and who, prior to the catastrophe of 1313, had a commandery at Reims, possessed either vineyards, or _droits de vinage_, at numerous spots, including Epernay, Hermonville, Ludes, and Verzy; while the separate community of these 'Red Monks' installed at Orilly had estates at Ay, Damery, and Mareuil. The hospital of St. Mary at Reims also reckoned amongst its possessions vineyards at Moussy, bequeathed by Canon Pontius and Tebaldus Papelenticus. The wine, which in 1215 the treasurer of the chapter of Reims Cathedral obtained from that body an acknowledgment of his right to on the anniversaries of the deaths of Bishops Ebalus and Radulf, and that to which the sub-treasurer and carpenter were severally entitled, was no doubt in part derived from the vineyard planted in 1206 by Canon Giles at the Porte Mars and bequeathed by him to the chapter, and the one which Canon John de Brie had purchased at Mareuil and had similarly bequeathed.[15] Although papal bulls and archiepiscopal warrants had forbidden the levying of the _droit de vinage_ on wine vintaged by religious communities, in 1252 Pope Innocent IV. had to reprove the barons for interfering with the monastic vintages in the neighbourhood of Reims, and to threaten them with excommunication if they repeated their offence.[16] [Illustration: VINE-DRESSERS--THIRTEENTH CENTURY (From a window of Chartres Cathedral).] These ecclesiastical topers, as a rule, were sufficiently critical of the quality of the liquor meted out to them, and an agreement respecting the dietary of the Abbey of St. Remi, at Reims, drawn up in 1218 between the Abbot Peter and a deputation of six monks representing the rest of the brethren, provides that the wine procured for the latter should be improved by two-thirds of the produce of the Clos de Marigny being set apart for their exclusive use. Ten years later, to put a stop to further complaints on the part of these worthy rivals of Rabelais' Frère Jean des Entonnoirs, Abbot Peter was fain to agree that two hundred hogsheads of wine should be annually brought from Marigny to the abbey to quench the thirst of his droughty flock, and that if the spot in question failed to yield the required amount the deficiency should be made up from his own private and particular vineyards at Sacy, Villers-Aleran, Chigny, and Hermonville.[17] We can readily picture these 'jolly fat friars Sitting round the great roaring fires With their strong wines;' or the cellarer quietly chuckling to himself as he loosened the spiggot of the choicest casks-- 'Between this cask and the abbot's lips Many have been the sips and slips; Many have been the draughts of wine, On their way to his, that have stopped at mine.' [Illustration: GATEWAY OF THE CHAPTER COURT AT REIMS.]