CLUNIAC MONKS

Religious of the order of Clugni. It is the first branch of the order of St. Benedict. St. Bernon, abbot of Gigniac, of the family of the earls of Burgundy, was the founder of this order. In the year 910, he built a monastery for the reception of Benedictine monks, in the town of Clugni, situated in the Mac on no is, a little province of France, on the river Saone. The noble abbey of Clugni was destroyed in 1789. The monks of Clugni (or Cluni) were remarkable for their sanctity. They every day sang two solemn ma es. They so strictly observed silence, that they would rather have died than break it before the hour of prime. When they were at work, they recited psalms. They fed eighteen poor persons every day, and were so profuse of their charity in Lent, that one year, at the beginning of Lent, they distributed salt meat, and other alms, among 7000 poor. The preparation they used for making the bread which was to serve for the eucharist is worthy to be observed. They first chose the wheat grain by grain, and washed it very carefully. Then a servant carried it in a bag to the mill, and washed the grindstones, and covered them with curtains. The meal was afterwards washed in clean water, and baked in iron moulds. The extraordinary discipline observed in the monasteries of Clugni soon spread its fame in all parts. France, Germany, England, Spain, and Italy, desired to have some of these religious, for whom they built new monasteries. They also pa ed into the East; and there was scarcely a place in Europe where the order was not known. The principal monasteries in which the discipline and rules of Clugni were observed, were those of Tulles in the Limous in, Aurillac in Auvergne, Bourgdieu and Ma a in Berri, St. Benet on the Loire in the Orle a no is, St. Peter le Vif at Sens, St. Allire of Clermont, St. Julian of Tours, Sarlat in Perigord, and Roman-Mourier in the country of Vaux. This order was divided into ten provinces, being those of Dauphiné, Auvergne, Poitiers, Saintonge, and Gascony, in France; Spain, Italy, Lombardy, Germany, and England. At the general chapters, which were at first held yearly, and afterwards every three years, two visitors were chosen for every province, and two others for the monasteries of nuns of this order, fifteen def in i tors, three auditors of causes, and two auditors of excuses. There were formerly five principal priories, called the five first daughters of Clugni; but, since the di olution of the monasteries in England, which involved that of St. Pancrace, at Lewes in Su ex, there remained but four principal priories, being those of La Charité sur Loire, St. Martin des Champs at Paris, Souvigni, and Souxillanges. The Cluniac monks were first brought into England by William, earl of Warren, about the year of our Lord , 1077. These religious, though they lived under the rule of St. Benedict, and wore a black habit, yet, because their discipline and observances differed in many things from those of the Benedictines, therefore they were not called Benedictines, but monks of the order of Clugni. In the reign of Henry V., the Cluniac monasteries, by reason of the war between England and France, were cut off from the obedience of the abbot of Clugni, nor were they permitted to have any intercourse with the monasteries of their order out of England. The monasteries of Cluniac monks in England amounted in number to thirty-eight.— Brought on’s Bibliotheca His to rico-Sacra.