The regular clergy, or monks, during the early Middle Ages
belonged to the Benedictine order. By the tenth century, however, St.
Benedict's Rule had lost much of its force. As the monasteries increased in
wealth through gifts of land and goods, they sometimes became centers of
idleness, luxury, and corruption. The monks forgot their vows of poverty; and,
instead of themselves laboring as farmers, craftsmen, and students, they
employed laymen to work for them. At the same time powerful feudal lords
frequently obtained control of the monastic estates by appointing as abbots
their children or their retainers. Grave danger existed that the monasteries
would pass out of Church control and decline into mere fiefs ruled by worldly
men.
THE CLUNIAC REVIVAL
A great revival of monasticism began in 910 A.D., with the
foundation of the monastery of Cluny in eastern France. The monks of Cluny led
lives of the utmost self-denial and followed the Benedictine Rule in all its
strictness. Their enthusiasm and devotion were contagious; before long Cluny
became a center from which a reformatory movement spread over France and then
over all western Europe. By the middle of the twelfth century more than three
hundred monasteries looked to Cluny for inspiration and guidance.
