Cluniac

Early observers noted that the signals ‘would have been sufficient if they lost the use of their tongues’ and Cluniac sign language, as it came to be known, had an enormous influence on monastic life throughout Europe.

A Place in the Countryby W. G. Sebald Apart from a single farmstead, there is now only one dwelling on the Île Saint Pierre – an island with a circumference of some two miles – and that is a former Cluniac monastery which now houses a hotel and restaurant run by Blausee AG.

In Cistercian and Cluniac houses the superior was supposed to dine in the frater and to sleep in the dorter with the other nuns, and even in Benedictine houses it was considered desirable that she should do so.

Bishops, who would never have dreamed of interfering with houses of Cistercian or Cluniac monks, visited the nuns of those orders as a matter of course and no objection was as a rule raised by the houses or by the orders.

It is unlikely, however, that Betsone actually invented any of the signs, for similar lists are to be found in the early consuetudinaries of Cluniac houses and other sources.