Heaviest hit were the clergy, who were brought into direct contact with plague victims. Guillaume de Nangis records that "some monks and friars, being braver, administered the sacraments", and that the sisters at the hospital of Paris, "fearless of death, carried out their task to the end with the most perfect gentleness and humility. These sisters were all wiped out by death…" In the dioceses of York and Lincoln, about 44% of the clergy perished, while nearly 50% died in the Exeter, Winchester, Norwich and Ely. In all, half of the English clergy may have died.In 14th century England, the Black Plague "served as a somber backdrop to a deepening economic crisis… and growing social tensions and religious restlessness." Villages were deserted, herds were untended, wool and grain markets were crippled and land values plummeted. The plague would strike periodically in subsequent decades. However, it is also suggested that in Europe in general, the Black Plague solved the economic recession, in that the reduction in population returned the supply of cash credit and money per capita to its pre-crisis level, laying the foundation for recovery. Wages rose, and the peasantry benefited from a more open, fluid society.[Note 1]  At the end of the decade, the economic effects of the Black Plague "may well have been more purgative than toxic."