St. Barthomew infirmary was established in London for the care of
sick pilgrims traveling to the shrine of Becket in Canterbury. It
had been inspired by a monk who saw a vision of St. Barthomew
telling him to build a church and an infirmary.
Trading was facilitated by the stabilization of the amount of
silver metallic content of the English coinage, which was called
"sterling" [strong] silver. The compass, a magnetic lodestone
[leading stone] needle mounted on a cork and floated in a bowl of
water, assisted the navigation of ships. With it, one could tell
the general direction of a ship when the skies were cloudy as well
as clear. And one could generally track one's route by using the
direction and speed of travel to calculate one's new position.
London became a major trading center for foreign goods from many
lands.
About 5% of the knights were literate. Wealthy men sent their sons
to school in monasteries to prepare them for a livelihood in a
profession or in trade or to the town of Oxford, whose individual
scholars had migrated from Paris and had attracted disciples for a
long time. These schools grew up around St. Mary's Church, but had
not been started by the church as there was no cathedral school in
Oxford. Oxford had started as a burh and had a royal residence and
many tradesmen. It was given its basic charter in 1155 by the
King. This confirmed to it all the customs, laws and liberties
[rights] as those enjoyed by London.
Pages:
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194