OF SELBORNE 305 



which they are so strictly bound by the rule of Saint 

 Augustine at stated times, and wholly to abstain from 

 frivolous conversation. 



Item 4th. " Not to permit such frequent passing of 

 secular people of both sexes through their convent, as if a 

 thoroughfare, from whence many disorders may and have 

 arisen." 



Item 5 th. " To take care that the doors of their church 

 and Priory be so attended to that no suspected and dis- 

 orderly females, ' suspectae et aliae inhonestae,' pass through 

 their choir and cloister in the dark " ; and to see that the 

 doors of their church between the nave and the choir, and 

 the gates of their cloister opening into the fields, be 

 constantly kept shut until their first choir-service is over 

 in the morning, at dinner time, and when they meet at 

 their evening collation.^ 



Item 6th mentions that several of the canons are found 

 to be very ignorant and illiterate, and enjoins the prior to 

 see that they be better instructed by a proper master. 



Item 8th. The canons are here accused of refusing to 

 accept of their statutable clothing year by year, and of 

 demanding a certain specified sum of money, as if it were 

 their annual rent and due. This the bishop forbids, and 

 orders that the canons shall be clothed out of the revenue 

 of the Priory, and the old garments be laid by in a 

 chamber, and given to the poor, according to the rule of 

 Saint Augustine. 



In Item 9th is a complaint that some of the canons are 

 given to wander out of the precincts of the convent without 

 leave ; and that others ride to their manors and farms, 

 under pretence of inspecting the concerns of the society, 

 when they please, and stay as long as they please. But 

 they are enjoined never to stir either about their own 

 private concerns or the business of the convent without 

 leave from the prior : and no canon is to go alone, but to 

 have a grave brother to accompany him. 



The injunction in Item loth, at this distance of time, 

 appears rather ludicrous ; but the visitor seems to be very 



^ A Collation was a meal or repast on a fast day in lieu of a supper. 



U 



