While Cluny was the most significant monastic power of the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries, and one of the most formidable forces for the reform movement which contributed to the Gregorian Reforms, its decline was precipitous and quick.
The death of the last truly great abbot - Peter the Venerable (1122-1156) - marks the beginning of this decline. In 1252 the Abbey renounced the independence granted by William of Aquitaine. Now under French royal control, abbots were appointed by the king and no longer freely elected. By 1634 even the Cluniac congregation was absorbed into the monastic congregation of St. Maur, further reducing its independence.
With absentee and titular abbots like Richelieu and Mazarin residing in Paris, the monastery became little more than a symbolic extension of royal power and privilege. In this environment the abbey became associated with the worst of Bourbon excess. The great church of Cluny III furthermore was associated with the superstitious medieval past by the "modern" thinkers of the Enlightenment. Thus the stage was set for Cluny's ultimate demise in the 18th century.
In 1727 the first impact of the Enlightenment preoccupation with regularity and uniformity was felt when the old monastic buildings were razed to make way for more contemporary construction in keeping with the Rococo style then current in Paris. In spite of a quarter century of intermittent work, only part of this new conception was complete by the 1750's. With the advent of the Revolution and its concomitant attack on all that was associated with the Church and royalty, the monastery was secularized. After 1790 local residents began deconstruction of the abbey church, appropriating its material for secular and private construction. Today, only the enormous south transept tower survives from what was once the largest church in Christendom.
The bulk of research and the foundation of what is today known about Cluny is the work of American architect Kenneth J. Conant. Unfortunately, even Conant's work has been handicapped by disinterest and opposition by various elements in the French establishment. Current interest among the international community has revived archeological work at Cluny, but tragically our knowledge remains incomplete and limited.
NEXT: Comparison of the Plan of St. Gall with the plan of Cluny.
For bibliographical sources, see the earlier article on Cluny.
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