“They shall meet at least once in each week in chapter, and excesses shall be there regularly proclaimed and corrected by warden or master; and the chapter shall be held without talking or noise, and those who have transgressed shall humbly and obediently undergo canonical discipline.” [p138] At stated periods of a month or a quarter, the statutes were openly recited, usually in the vulgar tongue. After the revision of the ordinance of St. Nicholas’, York, it was ordered that the keepers should read the articles aloud in their church on the eve of St. Nicholas. Internal authority was vested in the warden, whose power was sometimes absolute; but in the case of hospitals dependent upon a religious house, grave offences were taken to head-quarters. For external supervision, the hospital was dependent upon the patron or his agents, who were supposed to inspect the premises, accounts, etc., yearly. This civil visitation was frequently neglected, especially that of the chancellor on behalf of the Crown. Abuses were apt to accumulate until a royal commission of inquiry and reformation became obligatory. Where an institution was under the commonalty, their representatives acted as visitors. At Bridport (1265), the town administered the endowment of the manorial lord; the provosts conducted a yearly investigation whether the brethren and lepers were well treated and the chaplains lived honestly. In London, there were officials who daily inspected the lazar-houses; these “overseers” and “foremen” seem to have been busy citizens who undertook this work on behalf of the corporation (1389). As late as 1536 a gentleman was appointed to the office of visitor of “the spyttel-howses or lazar cotes about thys Citye.” 3. PENALTIES The punishments inflicted by the warden were chiefly flogging, fasting and fines, but he could also resort to the stocks, suspension and expulsion. The regulations of [p139] St. Mary’s, Chichester, show the discipline suggested for offenders:— “If a brother shall have a quarrel with a brother with noise and riot, then let him fast for seven days, on Wednesdays and Fridays, on bread and water, and sit at the bottom of the table and without a napkin. . . . If a brother shall be found to have money or property concealed from the warden, let the money be hung round his neck, and let him be well flogged, and do penance for thirty days, as before.”