Another rule stipulates that the monks who shall have gone out of the monastery without the permission of their superior, or who, having been allowed out have not returned as soon as the errand was finished, shall be excommunicated for thirty days or beaten with rods; the same punishment for those who have eaten or drunk to excess. Young monks who have been convicted of theft are never to be promoted to the clericature. The monks who, after having been excommunicated, should wish to re-enter the community of their brothers (Rule of St. Macaire), are to be flogged in the presence of the abbot and the whole community in order that, it not having been possible to correct them by remonstrances, they shall be corrected by rods. The monks who shall disturb their brothers or impose on their simplicity, shall be whipped before the door of the monastery if, after having been warned three times, they do not correct themselves. (Rule of St. Pacôme). The monks who will not forgive those who have offended them and who strike their brothers, must be treated in a similar manner; but whatever the offence may be, the number of strokes shall not exceed the thirty-nine allowed by law. (Rule of St. Aurelian). And let the victims beware they do not complain, if they wish to escape severer punishment! The whip serves also to lead back to the path of duty those monks who speak too loudly, who are angry, who make others laugh, who rail, who calumniate—at least, if they do not correct themselves after having been warned several times. The same treatment must be meted out to those who are lewd, impudent, and haughty; to those who are liars, thieves, and blackguards; to those who are wild and stubborn, and who boldly sustain their faults. (Rule of Saint Fructueux). Neither young brothers under fifteen nor nuns who have committed a theft are excused a flogging; nor are the nuns who have struck their sisters, or are guilty of certain crimes. And so we come to learn how common were acts of indecency in these communities where only the divine spirit should have entered. Licentious conversations with a person of the same or the opposite sex, as also the more intimate relations, are taken account of by monastic regulations. The crime of frequenting women was punished with repeated fustigations. Those who persisted in casting lascivious glances on women might, after having been flogged, be expelled from the community, for fear their bad example might contaminate their brethren. One rule assimilates the monk convicted with theft with an adulterer, for ‘it can only be lust which has led him to commit a theft.’ We have an example of the severity with which crimes of this nature were punished in the story of a nun who was accused and convicted of incest, by the Council of Donzi, June 13th, 874.