In fine, since the flagellations in question were often carried on, as appears from the account of Brantôme himself, in a manner really very jocular, even so much so as to make the Ladies laugh, it is natural to suppose that they were then executed by the common and perfectly free consent of the whole company. The Ladies possibly proposed to represent among themselves the festival of the _Lupercalia_, which has been described in a former Chapter: intending to represent it as it was performed in the times of Pope Gelasius, they stripped themselves in the manner Brantôme has related: the great Lady, in consideration of her high birth and station, was permitted to fill the part of the _Lupercus_; the wielding of the _discipline_ was of course exclusively left to her: nor was this peculiar advantage which the other Ladies granted her, in that kind of farce they agreed to act among themselves, materially different from the favour which certain Clergymen used to grant to their Bishop, when they played at Whist with him, who allowed his Lordship the privilege of naming the trump. In regard to the Gentlemen who have been mentioned above, it is however pretty evident that (owing, no doubt, to the good-nature inherent in their sex) they used no kind of severity in those disciplines they used to bestow; except indeed Parson Crofton, who, from the circumstance of his writing a pamphlet, and a quarto pamphlet too, in defence of the flagellation he had performed, seems really to have been in earnest, both when he planned, and when he served it. Thus Abelard, in one of the abovementioned Letters he wrote to his Pupil, while she lived retired in the Monastery of _Paraclet_, expressly says that the blows he gave her, were such blows as friendship alone, not anger, suggested: he even adds that their sweetness surpassed that of the sweetest perfumes,----_verbera quandoque dabat amor, non furor, gratia, non ira, quæ omnium unguentorum suavitatem transcenderent_. Father Girard, as is evident from the whole tenor of the declaration of Miss Cadiere herself, had as little intention as Abelard, to do any kind of injury to his pupil or penitent; and Cornelius Adriansen, as appears from Meteren’s account, used to proceed with the same caution and tenderness for his disciples, as the two above-mentioned gentlemen, and contented himself, as the Abbé Boileau observes, with gently rubbing them with his instruments of discipline;--_molliter perfricabat_. That Confessors should contract sentiments of friendship for their female penitents, like those mentioned by Abelard, is however nowise surprizing. La Fontaine says, that _Tout homme est homme, & les Moines sur tous._