Burgundy to Aquitaine and from Languedoc to Normandy; Italy, Lorraine, Spain, England, Germany, distant Hungary and Poland were won for it.
And at the very time when Cluny was going forth to its early conquests, quite independently and outside the walls of the Burgundian abbey other fires of monastic revival were being kindled. It was at this moment, to cite only one illustrious instance, that Gerard, lord of Brogne, near Namur, suddenly won over by the attraction of monastic life, founded on his own estate a little monastery, where at first he merely thought to end his days in retirement, contemplation and prayer (923). But before long the fame of saintliness, acquired for him and his companions by their strict observance of the Benedictine Rule, brought about the same miracles in Lorraine as the example of Cluny had worked in Gaul. Gerard gained followers throughout Lorraine and Flanders: the ancient monasteries of the land, the chapters already established, reformed themselves under his direction, new abbeys arose on every side reverting, after the example of Brogne, to the wise and holy precepts of St Benedict.
Thus in the shades of the cloister a new religious society is growing up, preparing itself for the struggle, ready to aid in a general reform of the Church so soon as Popes shall arise with enough energy and independence to resolve upon and inaugurate it.
Meanwhile, in the busier world outside, society, even if led by Bishops themselves worldly, was seeking a remedy against violence which brought anarchy and famine in its train. "The Peace of God" was one such attempt, springing up in a world which knew its own disease. From 989 onwards, synods, beginning in Aquitaine and Burgundy where kingly rule was weakest, anathematised ravagers of churches and despoilers of the poor. The movement spread, and sworn promises to keep from violence to non-combatants and the like misdeeds were prescribed and even gladly taken. It is true that, like most medieval legislation, this was only partly effective, and had to be renewed again and again. But it was a triumph of moral power over brute strength, and upon its solid success the reign of order was founded. Thus civil rulers inherited the Church's task. Feudalism became, to some degree, a regulator of its own disorder, and the supplementary "Truce of God" (c. 1040) tried to complete what the Peace" (c. 990) had begun.
