OF SELBORNE 315 



for their lives, to others for an undue term of years, and 

 to some again for a perpetuity, to the great and heavy 

 detriment of the monastery : and these leases were granted, 

 he continues to add, under their own hands, with the 

 sanction of an oath and the renunciation of all right and 

 claims, and under penalties, if the right was not made 

 good. — But it will be best to give an abstract from the 

 bull. 



N. 298. Pope Martin's bull touching the revoking of 

 certaine things alienated from the Priory of Seleburne. 

 Pontif. sui. ann. i. 



" Martinus Eps. servus servorum Dei. Dilecto filio 

 Priori de Suthvale^ Wyntonien. dioc. Salutem & apos- 

 tolicam ben. Ad audientiam nostram pervenit quam tam 

 dilecti filii prior et conventus monasterii de Seleburn per 

 Priorem soliti gubernari ordinis S**. Augustini Winton. 

 dioc. quam de predecessores eorum decimas, terras, red- 

 ditus, domos, possessiones, vineas,^ et quedam alia bona ad 

 monasterium ipsum spectantia, datis super hoc litteris, 

 interpositis juramentis, factis renuntiationibus, et penis 

 adjectis, in gravem ipsius monasterii lesionem, nonnullis 

 clericis et laicis, aliquibus eorum ad vitam, quibusdam vero 

 ad non modicum tempus, & aliis perpetuo ad firmam, vel 

 sub censu annuo concesserunt ; quarum aliqui dicunt super 

 hiis a sede aplica in communi forma confirmationis litteras 

 impetrasse. Quia vero nostra interest lesis monasteriis 

 subvenire — [He the Pope here commands] — ea ad jus et 

 proprietatem monasterii studeas legitime revocare," etc. 



The conduct of the religious had now for some time 

 been generally bad. Many of the monastic societies, being 

 very opulent, were become voluptuous and licentious, and 

 had deviated entirely from their original institutions. The 



^ Should have been no doubt Southwick, a priory under Portsdown. 



^Mr. Barrington is of opinion that anciently the English vinea was in 

 almost every instance an orchard ; not perhaps always of apples merely, 

 but of other fruits; as cherries, plums, and currants. We still say a plum 

 or cherry-orchard. See Vol. III. of Archaeologia. 



In the instance above the pope's secretary might insert fineas merely 

 because they were a species of cultivation familiar to him in Italy. 



