ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 357 



" c Vent Creator Spiritus' cum versiculo et oratione ( Deus qui 

 corda;'' declaratque licentia Fundatoris et patroni ; futurum priorem 

 eligendi concessa, et constitutione consilii generalis que incipit 

 ' Quia propter ' declaratis : viisque per quas possent ad hanc 

 electionem procedere," by the decretorum doctor em, whom the 

 canons had taken to direct them they all and every one " dixe- 

 runt et affirmarunt se nolle ad aliquam viam procedere ; " but 

 for this turn only, renounced their right, and unanimously trans- 

 ferred their power to the bishop, the ordinary of the place, pro- 

 mising 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, etc., subscribed 

 by the notary. 



After the visitor 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, etc., 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, 

 etc., " De tue circumspectionis industria plurimum confidentes, te 

 virum providum et discretum, literarum scientia, et moribus merito 

 commendandum," etc. 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 acknow- 

 ledges, 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, etc., invenit." 

 The only time that he appointed from among the canons, he made 



