Thursday, July 11, 2024
Development Does NOT Mean Violence
La Révolution Bénédictine
Casadéenne du Livradois-Forez: De Charlemagne à François 1er
The Casadean Benedictine Revolution in
Livradois-Forez
Jacques COULARDEAU (Auteur), Clément Gomy (Auteur),
Ludivine Bourduge (Autrice), Xavier Omerin (Auteur)
An elderly vacationing researcher, a researcher still in marching order, and an industrialist whose company is a world leader in the field of braiding and cables, are here – finally – beginning to examine the roots of Livradois-Forez. Where did the braiding industry and its very special and specific technique come from? Where did the cultivation of Indian hemp come from, which would provide cable and canvas, two essential elements when Colbert decided to build the Royal Navy of Louis XIV, the Sun King, in Saint Nazaire? The third essential element was wood, and it would be the Casadean pine.
Concerning the development of Livradois-Forez, very little is known at the time of the Gauls, and even the Gallo-Romans, it was totally ignored under the Merovingians, and would only begin after the reforms of Charlemagne (King and Emperor 768-814), and above all the religious reform which compulsorily released 52 Sundays, then 3 weeks of festivities for the Nativity, the Passion, and the Assumption, plus some local religious festivals, in all 80 days of non-working time for everyone. This reform would find its crowning moment with the Gregorian Reform of Gregory VII (Pope 1073-1095) who, against the Germanic Emperors, would impose the supreme authority of the church, the Papacy, Rome.
All
these are only the foundations of the development which will be led by the
engineers of the Middle Ages, the Benedictines, who Christianized Europe from
England and Ireland, then agriculturalized Europe from local resources. With
the final abolition of slavery, and the unification of land ownership (Lords,
Church-Abbeys, and a few autonomous allod-holders), a true agricultural green
revolution can come, with the invention of the horse's collar which can
henceforth plow, the horse of course, and the recovery of water mills, invented
but never used by the Romans, to replace human working time devoted to
Christian ritual practices, and to intensify production. In this context in
1043, Robert de Turlande founded the Abbey of La Chaise-Dieu and the tight
network of priories and affiliated parishes. But the question remains of who
introduced Indian hemp cultivation and braiding to this region, the very keys
to many centuries of development that led to Omerin's cables of the extreme.
This
is the beginning of our research, from Charlemagne to Francis I, covering eight
centuries. Perhaps one day we will ask the question of the occupation of this
region by the Neanderthals and the “Cromagnons,” before the Glaciation and the
Gauls, at the time of the woolly rhinoceroses of Gannat and the Rhinopolis
center. But how far behind, archaeology still is in Puy de Dôme!
Éditions La Dondaine, Medium.com, 2024
9
Pages
Medieval
History, * Medieval
Studies, * Agriculture, * Benedictine
Monasticism, * Protoindustrialization