§ 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]. CHAPTER VI DISCIPLINE AND THE DAILY LIFE