Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PREFACE
- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
- Part One The Old Orders, 1216—1340
- Chap. I The thirteenth century
- Chap. II Reorganization among the Black Monks, 1216–1336
- Chap. III The Augustinian chapters, 1216–1339
- Chap. IV The exploitation of the land
- Chap. V Henry of Eastry
- Chap. VI The monastic administration
- Chap. VII The agrarian economy of the Cistercians
- Chap. VIII The system of visitation
- Chap. IX The first century of visitation: (I)
- Chap. X The first century of visitation: (II)
- Part Two The Friars, 1216–1340
- Part Three The Monasteries and their World
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
Chap. V - Henry of Eastry
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- PREFACE
- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
- Part One The Old Orders, 1216—1340
- Chap. I The thirteenth century
- Chap. II Reorganization among the Black Monks, 1216–1336
- Chap. III The Augustinian chapters, 1216–1339
- Chap. IV The exploitation of the land
- Chap. V Henry of Eastry
- Chap. VI The monastic administration
- Chap. VII The agrarian economy of the Cistercians
- Chap. VIII The system of visitation
- Chap. IX The first century of visitation: (I)
- Chap. X The first century of visitation: (II)
- Part Two The Friars, 1216–1340
- Part Three The Monasteries and their World
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Henry of Eastry was perhaps some thirty-five years old when he was elected prior and confirmed by Archbishop Pecham. When he took over the administration the monastery was in debt to the extent of £5000—more than the average income of two years—at a time when the archbishop also was struggling to overcome a weight of debts. He speedily showed himself an economist of the first order. By a rigid curtailment of superfluous expenses at home, by a clear-sighted and total reorganization of the administration, both in deliberation and accountancy at Canterbury and in executive action on the estates, as also by a farseeing and consistent development and exploitation of the land and its fruits, Eastry raised Christ Church from a state of insolvency to what was probably the highest level of productivity in its history.
For the first thirty years of his rule the economic current of the age was flowing in his favour. During the whole of the thirteenth century the great estates of England had been increasing the acreage of demesne land exploited directly by the owner, while rising prices at the end of the century and during the first decades of the fourteenth made this the ‘golden age of demesne farming’ This enabled Eastry, despite exceptionally heavy losses from tempests and repeated demands, in the early thirteenth century, for loans and corrodies from the king, to sink his debts in fifteen years and inaugurate a period of sound and prosperous finance.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Religious Orders Vol 1 , pp. 49 - 54Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1979