The Mysteries of Cluny

At Cluny, at least originally, the old Celtic church held the top position, and generally Cluny was one of the Abbeys who pledged obeisance to the King of Jerusalem around the time it was expanded in 1050 A.D. ( See diagram)

Cluny was also attractive because the monks and nuns under her jurisdiction followed a codex of rules, behaviors and observances which grew across Europe to be known as the Orders of Cluny. These rules regulated everything from foods that would be grown in season to the encouragement and reform of church abuses, especially simony (the holding of multiple church offices) and the lax observance of clerical celibacy. Romance was permitted but the rule of celibacy was enforced thus we touch on the threshold of "Courtly Love" as practiced in the courts of Champagne less than a century later.

By the early twelfth century, monasteries all over Europe, including the vaunted Basilica du Paris (home of the Merovingians Tombs) and St, Sulpice the Parisian home of alchemy, to Fecamp in Brittany. Both Glastonbury and Melifont in Ireland also paid tribute and exchanged documents with every shipment.

Politically Cluny had no peer during the crusades and many crowned heads bowed to its authority when mitigating disputes with Rome, this is probably because most wise monarchs knew that Cluny was backed up by the finest fighting men in Europe.

Additionally, Cluny acted as a feeder house for abbots of the realm and many Abbots naturally stayed in close contact with Cluny, almost as if Cluny was a distaff or shadow Vatican. These daughter monasteries followed the high standards of monastic observance created by Cluny's first abbot, Berno of Baume, who was himself deeply influenced by the Irish, and almost Pagan, natural philosophy of Duns Scotus Erigena a philosophy which, under Cuthbert, evolved into a series of "Bishops" who ruled as Kings, especially in the North of England. (xxxxƒ)

During the French Revolution the orders of Cluny were finally suppressed, and the abbey at Cluny, which had become known for the splendor and beauty of its liturgy and architecture, was converted to a public school. I repeat, for many centuries (literally a millennium) Cluny was a power to be reckoned with, not only because of its architecture, but equally because of its library and because of the sanctity of the tomb sites of the monks and abbots who were educated and fortified there.

As it grew Cluny went through three phases (see diagram). Each phase respected the original boundaries set down by the founding monks who built in a Romanesque style and attempted to construct the desmenes in a shape similar to the walls of the old Jerusalem.

Blois at Cluny
By 1088 a fabulous abbey cathedral was begun which was completed and dedicated a century later in 1187. Remember Henri Blois (Abbot of Glastonbury) was born 1099 and died around the time Cluny's abbey was finished and odd coincidence, in my view. This addition, which overlapped the walls of the middle era building, acted as an inspiration to the Knights Templars and the architects of the Gothic churches, especially those who designed Chartres, St. Denis in Paris, and of course Glastonbury, as we shall see.

In spite of the height of Chartres and Rouen, Cluny's final ground plan covered more territory than any temple or cathedral in France until the 16th century. These extended properties were exceeded in Christendom only by Glastonbury abbey's grounds in its final building stages, with it's Twelve Hides" given to that sacred site at a very early period. By comparison Glastonbury controlled many more square miles of land compared to Cluny and whereas Cluny's holdings were fractionated, Glastonbury’s where, for the most part, contiguous and extended in a certain shape and structure beyond the walls of the Abbey proper, but certainly Cluny was huge, and represented properties and tithe lands amounting to a small city state.

The grounds now house a French National trade school, but such is progress. In architectural style the original abbey structure at Cluny stood at the apex of Burgundian Romanesque design, as created at Vezelay — not quite yet high Gothic, but certainly containing several elements, including pointed arches, which can be seen as "lead ins' to the Gothic style. Simply stated the Clunaics absorbed the Vezelay Basilica model and enlarged upon it. They also added a second transept and two side aisles. Without final approval from Rome the seemingly rebellious architects included a pointed arch in barrel vault construction, allowing the nave to rise to a grandiose ninety-nine feet. Here then we see the function and design of the first Gothic arches, although vaults of 150 feet can be seen at Charters, they would not be finally erected until the 13th century.

Immediately after the architectural triumphs at Cluny, the Templar architects and masons were hired to rebuild the ambulatory of St. Denis outside of Paris, this because the sacred artifacts of Dagoberts and the Merovingians were laid to rest in the crypt at St. Denis and, in this context the final Gothic style was fully realized.

Note: The tie-in between Cluny's pangothic or naturalistic sensibilities and the Dagobert's is of extreme significance to any discussion of the Grail stream in architecture and should be born in mind

Henri Blois, my candidate fro the authorship of the perlesvaus manuscript at Glastonbury, was reaching seniority at Cluny during its final stages, just as Cluny was reaching its most magnificent appearance. He was 29 when the expansion was completed in 1130, and, by then, many of its builders were also working on the construction of the Cathedral in Autun, a few miles away and in Paris. There can be little doubt the Henri saw these great buildings going up, and was , without doubt, schooled in music, astronomy, rhetoric, logistics and craft-masonry. No one living at Cluny at that date could have failed to see, and be inspired by, the paradigm shift going on there. Clearly Blois was part of the largest architectural revolution ever seen in Western Europe and just as clearly, at least to me, Blois took the ideas with him to Glastonbury.

Autun later renovated to include a gothic tower at the transepts crossing with the nave, and stained glass windows (although smaller than the final abbey at Glastonbury) is very similar in design to Glastonbury, as rebuilt under Blois in the mid twelfth century and remains nearly intact today. Thus Autun is a good place to visit if one is a Glastonbury buff.

Above: Cluny computer reconstruction. Note the center floor plaque and its alignment with various potential beam dials. A canope similar to that noted at Glastonbury, formed the high altar under a huge fresco of Christ emergent from a vesicle Pisces surrounded by angels, similar to the tympanum of Chartres.

Blois at Glastonbury was an avid art patron as were his brothers and sisters in Champagne and in the throne rooms of London. This impulse to patronage may have come from Blois as he worked his diplomatic magic at court. Many accused him of greed and overt theft because he tended to ware expensive baubles and grand raiment, but this could also be explained by his voluptuous fascination for art, he was, after all, a wealthy man in his own right, by the time he was elevated to the archbishophric at Canterbury.

As a child he saw glistening treasures and paintings. The Clunaics were fanatical supporters of the arts. Prime amongst their worldly goods, second only to the fabric of the cathedrals themselves, which can only be seen as otherworldly, the Clinics cherished books. Romanesque sculpture adorned much of the church's surfaces, but these same themes appeared n hundreds, even thousands of books located in dozens of libraries. It was the Cluniacs who revolutionized French manuscript illumination exactly at the time Blois was in school there.

In addition Cluny had a renowned choir who used the acoustics to echo through the halls 24/7. Thus this illustrious temple was filled with chant at all times. This same observation was noted at Glastonbury under Blois. In fact at Glastonbury, Fecamp, and Cluny so many monks were occupied by music and the arts that they hired laymen, who worked along side the novices, to complete the monastery's everyday tasks. These included cooking, maintenance, building, and farming. This we know was a common practice Glastonbury and proves again the extent of the land mass controlled Glastonbury, i.e. why so much land was need to support such a huge staff of builders and monks.

In the 1090's, a few years before Blois was born, members of one cluniac faction left the order to follow the more stringent monastic Rule of St. Benedict. They traveled about 20 miles North and settled in Chateaux in Burgundy, near Dijon. These monks felt that art was too much and were almost Protestant in their dislike for iconography and opulence.

This group were known in Rome as the Cistercians and were politically closer to Rome,. spying on the Cluniacs and offering a secondary route to grace through self-abandonment and stoic observance. Their leader was known as Bernard of Clairvaux (St. Bernard) but even he, although more stoic than the Cluniacs, preached against simony and corruption in the Papacy while also arguing for a toning down of art and expensive construction programs. In essence he Bernard found himself half way between a purely motivated art movement represented by the intellectuals at Cluny and the strategic a nd necessary reconstruction of the idealized dream of the New Jerusalem the Gothic cathedrals. He later became an avid supporter of the Second Crusade, and his speeches at Vezelay recruited thousands to march under the banner of Louis VII.

The Cistercians attracted a large number of tribute houses, and by the late12th Century, their influence rivaled that of Cluny. Eventually, both orders were replaced by the Dominican's and the Franciscan's, but outposts and influences still remained at Glastonbury and several other locations throughout the ages.

Cluny part 2