ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 351 



in parte renitens tatiti reverend! patris se confirmans," obeyed, and 

 signified his consent oraculo vive vods. Then was there a mandate 

 citing any one who would gainsay the said election to appear before 

 the bishop or his commissary in his chapel at Farnham on the 

 second day of May next. The dean of the deanery of Aulton then 

 appeared before the chancellor, his commissary, and returned the 

 citation or mandate dated April 22nd, 1468, with signification, in 

 writing, of his having published it as required, dated Newton 

 Valence, May ist, 1468. This certificate being read, the four 

 canons of Selborne appeared and required the election to be con- 

 firmed; et ex superabundant} appointed William Long their proctor 

 to solicit in their name that he might be canonically confirmed. 

 John Morton also appeared, and proclamation was made; and 

 no one appearing against him, the commissary pronounced all 

 absentees contumacious, and precluded them from objecting at 

 any other time ; and, at the instance of John Morton and the 

 proctor, confirmed the election by his decree, and directed his 

 mandate to the rector of Hedley and the vicar of Newton Valence 

 to instal him in the usual form. 



Thus, for the first time, was a person, a stranger to the convent 

 of Selborne, and never canon of that monastery, elected prior; 

 though the style of the petitions in former elections used to run 

 thus, " Vos - - - - rogamus quatinus eligendum ex nobis unum 

 confratrem de gremio nostro, licentiam vestram nobis concedere 

 dignemini." 





LETTER XX. 



PRIOR MORTON dying in 1401, two canons, by themselves, pro- 

 ceeded to election, and chose a prior; but two more (one of 

 them Berne) complaining of not being summoned, objected to 

 the proceedings as informal ; till at last the matter was compro- 

 mised that the bishop should again, for that turn, nominate as he 

 had before. But the circumstances of this election will be best 

 explained by the following extract : 





