What Issues Were Central in the Cluniac Reform

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The Answer is The monastery of Cluny was established directly under the papacy and,unlike other Benedictine houses,created a hierarchy of daughter houses across Europe.Cluny became famous for its status as a house free from secular control and for its high spiritual standards,a characteristic it passed on to its daughter houses.The house of Cluny attempted to reform other monasteries,insisting on the rigid enforcements of the Benedictine law and electing abbots and priors through free elections and not by appointment or through purchase.Cluniac reform was strongest in France and Italy as opposed to England and Germany,where the kings had already sponsored reform but had done so by placing themselves as the heads of the movement and maintaining the power to elect churchmen to important positions.The Cluniacs insisted on the reform of the entire church,including secular clerics,and centered their attacks on simony and celibacy.The reformers insisted that no ecclesiastical office should be used for personal gain and demanded that all priests obey the monastic requirements of poverty and celibacy.The last-named requirement was a radical one as,unlike monks,most priests were married and had children.Even some bishops were married.For instance,the bishop of Dol in Brittany and his wife publicly celebrated the marriage of their daughters and even endowed them with lands that had belonged to the diocese.For the Cluniac reformers this behavior-noncelibate bishops who used their office for their own personal gain-was precisely what they aimed to change.

What Issues Were Central in the Cluniac Reform

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