History of the Abbey

What is a religious order?

A religious order is a group of people bound together by solemn vows governed by observance of a Rule. In Roman and Western forms of Christianity, there is a strong tradition of religious orders which goes back [...] which began to develop in the East in the 4th century AD, taking the form of eremitic and cenobitic monasticism. Monasticism of the Benedictine type was first seen in the West in the 6th century AD.

Monasticism - the word comes from the Greek term monachos meaning “solitary” - is a religious lifestyle based entirely on faith while seeking God. People who choose this path are known as “monks” (men) or “nuns” (women). Gathered together into religious orders, monks make solemn vows and live by observing a shared religious rule (Rule of Saint Benedict, Rule of Saint Augustine, etc.) Unlike priests, who hand out God’s gifts in the form of the Word and the sacraments, monks’ lives are oriented towards prayer. This lifestyle involves living away from society, in enclosed buildings and spaces - monasteries.

The Benedictine order

The origins of the Benedictine order like in the eponymous Rule drawn up by Saint Benedict of Nursia (circa 480-547). Back in the 6th century, he wrote a series of instructions gathered together into seventy-three chapters on the organisation of everyday and spiritual life within the monastery he founded at Monte Cassino (Italy).

Drawing inspiration from other monastic rules, Saint Benedict waned to introduce a rule for religious life based on prayer and manual work. So the monks’ days were organised around eight religious offices, reading and studying Holy Scripture, and time spent doing manual work. Monks had to make a number of vows in order to commit fully to the religious order, including vows of obedience both to the Rule and to the abbot (or prior), vows of monastic stability and vows that they would change their ways of life (e.g. poverty and chastity).

The Benedictine Rule was considered easy to apply and was adopted by many monasteries. It gained fresh impetus in the 8th and 9th centuries through a monk named Benedict of Aniane (circa 750-821), who supplemented Rule of Saint Benedict. This second Benedict was appointed head of the Carolingian Empire’s monasteries by the Emperor, Louis the Pious, to whom he was a close adviser. In 817, Louis the Pious called the abbots from his empire to a council at Aix-la-Chapelle in order to regulate and unify the various monastic lifestyles. At this council meeting, he ordered that the monasteries in his empire should follow the Rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia. From that time on, the Benedictine Rule was adopted by all of the abbeys and priories in a large part of the medieval West. These included Cluny Abbey, founded in 910, which enjoyed unprecedented development and influence.

Cluny Abbey

In around 1000 AD, Western Europe was going through a period of stability during which the Church was asserting its authority over the secular powers. Churches and other sanctuaries grew, as a result of factors such as the cult of the relics of saints which gained enormous momentum (e.g. the Camino de Santiago de Compostela). Against this background, William I, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Auvergne, donated land in Cluny to Abbot Bernon in 910. He asked for a Benedictine monastery to be built under the sole protection of the Pope, rather than of a secular power, and this was to be the key to its strength and success. That is how Cluny Abbey was founded.

The abbey quickly grew and set up an enormous ecclesiastical network focussed on the main abbey (Cluny). By the end of the 11th century, Cluny was a leading spiritual and cultural centre - it had more than a thousand buildings (abbeys, priories) housing more than ten thousand monks across the whole of Western Europe.

However, from the 12th century onwards, the Cluniac order went into a slow decline. In the 12th century, the Cluniac monks were criticised for relaxing their obedience to the Benedictine Rule, their growing taste for luxury and their tendency not to bother with manual work and to focus on the divine offices instead. These criticisms led to the appearance of new orders advocating stricter adherence to the Benedictine rule (Cistercian order). In the 13th century, Cluny had to cope with competition from the mendicant orders - the Franciscans and the Dominicans were setting up monasteries in or near towns and cities so that they would be in contact with the population.

Having been undermined, Cluny Abbey was weakened still further with the introduction of the commendatory system in the early 16th century, the Protestant reform and the Wars of Religion. As it failed to bring about any root and branch reform, the Cluniac order disappeared in 1790, during the French Revolution.

The links between Cluny and Charlieu

The Abbey was attached to that of Cluny by Pope John VIII in the 10th century and then turned into a priory under the name of Saint-Fortuné in the 11th century. The Prior of Charlieu was chosen directly by the abbot of Cluny, who was involved in any important decisions relating to the priory.

The priory enjoyed a golden age lasting from the 12th up until the 15th century.

With Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti, as Abbot from 1643 to 1654, the Order of Cluny made the division between Old and Strict Observance official. The monks of Charlieu Priory did not wish to see a return to the original rule and chose to attach themselves to the Old Observance so that they would be able to maintain their lifestyle.

The Old Observance abbeys, including Charlieu Abbey were closed in 1788.

Circa 875: Foundation of the Abbey by Robert, Bishop of Valence

Circa 930: The Abbey is appended to Cluny Abbey

Circa 1040: Reduction of the Abbey to priory status

Mid 12^th century: Building of the narthex against the western façade of the church

Late 15^th - Early 16^th century: Significant redevelopment of the monastery and building of the prior’s house

1787-1788 : Closure of the Order of Cluny’s Old Observance abbeys, including Charlieu

Circa 1800: Destruction of the priory church of Saint Fortuné

1844 : Destruction of the Benedictine refectory and the Maison de la Chambrerie

From 1862 onwards: the remains of the abbey are listed as Historic Monuments

From 1908 onwards: the Société des Amis des Arts de Charlieu works to safeguard and develop the site.

1926 : First series of archaeological digs starting in 1938 and then followed by the work of Elizabeth Read Sunderland

1999 : Laying out of the Visitors Centre in the former novices’ dormitory and restoration work on the cloister

The early days

The Sornin Valley, in which Charlieu lies, has been occupied since prehistoric times.

During the Gallo-Roman period, the roads running from the Saône to the Loire and the one from Lyons to the Val de Loire met on the present-day site of Charlieu. The tomb of Maria Severiola dating back to the 2nd century AD which was discovered and is preserved at the Abbey, along with various archaeological items, are evidence of this occupation.

The arrival of a community

In the 9th century, Benedictine monks led by Abbot Gausmar came from Touraine and founded an abbey in around 870-875. The exact date of the monastery’s foundation is unknown. The oldest document that mentions Charlieu Abbey and can be vouched for dates back to 1st June 876. This is a diploma confirming its foundation and privileges.

They moved onto land which had been given to them by Robert, Bishop of Valence and his brother Édouard. They called the site Carus Locus (dear place).

The three successive churches

In 879, the Benedictines found a benefactor in the person of Boson, King of Burgundy and Provence, brother-in-law of Charles the Bald. This sovereign was acknowledged as the “protector of Charlieu”.

Around this time, the monks built the abbey’s first church. It was a simple one, with a single nave covered by a roof and an ambulatory around the chancel which may suggest either that the monks had relics in their possession on arrival or that they were given some.

In 932, while Saint Odon was abbot, Charlieu Abbey was attached to Cluny Abbey by Pope John VIII. The first church was modified - the monks decided to replace the roof with a stone vault, which meant that they had to add pillars to the single nave to support the weight of this new vault.

In around 1040, Charlieu Abbey was reduced to priory status. At its head there was no longer an abbot elected by the community’s monks but a prior chosen by the Abbot of Cluny.

Pushed ahead by Cluny, major work was carried out in the 11th and 12th centuries, especially while Odilon and Hugues de Semur held the position of abbot. Thus, the church, which had become too small, was destroyed to make way for a far vaster one - the Saint Fortuné priory church was consecrated in 1094. A narthex was added against the façade at the entrance to the church in the mid 12th century.

The fortification of the abbey and the town

From the 10th century onwards, a town started to form to the east of the abbey. It is mentioned for the first time in 994 and then grew quickly over the next few centuries. Standing at the junction of two major roads (from Paris to Lyons and from the Saône to the Loire), its population was mostly made up of craftsmen attracted by the monks’ presence and the security they offered.

In 1180, Philippe-Auguste was at the start of his reign and aware of Charlieu’s strategic importance, so he placed the town under his protection. New fortifications were built around the priory and the town. Charlieu then became a stronghold and was deemed to be impregnable.

Starting in the 13th century, the town was surrounded by ramparts the moats of which lay where the boulevards are today.

Relations with the town and its inhabitants

There were very strong ties between the monastery and the town given that the Benedictines were the latter’s lords and thus in receipt of the tithe, a tax amounting to one-tenth of the harvest.

Although the prior and the King granted the inhabitants a charter in early 1207, violent conflict between the Benedictines and the townspeople broke out in around 1250, with the latter calling for royal justice. They swore to help one another as part of an independent “Commune”. The Commune’s seal, the emblem of the revolt, was finally broken on the King’s orders in April 1260.

Modifications inside the walls in the 15th and 16th centuries

In the late 15th and early 16th century, major work was carried out in order and the cloister part - i.e. the cloister, the chapter house, the chapel and the prior’s house - was modified.

The commendatory system

After his victory at Marignan, King François I signed the Concordat of Bologna with Pope Leon X in 1516. This agreement governed the relationship between the French church and the papacy up until the French Revolution. This allowed the King of France, and his successors to appoint the holders of the ecclesiastical seats (archbishops, bishops, abbots and priors) in his kingdom. The commendatory prior handled the administrative and financial management of the priory and directly received a part of its income. He also had the right to dispense low, middle and high justice. He was not obliged to reside at the monastery.

In Charlieu, the commendatory system was established with the advent of Pierre Saulnier in around 1550, and there was then a succession of commendatory priors until the death of Bertrand de Senaux in 1709. This was the date on which the commendatory period ended in Charlieu.

The French Revolution

Charlieu Monastery closed on 2nd April 1790. The priory's assets were first listed in an inventory and then sold off as National Property in 1791. Although the narthex was preserved, the church was turned into a stone quarry. On 9th September 1792, the monastery’s archives were burned and the last monks evicted.

19^th - 20^th century

From 1909, the Société des Amis des Arts de Charlieu, which had been founded in 1908, obtained a leasehold on the abbey buildings, which were then owned by the State.

The society worked to get the various remains of monastery listed as Historic Monuments, as well as engaging in archaeological digs. From 1938 until the late 1950s an American archaeologist called Elizabeth Read Sunderland dug up the foundations of the three successive churches.

Today, the Department of the Loire is both the owner and the manager of the site.