The instructions, given by the Canons of the English Church, as to the method to be followed by priests in hearing confessions, are simple and to the point. They are to remember that they are doctors for the cure of spiritual evils, and to be ever ready “to pour oil and wine” into the wounds of their penitents. They are to bear in mind the proverb, that “what may cure the eye need not cure the heel,” and are to apply the proper remedy fitting to each disease. They are to be patient, and “to hear what any one may have to say, bearing with them in the spirit of mildness, and not exasperating them by word or look.” They are “not to let their eyes wander hither and thither, but keep them cast downwards, not looking into the face of the penitent,” unless it be to gauge the sincerity of his sorrow, which is often reflected most of all in the countenance. Women are to be confessed in the open church, and outside the (lenten) veil, not so as to be heard by others but to be seen by them. The place where confessions might be heard was settled in the Constitutions of Archbishop Walter Reynold, in 1322. “Let the priest,” it is said, “choose for himself a common place for hearing confessions, where he may be seen generally by all in the church; and do not let him hear any one, and especially any woman, in a private place, except in great necessity and because of some infirmity of the penitent.” Myrc, in his _Instructions_, says that in Confession the priest is to “Teche hym to knele downe on hys kne, Pore other ryche, whether he be, Then over thyn yen pulle thyn hod, And here hys schryfte wyth mylde mod.” The place usually chosen by the priest to hear the confessions of his people was apparently at the opening of the chancel, or at a bench end near that part of the nave. In some of the churchwardens’ accounts there is mention of a special seat or bench, called the “shryving stool,” “the shriving pew,” “the shriving place;” whilst at St. Mary the Great, Cambridge, there appears to have been a special erection for Lent time, as there is an entry of expense for “six irons pertaining to the shryving stole for lenton,” which suggests that these iron rods were to support some sort of a screen round about the place of confession. Perhaps, however, it may have been for an extra confessor, since, as already related, in one place it is said that the parish paid for three extra priests “to shreve” in Holy Week.