Clus Abbey was an abbey near Bad Gandersheim

Bad Gandersheim

Bad Gandersheim is a town in southern Lower Saxony, Germany, located in the district of Northeim. , it had a population 10,572.Bad Gandersheim has many half-timbered houses and is located on the German Framework Road .- Geography :...

 in Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...

. It was a daughter-house of Gandersheim Abbey

Gandersheim Abbey

Gandersheim Abbey is a former house of secular canonesses in the present town of Bad Gandersheim in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was founded in 852 by Duke Liudolf of Saxony, progenitor of the Liudolfing or Ottonian dynasty, whose rich endowments ensured its stability and prosperity.The "Imperial...

, having been founded in 1127 by Agnes, Abbess of Gandersheim, niece of the Emperor Henry IV

Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry IV was King of the Romans from 1056 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 until his forced abdication in 1105. He was the third emperor of the Salian dynasty and one of the most powerful and important figures of the 11th century...

, and was part of the Cluniac Reform movement.

History

In 1433 Abbot Johann Dederoth also became abbot of Bursfelde Abbey

Bursfelde Abbey

Bursfelde Abbey was a house of the Benedictine Order located in the present Hemeln-Bursfelde, part of the town of Hannoversch Münden in Lower Saxony in Germany.-History:...

 and initiated the Bursfelde Congregation

Bursfelde Congregation

The Bursfelde Congregation, also called Bursfelde Union, was a union of predominantly west and central German Benedictine monasteries and nunneries working for the reform of Benedictine practice. It was named after Bursfelde Abbey.-Background:...

. In this way Clus Abbey stands at the beginning of the great central Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an monastic reform and unification movement.

In the course of the Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

 the abbey was dissolved in 1596. The former library is now part of the Herzog August Bibliothek

Herzog August Bibliothek

The Herzog August Library , in Wolfenbüttel, , known also as Bibliotheca Augusta, it has an international importance for its collection from the Middle Ages and Early modern Europe. The library is overseen by the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture...

 in Wolfenbüttel

Wolfenbüttel

Wolfenbüttel is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, located on the Oker river about 13 kilometres south of Brunswick. It is the seat of the District of Wolfenbüttel and of the bishop of the Protestant Lutheran State Church of Brunswick...

.

Abbey church

The former abbey church of Clus was built between 1127 and 1159 as a three-aisled basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

 and shows some similarity to the abbey church at Gandersheim. In the choir, extended in the Gothic style in 1485, is a high altar which was brought here from Lübeck

Lübeck

The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...

in 1487.