A Son of Auvergne Given to Cluny
Peter of Montboissier was born around 1092 into a noble family of Auvergne, in central France, the son of Maurice and Raingarde, who dedicated him to God as a child. He was raised at the Cluniac priory of Sauxillanges and made his monastic vows at about seventeen. Still young, he served as prior of Vézelay and then of Domène. In 1122, at about thirty, he was elected abbot of Cluny.
Cluny, founded in Burgundy in 910, was then the greatest monastery in Europe, the head of hundreds of dependent houses, with a church larger than any other in Christendom. Peter inherited it in crisis. His predecessor Pons had resigned under a cloud, and in 1125 he returned with armed men and seized the abbey before the pope condemned him. Peter spent his long abbacy restoring Cluny's finances and discipline, reforming its customs, and defending its way of life against the criticism of the stricter Cistercians.
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