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l62
YORK.
It was flourishing as a commercial city. A class of
wealthy merchants and rich tradesmen had sprung up,
and the craft that came up the Ouse from Hull made
it a busy inland port. The wills of the period contain
marked indications of the wealth, the luxury, and to
some extent the refinement which existed amongst the
clergy, the merchants, and the tradesmen of the city
and its neighbourhood, all showing the pre-eminence
it had attained as a seat of trade and commerce.
Owing to the wars with Scotland it became a military
centre. It was a political centre also. In 1298
Edward I. held a parliament there, and the courts of
justice were removed from London and sat in York
for seven years. Parliaments were also held there in
1299 and 1300, and for a time it was almost the
capital of England. The high position which the
Archbishop occupied led to his being perforce involved
in the negotiations with Scotland, and also in
the wars by which they were constantly interrupted.
A question naturally suggests itself when we see
those who occupied the highest dignities of the Church
employed in secular work of various kinds, presiding
over courts of justice, acting as ambassadors or diplomatists
at some foreign court, and even proving their
capacity as military leaders in the field,—how fared it
with the flock which had been entrusted to their pastoral
care ? what oversight did they exercise over the
priests and the people who had been solemnly committed
to their episcopal charge ? Viewing the matter
as we now do, the anomaly was monstrous, but it would
not then be so looked upon. As regarded judicial
and diplomatic appointments, the clerg>' were the