Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

La Révolution Bénédictine Casadéenne du Livradois-Forez: De Charlemagne à François 1^er

The Casadean Benedictine Revolution in Livradois-Forez

Jacques COULARDEAU (Auteur), Clément Gomy (Auteur),

Ludivine Bourduge (Autrice), Xavier Omerin (Auteur)

https://jacquescoulardeau.medium.com/la-r%C3%A9volution-b%C3%A9n%C3%A9dictine-casad%C3%A9enne-du-livradois-forez-de-charlemagne-%C3%A0-fran%C3%A7ois-1er-df04bde9329e

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!

9 Pages

Medieval History,  *  Medieval Studies,  *  Agriculture,  *  Benedictine Monasticism,  *  Protoindustrialization

# posted by Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU @ 3:45 AM