362 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



debitam investigationem, &c., invenit." So that he despaired 

 with all his care : " statum ejusdem reparare vel restaurare : ; et 

 considerata temporis malicia, et preteritis timendo et conjectu- 

 rando futura, de aliqua bona et sancta religione ejusdem ordinis, 

 &c., juxta piam intentionem prime vi fundatoris ibidem habend. 

 desperatur." 



William Wainfleet, Bishop of Winchester, founded his college 

 of Saint Mary Magdalene, in the University of Oxford, in or about 

 the year 1459 ; but the revenues proving insufficient for so large 

 and noble an establishment, the college supplicated the founder 

 to augment its income by putting it in possession of the estates 

 belonging to the Priory of Selborne, now become a deserted con- 

 vent, without canons or prior. The president and fellows state 

 the circumstances of their numerous institutions and scanty pro- 

 vision, and the ruinous and perverted condition of the Priory. 

 The bishop appoints commissaries to ' inquire into the state of 

 the said monastery ; and, if found expedient, to confirm the appro- 

 priation of it to the college, which soon after appoints attorneys 

 to take possession, September 24th, 1484. But the way to give the 

 reader a thorough insight respecting this transaction, will be to 

 transcribe a farther proportion of the process of the impropriation, 

 from the beginning, which will lay open the manner of proceeding, 

 and show the consent of the parties. 



IMPROPRIATIO SELBORNE, 1485. 



" Universis sancte matris ecclesie filiis, &c. Ricardus Dei 

 gratia prior ecclesie conventualis de Novo Loco, &c.,* ad uni- 

 versitatem vestre notitie deducimus, &c., quod coram nobis 

 commissario predicto in ecclesia parochiali S 1 * Georgii de Esher 



* Ecclesia Conventualis de Novo Loco was the monastery afterwards called 

 the New Minster, or Abbey of Hyde, in the city of Winchester. Should any 

 intelligent reader wonder to see that the prior of Hyde Abbey was commissary 

 to the Bishop of Winton, and should conclude that there was a mistake in 

 titles, and that the abbot must have been here meant ; he will be pleased to 

 recollect that this, person was the second in rank ; for, " next under the abbot, 

 in every abbey, was the prior." Pref. to Notit. Monast.,^. 29. Besides, abbots 

 were great personages, and too high in station to submit to any office under 

 the bishop. 



