y and not a judge, as well as other superior
officers of the king. A regular system of finance was introduced, and
a regular system of justice accompanied it. At last the king
determined to send some of the judges of his court to go on circuit
into distant parts of the kingdom. These itinerant Justices
(_Justitiarii errantes_) brought the royal power into connection with
the local courts. Their business was of a very miscellaneous
character. They not only heard the cases in which the king was
concerned--the pleas of the crown, as they were called--but they made
assessments for purposes of taxation, listened to complaints, and
conveyed the king's wishes to his people.

[Illustration: Monument of Roger, Bishop of Salisbury (died 1139), in
his cathedral church.]

7. =Growth of Trade.=--Though Henry's severe discipline was not liked,
yet the law and order which he maintained told on the prosperity of
the country, and the trade of London flourished so much as to attract
citizens from Normandy to settle in it. Flemings too, trained in
habits of industry, came in crowds, and with the view of providing a
bulwark against the Welsh, Henry settled a colony of them in South
Pembrokeshire, which has since been known as Little England beyond
Wales. The foreigners were not popular, but the Jews, to whom Henry
continued the protection which William had given them, were more
unpopular still.

[Illustration: Porchester Church, Hampshire. Built about 1135.]

8. =The Benedictines.=--In the midst of this busy life the Benedictine
monasteries were still harbours of refuge for all who did not care to
fight or trade. They were now indeed wealthier than they had once
been, as gifts, usually of land, had been made to the monks by those
who reverenced their piety. Sometimes these gifts took a shape which
afterwards caused no little evil. Landowners who had churches on their
lands often gave to a monastery the tithes which had hitherto been
paid for the support of the parish priest, and the monastery stepped
into the place of the parish priest, sending a vicar to act for it in
the performance of its new duties. As the monks themselves grew richer
they grew less ascetic. Their life, however, was not spent in
idleness. They cared for the poor, kept a school for the children, and
managed their own property. Some of their number studied and wrote,
and our knowledge of the history of these times is mainly owing to
monastic writers. When Henry I. c