Cluny, the King's abbots

Nearly 70 abbots succeeded one another at the head of the prestigious Abbey of Cluny, between its creation in 910 and the suppression of the Order in 1790. The first great abbots who created, developed and brought the abbey to its apogee (Odon, Mayeul, Odilon, Hugues...) were elected by the assembly of monks.

However, from the ^15th century onwards, the election of abbots in the kingdom of France evolved towards the commendation system , which allowed the king to choose the holders of major ecclesiastical benefices, including from among laymen. We now speak of abbots and priors commendataires, who hold the abbey in commendam.

There were around twenty abbots at Cluny between 1456 and 1790, princes of the Church from powerful families such as Jean de Bourbon, Claude de Guise, Emmanuel Théodose de la Tour d'Auvergne, Dominique de la Rochefoucauld... or great court ecclesiastics such as Richelieu or Mazarin.

Contemporary with the decline of the Cluniac order, they have received little attention from researchers, who have preferred their prestigious predecessors. The role played by the abbots commendatory of the great Burgundian abbey is now being reassessed.

The exhibition will bring together a selection of works, many of them previously unseen, representing the work of these great abbots: painted and engraved portraits, furniture, books, seals, architectural elements, etc. from public and private Cluniac collections, as well as from major institutions (museums in Le Puy-en-Velay, Château d'Aulteribe, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Musée national du Moyen Âge, Lyon Cathedral, etc.).

A book to accompany the exhibition will be published by Éditions du Patrimoine, in the Regard collection, with an essay on the commende by Daniel-Odon Hurel (historian, specialist in Benedictine monasticism) and notes by Florian Galletti and Benoît-Henry Papounaud.

ÉDITIONS DU PATRIMOINE

Table of contents, games and wooden puzzle
Animated film by pupils from Lugny secondary school