The Catholic encyclopedia (Volume 2); an international work of reference on the constitution, doctrine, discipline and history of the Catholic Church . the ap-proved Constitutions of a monastery or congregationdo now. A century later, in 910, the first real reform thatproduced any widespread and general effect wascommenced at the Abbey of Cluny in Burgundy,under St. Berno, its first abbot. The object wasan elaboration of the Benedictine ideal, for theuniform preservation of which a highly centralizedsystem of government, hitherto unknown to Benedic-tine monachism, except as suggested by St. Be
The Catholic encyclopedia (Volume 2); an international work of reference on the constitution, doctrine, discipline and history of the Catholic Church . the ap-proved Constitutions of a monastery or congregationdo now. A century later, in 910, the first real reform thatproduced any widespread and general effect wascommenced at the Abbey of Cluny in Burgundy,under St. Berno, its first abbot. The object wasan elaboration of the Benedictine ideal, for theuniform preservation of which a highly centralizedsystem of government, hitherto unknown to Benedic-tine monachism, except as suggested by St. Benedictof Aniane, was introduced. It was in fact the es-tablishment of a veritable order, in the commonacceptance of that term, within the Benedictinefamily, the abbot of Cluny retaining an actual head-ship over all dependent houses, the latter being gov-erned only by priors as his vicars. For two cen-turies or more Cluny was probably the chief religiousinfluence in the Latin Church, as it was also thefirst abbey to obtain exemption from episcopal over-sight. Through the efforts of Bernos immediatesuccessors the congregation grew apace, partly by. A Benedictine Monk, in ChoirDress founding new houses and partly by incorporatingthose already existing, so that by the twelfth centuryCluny had become the centre and head of an orderembracing some 314 monasteries in all parts ofEurope, France, Italy, the Empire, Lorraine, Spain,England, Scotland, and Poland. Although the con-gregation had itsown constitutionsand was absolutelyautonomous, itsmembers alwaysclaimed to be andwere actually rec-ognized as realBenedictines;hence it was notstrictly a new orderbut only a re-formed congrega-tion within the or-der. (See Cluny.) Folio wing theexample of Cluny,several other re-forms were i n i-tiated from timeto time in differentparts during thenext three cen-turies, which whiletaking the Rule ofSt. Benedict as abasis, aimed fre-quently at a greater austerity of life than waspractised by the black
Size: 1277px × 1955px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, books, booksubjectcatholicchurch
