Quia propter' declaratis; viisque per quas possent ad hanc electionem procedere," by the decretorum doctorem, whom the canons had taken to direct them—they all and every one "dixerunt et affirmarunt se nolle ad aliquam viam procedere:"-but, for this turn only, renounced their right, and unanimously transferred their power to the bishop, the ordinary of the place, promising to receive whom he should provide; and appointed a proctor to present the instrument to the bishop under their seal; and required their notary to draw it up in due form, &c. subscribed by the notary.

After the visiter had fully deliberated on the matter, he proceeded to the choice of a prior, and elected, by the following instrument, John Sharp, alias Glastenbury.

Fol. 56. Provisio Prioris per Epm.

Willmus, &c. to our beloved brother in CHRIST, John Sharp, alias Glastenbury, Ecclesie conventualis de Bruton, of the order of St. Austin, in the diocese of Bath and Wells, canon-regular, salutem, &c. "De tue circumspectionis industria plurimum confidentes, te virum providum et discretum, literarum scientia, et moribus merito commendandum, &c.-do appoint you prior-under our seal. "Dat. in manerio nostro de Suthwaltham, May 20, 1478, et nostre Consec. 31."

Thus did the bishop, three times out of the four that he was at liberty to nominate, appoint a prior from a distance, a stranger to the place, to govern the convent of Selborne, hoping by this method to have broken the cabal, and to have interrupted that habit of mismanagement that had pervaded the society: but he acknowledges, in an evidence lying before us, that he never did succeed to his wishes with respect to those late governors,-" quos tamen male se habuisse, et inutiliter administrare, et administrasse usque ad presentia tempora post debitam investigationem, &c. invenit." The only time that he appointed from among the canons, he

made choice of Peter Berne, for whom he had conceived the greatest esteem and regard.

When prior Berne first relinquished his priorship, he returned again to his former condition of canon, in which he continued for some years: but when he was rechosen, and had abdicated a second time, we find him in a forlorn state, and in danger of being reduced to beggary, had not the Bishop of Winchester interposed in his favour, and with great humanity insisted on a provision for him for life. The reason for this difference seems to have been, that, in the first case, though in years, he might have been hale and capable of taking his share in the duty of the convent; in the second, he was broken with age, and no longer equal to the functions of a canon.

Impressed with this idea the bishop very benevolently interceded in his favour, and laid his injunctions on the new elected prior in the following manner.

Fol. 56. "In Dei nomine Amen. Nos Willmus, &c. considerantes Petrum Berne," late prior "in administratione spiritualium et temporalium prioratus laudabiliter vixisse et rexisse; ipsumque senio et corporis debilitate confractum; ne in opprobrium religionis mendicari cogatur;-eidem annuam pensionem a Domino Johanne Sharp, alias Glastonbury, priore moderno," and his successors, and, from the Priory or church, to be paid every year during his life, " de voluntate et ex consensu expressis" of the said John Sharp, “sub ea que sequitur forma verborum-assignamus:"

1st. That the said prior and his successors, for the time being, honeste exhibebunt of the fruits and profits of the priorship," eidem esculenta et potulenta," while he remained in the Priory, "sub consimili portione eorundem prout convenienter priori," for the time being, ministrari contigerit; and in like manner uni famulo, whom he should choose to wait on him, as to the servientibus of the prior.

Item. "Invenient seu exhibebunt eidem unam honestam cameram" in the Priory, cum focalibus necessa

66

riis seu opportunis ad eundem."

Item. We will, ordain, &c. to the said P. Berne an annual pension of ten marks, from the revenue of the Priory, to be paid by the hands of the prior quarterly.

The bishop decrees farther, that John Sharp, and his successors, shall take an oath to observe this injunction, and that before their installation.

"Lecta et facta sunt hæc in quodam alto oratorio," belonging to the bishop at Suthwaltham, May 25, 1478, in the presence of John Sharp, who gave his assent, and then took the oath before witnesses, with the other oaths before the chancellor, who decreed he should be inducted and installed; as was done that same day.

How John Sharp, alias Glastonbury, acquitted himself in his priorship, and in what manner he made a vacancy, whether by resignation, or death, or whether he was removed by the visiter, does not appear: we only find that some time in the year 1484, there was no prior, and that the bishop nominated canon Ashford to fill the vacancy.

LETTER XXIII.

THIS Thomas Ashford was most undoubtedly the last prior of Selborne; and therefore here will be the proper place to say something concerning a list of the priors, and to endeavour to improve that already given by others.

At the end of Bishop Tanner's Notitia Monastica, the folio edition, among Brown Willis's Principals of Religious Houses, occur the names of eleven of the priors of Selborne, with dates. But this list is imperfect, and particularly at the beginning; for though the Priory was founded in 1232, yet it commences with Nich. de Cantia, elected in 1262; so that for the first

thirty years no prior is mentioned; yet there must have been one or more. We were in hopes that the register of Peter de Rupibus would have rectified this omission; but, when it was examined, no information of the sort was to be found. From the year 1410 the list is much corrected and improved; and the reader may depend on its being thenceforward very exact.

A List of the Priors of Selborne Priory, from Brown Willis's Principals of Religious Houses, with additions within [ ] by the Author.

election confirmed by Bishop Stratford.]

1324.

[Some difficulties, and a devolution; but the

keeper, and, by lapse to Bishop Wayneflete,
prior] in . .

[He resigns in 1468.]

John Morton [Prior of Reygate] in

[The canons by compromise transfer the

power of election to the bishop.]

Will. Winsor [Wyndesor, prior for a few days] 1471. [but removed on account of an irregular election.]

1

1 See, in Letter XI. of these Antiquities, the reason why prior John who had transactions with the Knights Templars, is placed in the list before the year 1262.

1454.

1468.

Thomas Farwill [Fairwise, vicar of Somborne] 1471. [by compromise again elected by the bishop.] [Peter Berne, reelected by scrutiny in [resigns again in 1478.]

1472.]

1478.

John Sharper [Sharp] alias Glastonbury
[Canon-reg. of Bruton, elected by the bishop
by compromise.]

[Thomas Ashford, canon of Selborne, last prior
elected by the Bishop of Winchester, some

BISHOP WAYNFLETE'S efforts to continue the Priory still proved unsuccessful; and the convent, without any canons, and for some time without a prior, was tending swiftly to its dissolution.

When Sharp's, alias Glastonbury's, priorship ended does not appear. The bishop says that he had been obliged to remove some priors for mal-administration: but it is not well explained how that could be the case with any, unless with Sharp; because all the others, chosen during his episcopate, died in their office, viz. Morton and Fairwise; Berne only excepted, who relinquished twice voluntarily, and was moreover approved of by Waynflete as a person of integrity. But the way to show what ineffectual pains the bishop took, and what difficulties he met with, will be to quote the words of the libel of his proctor Radulphus Langley, who appeared for the bishop in the process of the impropriation of the Priory of Selborne. The extract is taken from an attested copy.

"Item-that the said bishop-dicto prioratui et personis ejusdem pie compatiens, sollicitudines pastorales, labores, et diligentias gravissimas quam plurimas, tam