Like branches of a spiritual McDonald’s, Cluniac houses could be found almost everywhere west of the Rhine, and particularly along the international road routes walked by pilgrims visiting holy sites such as Santiago de Compostela, in northwestern Spain. True, Cluny’s reach did not extend to much of Germany, nor was it preeminent in the Christian parts of eastern and central Europe, let alone Byzantium, where a distinctive “eastern” form of monasticism developed. All the same, for several generations Cluny was armed with a rare degree of soft power that crossed jurisdictions and borders.* And
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