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Rh The Ratio Studiorum allowed the infliction of punishment only under rigid regulations; it forbids the teacher absolutely to strike a boy. Corporal punishment, if, after calm deliberation, thought necessary, is to be administered either by a trusty servant, as was the custom in former times, or by the Prefect of Discipline. At any rate, this system prevents many an indeliberate act of the teachers, as there is always danger of excess in the immediate punishment of an offence. Although the rod was applied in Jesuit schools, its use was by no means as frequent as in nearly all other schools. Compared to what was done in the great public schools of England and in the gymnasia on the European continent, the practice of the Jesuit colleges was exceedingly mild. There was never anything like the brutality practised in Eton, or those debasing punishments, described in The Terrors of the Rod (published in 1815), or in Cooper's