HUGH
525
HUGH
died in his arms at Florence (1058). Hugh was also
the companion of Nicholas II, and under him took
part in the Council of Rome which promulgated the
important decree concerning papal elections (Easter,
1059). He was then sent to France with Cardinal
Stephan, a monk of Monte Cassino, to effect the execu-
tion of the decrees of the Roman synod, and pro-
ceeded to Aquitaine, while his colleague repaired to
the north-west. The active support of the numerous
cloisters subject to Cluny enabled him to discharge
his mission with the greatest success. He assembled
councils at Avignon and Vienne, and managed to win
the support of the bishops for many important reforms.
In the same year (1060) he presided over the Synod of
Toulouse. At the Council of Rome in 1063 he de-
fended the privileges of Cluny which had been reck-
lessly attacked in France. Alexander II sent St.
Peter Damian, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, as legate to
France to adjudicate in this and other matters, mean-
while ratifying all the privileges held by Hugh's pred-
ecessors. After a stay at Cluny, during which he con-
ceived the high admiration and veneration for the
monastery and its abbot reflected in his letters (cfr.
" Epist.",'VI, 2, 4, 5, in R L., CXLIV, 378), the legate
held a council at Chalons, which decided in favour of
Hugh.
Scarcely had Hildebrand ascended the Chair of Peter as Gregory VII when he wrote to Cluny to secure Hugh's co-operation in promoting his various reforms. Hugh was entrusted to deal with the delicate case of the unworthy Archbishop Manasse of Reims, as well as with commissions in connexion with the expedition of Count Evroul of Roucy against the Saracens in Spain. Frequently urged by Gregory to come to Rome, Hugh was unable to leave France until after the lamentable occurrences of 1076 (see Gregory VII), but then hast- ened to visit the pope at Canossa. With the assistance of Countess Mathilda, he managed to bring about the reconciliation — unfortunately of but short duration — between Gregory and Henry IV, who had already ad- dressed a letter full of affection to the abbot declar- ing his great desire for the peace of the Church (cfr. " Hist. Lit. de la France ", loc. cit. infra). Hugh was subsequently engaged with the papal legate in Spain in the matter of ecclesiastical reform, and, as a result of his diligence and the high favour he enjoyed with Alphonsus VI of Castille, the Mozarabic was replaced by the Roman Ritual throughout that monarch's realm. Thanks to the assistance of the many Cluniac founda- tions in Catalonia, Castille, Leon, .\ragon, etc., and the many bishops chosen from their inmates, he was also enabled to give a great impetus to ecclesiastical reform in these countries. In 1077 he was commissioned to preside over the Council of Langres, and later to under- take the removal of the Bishop of Orl(ans and the Archbishop of Reims. Gregory wrote him many affec- tionate letters, and at the Roman synod in 1081 re- ferred to Hugh in terms of praise seldom used by a successor of Peter concerning a living person. That this appreciation was not confined to the Holy Father is evident from the fact that, when asked by Gregory whether his opinion was shared liy them, all present answered: " Placet, laudamus " (Bullar. Clun., p. 21).
On the revival of the quarrel between Henry IV and the Holy See, Hugh set out immediately for Rome, but was seized on the way and conducted before the monarch. So earnestly did he urge Henry to make his submission to Peter's successor that he seemed again to have bridged the quarrel, if this were not an- other example of the king's well-known duplicity. It is scarcely necessary to state that Hugo's intimacy with the Holy See continued unchanged under L^rban II and Paschal II, since both issued from the ranks of his monks. Surrounded by cardinals and bishops, Urban consecrated on 25 October, 1095, the high altar of the new church at Cluny, and granted the monastery new privileges, which were augmented by Paschal
during his visit in 1107. At the great Council of
Clermont in 1095, whose decision to organize the First
Crusade was a clear indication of the great religious
enthusiasm resulting from Gregory's and Hugh's
labours, the abbot performed most valuable services
in the composition and promulgation of the decrees,
for which he was specially thanked by the pope. Un-
til the death, in 1106, of Henry IV, who in that year
addressed two letters to his " dearest father ", begging
for his prayers and his intercession with the Holy See
(cfr. "Hist. Lit. de la France", loc. cit. infra), Hugh
never relaxed his efforts to bring aliout a reconciliation
between the spiritual and temporal powers.
In the spring of 1 109, Hugh, worn out with years and labours, and feeling his end approaching, asked for the Last Sacraments, summoned around liim his spiritual children, and, having given each the kiss of peace, dismissed them with the greeting: Bcnedicite. Then, asking to be conveyed to the Chapel of our Blessed Lady, he laid himself in sackcloth and ashes before her altar, and thus breathed forth his soul to its Creator on the evening of Easter Monday (28 April). His tomb in the church was soon the scene of miracles, and to it Pope Gelasius II made a pilgrimage in 1119, dying at Cluny on 29 January. Elected at the monastery on 2 February, Callistus III began immediately the process of canonization, and, on 6 January, 1120, declared Hugh a saint, appointing 29 April his feast-day. In honour of St. Hugh the .\bbot of Cluny was henceforth accorded the title and dignity of a cardinal. At the instance of Honorius III the translation of the saint's remains took place on 23 May, 1220, but, during the uprising of the Huguenots (1575), the remains and the costly shrine disappeared with the exception of a few relics.
Hugh's Personality and Influence. — In thecase of comparatively few of our saints has the decision of their own and subsequent ages been so unanimous as in that of St. Hugh. Living in an age of misrepre- sentation and abuse, when the Church had to contend with far greater domestic and external inimical forces than those marshalled by the so-called Reformation, not a single voice was raised against his character — for we disregard the criticism of the French bishop, who in the heat of a quarrel pronounced hasty words after- wards to be recalled, and who was subsequently one of Hugh's panegyrists. In one of his letters Gregory declares that he confidently expects the success of ecclesiastical reform in France through God's mercy and the instrumentality of Hugh, " whom no impre- cation, no applause or favours, no personal motives can divert from the path of rectitude" (Gregorii VII Registr., IV, 22). In the " Life of Bishop Arnulf of Soissons", Aniulf says of Hugh: "Most pure in thought and deed, he was the promoter and perfect guardian of monastic discipline and the regular life, the unfailing support of the true religious and of men of probity, the vigorous champion and defender of the Holy Church" (Mabillon, op. cit. infra, sa?c. VI, pars II, p. 532). And of his closing years Bishop Bruno of Segni writes: "Now aged and burdened with years, reverenced by all and loved by all, he still governs that venerable monastery [sc. Cluny] with the same con- summate wisdom — a man in all things most laudable, difficult of comparison, and of wonderful sanctity" (Muratori, " Rerum Ital. script.", Ill, pt. ii, 347).
Emperors and kings vied with the sovereign pontiffs in bestowing on Hugh marks of their veneration and esteem. Henry the Black, in a letter which has come down to us, addresses Hugh as his " very dear father, worthy of every respect", declares that he owes his own return to health and the happy birth of his child to the abbot's prayers, and urges him to come to the Court at Cologne the following Easter to stand sponsor for this son (the future Henry IV) . During her widow- hood Empress Agnes wrote to Hugh in terms no less respectful and affectionate, asking him to pray for the
