consent, appointed the 12th of November, ad horam ejusdem diei capitularem, for the business: -when they met in the chapter-house, post missam de sancto Spiritu, solemnly celebrated in the church;-to wit, Richard Elstede; Thomas Halyborne; John Lemyngton, sacrista; John Stepe, cantor; Walter Ffarnham; Richard Putworth, celerarius; Hugh London; Henry Brampton, alias Brompton; John Wynchestre, senior; John Wynchestre, junior;-then "proposito primitus verbo Dei," and then "ympno Veni Creator Spiritus" being solemnly sung, cum "versiculo et oratione," as usual, and his letter of license, with the appointment of the hour and place of election, being read, alta voce, in valvis of the chapter-house ;-John Wynchestre, senior, the subprior, in his own behalf and that of all the canons, and by their mandate, "quasdam monicionem et protestacionem in scriptis redactas fecit, legit, et interposuit"-that all persons disqualified, or not having right to be present, should immediately withdraw; and protesting against their voting, &c.-that then having read the constitution of the general council "Quia propter," and explained the modes of proceeding to election, they agreed unanimously to proceed per viam seu formam simplicis compromissi;" when John Wynchestre, sub-prior, and all the others (the commissaries under-named excepted) named and chose brothers Richard Elstede, Thomas Halyborne, John Lemyngton the sacrist, John Stepe, chantor, and Richard Putworth, canons, to be commissaries, who were sworn each to nominate and elect a fit person to be prior; and empowered by letters patent under the common seal, to be in force only until the darkness of the night of the same day;-that they, or the greater part of them, should elect for the whole convent, within the limited time, from their own number, or from the rest of the convent;--that one of them should publish their consent in common before the clergy and people:-they then all promised to receive as prior the person these five canons should fix on. The commissaries seceded from the chapterhouse to the refectory of the Priory, and were shut in with master John Penkester, bachelor of laws; and John Couke and John Lynne, perpetual vicars of the parish churches of Newton and Selborne; and with Sampson Maycock, a public notary; where they treated of the election; when they unanimously agreed on John Wynchestre, and appointed Thomas Halyborne, to choose him in common for all, and to publish the election, as customary; and returned long before it was dark to the chapter-house, where Thomas Halyborne read publicly the instrument of election; when all the brothers, the new prior excepted, singing solemnly the hymn "Te Deum laudamus," fecerunt deportari novum electum, by some of the brothers, from the chapter-house to the high altar of the church; and the hymn being sung, dictisque versiculo et oratione consuetis in hac parte, Thomas Halyborne, mox tunc ibidem, before the clergy and people of both sexes solemnly published the election in vulgari. Then Richard Elstede, and the whole convent by their proctors and nuncios appointed for the purpose, Thomas Halyborne and John Stepe, required several times the assent of the elected; "et tandem post diutinas interpellationes, et deliberationem providam penes se habitam, in hac parte divine nolens, ut asseruit, resistere voluntati," within the limited time he signified his acceptance in the usual written form of words. The bishop is then supplicated to confirm their election, and do the needful, under common seal, in the chapter-house. November 14, 1410. The bishop, January 6, 1410, apud Esher in camera inferiori, declared the election duly made, and ordered the new prior to be inducted-for this the Archdeacon of Winchester was written to: "stallumque in choro, et locum in capitulo juxta morem preteriti temporis," to be assigned him; and every thing beside necessary to be done. BEAUFORT'S REGISTER, VOL. I. P. 2. Taxatio spiritualis Decanatus de Aulton, Ecclesia 1 It seems here as if the canons used to chair their new elected prior from the chapter-house to the high altar of their convent church. In Letter XXI. on the same occasion, it is said—" et sic canentes dictum clectum ad majus altare ecclesie deduximus, ut apud nos moris est."G. W. de Selebourn, cum Capella,-xxx marc. decima x lib. iii sol. Vicaria de Selebourn non taxatur propter exilitatem. P. 9. Taxatio bonorum temporalium religiosorum in Archidiac. Wynton. Prior de Selebourn habet maneria de Brondene taxat. ad xxx s. ii d. Summa tax. xxxviii lib. xiiii d. ob. Inde decima vi lib. 8. q. ob. LETTER XVII. NFORMATION being sent to Rome respecting the havock and spoil that was carrying on among the revenues and lands of the Priory of Selborne, as we may suppose by the Bishop of Winchester, its visitor, Pope Martin,' as soon as the news of these proceedings came before him, issued forth a bull, in which he enjoins his commissary immediately to revoke all the property that had been alienated. In this instrument his holiness accuses the prior and canons of having granted away (they themselves and their predecessors) to certain clerks and laymen their tithes, lands, rents, tenements, and possessions, to some of them for their lives, to others for an undue term of years, and to some again for a perpetuity, to the great and heavy detriment of the monastery; and these leases were granted, he continues to add, under their own hands, with the sanction 1 Pope Martin V. chosen about 1417. He attempted to reform the church, but died in 1431, just as he had summoned the council of Basle. -G. W. But it of an oath and the renunciation of all rights and claims, and under penalties, if the right was not made good. will be best to give an abstract from the bull. N. 298. Pope Martin's bull, touching the revoking of certain things alienated from the Priory of Seleburne. Pontif. sui ann. 1. 1 2 "Martinus Eps. servus servorum Dei. Dilecto filio Priori de Suthvale Wyntonien. dioc. Salutem & apostolicam ben. Ad audientiam nostram pervenit quam tam dilecti filii prior et conventus monasterii de Seleburn per Priorem soliti gubernari ordinis St. Augustini Winton. dioc. quam de predecessores eorum decimas, terras, redditus, domos, possessiones, vineas, et quedam alia bona ad monasterium ipsum spectantia, datis super hoc litteris, interpositis juramentis, factis renuntiationibus, et penis adjectis, in gravem ipsius monasterii lesionem, nonnullis clericis et laicis, aliquibus eorum ad vitam, quibusdam vero ad non modicum tempus, & aliis perpetuo ad firmam, vel sub censu annuo concesserunt; quorum aliqui dicunt super hiis a sede aplica in communi forma confirmationis litteras impetrasse. Quia vero nostri interest lesis monasteriis subvenire—[He the Pope here commands]-ea ad jus et proprietatem monasterii studeas legitime revocare," &c. The conduct of the religious had now for some time been generally bad. Many of the monastic societies, being very opulent, were become voluptuous and licentious, and had deviated entirely from their original institutions. The laity saw with indignation the wealth and possessions of their pious ancestors perverted to the service of sensuality 1 Should have been no doubt Southwick, a priory under Portsdow? -G. W, 2 Mr. Barrington is of opinion that anciently the English vinea was in almost every instance an orchard; not perhaps always of apples merely, but of other fruits; as cherries, plums, and currants. We still say a plum or cherry-orchard.-See Vol. III. of Archæologia. In the instance above the pope's secretary might insert vineus merely because they were a species of cultivation familiar to him in Italy.— G. W. Orchard, says Mr. Bennett, is, properly speaking, merely a garden: q. d. wort-yard.-ED. and indulgence, and spent in gratifications highly unbecoming the purposes for which they were given. A total disregard to their respective rules and discipline drew on the monks and canons a heavy load of popular odium. Some good men there were who endeavoured to oppose the general delinquency; but their efforts were too feeble to stem the torrent of monastic luxury. As far back as the year 1381 Wickliffe's principles and doctrines had made some progress, were well received by men who wished for a reformation, and were defended and maintained by them as long as they dared; till the bishops and clergy began to be so greatly alarmed, that they procured an act to be passed by which the secular arm was empowered to support the corrupt doctrines of the church; but the first lollard was not burnt till the year 1401. The wits also of those times did not spare the gross morals of the clergy, but boldly ridiculed their ignorance and profligacy. The most remarkable of these were Chaucer, and his contemporary, Robert Langelande, better known by the name of Piers Plowman. The laughable tales of the former are familiar to almost every reader; while the visions of the latter are but in few hands. With a quotation from the Passus Decimus of this writer I shall conclude my letter; not only on account of the remarkable. prediction therein contained, which carries with it somewhat of the air of a prophecy; but also as it seems to have been a striking picture of monastic insolence and dissipation: and a specimen of one of the keenest pieces of satire now perhaps subsisting in any language, ancient or modern. "Now is religion a rider, a romer by streate; A heape of hounds at his arse, as he a lord were. He loureth at him, and asketh him who taught him curtesie. |
