1. See Ecclesiastica Officia, 336, and The
Account Book of Beaulieu Abbey ed. S.F. Hockey, Camden Soc., 4th
series no.16 (London, 1975), pp.174-5. The almoner’s role is briefly
discussed by Brooke, William
Morton, xxv-xxxi, who remarks that the almoner awaits an historian,
ibid., xxv. However Brooke does not mention if there were ever
Cistercian almoners
or whether this was a peculiarity of the Benedictine houses. Mr.
Peter King informs me he has not come across any references to
Cistercian almoners.
There were, however, almonesses in Cistercian nunneries, see Nichols, ‘Internal
organization’, 31. See above, p. 128, fn. 31, for the importance of
the almoner ’s
office in post-Conquest houses.