To give any thing like a satisfactory account of the revenues of the several ecclesiastical endowments, would occupy a space not consistent with the design of the present work. It may, however, be briefly stated, that the wealth of the church did not altogether arise from her spiritual emoluments. Agriculture, and various branches of traffic, engaged the attention, and increased the riches as well as the luxuries of the priesthood. In 1254 the Cistercian monks were the greatest breeders of sheep in England. Being exempted from duties, their wealth rapidly increased. That they possessed similar privileges in Scotland, is pretty evident; for in 1275,[27] when Bagamont, an emissary from Rome, was sent to levy a tenth on the property of the Scottish church for the relief of the Holy Land, this wealthy order of temporal as well as spiritual shepherds, compounded for the enormous sum of 50,000 merks. By this compromise, the amount of their revenues remained unknown. The following is part of the live-stock, which (according to an inventory preserved in the chartulary of Newbottle) at one time belonged to the Abbey of Melrose, viz. 325 forest mares, 54 domestic mares, 104 domestic horses, 207 stags or young horses, 39 three-year old colts, and 172 year old colts. Amidst all this profusion of wealth, the serious reader may desire to know how the ceremonials of religion were attended to. From the many jokes which Fordun relates as having taken place among the clergy of his day, we cannot suppose that either the teachers or the people were more devout than their neighbours. An old writer describes the interior of a cathedral as a place where the men came with their hawks and dogs, walking to and fro, to converse with their friends, to make bargains and appointments, and to show their guarded coats; and among the Scots, it is well known, weapons were too often displayed on such occasions.