Cluniac order during the age of the reform was an independent house, free from all secular or ecclesiastical jurisdiction (Madigan 122). It established an extremely liturgical lifestyle that was based off of Benedictine customs (122). During this time the papacy was a leader in the age of reform and their thoughts were typically monastic, specifically Cluniac (122). Reformers saw Cluny as a “Roman Liberty,” an ecclesiastical freedom from control (123).
The transformation of Cluniac over time was was won by papal authority and the Clunica congregrations enthusiasm and network of priorities was used to good effect by the papacy in the development of cannon law. (130)
The emergence of Cistercian order took place around 1098 with an objective of observing the Benedictine Rule to the letter, although monks took original and primitive observance and aimed to rehabilitate it. A majority of the accretions were associated with Cluny; comfortable clothes, elaborate ritual, and involvement in feudal society with an enthusiasm for voluntary poverty (167-168).

Cluniac order was described by Bernard as the only option for seriously religious people. That option being the monastic life as “the restorers of lost religion.”(170) They rejected the customary sources of monastic revenue as a symptom of enthusiasm for voluntary poverty (168). All of their accessories were simple and they rejected gold and silver (168).
Behaviors contrary to the Benedictine rule was that of which no Cistercian cloister accepted child oblates and there was also not schooling for boys inside or outside the monastery (169).

Peter the Venerable defended the Cluniac order by writing a trestie against Bruys entitled Against the Petrobrusians. Peter the Venerable as well as Bernard brood over Gregorain reformers and adopted the ways of previous religious leaders such as Guigo. Peters goal in essence was to praise Cluniac monks and the Cluny was the Chritian virtue on earth, the refuge of sinners and the model of monastic life (Rosenwein 301) Monks played a role in education, isolation, and to model the monastic life.

Life of Antony gained supernatural miraculous powers as he lost bodily power( 321). This is similar to Bernard as he was so serious about living a monastic life that his health began to weaken. Bernard developed a serious gastric problem in the midst of his triumph traceable to his recruiting an propaganda efforts(170)