This is quite a short extract from the National Guardian in January of 1890, but I found it quite interesting and amusing! The short text tells us that beer and ale were sold in churches in the middle ages and were in competition with the small breweries of the time.
In the middle ages beer was drunk as a religious duty – and we may be sure that the duty was devoutly discharged. The early brewers were mostly breweresses. The sign of their trade was a bunch of ivy or a green bush hung over the door. But they encountered serious competition from the clergy, who held drinking bouts of unlimited duration, at which ale and beer were sold in the church house, or even perhaps within the walls of the sacred edifice itself, to all comers.
Well, that is certainly one way to get everyone to go to church regularly!