Each of the earlier Benedictine monasteries had been an
isolated community, independent and self-governing. Consequently, when
discipline grew lax or when the abbot proved to be an incapable ruler, it was
difficult to correct the evils which arose. In the Cluniac system, however, all
the monasteries formed parts of one organization, the "Congregation of
Cluny." The abbot of Cluny appointed their "priors," or heads,
and required every monk to pass several years of his monastic life at Cluny
itself. This monarchical arrangement helps to explain why for two hundred years
the abbot of Cluny was, next to the pope, the most important churchman in
western Europe.
THE CISTERCIAN ORDER
Other monastic orders arose in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. Of these, the most important was the Cistercian, founded in 1098
A.D. at Citeaux, not far from Cluny. The keynote of Cistercian life was the
return to a literal obedience of St. Benedict's Rule. Hence the members of the
order lived in the utmost simplicity, cooking their own meager repasts and
wearing coarse woolen garments woven from the fleeces of their own sheep. The
Cistercians especially emphasized the need for manual labor. They were the best
farmers and cattle breeders of the Middle Ages. Western Europe owes even more
to them than to the Benedictines for their work as pioneers in the wilderness.
"The Cistercians," declared a medieval writer, "are a model to
all monks, a mirror for the diligent, a spur to the indolent."
