But the refuse gate repaired Malchijah the son of Rechab, the ruler of the district of Beth-haccherem; he built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.
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Bede
AD 735
They say the site of the city of Jerusalem, being laid out on a gentle slope, inclines toward the north and east in such a way that rainfall does not accumulate there at all but rather flows out like rivers through the eastern gates and swells the torrent of Kidron in the valley of Jehoshaphat, taking with it all the waste of the streets. And so it appears likely that the Dung Gate is the one through which refuse and filth were generally to be driven out. It is not in any way of less virtue and usefulness for all impure things to be removed from the city of the Lord than for those things that are pure to be collected into it. They who build the Dung Gate in Jerusalem, therefore, are the ones who ordain to the ministry of the holy church those through whom the filth of the vices is removed from the minds of the elect, but also through whom people of corrupt mind are kept away from the boundaries of the church while a shower of heavenly grace helps them and weakens every impurity, so tha...
