From the tenth century on, it was famous both as an intellectual center and the home of a new, more centralized version of Benedictine monasticism.
Its church, begun in 1089 by St. Hugh, was the largest in Europe until St. Peter's in Rome was built. It was founded by Duke William the Pious and was first headed by St. Berno. Richelieu and Mazarin were both titular, though not resident, heads of it. Sts. Mayeul, Peter the Venerable and [*] Odo were all abbots during its more active period. From the tenth century on, it was famous both as an intellectual center and the home of a new, more centralized version of Benedictine monasticism. More than three hundred new monasteries, as well as Popes Gregory VII and Urban II all emerged from, FTP, what monastery in eastern France that in the early Middle Ages was independent of all authority but the Pope's?
Its church, begun in 1089 by St. Hugh, was the largest in Europe until St. Peter's in Rome was built.
{Cluny} [cloo-NEE or CLOO-nee]