They had become great proprietors, money-lenders to their tenants, extortionate as the Jew whom they had banished from their land.
There were few townsmen of St.Edmund's who had not some bonds laid up in the abbey registry.

In 1327 one band of debtors had a covenant lying there for the payment of five hundred marks and fifty casks of wine.

Another company of the wealthier burgesses were joint debtors on a bond for ten thousand pounds.

The new spirit of commercial activity joined with the troubles of the time to throw the whole community into the abbot's hands.
[Sidenote: Saint Edmundsbury] We can hardly wonder that riots, lawsuits, and royal commissions marked the relation of the town and abbey under the first two Edwards.

Under the third came an open conflict.