arities of the parishioners, and the
charities of the gild fellowships and of the parsonage house sufficed
(Bishop Hobhouse, _Churchwardens' Accounts, 1349-1560_, Somerset
Record Society). Many parishes possessed land, houses and cattle, and
received gifts and legacies of all kinds. The proceeds of this
property, if given for the use of the parish generally, might, if
necessary, be available for the relief of the poor, but, if given
definitely for their use, would provide doles, or stock cattle or
"poor's" lands, &c. (Cf. Augustus Jessopp, _Before the Great Pillage_,
p. 40; and many instances in the reports of the Charity Commissioners,
1818-1835.) Of the endowments for parish doles very many may have
disappeared in the break-up of the 16th century. There were also
"Parish Ales," the proceeds of which would be used for parish purposes
or for relief. Further, all the greater festivals were days of
feasting and the distribution of food; at funerals also there were
often large distributions, and also at marriages. The faithful
generally, subject to penance, were required to relieve the poor and
the stranger. In the larger part of England the parish and the vill
were usually coterminous. In the north a parish contained several
vills. There were thus side by side the charitable relief system of
the parish, which at an early date became a rating area, and the
self-supporting system of the manor.

_The Monasteries._--As Christianity spread monasteries spread, and
each monastery was a centre of relief. Sometimes they were
established, like St Albans (796), for a hundred Benedictine monks and
for the entertainment of strangers; or sometimes without any such
special purpose, like the abbey of Croyland (reorganized 946), which,
becoming exceeding rich from its _diversorium pauperum_, or almonry,
"relieved the whole country round so that prodigious numbers resorted
to it." At Glastonbury, for instance (1537), L140 16s. 8d. was given
away in doles. But documents seem to prove (Denton, _England in
Fifteenth Century_, p. 245) that the relief generally given by
monasteries was much less than is usually supposed.

The general system may be described (cf. Rule, _St Dunst. Cant.
Archp._ p. 42, Dugdale; J.B. Clark, _The Observances_, Augustinian
Priory, Barnwell; Abbot Gasquet, _English Monastic Life_). The almonry
was usually near the church of the monastery. An almo