On the question "were medieval monks sloshed all the time", I think one
has to consider the average consumption of (light-) alcoholic beverages
in general. I recall having read somewhere that the average daily
allowance of beer for a fieldworker during harvest time (17th century) was
about 4 litres (or, as they say at this side of the ocean, one gallon) of
beer per day. Compared to that, one litre seems a modest amount.
Frans van Liere
On Thu, 5 Dec 1996, Prof. Bugslag wrote:
> Our system was down yesterday, and so I didn't actually receive
> Frank Schaer's original listing, but this is a subject that has long been
> of interest to me, and in relation to Tiina Kala's reply, it strikes me
> that medieval monks must have kept very healthy indeed. From what
> evidence I have seen, the daily allowance of wine for monks in
> medieval monasteries averaged about 1 litre per day; at
> Saint-Germain-des-Pres in the 17th century, it was as high as 2 litres
> per day. In addition to this, virtually every monastery, at least in
> England, had a brewhouse within the cloister, except for a few down
> in Devon and Somerset, where there is evidence of cider presses.
> One possibility that has occurred to me is that perhaps medieval wine
> (and/or beer) was not as potent as it generally is now; another is that
> perhaps the monks had to share their allowance with servants, but I
> have never run across firm evidence about the existence or extent of
> personal servants in medieval monasteries. So, my question to the
> list is: were medieval monks sloshed the whole time?
> Jim Bugslag
>
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Frans van Liere
College of Charleston 0 Bee Street
Charleston SC 29424 Charleston SC 29403
tel. (803) 953-8103 (803) 723-4051
fax (803) 953-6349
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