Note 50 — Chapter IV · S. Ives and the Crusades
Reading edition
Stalls first, and then shops, were set up about the western porch as soon as it was built. Pilgrimages meant commerce. There was traffic not only in images of the Virgin, but also in the necessaries of life. Merchants found here a ready market, and one in which they were protected from the rapacity and exactions of the feudal lords.