or Netley.]

ABBEY DISCIPLINE—THE CONFESSIONAL-

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the lower part of which still remains. Besides the entrance from the court,it has a communication with the adjoining chapter-house. It was here thatthe penitent, or should-be-penitent, laid open to the priest his secretfailings, and was instructed in the kind of reparation or the quantity of self-punishment which was necessary to atone for them. In greater trespasses, orwhere the penitent himself desired it, he was ledinto the adjoining chapter-house, and receivedthe monastic discipline at the hands of the monks,which consisted in a severe flogging on the bareskin—a punishment which is now only preservedin the army and navy. Great offenders were attimes subjected to this penance. We learn fromMatthew Paris , that when the ferocious Falcasiusde Breant, one of King John ’s foreign auxiliaries,had plundered the town and abbey of St. Al-bans, he was warned in a dream that he wouldbe pursued by the vengeance of Heaven, unless he made some reparationto the monks. Falcasius, we are told, went with some of his most active

soldiers to the abbey, where they suffered themselves to be stripped inthe chapter-house; and, having submitted to the discipline with becominghumility, they received absolution for their offence. The practice of con-fession, and tire giving of absolution, were sources of great power to theRomish Church: they were often made an instrument of benefiting thecommunity, but they were as frequently productive of great evils, and thefacility of obtaining absolution acted as an encouragement to crime. Amongthe numerous stories told by the monks in illustration of the efficacy of con-fession, it is related that a knight, who suspected one of his attendants of agrave crime against his own person, determined to carry him before a certainwizard, who was famous for laying open people’s hidden faults. On theirway, the criminal, aware of the object of their journey, requested permissionto visit for a few hours a neighbouring town. lie hastened to a religioushouse, confessed the crime of which he was accused among his other sins tothe priest, received penitence, and submitted to a very rude application of themonastic discipline. When they stood before the wizard, and the knightinquired what were the secret failings of his attendant, the answer lie receivedwas —“ This morning, when you left home with him, I knew him well and allhis works; but now he only knows his works who has given him a bleedingback: I know nothing further.” Confession and absolution were a source ofprofit to the priest.

The Sracn'stu communicates by a door with the south transept of the

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