In the year 910, having long been troubled by a guilty conscience for a murder committed years before in a fit of passion, Duke William of Aquitaine, seeking to prepare himself for the judgment, agreed to bequeath some of his property along the River Grosne in the county Mâcon to the monk Berno, Abbot of Baume, to establish a monastery at a site of Berno’s choosing. When Berno selected lands around the village of Cluny, Duke William objected that Cluny was the best hunting grounds in all his domain. St. Berno famously replied, “Drive your hounds hence and put monks in their places; for you know which will serve you better before God, the baying of hounds or the praters of monks.” William could not argue with this—especially with a murder on his conscience—and gave his assent to Berno’s choice.
Undoubtedly the hand of God was behind the agreement, as the monastery established by St. Berno at Cluny would become one of the most influential monasteries in the history of western Christendom. Growing steadily throughout the 10th and 11th centuries due to its austere monastic regimen and rich liturgies, the Cluniac Benedictines would become the vanguard of a reform movement within western monasticism known as the Cluniac Reform. When the Cluniac monk Hildebrand was elected Pope Gregory VII in 1073, the Cluniac Reform became the program of the entire Church, known to history as the Gregorian Reform.
Cluny’s auspicious beginning can be dated to September 11, 910 in the city of Bourges, where Duke William had gone to hold his seignurial assize. (1) There William, in the presence of his wife Ingelberge, his nephews, and various lords and bishops, signed the charter that was to call the Abbey of Cluny into existence.
The Cluniac charter is noteworthy in that William established Cluny with complete and total autonomy from any lay or ecclesiastical power (although he begs the Roman Pontiffs to protect Cluny from outside aggression, the charter is clear that Cluny is to be entirely independent). This was extremely rare in a time when almost every abbey of note had to deal with one or more lay benefactors who retained certain privileges over the abbey, like, for example, choosing the abbot. But William, old, dying without heir, and wishing to leave the saintly Abbot Berno with maximal liberty to order affairs as he saw fit, left the monks of Cluny with a free hand to choose their own abbots and govern themselves according to their own interests. The only obligation the Cluniacs had to any outside authority was to pay twelve gold pieces to Rome once per year “for the upkeep of the candles of the Church of the Apostles” (it was Duke William himself who went to Rome in person to make the first payment of the promised dues to Pope John X). The independence of the abbey would prove a source of vitality for the congregation of Cluny in coming years.
Below is the full and unabridged Charter of Cluny signed by William on September 11, 910. The translation is that used by Joan Evans in her 1931 book Monastic Life at Cluny: 910-1157 from Oxford University Press. (2)
To those who consider things sanely, it is evident that Divine Providence counsels the rich to use well those goods that they possess in transitory fashion, if they wish for eternal recompense. And Holy Writ shows this to be possible, for such counsel is manifest in the saying: “the ransom of a man’s life is his riches” (Prov. 13:8). Wherefore I, William, by the grace of God count and Duke, having pondered these things and wishing while there is yet time to make provision for my salvation, have found it right, yea, necessary, to dispose for the good of my soul of some of the temporal possessions which have been bestowed upon me.
For since I appear to have increased them much, I would not wish to deserve the reproach in the hour of death that I had used them only for the needs of my body, but would rather, when my last moment shall take them all from me, give myself the joy of having used a part for my soul: the which may not be better done than by following the precept of our Lord: “I will make myself friends among the poor.” (3) That this benefaction may endure not only for a time, but may last forever, I will provide at my expense for men living together under monastic vows, with this faith and hope that if I cannot myself despise all things of this world, at least by sustaining those who despise the world, those whom I believe to be righteous in the eyes of God, I may myself receive the reward of righteousness.
To all those who live in the unity of faith and who implore the mercy of Christ, to all who shall succeed them and shall be living so long as the world endures, I make known that for the love of God and of our savior Christ Jesus I give and deliver to the Apostles Peter and Paul the village of Cluny, on the river Grosne, with its curtilage and its house, with the Chapel that is dedicated in honor of St. Mary Mother of God and of Saint Peter, Prince of the Apostles, with all the property that depends thereon, cottages, chapels, serfs both men and women, vines, fields, meadows, forests, water and watercourses, mills, crops and revenues, land tilled and untilled, with no reservations. (4) All these things are situate in the county of Mâcon or near it, each enclosed within its bounds.
I, William, with my wife Ingelberge, give these things to the aforesaid Apostles, first for the love of God, then for the soul of my Lord the King Eudes (5), for the souls of my father and mother, for me and my wife, that is for the salvation of our souls and bodies, for the soul of Ava my sister who left me these properties by will, for the souls of our brothers and sisters, our nephews and all of our kindred, men and women, for our faithful servants, and for the maintenance and integrity of the Catholic faith. Finally, since as Christians we are all bound together by the bonds of our faith and charity, may this gift be made also for the faithful of times past, present, and to come.
I give on condition that a regular monastery be established at Cluny in honor of the Apostles Peter and Paul; that monks shall form a congregation there living under the Rule of St. Benedict; that they shall forever possess, hold, and order the property given in such wise that this honorable house shall be unceasingly full of vows and prayers, that men shall seek there with a lively desire and an inner fervor the sweetness of converse with heaven, and that prayers and supplications shall be addressed thence without ceasing to God, both for me and for those persons commemorated above.
We ordain also that our foundation shall serve forever as a refuge for those who have renounced the world as poor men, bringing nothing with them but their good will, and we desire that our superfluity shall become their abundance. May the monks and all of the aforesaid possessions be under the power and dominion of Abbot Berno, who shall rule according to his knowledge and power so long as he shall live. (6) After his death may the monks have the power and liberty to elect as Abbot and ruler the monk of their order whom they shall prefer, according to the good pleasure of God and the rule laid down by St. Benedict, with no contradiction or impediment of this election by our power or that of any man.
Nevertheless every five years they shall pay to Rome twelve pieces of gold for the upkeep of the candles of the Church of the Apostles. May they have as protectors the Apostles themselves, and for defender the pontiff of Rome. Out of the fullness of their hearts and souls may they themselves build the monastery in this place according to their knowledge and capacity. We also desire that in our time and in the time of our successors, as much at least as the circumstances of the time and the situation of the place admit, they may each day perform with fervent zeal works of mercy to the poor, to beggars, strangers, and travelers.
It has pleased us to set forth in this testament that from this day forward the monks united in congregation at Cluny shall be wholly freed from our power, from that of our kindred, and from the jurisdiction of royal greatness, and shall never submit to the yoke of any earthly power. I beg and pray that no secular Prince, no Count, no Bishop, no Pontiff of the Roman Church, by God and through God and all his Saints, under threat of the awful day of judgment, may ever invade the possessions of these servants of God. Let him not sell, nor diminish, nor exchange, nor take anything which is theirs; let them set up no ruler over them against their will. That this prohibition may bind the bold and evil with straiter bonds, once again I say it, and I add: I conjure you, ye holy apostles and glorious princes of the earth, Peter and Paul; and thou, Pontiff or Pontiffs of the Apostolic see, do ye cut off from the communion of the Holy Catholic Church and from life eternal, by the canonical and Apostolic authority received from God, those who steal, invade, or sell these things which I give to you with eager wish and a joyful heart. Be ye the guardians and defenders of Cluny and of the servants of God who shall dwell there, and of their goods that are destined for the giving of alms, for the imitation of the loving kindness and mercy of our most holy redeemer.
If anyone—which Heaven forbid, and which through the mercy of God and the protection of the Holy Apostles I do not think will happen—whether he be a neighbor or a stranger, no matter what his condition or power, should, though any kind of wile, attempt to do any act of violence contrary to this deed of gift which we have ordered to be drawn up for the love of almighty God and for reverence of the chief Apostles Peter and Paul; first indeed let him incur the wrath of almighty God; and let God remove him from the land of the living and wipe out his name from the book of life, and let his portion be with those who said to the Lord God: “Depart from us” (John 21:14); and with Dathan and Abiron whom the earth opening its jaws swallowed up, and hell absorbed while still alive, let him incur everlasting damnation. (7) And being made a companion of Judas, let him be kept thrust down there with eternal tortures, and, lest it seem to human eyes that he pass through the present world with impunity, let him experience in his own body, indeed, the torments of future damnation, sharing the double disaster with Heliodorus and Antiochus, of whom one being coerced with a sharp blow scarcely escaped alive; and the other, struck down by the divine will, his members putrefying and swarming with vermin, perished most miserably. (8) And let him be a partaker in with other sacrilegious persons who presume to plunder the treasure house of God; and let him, unless he come to his senses, have as an enemy and as one who will refuse him entrance in the blessed paradise, the key-keeper of the whole hierarchy of the Church, and joined with the latter, St. Paul; both of whom, if he had wished, he might have had as holy mediators for him. But as far as the worldly law is concerned, he shall be required, the judicial power compelling him to pay a hundred pounds of gold to those he has harmed; and his attempted attack, being frustrated, shall have no effect at all. But the validity of this deed of gift, endowed with all authority, shall always remain inviolate and unshaken, together with the stipulation subjoined.
Done publicly in the city of Bourges. I William, commanded this to made and drawn up and confirmed it with my own hand.
(1) seignurial assize. A twice-yearly sitting of the noble’s court at which the vassals of the lord’s major fiefs were required to answer for the management of their fiefs and settle any oustanding issues.
(2) Joan Evans, Monastic Life at Cluny: 910-1157 (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1931), 4-6. The last paragraph of the charter is taken from A. Bruel in “Recueil des Chartes de L’Abbaye de Cluny.” Paris, 1876, trans in Ernest F. Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, (London: George Bell and Sons, 1910), 329-333
(3) William survived the founding of Cluny for eight years, dying in 918. The passage cited here seems to be a paraphrase of Luke 16:9, “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon.”
(4) curtilage—in Latin, curtilius, an estate, generally including vineyard, meadow, and woods, with rights of woodcutting and water.
house—a freedhold house with land attached, generally with a family of serfs established therein.
cottages—in Latin, colonia, the primary residence of a serf
(5) King Eudes (or Odo), King of West Francia from 888 to 898, a friend and benefactor of Duke William.
(6) St. Berno of Cluny or Berno of Baume (850-927) was the first abbot of Cluny from its foundation in 910 until he died in 927.
(7) Dathan and Abiron (or Abiram) were part of the rebellion of Korah mentioned in Numbers 16 who were swallowed up alive by the earth for contesting Moses’ authority.
(8) Heliodorus and Antiochus. See 2 Macc. 3:7-36 and 1 Macc. 6:1-16, respectively.
Phillip Campbell, “The Cluniac Charter of 910,” Unam Sanctam Catholicam, October 11, 2025. Available online at https://unamsanctamcatholicam.com/2025/10/the-cluniac-charter-of-910