(the Great Lavra may have had as many as 1,000 monks by 1100).
A similar enthusiasm for the ascetic life coupled with a certain discontent with existing forms of monasticism is evident in the west and there has been much debate about possible influences from the Byzantine world. The possible area of contact must surely have been southern Italy, where great Greek monastic leaders such as St Nil (d. 1005), the founder of the Monastery of Grottaferrata, were also widely known in Latin circles and where monasteries such as the Benedictine house of Monte Cassino were patronized by both German and Byzantine emperors. A number of Latin houses in Italy-St Romuald's foundation at Camaldoli (early eleventh century); John Gualberto's house at Vallombrosa (c. 1036) and the monastery of Fonte Avellana which was joined by the celebrated theologian Peter Damian--all emphasized the concentration on the ascetic life. Vallombrosa was coenobitic, but the monks' concentration on spiritual matters was assured by the use of lay brothers to perform the manual work of the monastery. In Camaldoli and Fonte Avellana, groups of hermits were attached to the houses in what seems a remarkably 'Byzantine' manner.
In other parts of Italy, southern France, and Spain, monastic reform was led by the Cluniacs. In Rome, particularly, the reforming zeal of Abbot Odo of Cluny ( 926-44), who made six journeys to the city, was supported by the Senator Alberic, who allowed the new house of St Mary on the Aventine to be founded in one of his palaces. In the eleventh century, great houses like those of Subiaco and Farfa accepted the observances of Cluny, though not without considerable opposition from many of their monks. Cluniac success depended on the support of local lay rulers--particularly evident in northern Spain where Alfonso VI of León-Castile (married to Constance of Burgundy a niece of Abbot Hugh of Cluny)--placed a number of houses under Cluniac control. Other reforming houses with influence in the south, such as that of the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Victor at Marseilles, similarly relied upon both the patronage and more practical assistance of the local nobility.
-183-