The Burning of Croyland
The servants in the vill would be the tenants of the abbey, living around it in their village huts, farming its lands and doing other services. The roofs of monastic houses were either of thatch or lead. Where lead was used the immense amount of it constituted valuable plunder. This was a large item in the spoils made by the court of Henry VIII on the dissolution.
Junior monks were under the charge of a novice, master or Librarian and spent some time each morning between services in studying in the north-west cloisters. Their books and rolls were kept in cupboards built against the angle formed by the south wall of the nave and the south transept, the most secure and dry spot available.
Astronomy was studied by the Arabs (cf. Psalms of David for Oriental view of the heavens). These mingled with Italians when they held the Mediterranean coasts, from about A.D. 700 onwards. The Emperor Frederick II encouraged this intercourse and so Europe learned from them the elements of mathematics, science and geography. Note that the contributions for re-building the abbey are made in kind, showing the use of barter to be still normal rather than currency.
Life of Abbot Ingulf
This life brings out forcibly the importance of Church intercourse in promoting international relations and preventing insularity. Monastic communities even in Britain were rarely if ever entirely British; they were international hostelries and libraries, centres of international pilgrimage and trade; often under the direction of a foreigner, e.g., Anselm, Stephen Harding of Citeaux; the Papacy thus also international. Note the cosmopolitan company and the divers objects of the crusaders, Norman monks and knights, German bishops, Genoese sailors, Christian merchants, Syrians and Greeks.
The contribution rendered to William by Fontenelle is typical of the feudal aid given on exceptional occasions.
Another noteworthy point is the reception of visiting monks at Croyland for long periods and in great numbers.
Thirteenth Century Explorers
The reports of Carpini and Rubruquis shew a further development of the travelling activity of the Church. Though less influential than the explorations of the sixteenth century, these travels gave almost the only information of the East after the Crusades. They are also valuable illustrations of nomad life. Many children delight in such material as M. Polo’s descriptions, the vivid colour of which is a useful relief to the drabness of modern town life, wakening a sense of the wonder and beauty of other existences.