After a long journey from Rome, Hildebrand arrived by boat at the port of Marseille in Provence, and then traveled overland along the Rhône River via Benezet, Venne and Faure, before entering France at the Burgundian kingdom of Macombe, on the border between France and the HRE Empire.

In the kingdom of Macombo, Hildebrand made a special effort to go to the local Clony monastery to meet with the Cluny monks from all over the country.

Hildebrand was the new abbot after the previous abbot of Cluny, San Odillo, and in the Cluny Order, Hildebrand, who was the abbot of the Clony Abbey, was the veritable leader of the Cluny Order.

As for the other abbeys, they are called subordinate abbeys, and their heads are called abbots, and all subordinate abbeys are not controlled by any bishops or secular princes except those subordinate to Cluny, and the abbots are appointed by the abbot of Cluny and obey him.

Although Hildebrand has been placed under house arrest in the Abbey of Saint-Denis in Paris for several years because he was busy with the affairs of the Holy See, his position in the Abbey of Cluny has not been shaken in the slightest, but his prestige has become more and more grandiose.

In place of Hildebrand, who was in charge of Cluny Abbey, Ansel, the branch abbot of the local abbey, was one position behind Hildebrand, and respectfully reported the situation of Cluny Abbey to the other party.

The Abbey of Cluny was a new Catholic monastery built in 910 by William the Pious, Duke of Aquitaine, in Cluny, not far from Mâcon, Burgundy, eastern France.

Over the next two hundred years, the Abbey of Cluny advocated a strict monastic life, purified religious rituals, proposed to rectify the decay and reform of the corruption of the church, emphasized no private property, celibacy, obedience to the leadership of the monastery, and opposed the control of the monastery by secular forces and the encroachment of its estate, so it won the approval of many lay people, including William's father-in-law Leon and the ruler of the Kingdom of Castile, Ferdinand I.

Ferdinand I was the most generous monarch of his time by donating more than 1,000 pounds of gold to the Abbey of Cluny, and his successor, Alfonso VI, doubled the amount of his father Ferdinand I's donation, the largest donation ever received by the Abbey of Cluny, which has never been surpassed by anyone since.

Taking advantage of the large endowments and land received from the secular noble lords, the Abbey of Cluny built three new churches in succession to replace the old Cluny, known as Cluny I, II and III, of which Cluny III was the largest building in the world until the 16th century.

The secular lords came to Cluny to pray, and were easily impressed by the beauty of the spiritual environment and the majestic architecture displayed by the Abbey of Cluny, and thus won the support of these secular nobles, including William.

Compared to William the Pious, Duke of Aquitaine, the founder of the Abbey of Cluny, and his father-in-law, Ferdinand I, William was much harsher about going to the Abbey of Cluny, fearing that the Abbey of Cluny would affect his control of the Church in France.

The powerful, prestigious, and wealthy Abbey of Cluny imposed extremely strict restrictions on the abbey of Cluny by repairing churches for other monasteries and bringing them into his subordinate abbeys, freeing them from William's control, which he could not tolerate.

William first forcibly repossessed and ransomed the ecclesiastical estates and shops in the hands of the Cluny Abbey and its subordinate monasteries on the grounds that they needed to serve God sincerely and must stay away from secular affairs such as land management, and only allowed them to devote themselves to theology in the monastery.

Subsequently, William appointed Norman priests as the branch abbots of Cluny Abbey, ordered these Norman priests to pledge direct allegiance to him, and severed their vassal relationship with Cluny Abbey, and finally made Cluny Abbey now live only on the money donated by Cluny itself and the secular lords, and its reputation has never been as strong as before.

Listening to the narration of Ansel, the acting abbot of Cluny Abbey, Hildebrand was very angry, but because he was burdened with the mission of bridging the contradiction between the Holy See and William, he could only hold the matter in his heart and could not vent it.

"Why did William target Cluny Abbey like this?" Hildebrand couldn't help but look up to the sky and question.

Since Leo IX, William has been against the Roman Church, no, the Cluny faction, as long as it is the Cluny pope, William will do his best to oppose it, so that later a war broke out between the Normans and the Church and the HRE Empire.

After the war, both William as the victor and the Roman Church and the Cluny faction as the loser restrained a lot, but under the table, the two sides were still fighting to the death, and the Cluny Abbey, as the base camp of the Cluny faction, was naturally taken care of by William.

To be honest, Hildebrand couldn't figure out what reason William was so hostile to the Clunians other than the former Pope Leo IX who had been at odds with William, after all, in his opinion, the ascetic ideas put forward by the Cluny faction were of progressive significance, a counterattack to the corrupt atmosphere of the church in this matter, why William wanted to suppress the progressive forces, and was there any misunderstanding in this?

If William had been here, he would have pointed to Hildebrand's nose and said, "Don't you know what you're doing?" In the name of purifying the Church, cleansing corruption and asceticism, you are in fact advocating the supremacy of the Church, openly interfering in politics, and competing for power with secular monarchs!

Do you think that no discerning person can see your purpose by digging into the corners of royal power, pushing the back legs of feudalism, expanding your power unscrupulously, amassing vast wealth, and trying to establish the Pope and the Cluni faction as the masters of Europe and Rome? ”

William had long known the ambitions of the Clunians, and he was even more afraid of the strong expansion of the Clunians in the future and the ambition to intervene in secular politics, but in the early 12th century, the Cluny Orders had more than 300 monasteries in Europe and more than 10,000 monks, making it the largest major religious order in the world.

In addition, the "Cassano Castle Incident" is a thorn in the heart of William, who is as strong as the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, who had to brave the wind and snow because of Gregory VII's excommunication order, endured the severe cold, and knelt naked outside the Cassano Castle for three days and three nights, so that he could be exempted from the punishment of the expulsion order.