@gagamba9198

1 year ago

'The monks don't work the fields.' Moments later, a drawing of monks ploughing the fields. The abbeys were also involved in the transformative process of raw agricultural commodities, for example turning milk and grapes into cheese and wine, respectively. Many early advancements in botany and animal husbandry were done by the monks. And because monks were to avoid eating meat (unless ill), cheese was a source of protein for them. They took a keen interest in the development of new cheeses to give their diet some variety. Bee keeping was another activity performed by the clergy. At the time there were two orders of monks, the Benedictines and the Cistercians. The Cistercians believed that they must do all the work by their own hands. The Cistercians tended to want to get away from it all, so they established abbeys in remote places on marginal land, for example marshes. Draining fields followed. In the monastic orders were also lay brothers, members who usually were uneducated. They followed the same prayer routines as the monks, often took vows of silence, and performed manual labour. Choir monks were expected to perform manual labour too, especially during harvest time. Sheep were important for more than wool (and meat and fertiliser). From them came parchment, rennet, and glue. Historians. So wrapped up in 'the narrative' they fail to see the facts in front of their own noses.

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