, appeared to him and said, ' Oh, holy soul, beloved of God, thy call draweth near, and the last dissolution of thy body approach eth. But I, St. Martin, grant thee strength to return to thine own land, where thy life will be exchanged for death, and Christ reward thee with the blessed society of the elect.' His strength returned, and thinking nothing of the hard- ships of the journey he started for Tours, arriving in time for St. Martin's Day. His coming caused double rejoicing in the city.

* My imagination ', John continued, ' is unable to conjure up his devotion at the festival, nor the prayers and groans he poured out to the saint. Nay, the stolidity of my mind and the rusticity of my style would but detract from the reality. After the first three days of the festival he groaned more and more anxiously for his promised reward. On the fourth day fever again attacked him, and cold blood flowing from his heart consumed his strength. His vow was heard : he grew weaker. Joyfully he saw God, he breathed, he sighed, his dying voice was heard. " Thou, oh Christ, spare Thy redeemed. Thou, oh Martin, receive me." '

1 Ibid. ii. 9. ^ Ibid. iii. 12.

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From all parts monks flocked to his bedside. He instructed them and consigned them to God with the prayer of faith, strengthening them with his benediction, and with pious sobs bidding them farewell. On December 4 that blessed spirit, refreshed by holy unction, fortified by the life-giving chalice, and absolved from corruptible flesh, soared to the sky, where with St. Martin his master he presented to his Maker a manifold return for the talents entrusted to him, and receiv'ed in Christ a gracious guerdon for his pious labours.

Odo may be called the first of Cluniac writers both in point of time and of importance. The list of his works includes (1) an abbreviation of the Moralia of St. Gregory the Great, written at Tours ;" (2) the Collationes, the most important of his works, written at Baume ; (3) the life of Gerald of Aurillac, wTitten at Aurillac ; (4) five sermons in prose, two in honour of St. Martin, one on St. Peter, another on St. Benedict, a fifth in honour of Mary Magdalene, and the Occwpatio sermons in verse ; (5) a poem in twelve hexameters on the blessed Eucharist ; (6) twelve antiphones in praise of St. Martin, written on his deathbed at Tours. Besides these, four musical treatises were once attri- buted to him, the Tonarius, Dialogus or Enchiridion, Regulae Rythminachia, Regulae Abacus, and a little book on the building of organs, of which the authorship is uncertain. It would seem that his reputation as a musician was considerable in his own day, several of the later chroniclers giving him the patronymic, Odo Musicus, and stating that his chief study under Remigius at Paris was music and dialectics.^

The most important of his books was the Collationes,- which he wrote at bishop Turpio's request, and with Berno's permission.

^ Bibl. Chin. p. 57 et seq. Sigebertus Gerablacensis (twelfth century). * Geslonim Andegavensium'' (twelfth century), mag ister scholae et precentor ecdesiae. Vincentius Bellovacensis (thirteenth century), Odo musicus ... a Remigw in tnusica et dialectica . . . eruditus. ^ Chronicon I'uronense.'' : Odo praecenior erclesiae. " Chronici chronicorum' : A Remigio in musica et dialectica eruditus. * Liber de Scriptoribus eccles. ' : Erat insig)>is musicus et archicantor ecclesiae Tutonensii^.

* Migne, 133, p. 518.

^ / 6T, MICHAEL'o

^ \ COLLEGE

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After obtaining that permission, he could not bring himself to begin to write. At last Berno warned him that in a fortnight's time he must return to Limoges, so he set to work in earnest and wrote Book I. Winter set in early that year, and with such severity that his journey was postponed. Berno, having read his manuscript, pointed out that he had raised and left unanswered many problems, and advised him to take advantage of his enforced leisure to expand and amplify his book. So Book II. was written, and the two parts submitted to bishop Turpio, who with Berno united in asking for more. The completed work naturally suffers from this lack of distinct plan and definite scheme, and as a whole is marred by repetitions, brusque transitions, and unexpected returns to subjects already treated. In the preface to Book III. Odo likened his work to a vase already full. Water added to it would only overflow and form drops on the surface which would detract from the beauty of the form. All the same the third book, which is almost as long as the first two put together, contains the most vigorous writing.

The Collationes, one of the most famous books of its day, was inspired by a conversation between bishop Turpio and the young monk over the evil condition of the church. It is a Jeremiad and a diatribe, in which Odo lamented over and scourged the sins of the day. For the time was at hand, and Odo looked to the year 1000 as marching towards that end of which the Apocalypse speaks.

He went, not very deeply it is true, into the problem of evil in the world and its expiation by suffering. The world was once perfect, till God found it turning out evil, and brought punish- ment and suffering on men.^ Satan brought moral evil by tearing God's word from the heart, putting pride, lechery, and wicked- ness in its place. Men brought on themselves a third kind of evil through persecution, injustice, and shame.

1 Ibid. p. 637, iii. 52. Nor can man complain. Cnr Hague asperum creditur ut a Deo homo toller et flag ella pro malis, si tanta Dens ab hominibus pertulit mala pro bonis?

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God's creation ruined, the race which remained tainted was divided into the two great families of Cain and Abel. Odo fulminated against the evil race of Cain who gave themselves to the work of the devil. It is here that his style is most forcible. He may not be able to go deeply into the problem of the origin of evil, but he is graphic and telling in depicting its effects. Brief and trenchant in Book III. are his scathing aphorisms against the rich children of Cain. ' Open all the books of antiquity and you will find that the more powerful are always the worst.' ^ ' Not nature created the worldly rank of the nobility but ambition.' ^ It is the rich who grind the faces of the poor ; night and day they pass in feasting, play, drinking, dancing ; yet the food with which they gorge themselves, and the sumptuous garments in which they adorn themselves, are acquired by the sweat of the poor. ' If there is any beauty in such things, it is those who make them that should be praised, as Boethius says, and not those who use them.' ^^ It is the poor who sow the seed, the poor who garner the grain. The many toil that the few may live at ease. Great will be the reward of the rich in hell.

Of all Cain's evil children he regarded the unworthy professors of religion as the worst, those hypocrites who cover their sins under the cloak of religion. He denounced the secular clergy of his day, as given over to carnal things, swollen by pride, hardened by avarice, eaten up by desire, inflamed by anger, torn by discord, ulcerated by envy, and vitiated by luxury. Nor did the monk escape, Odo, like Pachomius before him, fore- seeing with deep grief the decay and ruin of the monastic order — a result which would follow from what he regarded as the greatest evil in the monastic life of his day, the holding of private

^ Ibid. iii. 30, Omnes libros antiquitatum considera, potentiores semper intJenies peiores.

- Ibid., Nobilitatem quippe mundanam non natura, sed ambitio praestitit.

■' Ibid., Si qua vero pulchritudo in eis est aut suavitas, artifices laudandi sunt ul Boetiiis dicit et non hi qui eis . . . utuntur . . . propriam sibi non sujjicere produnt.

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property within the monasteries. From this evil arose the occa- sion to greed, gluttony, and vice. He brushed aside the monks' plea that they were forced to infringe the rule through the fault of their abbots, who neglected to provide for the neces- sities of the monastery. In that case, Odo pointed out, they were only justified in keeping sufficient for their needs, and not for the luxuries with which they pampered themselves. Their own greed, and not only the abbots' negligence, was at fault.

He had his message also for the race of righteous Abel — the perfect, and the less perfect. He rejoiced over the former, who are marred only by small unavoidable sins, who welcome tribulations, recognising in them trials to purge them from their faults. He warned the less perfect, not to let their love for their Creator be weakened by their love for His creatures, nor to be too much engrossed by their own and their children's future. Berno had objected that there was not enough said for the con- solation of the elect in the first two books. In the third Odo dwelt on the futility and instability of earthly joys, the nothing- ness of beauty, the example of the saints, and the horrors which the evildoers in this world will suffer in the next.

Like the other writers of his age, Odo used the imagery of the bestiary : the eagle the symbol of pride ; the mare of lechery ; the dragon of violence ; the rich man who preys on the goods of others the fish, which, devouring its smaller neighbours, is in its own turn swallowed up : so will Satan devour the rich. The man who in the difficulties of life lives like the fathers in the desert, he likened to the goat feeding among the mountains. If the goat falls, he alights on his two horns, and does himself no harm. The wise man, when he errs, is saved by the two horns of the Old and New Testament.

An earlier work of Odo's, written when still at Tours, is the abbreviation of the Moralia of Gregory the Great,^ a book severe, sombre, and dull, though Odo's quaint and florid introduction describes it as a garden into which he entered to gather flowers,

1 Migne, 133, p. 107.

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whose unearthly beauty and wondrous perfume overpowered his senses.

More interesting is the life of Gerald of Aurillac,^ which he was asked to write by Aimo, and other monks and priests. Gerald had recently died, and the many miracles which had taken place at his tomb were arousing popular interest. Men questioned whether this man who had lived in the world, who had partaken of flesh and wine, could be a saint. Odo too doubted, till he went to Tulle to collect the material for his book. There he interviewed four men who had known Gerald from childhood, a monk, a priest, and two laymen. Questioning each separately and all four together, he found that their witness agreed, and his doubts were laid at rest. Though Gerald lived in the world, he had wished to be a monk, and had only given up his intention when dissuaded by the bishop of his diocese ; though he had eaten flesh and drunk wine, he had done so in moderation and sobriety. His care to keep his body chaste and mind pure was in striking contrast to the customs of his contemporaries. The simplicity of his garments and of his manner of life w^as a rebuke and example to the priest who aped the great. His hospitality and charity were a lesson to those who, instead of receiving the poor in their homes, were content to distribute alms by the hands of strangers. Rich and powerful, he had despised ambition, pride, and outward pomp, keeping his mind lowly, simple, and humble. Living in the world, he yet in private life cultivated the virtues of the monk. Unable to be a monk himself he had built Aurillac for the monk. The life is divided into three parts, Book I. giving the facts of Gerald's life. Books II. and III. the miracles which had taken place at his tomb. The life has also come down in another recension, a shorter form probably also written by Odo.^

Of the sermons, that on St. Benedict ^ is perhaps the most in- teresting, as showing Odo's veneration for the founder of his order, to him a second Moses. From the hard rock Moses and Benedict ^ Ibid. p. C)'M). 2 2iihl Clun. p. 138. =« Migne, 133, p. 721.

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had brought forth water, Moses for the earthly needs of his people, Benedict for the spiritual needs of the monk. Far greater was Benedict's glory than that of a king, if, as Solomon said, the glory of a king is in the multitude of his people. What king or emperor ever commanded so many legions in so many parts of the world and of so many races as Benedict, who led the militia of Christ, of both sexes and all ages, sworn volun- tarily to God's service.

In the sermon delivered on the occasion of the third burning of St. Martin's basilica ^ — a disaster which had caused the scoffer to scoff and to murmur that the saint could not even protect the church of which he was guardian — Odo returned to the problem of the Collationcs, the place of evil in the divine ordering of the world, of which the destruction of the church was an instance. He to whom all bowed could naturally have prevented the disaster. It was but another proof of his love that he had not done so. Caring nothing that his glory would be momentarily obscured in the eyes of men, he had permitted the burning of his church as a message, a warning, and a chastisement for sin : and were not the lives of the canons of Tours such as to provoke the saint's wrath ? Odo urged to repentance those who in their foolishness and ignorance had reproached the saint, while putting before them a work in which all might participate, the rebuilding to God's glory and their own merit the basilica which they mourned.

In the sermon on the Magdalen ^ Odo pointed out that as by a woman death came into the world, so by a woman the glad tidings of the resurrection was first announced. Thus by the Magdalen the reproach of the female sex was removed.

At abbot Baldwin's request Odo ' elucidated and corrected with a glossary ' the life of St. Martin written by Postumianus and Gallus,^ a task which caused his glory to shine forth. One evening, he and a brother, Othegarius, were so engrossed in their work that the signal for vespers found them still writing. ' Ibid. p. 729. 2 Ibid. p. 713. » Vita Joanne, ii. 22

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Hastening to prayer, they forgot the book. It was winter time, and that night there was such a storm of rain that the cellars were flooded, and the place where the book had been left seethed like a torrent. Therefore great was the amazement next day when the news spread that, though the margin of the book was soaked through, yet the writing was untouched. But to the wondering monks the wise father joyfully cried, ' Why do ye marvel, oh brothers ? Know ye not that the water feared to touch the life of the saint ? ' Then a monk ever quick in speech rejoined, ' But see, the book is old and moth-eaten, and has so often been soaked that it is dirty and faint ! Can our father then persuade us that the rain feared to touch a book which in the past has been soaked through ? Nay, there is another reason.' The virtuous father, knowing that the speaker sought to suggest that the rain had feared to touch the book not because it was the life of the saint, but because it was his, hastily turned aside the remark to the glory of God and St. Martin.

CHAPTER VIII

ODO S CHARACTER

In Odo is to be found a man who made real the teaching of Christ. ' He was ', wrote John, ' like a four-cornered stone, divine, human, generous and filled with love.' Most beautiful was the relation between him and his monks. ' How can I, unworthy one, tell fittingly of him ? Verily, when we could not otherwise contain our souls, we kissed his garments in secret. But that was not surprising in us who were ever with him. For even strangers who entered our church to pray, immediately hurried to lift and kiss the hem of his mantle. And when with hasty step he would have escaped, they followed him as if they were persecutors.' ^

Angel messengers watched over him, as Angelus the priest told and affirmed on oath to abbot Baldwin and his monks. One night at St. Paul's, when Odo, wearied after nightly Lauds and his private prayers, fell asleep, the priest saw a venerable white-haired old man cover him with a woollen garment. Taking him for Feraldus, deacon of the monastery, Angelus was indig- nant at his presumption in daring to act thus at one of the ' incompetent hours '. Next day, when his anger had cooled, he questioned Feraldus, who swore it was not he. Then to all it was clear that an angel messenger had watched over the father.2

Other stories showed that the divine grace was ever watching

over him. Two priests who had gone with him to pray at

Monte Gargano, on their return affirmed on oath that, though

often during canonical hours he prostrated himself on the

^ Vita Joanne, ii. 5. ^ Vita Anonyma.

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ground when it rained, yet never did a drop touch him. ' Pro- tected by the divine dignity, even though the ground was soaked and wet, his garments remained dry.' ^ And once when Odo and his monks were crossing the Alps on which the eternal snows lay deep, he and his horse were shot over a precipice. Dropping the reins he raised his arms to heaven, and found between them the branch of a tree, to which he clung till help came. But never in that spot had a tree been known to grow ! -^ And once when he was crossing the Rhone, accompanied by the chief men of the district, one of the horses kicked a hole in the boat, which immediately began to sink. By the grace of God it reached the bank, and all landed, Odo last of all. The instant he set foot on land the boat disappeared beneath the waters.^ What greater testimony of his merit could be given, ' since by this miracle he was held worthy to follow in the footsteps of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Benedict '. Often did John lament that he had been accounted worthy to be with Jiis master only two years, and often did envy those who had been with him all their lives.*

Other stories throw a light upon Odo's character. Not- withstanding his deep sense of the sin of the world, and its misery, he set before his monks the example of spiritual joy. ' Such grace of the spirit filled him, that his joy not only rejoiced the joyful but cheered the sorrowful ; making both participators of the eternal joy. His language was sweet and pleasurable, honey being as it were distilled from his lips, while the law of prudence was in his heart.' ^ ' His words were full of exulta- tion, and often his remarks would make us laugh with too great hilarity. But he never let this degenerate into excess, and holding the reins of moderation in his hand he would check unseemly mirth by recalling the precept of the rule, " not to love much or excessive laughter " ; and again, " let not the monk

^ Ibid. - Vita Joanne, ii. 18. ^ Ibid. ii. 17.

* Ibid. iii. 5, JSed felices illi qui ems presentiain cernere meruerunl quoad vixit. Infelix ego qui nee duobus expletis annis illi merui famulari. » Ibid. ii. 5.

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be easily or quickly moved to laughter 'V for it is written, " the fool raiseth his voice in mirth ". In these and similar ways he restrained us, while his spiritual joy rejoiced our hearts.'

When travelling he joyfully uplifted his voice in the singing of psalms, encouraging his monks to do the same. If he met a group of boys he would ask them to sing, and then order a reward to be given them, for what was after all only their play. Laughingly he would say that for entertaining the monks the boys were worthy of pay.^ ' These and similar speeches he made to rejoice us with his joy, and refresh us with the bowels of his mercy.' A charming instance of his sense of humour is seen in the story of the thief who in the night stole a horse from a monastery, and who was found in the morning motionless on a motionless horse. Dragged bound before Odo, the latter ordered him to be set free, and five solidi of silver to be given him, it being unjust, he gravely explained, that after having suffered all night, the offender should receive no pay.^ This story evidently became the chestnut of the monastery.

Odo taught that the blind and the lame were the porters of the gates of paradise, and that it was suicidal to drive them from the gates. If a monk, impatient at the importunity of a beggar, answered him harshly or drove him away from the gates, Odo would call the beggar before him, and say, ' When he who has served thee thus, comes himself seeking entrance from thee at the gates of paradise, repay him in like manner.' ^

Exaggerated asceticism he did not encourage. One young brother during his initiation strove by weeping and prayer to wipe out the cloud of his past offences. ' Giving up all else he sweated day and night in lamentation and remorse.' But

^ Ibid., Monachus non sit facilis ant jnom/ptus in risu. ^ Ibid.

' Ibid. ii. 10. John often heard the story, for he later became prior of the monastery where the incident happened (probably St. Paul's, Rome) and found that the thief was the son of the miller. If ever the unfortunate miller refused to do something the brothers wanted, they bade John demand the five solidi back from him. * Ibid. ii. 5.

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Odo, skilled physician of souls, questioned the young zealot as to why he did not, like his companions, either teach or learn ; whereupon the novice revealed the agony of his heart, and his life of penance. Knowing that if a monk acts without the permission of his spiritual father his deeds are regarded not as meritorious but as showing presumption and vainglory, he begged Odo's approval of his manner of life. But Odo answered : ' Nay, wait to become a monk, till that spirit which has goaded thy mind with the sting of vainglory departs from thee.' In a year's time the brother was found worthy to be received.^

One of Odo's chief characteristics was his unquenchable charity. He at least carried out literally the Gospel precept, ' Take no thought for the morrow.' Even when supplies were not plentiful, no counsels of prudence could check his alms- giving. Before a journey he was careful to see that the purse- bearer had sufficient, not only for the needs of the monks, but also for the poor, and the latter fund often encroached on the former. Serenely he would give to all who asked, sure that at the worst God would interpose. Nor was his faith ever disabused.

A peculiarity of his almsgiving was, that if any one poorly dressed brought him a gift, he would ask him if he lacked for anything. If the answer was yes, he calculated the value of the gift, and commanded double the amount to be given to the donor — a procedure not always pleasing to the prior on whom the financing ot the monastery fell.^ Often, John confessed, when he saw Odo do this the sight distressed him. ' For though I had compassion on the poor, yet I was prior, and knowing the povertv of the monastery, and foreseeing the necessities of the brothers, I would point out that it was unjust to give all things thus indiscreetly away. I thought to act wisely, whereas I was only wrapped in the mist of darkness. But he, skilled physician of souls, put his finger on the pulse of my error and with this

^ Ibid. ii. 14. Benedict did not encourage individual asceticism. The monk ' was to do nothing but what the common rule of the monastery and the example of his superiors exhorts', AVf/. cap. 7. ' Ibid. ii. 4.

G

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story cured the disease of my soul.' The story was, that one winter's night a youth set out for morning Lauds, and seeing a beggar lying half-naked in the porch of the church he covered him with his coat. When he returned to his cell half- frozen with cold he found a gift of gold, with which he was able not only to buy a new coat, but to give abundantly to the poor. A charming incident of Odo's generosity occurred on a jour- ney in Italy. The monks had set out well supplied with funds, thirty solidi silver, but before reaching Siena the greater part had been given away. At Siena there was famine, and John the purse-bearer, knowing that it would be impossible to check Odo's almsgiving, and that as a result the monks would be reduced to actual straits, secreted what solidi were left, and passed on first beyond the town. On entering Siena Odo was surrounded by beggars, beseeching that aid he had never been known to refuse. Immediately he called for the purse-bearer, to find him gone, but knowing he could not be far off, he told the beggars to follow. Nor was that enough. On leaving the town he noticed three men just as poverty-stricken as the beggars, but too proud to ask for help. With singular delicacy he asked them what was the price of some pots of laurel berries before their house. The men named a trifling sum, which Odo said was not enough, and that he would give them more. Meanwhile, John waiting beyond the town was amazed to see Odo approach, ' like a general starting out for war, though his troops were but beggars '. So pleased was Odo at having outwitted his disciple, that he almost forgot to give the customary benediction to John's saluta- tion, and joyfully called out, ' These are the servants of God and our co-labourers, hasten therefore to give them their reward.' Having obeyed, John asked in real amazement what the laurel berries were for. The reply came in words such as John never hoped to hear again, while the monks laughed till they cried.^

^ Ibid. ii. 7, Adeo enim ovines exhilaravit tit prae nimio gaudio, ne qvis ex nostris suas lacrymas jyosset continere, iit valeret alter alteri loqui. A mediaeval joke somewhat difficult to see : either Odo chaffed his purse-bearer, or the monks laughed at seeing the well-beloved John rebuked.

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When they recovered, John humbly begged that they might return the berries, but this Odo would not hear of, lest the sellers returned the price. Even when they had reached a lonely part of the road where there was no danger of being seen, he was with difficulty persuaded to let the monks throw the berries away.

It was not only in gifts of money that Odo's generosity showed itself. On his journeys if he overtook a weak or poor old man, he immediately got off his horse, made the other mount, and with a monk to hold him on, precede all the company. ' And though the other monks were on horseback, he himself would walk on foot, joyfully singing psalms and making the rest join in.' If one of the monks wished to dismount, Odo forbade him, knowing that his motive was rather respect for his abbot than love for the poor.^ In this connexion John tells a story against himself. Once when he was travelling with Odo they overtook an old man carrying a filthy sack, full of bread, onions, leeks, and olives, whose combined odours caused John to flee. Odo as usual dismounted, gave his horse to the old man, and took the sack, a sight which moved John to shame. So he rejoined Odo, who received him with such words of rebuke and love that the disciple, forgetting the smell, was able to proceed at his master's side.'^ Another time Odo overtook a mad old woman and set her on his horse, when immediately she recovered her reason ! The sequel shows why Odo was so beloved by the poor. He and his companions went on to Rome, leaving the woman at Siena. Some time later at St. Paul's, Odo signed to John to give money to a woman sitting with bent head at the church door. John asked why ; but the abbot's old eyes had been quicker than the disciple's young ones, for the woman was she whom they had succoured by the way.

As Odo was sixty when John first knew him, these stories of his journeys show that he must have been of great physical strength. On the occasion of the journey to Siena, for example,

' Ibid. ii. 5. * Ibid. ii. 6.

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the season was winter, the roads bad, and the crossing of the Alps proved terrible. Heavy snow fell, the little company lost their way, and were so frozen with cold that they even lost the power of speech. Odo's suffering wrung John's heart, but all he could do was to force the abbot to wear his tunic. On their way home, when crossing the Juras at nightfall, they met a man who, with naked feet and body, stoutly advanced through the deep snow. Odo, letting the monks pass that they might not divine his intention, stripped off his mantle and clothed the stranger. In that vast solitude there was no inn near ; but the stranger said he would reach the camp that day, i.e. in an hour. Hence John knew that he was no man but a fiend in human form, since he was going to do in an hour what had taken them all day. A dream proved that he was right ; all the more did he marvel at his master's charity, which extended even to the wicked.^

If a soul were to be saved Odo could be pitiless. Once on his way to Rome he passed by the vicus Vaduscinie, ' where a man lived who, among the other crimes in which his mind revelled, had shamelessly taken to himself two wives '. Outside his door the way was blocked by a huge heap of mud, which the monks climbed over with the greatest difficulty. Odo passed safely and unhurt, his horse stepping as if he were on dry ground. Seeing this miracle, the evil man prostrated himself at Odo's feet, imploring him to enter his house. He consented, when the man rushed hither and thither setting the tables, doing service, and trying in every way to please the father. Seeing two women in the house Odo asked which was the wife. When he replied ' Both ', Odo said, ' I give you your choice : banish the younger woman or I leave your house.' Immediately the man thrust her forth, aroused from the death of the soul by the voice of the father.^ What happened to the woman evidently did not matter.

Travelling as much as he did, Odo's life was frequently in

^ Ibid, ii, 8, Non fuisset homo purus. ^ Vita A nonyma.

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danger J Once forty robbers rushed at him, only to be checked by his intrepid bearing, for he advanced undauntedly with his monks, nor ceased to sing the accustomed psalms. This sight pierced one of the robbers to the heart, and he cried : ' Let us leave them alone for I never remember having seen such men before. We might overcome the company, but never their armour-bearer, that strenuous man. If we attack them it will be the worse for us.' When his companions replied that they would kill the armour-bearer, despoil the others, and flee, he rejoined, ' Then turn your arms against me, for as long as I am alive, no harm shall come to them.' Divided among them- selves, they wrangled so much that the monks passed on in safety. But the first speaker followed Odo, asked what penance he should do, and thereafter ceased from his depravity.

Another robber having seen Odo on a journey, was struck by contrition before the gentleness of his face, and begged that he might become a monk. Odo told him to briug first ' some distinguished man from his district ' to answer for him. From the latter Odo learnt that the young man was a notorious robber. As it was dangerous to have such a wolf among his lambs, he said, ' Go first and reform your morals, and then seek our monastery.' In despair the robber cried, ' Father, if thou reject me to-day I shall go straight to perdition, and verily from thy hand God will require my soul.' So the pitiful Odo bade the young man precede him to CI any, where after probation he was accounted worthy to be received. He was given the humblest of offices, that of servant to the cellarer, and as he was totally ignorant the monks tried to teach him. ' Most devout he was, patient under his yoke of obedience, and fervent in his study of the psalms.' His days passed laboriously till he came to die, when he begged to see the abbot alone. On Odo's asking whether he had transgressed the rule, he confessed with deep contrition that he had given ' their ' tunic to a naked man. Worse still, he

^ Vita Joanne, ii. 19, Cinn pro pace regnm et principum et correctione mona-'itenonim imp:iiienti amore arderet et oh hoc hue illncque discurreret.

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had stolen a piece of rope from the cellar, for on entering the monastery he had found it so difficult to restrain gluttonous desires, that he had taken the rope to tie round his body. When the rope was removed, so deeply had it eaten into the body, that the flesh came away with it. But the monk's pain was to him as a very little thing, for that night he saw a woman of glorious person and excellent power, who said she was the Mother of Mercy. True to his training in obedience he asked what she would have him do, and learnt to his joyful amaze- ment that he was to join her in three days. Three days later he died, sure proof that his words were true. Ever after Odo called the Blessed Virgin Mater Misericordiae}

Two stories tell of illness. Two monks, whose names John thought it better not to insert, suffered from a fatal disease, and often begged Odo to let them try medicine. At last he consented, though speaking in a parable he warned them that he had seen a monk who, suffering from the same disease, took medicine only to be tortured with pain. They, not understanding that he referred to them, took the medicine, suffered great agony, nor ever recovered. ^ Another monk at Rome, forced by neces- sity, bled himself at an ' incompetent ' hour, though terrified and remorseful because he had been unable to ask Odo's per- mission. And indeed the blood poured forth with such impetus that the vein burst and no remedy could save him ! ^ The monks of that monastery said that whatever Odo foretold, good or bad, always came true.

A rather charmingly told incident shows how news was carried in those days. John had gone to Naples on the business of his monastery,* whence he hastened to return to Rome. At Porto he was received by certain noble men who had arrived from Rome that day. He immediately asked them about his beloved master. They, rejoicing as if over a friend, told him,

1 Ibid. ii. 20. According to one MS. Odo ordered the monk to be whipped for his theft. When he returned to see him next day the monk told his vision.

2 Ibid. ii. 14. •■* Ibid. iii. 5.

* Ibid ii. 21, Cogente necessitate nostri monasterii missus sum Neapolim.

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inter alia, the following story. On Assumption day Odo, who was staying at St. Mary's, Aventine, was asked by the abbot and monks to say mass. He refused, but when they insisted he entered the church. After praying for a little time, he hastily turned to leave, and when they tried to retain him, he cried, ' I beseech you let me go, for two of our brothers are at the point of death, and I must hasten to them lest they die in my absence. Behold, lie who is sent for me is at the gate.' Scarcely had he finished speaking when the messenger arrived !

CHAPTER IX

AYMARDUS, THIRD ABBOT OF CLUNY

Odo's successor was Aymardus, of whom unfortunately little is known.^ No biography was written of him, and what informa- tion we possess comes from scanty references in the Vita Odonis, Vita Maioli, and in later chronicles.

Aymardus must have been appointed Odo's coadjutor and successor as early as 938, a charter of that date ^ giving his name as abbot, though Odo's death did not occur till 942.^ It is easily intelligible, that the frequency of Odo's absences from Cluny and his multifarious activity made the presence of a co- adjutor at the Mother house necessary.

According to the Vita Maioli, Aymardus was not the first choice of the brothers, who twice begged Hildebrand, their prior, to become abbot, but he refused, ' preferring rather to obey than to command '. A legend of the eleventh century tells that Aymardus was chosen abbot on account of his humility. On the day of the election he was seen entering the monastery leading his horse, which was laden with fish. So struck were the brothers by this sight that they immediately elected him abbot. In the charters the adjective humilis nearly always precedes his name.

^ Brue], i. 217 (anno 920). A certain Aymardus, miles clarissivius, gave Cluny the curtis Silviniacus with its church and all pertaining to it, i.e. houses, vineyards, fields, meadows, and half a forest. Ibid. i. 443 : an Aydoardus gave land in the province of Macon. Ibid. i. 460 : A. gave land in the province of Autun, anno 936, Ibd. i. 474 (anno 937): Aydoardus a priest gave a chapel to Cluny.

2 Ibid. i. 486, Ad Chin, ubi dominus Heymardus abbas preesse videtur.

2 Ibid. 534 (anno 941), Clun. ubi preest Oddo abbas; cf. ibid. 1. 537 (anno 941), sub qua congregation e Heymardus abbas.

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In the Vita Maioli ^ there is a passage about Aymardus which runs : ' Aymardus, son of happy memory and blessed simplicity and innocence, was zealous in increasing the property of the monastery and in acquiring material goods. Besides this he was devoted in the observance of the rule.' Rodulf Glaber described him as a simple man, who though not as famous as the other abbots of Cluny, yet like them carefully upheld the regular discipline.^

Perhaps Odo's rule, though making for the spiritual renown of the abbey, had somewhat neglected the material interests. Here Aymardus' practical gifts came in, the more so as after Odo's death many gifts of land were presented to the monastery. To deal with these donations required organising talent which Aymardus evidently possessed.

In his latter years Aymardus became blind, ' an affliction which he bore without a murmur as he did all his other adversities '. It was probably on account of his blindness that after sixteen years of rule he retired from active participation in the administration of the monastery. His blindness was the occasion for an instance of ' marvellous humility ' of which Peter Damiani wrote to a friend. After Maiolus was appointed coadjutor and successor, Aymardus withdrew to the infirmary to spend his last years in peace. One day he wanted a cheese. When he asked the cellarius to fetch it, the latter roughly replied that so many abbots were a nuisance, and that he could not attend to all their commands. Cut off by his blindness Aymardus brooded over the insult as the blind are wont to do. Then he asked to be led to the chapter house, where approaching Maiolus he said : ' Brother Maiolus, I did not set thee over me that thou shouldest persecute me, or order me about as a master orders a slave, but that as a son thou mightest have compassion on

^ Bihl. ('l)!)i. p. 209, Vltfi Maioli Odilotie, Hie in niK/inentatione irraediorum et adqui.^itione temporalis com modi adto studiosus Juii ei in ob.^ervatione satis devotus.

'"* Ibid, Rod. (rlab. iii. 5, Vir simplex qui licet non adro fa mo.'ii-'i.'fi m x.'^, rrgularis lamen observantiae non impnr ciisfos.

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thy father/ After many more words he concluded, ' Art thou indeed my monk ? ' Maiolus replied that he was, and never more so than at that moment. ' If that be so,' Aymardus rejoined, ' give up thy seat and take the one thou hadst before.' Immediately Maiolus obeyed, and Aymardus seating himself on the abbatial chair accused the cellarer, whom prostrate on the ground he rebuked and enjoined to do penance. Then descending from the abbot's throne he ordered Maiolus to ascend, which the latter did without either haste or delay.^

The one event in Aymardus' life of which there is a sufficient account is that of his retirement. ^ He was ill, weak, blind, weary, and worn out with his struggles ; he knew that Maiolus shone in good deeds and was raised to the heights on the wings of virtue. So he called the brothers together and exhorted them to choose a new abbot, as he in his blindness could no longer watch over the interests of the monastery. The monks did not know what to reply, till he, by divine inspiration, urged them to elect Maiolus, as alone fit for the charge.

Nalgoldus ^ in his Vita Maioli expands this account and makes Aymardus say : ' 111, blind, and weary, I can no longer be responsible for the interests of the monastery, nor fittingly watch over its welfare. For it is well known that not only is the spirit of bravery in soldiers derived from their king, and their courage from his magnanimity and boldness, but that if he, their leader, is remiss, they too lose their virtue. The health of the whole body is in the head, and if it is sound, so are the members. If the king loses courage, all his followers, even the strongest and most manly, are overcome with womanly fears. If the head is injured the whole body suffers. Now I who lead you in the celestial militia before the whole church, watch over your welfare as your head. I am old, infirm, blind, and cannot longer retain this responsibility. Exercise, therefore, your discretion and choose a father who will lead you in the way

1 Bihl. Clun. p. 269. ^ Migne, 137, p. 751, Vita Maioli Syro, ii. 2.

3 AA.8S. Boll. May II. p. 658.

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of God, and as a column of light in the night of offence direct your steps. For if a ship without a rudder cannot reach port neither can your souls without a pilot.'

Suffering as he did from ill health and blindness, Aymardus could not have been, even had he wished, the indefatigable traveller and reformer that Odo was. We only know of two monasteries that came under Cluny's jurisdiction when he was abbot. The first was Celsiniacus (Sauxillanges ^), founded by count Acfredus (927), and given to Cluny by Stephen, bishoj) of Clermont (950), who with his father, and his father's wife, called Aymardus to Sauxillanges. Aymardus was to send monks there. No services nor dues were to be required of them, nor on the occasion of an episcopal visitation was there to be any attempt at usurping rights over the monastery. ^ Louis IV., king of the Franks, at the bishop's request, confirmed Cluny's possession of Sauxillanges.

In 958 Conrad, king of Burgundy, at the request of Boso, count of Provence, gave Cluny the abbey of St. Amand's, near

^ Bruel, i. 286. The charter of gift is obscure and the Latin faulty. Acfredus, duke of Aquitaine, pondering on human frailty and lioping that by the gift of a small portion of the land granted him b}^ God, his sins might be remitted, gave to God the curtis Celsiniacus with its fields, vineyards, woods appendariae (i.e. rustic buildings of small value. — Ducange), five mills, the woodland where he hunted, his own house, two churches, and everything which belonged to the curtis in various districts : i.e. three churches, seven vineyards, and a long list of manors, houses, and appendariae. At Celsiniacus a house of religion was to be built, subjected neither to count, bishop, abbot, an}'^ of the count's relations, any mortal ruler, any saint nor angel spirit, but to God and the Trinity alone. The servants [ministri) of God sent there were to have no rector over them, no judicial power was to use force against them, molest them, nor take unjust dues from them. They were to put their trust in God only, and their serfs and coloni if accused or interrogated were to seek no other protector than Christ and the servants of God there : at one point these servants of God are called clerici, at another monachi. The gift was made in honour of the twelve apostles, therefore twelve canons were unwcariedly to l)ray day and night for the church, and for the remission of the sins of the count and of all the faithful. The scheme was evidently found impracticable, but under Cluny Sauxillanges rose to great fame.

- Bruel i. 792, Ant quodlihet sen'itium vel debituin ab ipsius loci potestate pro qiialicumquc ingenio exigere, sen occasiotie episcopatus aliquid illic ivivstc ordinare nee sue rei potentatu quiddam dominare. The bishop's father had been the count's almoner.

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St. Paul-Trois-Chateaux, for lie felt that if he were zealous in the restoration and care of ecclesiastical things he would not only rule on earth, but in heaven receive an eternal reward ; also that the nearer the day of death came, the more urgent he should be in doing good. No count or magnate was to interfere with St. Amand's or its property, which was to be held for the use of the monks alone. ^ Next year Lothair, king of the Franks, at his mother's request also confirmed Cluny's possession in a charter which stated that St. Amand's was a ruined house without rector es, and situated in an uninhabited district. The monks were to build there, according to their skill, a ' habitable place ', and to hold the property : vills, meadows, vineyards, woods, waters, and serfs of either sex.^

After he had been seven years sole abbot of Cluny, Aymardus received a charter from a pope Agapitus ^ (sic), because Cluny was one of those holy places to which reverence was due (949). The monastery's liberties and privileges were confirmed, and its freedom from the domination of king, bishop, count, or relative of duke William the founder. The monks were freely to elect their own abbot without consulting any prince.* No bishop, count, nor other person was to enter the monastery, nor give orders, without the abbot's permission. Tenths which formerly belonged to the monastery's chapels, and by the ' modern authority ' of any bishop had been taken away, were restored in their entirety. Bishop Berno's decree over tenths from their churches was to stand. If any new chapels were built there, tenths of Cluny's churches were not to be diminished. Part of those tenths and part of the returns from the vineyards and cultivated land belonging to the above churches could be retained for the

1 Ibid. ii. 1052. - Ibid. ii. 1057.

'' Bibl. Clun. p. 27.3. It behoved the apostolic authority to receive with' benevolent compassion the vows of those who humbly approached it, and with swift devotion to answer their prayers. In return the greatest reward would be given by the Maker of all : therefore the pope granted Aymardus' petition that Cluny should continue in that state which was decreed in duke William's will.

* Nisi forte, quod nb'^it, personam suis vitiis consentientem eligere mahierirtt.

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hospitale. No one was to seize or attack the monastery's municijpia or property. Its possession of Sauxillanges, Carus Locus, the abbeys of St. John and St. Martin, Macon, the church of St. Saturn with its alod (tlie gift of archbishop Gerald), with other churches, vills, and alods, was also confirmed. To show that it behoved the Holy See to guard and cherish Cluny the monks were to pay Rome ten solidi every five years. ^

Besides the papal, Aymardus received several royal charters. Three were granted by Louis, king of the Franks, at the request of Hugh, duke of the Franks, Hugh, duke of Burgundy, and count Letaldus, names that show Cluny to have had influential friends. In 946, the three nobles begged the king to ratify the gift of St. John's, Macon, ^ with its alods, lands, and serfs (con- firmed three years after in the papal charter, see supra). Later in the same year they begged for the ratification of another gift, a vill with its vineyards, fields, meadows, woods, rivers, waters, fisheries, serfs, and coloni with their children \ ^ and finally for the confirmation of Cluny's possession of Carus Locus, the cella Regniacus, and abbey St. Martin's, Macon, with all belonging to them : churches, vills, vineyards, fields, meadows, woods, waters, serfs.* Duke Hugh and count Letaldus had influence also with Louis' successor, Lothair, who (955) at their request reconfirmed ^ Cluny's liberties and privileges, ' as conceded by former Frankish kings '. The castrurn of the monastery was to remain immune and subject to the monks alone, none daring to exercise judicial power within or without its circle, unless with their sanction. The monastery's property and possessions were to be held freely with no interference from outside authority, as former charters had decreed.

^ Any one who did not observe the charter was to be bound with the chain of anathema, ahenated from the kingdom of God, and tortured eternally by the devil.

2 Bruel, i. 688. =* Ibid. i. 689. * Bibl. Cliui. 277.

^ Bruel, ii. 980, ' If we strengthen holy places by our royal authority, without doubt we shall receive an eternal reward. . . . Assenting benignly to their request as is the custom of kings, we confirm whatever is known to liave been granted Cluny by former kings of France, saving the apostolic right,*

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In those early years, the kings of Burgundy continued to favour Cluny. In 943 Conrad, at the request of his relative count Hugh, ceded to Cluny a vill with its churches, and the little vills, lands, vineyards, meadows, woods, pasture lands, waters, and serfs belonging to it.^ The same year, again at count Hugh's request, he ceded to Cluny another vill which Hugh had given him,^ with everything belonging to it. Still, in 943, he supported the monks against his relative Charles of Vienne, who had disputed Cluny's right to the abbey of Carus Locus. The monks proceeded to Vienne and in the presence of the king pleaded against Charles, who finally acknowledged his error and signed Cluny's charter of possession. This was countersigned by the king, at whose command the decision of the case was written down.^ Carus Locus proved a precarious possession. A certain Sobbo held it for some time. The monks again went to court, when Sobbo, convinced by the high authority on which their claim was based, ' broke the reins of his cupidity and withdrew his case ' (948). For the monks proved that Carus Locus had belonged to Robert, bishop of Valence, who built the monastery, and put it under the papal guardianship. By the pope it was given to Odo of Cluny, as its charters ratified by kings Hugh, Lothair, and pope John XL testified. Sobbo made his retraction handsomely. Insatiable greed caused men to steal. He, Sobbo, was a sinner.^

A miserable sinner (remembering that now was the accepted time, etc.), whose father had left Cluny property which he through greed had withheld, at last recognised his sin, and with his wife's consent gave all with goodwill to St. Peter, i.e. a church with its vill and seven other vills, another church with the manor attached to it, serfs, land, mills, meadows, houses, moveables and immoveables. In reparation he also gave an alod of his own and hoped that God would forgive his sins, let him escape hell, and gain heaven.^

1 Ibid. i. 627. 2 Ibid. i. 628. » Ibid. i. 622. * Ibid. i. 730.

^871 (954). The preamble is the same as i. 726.

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Of the other charters the majority deal with exchanges of land, evidence of Aymardus' good management and his care to round off Cluny's property. The charters dealing with these and with gifts of land follow the customary formulae. Several deal with disputes. In one case, heard before count Leotbald, his retainers, and the viscount, two men disputed Cluny's possession of a vineyard. To vindicate their rights the monks sent two advocati, who in front of the church of Macon success- fully pleaded their suit, and proved that the vineyard belonged to St. Peter.

Before the glorious marquis Hugh, the monks sued Ademar, viscount of Lyons, for taking property assured to them by royal charter. When Ademar learnt that his senior was on their side, and that their charter of gift had been signed by the king, he renounced his claim and bound himself before Hugh not to offend again.

The chief monks of Cluny, i.e. Hildebrand, Leotbald, and many others appeared before count Leotbald, bishop Maimbod, viscount Walter, and their retainers, to accuse a certain Hugh,^ who held two churches bequeathed to Cluny by the late duke William of Aquitaine, and other property which had passed from the countess Ava to her brother the duke, and from him to Cluny. Hugh, in the presence of all, stood up and protested that the property belonged to him by deed of gift from his mother, and showed the charter signed by his senior, Leotbald. Judge- ment was given that this plea was not valid, and that if he could not advance further evidence he was to restore what he had taken. He thereupon admitted St. Peter's right and with- drew his claim.

Count Leotbald and his wife gave an alod with an ecdesia, vineyards, meadows, woods, pasture, mills, houses, water, serfs, the whole to revert to Cluny when either he or his wife died, but for which till then they were to pay two solidi annually. Wherever the count died, the monks were to fetch his body and

1 Ibid. i. GoO.

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bury it at Cluny.^ Later they gave a manor with a church and everything belonging to it except one alod and a plantation of trees. The count was to hold it in usufruct for his lifetime,^ paying the monks twelve denarii annually. He finally gave another church, eleven manors, and thirteen servants (servientes).^

Several gifts came from bishops. Maimbod, bishop of Macon, gave a curtiliis, with old vineyards part sown with grain, five fields, a meadow, and half a wood* (947). In 945 ^ and in 953 ® he exchanged land. In 956 when he was holding a synod, surrounded by a multitude of clerks, nobles, and laymen, Hilde- brand and Maiolus, with other monks of Cluny, came before him, and humbly begged him to give them tenths of two churches which belonged to his cathedral, and to allow that the churches with their tenths, property, and everything belonging to them, might always and without opposition be secured for their use. The bishop, having consulted his archdeacons and clerks, assented, ' without any gift having passed between the parties '. '^ He also, at the request of Aymardus and count Leotbald, consecrated a chapel dedicated to the confessor Taurinus and built by the monks in a vill which they had received from kings Rudolf and Louis.^ A nice discrimination was evidently necessary on such occasions, the bishop having first diligently inquired (1) whether the chapel recently founded would prejudice other churches, (2) would be of advantage to all Christians who cherished Christ in their hearts and the aforesaid confessor. The chapel was to be endowed by the monks with a colonia, three serfs, and a field (950).

An archbishop Gerald, oppressed by the enormity of his sins, bequeathed all his possessions to Cluny, remembering ' that now is the appointed time, now is the day of salvation ',

1 Ibid.