dead, as often as may be. If any impediment occur to prevent the celebration, they are to report it within three days to the prior; who is also required to search diligently every month into breaches of this rule, and to punish the delinquents.]

Item 4th. "Not to permit such frequent passing of secular people of both sexes through their convent, as if a thoroughfare, from whence many disorders may and have arisen."

Item 5th. "To take care that the doors of their church and Priory be so attended to that no suspected and disorderly females, 'suspectæ et aliæ inhonestæ,' pass through their choir and cloister in the dark;" and to see that the doors of their church between the nave and the choir, and the gates of their cloister opening into the fields, be constantly kept shut until their first choir-service is over in the morning, at dinner time, and when they meet at their evening collation.1

Item 6th mentions that several of the canons are found to be very ignorant and illiterate, and enjoins the prior to see that they be better instructed by a proper master.

[Item 7th. The decretals concerning their order are not read, on which account they, in conscquence of their ignorance of them, to the peril of their souls act in a manner therein expressly forbidden. Wherefore they are required to have these decretals written in a volume, and read twice a year in the chapter for the information of the seniors; and to have them explained, in the vulgar, to the novices, so that they may know them as it were by heart. This charge is laid upon the prior, under pain of suspension.]

Item 8th. The canons are here accused of refusing to accept of their statutable clothing year by year, and of demanding a certain specified sum of money, as if it were their annual rent and due. This the bishop forbids, and orders that the canons shall be clothed out of the revenue of the Priory, and the old garments be laid by in a chamber

1 A collation was a meal or repast on a fast day, in lieu of a supper -G. W.

and given to the poor, according to the rule of St. Au gustine.

In Item 9th is a complaint that some of the canons are given to wander out of the precincts of the convent without leave; and that others ride to their manors and farms, under pretence of inspecting the concerns of the society, when they please, and stay as long as they please. But they are enjoined never to stir either about their own private concerns or the business of the convent without leave from the prior; and no canon is to go alone, but to have a grave brother to accompany him.

The injunction in Item 10th, at this distance of time, appears rather ludicrous; but the visitor seems to be very serious on the occasion, and says that it has been evidently proved to him that some of the canons, living dissolutely after the flesh, and not after the spirit, sleep naked in their beds without their breeches and shirts," absque femoralibus et camisiis." 1 He enjoins that these culprits shall be punished by severe fasting, especially if they shall be found to be faulty a third time; and threatens the prior and subprior with suspension if they do not correct this enormity.

In Item 11th the good bishop is very wroth with some of the canons, whom he finds to be professed hunters and sportsmen, keeping hounds, and publicly attending huntingmatches. These pursuits, he says, occasion much dissipation, danger to the soul and body, and frequent expense; he, therefore, wishing to extirpate this vico wholly from the convent, "radicibus extirpare," does absolutely enjoin the canons never intentionally to be present at any public noisy tumultuous huntings; or to keep any hounds, by themselves or by others, openly or by stealth, within the convent, or without.2

'The rule alluded to in Item 10th, of not sleeping naked, was enjoined the Knights Templars, who also were subject to the rules of St. Augustine. See Gurtleri Hist. Templariorum.-G. W.

2 Considering the strong propensity in human nature towards the pleasures of the chase, it is not to be wondered that the canons of Selborne should languish after hunting, when, from their situation so near the precincts of Wolmer Forest, the king's hounds must have been often

In Item 12th he forbids the canons in office to make their business a plea for not attending the service of the choir; since by these means either divine worship is neglected, or their brother canons are overburdened.

[Item 13th directs that two of the canons shall twice in every year personally visit the manors, and report in writing their condition and the live and dead stock at each; that in case of the death of any officer, the convent may not be left in ignorance as to the state of his charge; neglect to be severely punished, according to the bishop's discretion.]

By Item 14th we are informed that the original number of canons at the Priory of Selborne was fourteen; but that at this visitation they were found to be let down to cleven. The visitor therefore strongly and earnestly enjoins them that, with all due speed and diligence, they should proceed to the election of proper persons to fill up the vacancies, under pain of the greater excommunication.

[Item 15th is especially addressed to the prior, who has neglected to make inquisition as to proprietary canons, "whence it has resulted that the old enemy, taking advantage of the continued sloth of the shepherd, has seduced the wretched and erring sheep by means of the snare of property into the thirst of avarice," to the serious peril of their souls. He is required, twice a year at least, to make inquisition and to punish offenders. In neglect of this duty he is ipso facto suspended.

[Item 16th refers to the constitutions as requiring that abbots and priors, and other officers, should twice at least in oach year, in the presence of the whole convent, or of a certain number deputed by the chapter, render a full account of their administration; and avers that this has not been attended to in the Priory of Selborne. Requires that it be observed in future, under pain of suspension.]

In Item 17th, the prior and canons are accused of suffer

in hearing, and sometimes in sight from their windows. If the bishop was so offended at these sporting canons, what would he have said to our modern fox-hunting divines ?-G. W.

ing, through neglect, notorious dilapidations to take place among their manorial houses and tenements, and in the walls and enclosures of the convent itself, [sumptuously erected by the industry of their predecessors,] to the shame and scandal of the institution: they are therefore enjoined, under pain of suspension, to repair all defects within the space of six months.

T'em 18th. Charges them with grievously burdening the said Priory by means of sales, and grants of liveries,' and corrodies.2

The bishop, in item 19th, accuses the canons of neglect and omission with respect to their perpetual chantryservices.

Item 20th. The visitor here conjures the prior and canons not to withhold their original alms, " eleemosynas;" nor those that they were enjoined to distribute for the good of the souls of founders and benefactors; he also strictly orders that the fragments and broken victuals, both from the hall of their prior and their common refectory, should be carefully collected together by their eleemosynarius, and given to the poor without any diminution; the officer to be suspended for neglect or omission.

[Item 21st. It could scarcely be anticipated that it should have been necessary to enjoin that the brethren should be supplied, when sick, with suitable food and drink, and with fitting medicines, out of the common stock," sicut antiquitus fieri consueverat ;" and have also the use of the rooms of the infirmary: yet such is the tenor of this item. It appears as though some one had claimed for himself a property in the infirmary, to the exclusion of the others.]

1 "Liberationes, or liberaturæ, allowances of corn, &c., to servants, 'olivered at certain times, and in certain quantities, as clothes were, among the allowances from religious houses to their dependants.-See the corrodies granted by Croyland abbey.-" Hist. of Croyland," Appendix, No. XXXIV.

"It is not improbable that the word in after ages came to be confined to the uniform of the retainers or servants of the great, who were hence called livery servants."-Sir John Cullum's "Hist. of Hawsted."—-G. W.

? A corrody is an allowance to a servant living in an abbey or pricry. -G. W.

[Item 22nd. Since negligence or remissness towards offenders is in itself detestable, and since facility of pardon operates as an incentive to delinquency; orders that, without exception of persons, correction shall be used according to the amount of the delinquency; and that the regular observances shall be duly kept.]

Item 23d. He bids them distribute their pittances, "pitancias," regularly on obits, anniversaries, festivals, &c.

[Item 24th. Prohibits the sale of wood, the farming out of manors or of churches, or the transaction of any other important business, without consultation and consent of the whole convent, or of the larger and discreeter portion of it otherwise there is no validity in the proceeding. "Illa quoque que omnes tangunt ab omnibus merito debeant approbari."]

Item 25th. All and every one of the canons are hereby inhibited from standing godfather to any boy for the future, "ne compatres alicujus pueri de cetero fieri presumatis," unless by express license from the bishop cbtained; because from such relationship favour and affection, nepotism, and undue influence, arise, to the injury and detriment of religious institutions.2

Item 26th. The visitor herein severely reprimands the canons for appearing publicly in what would be called in the universities an unstatutable manner, and for wearing of

1 "Pitancia, an allowance of bread and beer, or other provision to any pious use, especially to the religious in a monastery, &c., for augmentation of their commons.”—“ Gloss. to Kennet's Par. Antiq.”—G. W.

2 "The relationship between sponsors and their god-children, who were called spiritual sons and daughters, was formerly esteemed much more sacred than at present. The presents at christenings were sometimes very considerable: the connexion lasted through life, and was closed with a legacy. This last mark of attention seems to have been thought almost indispensable: for, in a will, from whence no extracts have been given, the testator left every one of his god-children a bushel of barley" -Sir John Cullum's "Hist. of Hawsted."—G. W.

"D. Margaretæ filiæ Regis primogenitæ, quam filiolam, quia ejus in baptismo compater fuit, appellat, cyphum aureum et quadraginta libras, legavit."-Archbishop Parker "de Antiquitate Eccles. Brit." speaking of Archbishop Morton.-G. V