356 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER XXII. 



As Prior Berne, when chosen in 1454, held his priorship only to 

 1468, and then made a voluntary resignation, wearied and dis- 

 gusted, as we may conclude, by the disorder that prevailed in his 

 convent; it is no matter of wonder that, when re-chosen in 1472, 

 he should not long maintain his station ; as old age was then 

 coming fast upon him, and the increasing anarchy and misrule 

 of that declining institution required unusual vigour and resolution 

 to stem that torrent of profligacy which was hurrying it on to its 

 dissolution. We find, accordingly, that in 1478 he resigned his 

 dignity again into the hands of the bishop. 



WAYNFLETE REG. fol. 55. 



Resignatio Prioris de Seleborne. 



May 14, 1478. Peter Berne resigned the priorship. May 16, the 

 bishop admitted his resignation " in manerio suo de Waltham," and 

 declared the priorship void ; " et priorat. solacio destitutum esse ; " 

 and granted his letters for proceeding to a new election ; when 

 all the religious, assembled in the chapter-house, did transfer their 

 power under their seal to the bishop, by the following public 

 instrument. 



"In Dei nomine Amen," etc. A.D. 1478, Maii 19. In the 

 chapter-house for the election of a prior for that day, on the free 

 resignation of Peter Berne, having celebrated in the first place 

 mass at the high altar " De spiritu sancto," and having called a 

 chapter by tolling a bell, ut moris est ; in the presence of a notary 

 and witnesses appeared personally Peter Berne, Thomas Ashford 

 Stephen Clydgrove, and John Ashton, presbyters, and Henry 

 Canwood,* in chapter assembled; and after singing the hymn 



* Here we see that all the canons were changed in six years ; and that there 

 was quite a new chapter, Berne excepted, between 1472 and 1478 ; for, instead 

 of Wyndesor, London, and Stratfeld, we find Ashford, Clydgrove, Ashton, and 

 Canwood, all new men, who were soon gone in their turn off the stage, and are 

 heard of no more. For, in six years after, there seem to have been no canons 

 at all. 



