es the Simple permitted its
foundation, Louis d'Outremer confirmed its privileges. When Urban II.,
a militant Cluniac, became pope the interests of Cluny and Rome were
more than ever identified. The monks elected their abbat without
exterior interference. To prevent this becoming an abuse, the first
abbats always proposed their coadjutors as their successors. Thus it
was with Berno(910-27), Odo (927-48), Maieul (948-94), Odilo
(990-1049). After that there arose the custom of appointing the grand
prior as successor--as in the case of S. Hugh (1049-1109). From the
confirmation of its foundation in 931 by John XI. Cluny received the
greatest favours at the hands of the papacy, its abbats being created
archabbots with episcopal insignia; and it was made entirely
independent of the bishops.

[Sidenote: The rule of Cluny.]

Cluny soon attracted attention, wealth, and followers. Corrupt old
communities or new foundations sought the guidance or protection of its
abbats. When each monastery was independent and isolated it was
impossible to reform a lax community, or for it to defend itself from
feudal violence and the hostility of the secular clergy. Odo, the
saint who saw these evils, therefore started what soon became the
Congregation of Cluny. The daughter-houses were regarded not as
independent, but as parts of Cluny. There was only one abbat, the
arch-abbat of Cluny, who was the head of all. Necessary local control
was exercised by the prior, responsible to and nominated by the abbat.
Some houses resisted annexation to Cluny, such as S. Martial at
Limoges, which kept up the contest from 1063 to 1240. Contact {175}
between the abbey and its dependencies was preserved by visitation of
the abbat; and the dependent houses sent representatives to periodical
chapters, which met at Cluny under the abbat. In the eleventh century
these were merely consultative, but in the thirteenth they had become
political, administrative, and judicial, even subjecting the abbat to
their control. The rule of S. Benedict was followed in the abbey and
its dependencies. The monks did some manual labour, but devoted
themselves chiefly to religious exercises, to teaching the young, to
hospitality and almsgiving.

But the Cluniacs, protected by the papacy, and enriched by the
offerings of the faithful all over Europe, taught an extreme doctrine
as to the power of the Holy See. Their ideal was the absolute
separation of Church from S