of the elder Oppianicus was just and in no way the result of the jury having been bribed by Cluentius; only a small portion of the end of the speech deals with the specific charge. It was generally believed that the verdict in the former trial was an unfair one; and this opinion was most prejudicial to Cluentius. But even if it could be shown that Cluentius had bribed the jurymen, this did not prove that he had poisoned Oppianicus, although it supplied a sufficient reason for wishing to get him out of the way. The speech delivered by Cicero on this occasion is considered one of his best.
Editions of the speech by W. Y. Fausset (1887), W. Ramsay (1883); see also H. Nettleship, Lectures and Essays (1885).
CLUMP, a word common to Teutonic languages, meaning
a mass, lump, group or cluster of indefinite form, as a clump
of grass or trees. The word is used of a wooden and clumsy
shoe, made out of one piece of wood, worn by German peasants,
and by transference is applied to the thick extra sole added to
heavy boots for rough wear. Shoemakers speak of “clumping”
a boot when it is mended by having a new sole fastened by nails
and not sewn by hand to the old sole.
CLUNES, a borough of Talbot county, Victoria, Australia,
97½ m. by rail N.W. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901) 2426. It is the
centre of an agricultural, pastoral and mining district, in which
gold was first discovered in 1851. It lies in a healthy and
picturesque situation at an elevation of 1081 ft. An annual
agricultural exhibition and large weekly cattle sales are held
in the town.
CLUNY, or Clugny, a town of east central France, in the
department of Saône-et-Loire, on the left bank of the Grosne,
14 m. N.W. of Mâcon by road. Pop. (1906) 3105. The interest
of the town lies in its specimens of medieval architecture, which
include, besides its celebrated abbey, the Gothic church of
Notre-Dame, the church of St Marcel with its beautiful Romanesque
spire, portions of the ancient fortifications, and a number
of picturesque houses belonging to the Romanesque, Gothic
and Renaissance periods. The chief remains of the abbey (see
Abbey) are the ruins of the basilica of St Peter and the abbot’s
palace. The church was a Romanesque building, completed
early in the 12th century, and until the erection of St Peter
at Rome was the largest ecclesiastical building in Europe.
It was in great part demolished under the First Empire, but
the south transept, a high octagonal tower, the chapel of Bourbon
(15th century), and the ruins of the apse still remain. In 1750
the abbey buildings were largely rebuilt and now contain a
technical school. Part of the site of the church is given up to
the stabling of a government stud. The abbot’s palace, which
belongs to the end of the 15th century, serves as hôtel-de-ville,
library and museum. The town has quarries of limestone and
building-stone, and manufactures pottery, leather and paper.
A mere village at the time when the abbey was founded (910), Cluny gradually increased in importance with the development of the religious fraternity, and in 1090 received a communal charter from the abbot St Hugh. In 1471 the town was taken by the troops of Louis XI. In 1529 the abbey was given “in commendam” to the family of Guise, four members of which held the office of abbot during the next hundred years. The town and abbey suffered during the Wars of Religion of the 16th century, and the abbey was closed in 1790. The residence erected in Paris at the end of the 15th century by the abbots Jean de Bourbon and Jacques d’Amboise, and known as the Hôtel de Cluny (see House, Plate I., fig. 6), is occupied by the du Sommerard collection; but the Collège de Cluny founded in 1269 by the abbot Yves de Vergy, as a theological school for the order, is no longer in existence.
The Order of Cluniac Benedictines.—The Monastery of Cluny was founded in 910 by William I. the Pious, count of Auvergne and duke of Guienne (Aquitaine). The first abbot was Berno, who had under his rule two monasteries in the neighbourhood. Before his death in 927 two or three more came under his control, so that he bequeathed to his successor the government of a little group of five or six houses, which became the nucleus of the order of Cluny. Berno’s successor was Odo: armed with papal privileges he set to work to make Cluny the centre of a revival and reform among the monasteries of France; he also journeyed to Italy, and induced some of the great Benedictine houses, and among them St Benedict’s own monasteries of Subiaco and Monte Cassino, to receive the reform and adopt the Cluny manner of life. The process of extension, partly by founding new houses, partly by incorporating old ones, went on under Odo’s successors, so that by the middle of the 12th century Cluny had become the centre and head of a great order embracing 314 monasteries—the number 2000, sometimes given, is an exaggeration—in all parts of Europe, in France, Italy, the Empire, Lorraine, Spain, England, Scotland, Poland, and even in the Holy Land. And the influence of Cluny extended far beyond the actual order: many monasteries besides Monte Cassino and Subiaco adopted its customs and manner of life without subjecting themselves to its sway; and of these, many in turn became the centres of reforms which extended Cluny ideas and influences over still wider circles: Fleury and Hirsau may be mentioned as conspicuous examples. The gradual stages in the growth of the Cluny sphere of influence is exhibited in a map [VI. C.] in Heussi and Mulert’s Handatlas zur Kirchengeschichte, 1905.
When we turn to the inner life of Cluny, we find that the decrees of Aix-la-Chapelle, which summed up the Carolingian movement for reform (see Benedictines), were taken as the basis of the observance. Field work and manual labour were given up; and in compensation the tendency initiated by Benedict of Aniane, to prolong and multiply the church services far beyond the canonical office contemplated by St Benedict, was carried to still greater extremes, so that the services came to occupy nearly the whole day. The lessons at the night office became so lengthy that, e.g., the Book of Genesis was read through in a week; and the daily psalmody, between canonical office and extra devotions, exceeded a hundred psalms (see Edm. Bishop, Origin of the Primer, Early English Text Soc., Original Series, No. 109).
If its influence on the subsequent history of monastic and religious life and organization be considered, the most noteworthy feature of the Cluny system was its external polity, which constituted it a veritable “order” in the modern sense of the word, the first that had existed since that of Pachomius (see Monasticism). All the houses that belonged, either by foundation or incorporation, to the Cluny system were absolutely subject to Cluny and its abbot, who was “general” in the same sense as the general of the Jesuits or Dominicans, the practically absolute ruler of the whole system. The superiors of all the subject houses (usually priors, not abbots) were his nominees; every member of the order was professed by his permission, and had to pass some of the early years of his monastic life at Cluny itself; the abbot of Cluny had entire control over every one of the monks—some 10,000, it is said; it even came about that he had the practical appointment of his successor. For a description and criticism of the system, see F. A. Gasquet, Sketch of Monastic Constitutional History, pp. xxxii-xxxv (the Introduction to 2nd ed. (1895) of the English trans. of the Monks of the West); here it must suffice to say that it is the very antithesis of the Benedictine polity (see Benedictines).
The greatness of Cluny is really the greatness of its early abbots. If the short reign of the unworthy Pontius be excepted, Cluny was ruled during a period of about 250 years (910–1157) by a succession of seven great abbots, who combined those high qualities of character, ability and religion that were necessary for so commanding a position; they were Berno, Odo, Aymard, Majolus (Maieul), Odilo, Hugh, Peter the Venerable. Sprung from noble families of the neighbourhood; educated to the highest level of the culture of those times; endowed with conspicuous ability and prudence in the conduct of affairs; enjoying the consideration and confidence of popes and sovereigns; employed again and again as papal legates and imperial ambassadors; taking part in all great movements of ecclesiastical and temporal politics; refusing the first sees in Western Christendom, the cardinalate, and the papacy itself:
