Every abbey had an infirmary, which was usually a detached building with its own kitchen and chapel, besides suitable apartments for the sick, and for aged monks, who sometimes took up their permanent residence in the infirmary, and were excused irksome duties, and allowed indulgences in food and social intercourse. Not only the sick monks, but other sick folk were received into the infirmary; it is a very common incident in mediæval romances to find a wounded knight carried to a neighbouring monastery to be healed. The officer who had charge of everything relating to this department was styled the _Infirmarer_. He slept in the infirmary, was excused from some of the "hours;" in the great houses had two brethren to assist him besides the necessary servants, and often a clerk learned in pharmacy as physician. The _Almoner_ had charge of the distribution of the alms of the house. Sometimes money was left by benefactors to be distributed to the poor annually at their obits; the distribution of this was confided to the almoner. One of his men attended in the abbot's chamber when he had guests, to receive what alms they chose to give to the poor. Moneys belonging to the convent were also devoted to this purpose; besides food and drink, the surplus of the convent meals. He had assistants allowed him to go and visit the sick and infirm folk of the neighbourhood. And at Christmas he provided cloth and shoes for widows, orphans, poor clerks, and others whom he thought to need it most. The _Master of the Novices_ was a grave and learned monk, who superintended the education of the youths in the schools of the abbey, and taught the rule to those who were candidates for the monastic profession. The _Porter_ was an officer of some importance; he was chosen for his age and gravity; he had an apartment in the gate lodge, an assistant, and a lad to run on his messages. But sometimes the porter seems to have been a layman. And, in small houses and in nunneries, his office involved other duties, which we have seen in great abbeys distributed among a number of officials. Thus, in Marie's "Lay le Fraine," we read of the porter of an abbey of nuns:-- "The porter of the abbey arose, And did his office in the close; Rung the bells, and tapers light, Laid forth books and all ready dight. The church door he undid," &c.; and in the sequel it appears that he had a daughter, and therefore in all probability was a layman. The _Kitchener_, or _Cook_, was usually a monk, and, as his name implies, he ruled in the kitchen, went to market, provided the meals of the house, &c. [Illustration: _Alan Middleton._]