At last, the Abbot thought proper to withdraw; and as soon as he had taken his leave, some of the Monks began to admire his extraordinary condescension; while the others were not without fears that it foreboded some misfortune. Indeed, the latter were in the right; for the Reader must not think that the Abbot had acted in the manner above-described, out of any sudden temptation he had felt at the sight of the jollity of the Friars, or of the dainties that composed their entertainment: by no means; his design had only been, by thus making himself guilty along with them, to be the better able to shew them afterwards the way to repentance, and thereby derive good from evil. In fact, the next day, a chapter having been summoned, the Abbot desired the Prior to fill his place, while himself took his feat among the rest of the Monks. Soon after the Chapter was met, he stepped forward into the middle of the Assembly, accused himself of the sin he had committed the day before, and requested that discipline might be inflicted upon him. The Prior objected much to a discipline being inflicted on the Abbot; but the latter having insisted, his request was complied with. The other Monks were at first greatly astonished; but seeing no possibility of keeping back on that occasion, they stepped into the middle of the Chapter, and likewise confessed their sin; when the Abbot, by means of a proper person he had selected for that purpose, got a lusty discipline to be inflicted upon every one of his late fellow-banqueters. [59] Which signifies, to _sip_, or to _swallow_. [60] He who drinks three times before the others. CHAP. X. _Strictness of certain Superiors of Convents, in exerting their power of flagellation. The same is abused by several of them._ The Reader has seen, in the preceding Chapter, that the punishment of flagellation was extended to almost every possible offence Monks could commit; and the duration of the flagellations was, moreover, left pretty much to the discretion of the Abbot, whether in consequence of the generality of the terms used in the Statutes, or through some express provision made for that purpose. In the ancient Constitutions of the Monastery of Cluny, for instance, which St. Udalric has collected in one volume, several kinds of offence are mentioned, for the punishment of which it is expressly said, that the Offender shall be lashed _as long as the Abbot shall think meet_. That Abbots and Priors have at all times well known how to exert those discretionary and flagellatory powers we mention, there is no manner of doubt. On this occasion, the two following stories may be related.