Note 17 — I. HUMOROUS.

The “creepy,” or “cock-stool,” or “black-stool,” or—to give it its more dignified name—“the stool of repentance,” was erected in front of the pulpit, and the delinquent who had to sit thereon was, in consequence, in full view of the congregation. No mercy—in the way of screening from sight—was extended to victims, indeed the rule in some parishes was that the offenders had to stand during the service, that they might be the better seen and the more humiliated.