A History of Champagne, with Notes on the Other Sparkling Wines of FranceVizetelly, Henry
History
A History of Champagne, with Notes on the Other Sparkling Wines of France
Vizetelly, Henry
Champagne (Wine) -- History; Wine and wine making -- France
wherein he appealed to the chivalry of Western Europe to hasten to the
rescue of the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the infidel.
The result of these appeals was felt by the vine-cultivators of the
Champagne in more ways than one, and their case recalls that of the
petard-hoisted engineer. The virtuous, the speculative, and the
enthusiastic who followed Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless
to the plains of Asia Minor suffered at the hands of the vicious, the
prudent, and the practical, who remained at home and passed their time
in pillaging the estates of their absent neighbours. The abbatial
vineyards suffered like the others; and the monks of St. Thierry,
in making peace with Gerard de la Roche and Alberic Malet in 1138,
complained bitterly of wine violently extorted during two years from
growers on the ecclesiastical estate and of a levy made upon their
vineyard.[13]
The efforts of Henry of France, a warlike prelate, who built fortresses
and attacked those of the robber-nobles, and of Louis VII., who avenged
the wrongs of the church of Reims on the Counts of Roucy, served to
improve matters; and we may be sure that whenever the monks did get
hold of a repentant or dying sinner, they made him pay pretty dearly
for peace with them and Heaven. Colin Musset, the early Champenois
poet, thought that the best use to which money could be put was to
spend it in good wine.[14] Churchmen, however, managed to secure the
desired commodity without any such outlay, for numerous charters of the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries show lords, sick or about starting
for the crusades, making large gifts to abbeys and monasteries; and
many a strip of fair and fertile vineland was thus added, thanks to
a judicious pressure on the conscience, to the already extensive
possessions of the two great monasteries of Reims, St. Remi and St.
Nicaise, and also to that of St. Thierry. The Templars, too, whose
reputation as wine-bibbers was only inferior to that of the monks, if
we may credit the adage which runs,
'Boire en templier, c'est boire à plein gosier;
Boire en cordelier, c'est vuider le cellier,'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account