§ 79.
Close to the gatehouse of the
curia, and,
as at Canterbury, immediately outside it, was the
almonry (
domus elemosinaria), where the daily dole
of broken meat from the tables of the monastery was
given to the poor by the almoner (
elemosinarius).
The almoner at Durham had control of the infirmary
without the gate, where four old women were
maintained. Such monastic almshouses, which had
parallels in the bede-houses attached to some
secular colleges in the later middle ages, were not
uncommon: it is clear, from a passage in the Ripon
chapter act-book, that the chamber over the outer
gateway at Fountains was used for the same purpose.
In the upper part of the almonry at Durham
were lodged the 'children of the almery,' who were
educated at the expense of the monastery and were
taught daily in the outer infirmary. Elsewhere, as at
Barnwell and Thornton, these children were known
as the clerks of the almonry, and their position was
similar to that of the
clerici secundae formae, who
in secular colleges were under the direction of the
chancellor. They were educated with the intention
of entering holy orders. Some of them, no doubt,
became novices in the monastery, but ordination lists
shew that many of them became secular clergy, who
obtained their titles to orders from the religious
houses in which they had received their education.
In 1431 a papal dispensation was granted to the
abbot and convent of St Augustine's, Canterbury, to
build a grammar school outside their gates for the
poor boys of their almonry and to appoint a special
master or rector, and it is evident that, although
there was some doubt as to the canonical propriety
of the application of alms in this direction, the
education of poor children was a common part of
the activity of monasteries
[19].
