Ignorance

In the area we live in one encounters regularly signs saying "Site Clunisien", which are located at the beginning of a village or, in some cases, fixed to the wall of a building, usually a church. I had always assumed that those were references to interesting Romanesque churches operating under the umbrella of and ruled by Cluny abbey. I am referring to churches like those of Chazelle, Malay, Saint-Gengoux-le-National, Saint-Hippolyte, etc. Analogous to this the church of Chapaize was a subsidiary of Tournus abbey, which would explain why there was no sign like that in Chapaize. This "theory" turned out to be based on sheer ignorance.

Sign at Saint-Hippolyte

The first time I assumed that there might be more to the word site clunisien than I thought was during an excursion I made in honour of the introduction of the website "clunypedia.com", a site hosting an interactive map of sites clunisiens in and outside France. Apart from Cluny abbey we visited the Chapelle des Moines in Berzé-la-Ville and the Domaine des Vignes du Maynes, a vineyard in Cruzille. Maynes appeared to be a corruption of the word Moines, so the connection with Cluny did not seem to be totally illogical. The monks from Cluny had been producing wine here, a long time ago. However, I completely failed to see the connection between a vineyard and a church building. Apart from that, the interactive map of sites clunsiens was not exactly densely populated with sites around here, something that surprised me a bit. The man who gave the introduction to Clunypedia emphasized that the whole site was still under construction, which would explain the lack of churches on the map.

Clunypedia - Sites Clunisiens around Cluny

Recently I was browsing on yet another website, "sitesclunisiens.org", and it seemed like a good idea to plot out all the sites clunisiens, at least around Cluny, on a map. I assumed beforehand that this site would show considerably more sites clunisiens than Clunypedia did. However, that turned out to be not true. On the picture the density of sites clunisiens around Cluny is not high at all, at least not when one knows how many Romanesque churches there are around here.

SitesClunisiens - Sites Clunisiens around Cluny

The picture below shows how many Romanesque churches there are in roughly the same area. The difference is stunning! A closer look at "sitesclunisiens.org" revealed the following: according to this site there were not more than approx. 110 sites clunsiens in the whole of France. All entries on this site are exclusively prieurés, doyennés or domaines (vineyards). And it was only then that the penny started to drop.

Romanesque churches around Cluny

A prieuré (priory) is a subsidiary, hence a "daughter" monastery of the "mother" abbey. And that Cluny abbey had quite some daughters was well known to me. A doyenné (deanery) is a supplier of agricultural goods to an abbey or priory, and since monks cannot live on fresh air alone it seemed logical that there were quite a few deaneries near the many monasteries in the area. A doyenné has a different meaning in the hierarchic structure of the Roman Catholic church as well, which will be explained later. That wine suppliers ranked quite high among the sites clunisiens can be explained by the fact that Cluny is located in Burgundy. Sacramental wine has got to come from somewhere, right? The amount of sites clunisiens was by now more or less equal and identical on both websites concerning this subject.

The doyenné of Chazelle

But whatever happened to all the other churches around Cluny, such as Jalogny, Ameugny, Ougy, just to name a few? Were they excommunicated because they had been disobedient, and kicked out on the harsh streets of the Clunisois? Or had they decided to gang up with other abbeys, such as Tournus or La Ferté? It was then that the penny really dropped. An abbey or monastery is simply not in charge of parishes or parish churches! Parish churches fall under the jurisdiction of a doyenné (to increase the confusion, a doyenné in French is also the administrative layer between the individual parishes and the diocese), and the deans running those deaneries are reporting to a bishop, not to an abbot or prior! And of course, most or all of these sites clunisiens have a church; the reason is simply that every priory or abbey has a priory or abbey church. And that is very often the only remaining part of the priory or abbey.

Domaine des Vignes du Maynes - Cruzille

Who would however ever have thought that an interest in Romanesque churches would lead to thinking about the organisation charts of the Roman Catholic church?
Despite the story above, around La Tuilerie de Chazelle there are more than sufficient sites clunisiens to keep those interested busy for a day!
http://www.latuileriechazelle.com/home.html