If any one would know what manner of man King William was, the glory that he obtained, and of how many lands he was lord, then will we describe him as we have known him, we who have looked upon him and who once lived at his court. This King William, of whom we are speaking, was a very wise and a great man, and more honored and more powerful than any of his predecessors. He was mild to those good men who loved God, but severe beyond measure towards those who withstood William's religious zeal his will. He founded a noble monastery on the spot where God permitted him to conquer England, and he established monks in it, and he made it very rich.[347] In his days the great monastery at Canterbury was built,[348] and many others also throughout England; moreover, this land was filled with monks who lived after the rule of St. Benedict; and such was the state of religion in his days that all who would might observe that which was prescribed by their respective orders.
King William was also held in much reverence. He wore his crown three times every year when he was in England: at Easter he wore it at Winchester,[349] at Pentecost at Westminster,[350] and at Christmas at Gloucester.[351] And at these times all the men of His strong government England were with him, archbishops, bishops, abbots and earls, thanes[352] and knights.[353] So also was he a very stern and a wrathful man, so that none durst do anything against his will, and he kept in prison those earls who acted against his pleasure. He removed bishops from their sees[354] and abbots from their offices, and he imprisoned thanes, and at length he spared not his own brother Odo. This Odo was a very powerful bishop in Normandy. His see was that of Bayeux,[355] and he was foremost to serve the king. He had an earldom in England, and when William was in Normandy he [Odo] was the first man in this country [England], and him did William cast into prison.[356]
Amongst other things, the good order that William established is not to be forgotten. It was such that any man, who was himself aught, might travel over the kingdom with a bosom full of gold unmolested; and no man durst kill another, however great the injury he might have received from him. He reigned over England, and being sharp-sighted to his own interest, he surveyed the kingdom so thoroughly that there was not a single The extent of his power hide of land throughout the whole of which he knew not the possessor, and how much it was worth, and this he afterwards entered in his register.[357] The land of the Britons [Wales] was under his sway, and he built castles therein; moreover he had full dominion over the Isle of Man;[358] Scotland also was subject to him, from his great strength; the land of Normandy was his by inheritance, and he possessed the earldom of Maine;[359] and had he lived two years longer, he would have subdued Ireland by his prowess, and that without a battle.[360]
Truly there was much trouble in these times, and very great distress. He caused castles to be built and oppressed the poor. The king was also of great sternness, and he took from his subjects many marks of gold, and many hundred pounds of silver, and this, either with or without right, and with little need. He was given to avarice, and greedily loved gain.[361] He made large forests for the deer, and enacted laws therewith, so that whoever killed a hart or a hind should be blinded. As he forbade killing His faults as a ruler the deer, so also the boars; and he loved the tall stags as if he were their father. He also commanded concerning the hares, that they should go free.[362] The rich complained and the poor murmured, but he was so sturdy that he recked nought of them; they must will all that the king willed, if they would live, or would keep their lands, or would hold their possessions, or would be maintained in their rights. Alas that any man should so exalt himself, and carry himself in his pride over all! May Almighty God show mercy to his soul, and grant him the forgiveness of his sins! We have written concerning him these things, both good and bad, that virtuous men may follow after the good, and wholly avoid the evil, and may go in the way that leadeth to the kingdom of heaven.
CHAPTER XV.
THE MONASTIC REFORMATION OF THE TENTH, ELEVENTH, AND TWELFTH CENTURIES
42. The Foundation Charter of the Monastery of Cluny (910)
Throughout the earlier Middle Ages the Benedictine Rule [see [p. 83]] was the code under which were governed practically all the monastic establishments of western Europe. There was a natural tendency, however, for the severe and exacting features of the Rule to be softened considerably in actual practice. As one writer puts it, "the excessive abstinence and many other of the mechanical observances of the rule were soon found to have little real utility when simply enforced by a rule, and not practiced willingly for the sake of self-discipline." The obligation of manual labor, for example, was frequently dispensed with in order that the monks might occupy themselves with the studies for which the Benedictines have always been famous. Too often such relaxation was but a pretext for the indulgence of idleness or vice. The disrepute into which such tendencies brought the monastics in the tenth and eleventh centuries gave rise to numerous attempts to revive the primitive discipline, the most notable of which was the so-called "Cluniac movement."
The monastery of Cluny, on the borders of Aquitaine and Burgundy, was established under the terms of a charter issued by William the Pious, duke of Aquitaine and count of Auvergne, September 11, 910. The conditions of its foundation, set forth in the text of the charter given below, were in many ways typical. The history of the monastery was, however, quite exceptional. During the invasions and civil wars of the latter half of the ninth century, many of the monasteries of western Europe had fallen under the control of unscrupulous laymen who used them mainly to satisfy their greed or ambition, and in consequence by the time that Cluny was founded the standard of monastic life and service had been seriously impaired. The monks had grown worldly, education was neglected, and religious services had become empty formalities. Powerful nobles used their positions of advantage to influence, and often to dictate, the election of bishops and abbots, and the men thus elected were likely enough to be unworthy of their offices in both character and ability. The charter of the Cluny monastery, however, expressly provided that the abbot should be chosen by canonical election, i.e., by the monks, and without any sort of outside interference. The life of the monastery was to be regulated by the Benedictine Rule, though with rather less stress on manual labor and rather more on religious services and literary employment. Cluny, indeed, soon came to be one of the principal centers of learning in western Europe, as well as perhaps the greatest administrator of charity.
Another notable achievement of Cluny was the building up of the so-called "Cluny Congregation." Hitherto it had been customary for monasteries to be entirely independent of one another, even when founded by monks sent out from a parent establishment. Cluny, however, kept under the control of her own abbot all monasteries founded by her agents and made the priors of these monasteries directly responsible to him. Many outside abbeys were drawn into the new system, so that by the middle of the twelfth century the Cluny congregation was comprised of more than two thousand monasteries, all working harmoniously under a single abbot-general. The majority of these were in France, but there were many also in Spain, Italy, Poland, Germany, and England. It was the Cluny monks who gave the Pope his chief support in the struggle to free the Church from lay investiture and simony and to enforce the ideal of a celibate clergy. This movement for reform may properly be said, indeed, to have originated with the Cluniacs and to have been taken up only later by the popes, chiefly by Gregory VII. By the end of the eleventh century Cluniac discipline had begun to grow lax and conditions were gradually shaped for another wave of monastic reform, which came with the establishment of the Carthusians (in 1084) and of the Cistercians (in 1098).