york00orns

YORK.
They had mines and smelting furnaces. A grant was
made in the reign of Stephen to the monks of
Byland of as much iron ore as would supply one
furnace, and fuel out of the grantor's wood at Emley.
The monks of Kirkstead, in Lincolnshire, had bloomeries
[smelting furnaces] on the borders of Ecclesfield
and Rotherham. Large heaps of scoria yet
remain to indicate the spot where their furnaces were
situated. Traces also remain at Rievaulx of the
iron - works which were carried on in immediate
proximity to the abbey.
Wealth was the natural result of their industry and
the fruit of their care. And wealth became the parent
of luxury and the root of idleness. The monastic
bodies were civilisers and humanisers, undoubtedly,
but as societies, however eminent the piety of individuals
amongst them, they had ceased to be a
spiritual and religious power. The same thing may
be said with regard to the secular clergy. The temporal
wealth of the benefices and high dignities of
the Church led to their being regarded simply as
sources of revenue, as much so, in fact, as though
they had been lay fiefs. Boys often received presentations
to livings, and non-resident incumbents, many
of them foreigners, received the income of benefices
which they never saw, the duties of which were discharged
by badly-paid vicars.
Individual bishops did their best oftentimes to
enforce discipline, but it was a hopeless and ungrateful
task, and as it regarded the Cistercian order in
particular the papal exemptions which from time to
time were granted to them made them independent