328 THE ANTIQUITIES 



hymn ' Veni Creator Spiritus,' " cum versiculo et oratione 

 ' Deus qui corda ' ; declarataque licentia Fundatorls et 

 Patroni ; futurum priorem eligendi concessa, et constitu- 

 tione consilii generalis que incipit 'Quia propter' declaratis; 

 viisque per quas possent ad hanc electionem procedere," by 

 the decretorum doctorem^ whom the canons had taken to 

 direct them — they all and every one " dixerunt et affirma- 

 runt 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, 

 promising 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, t^(i, Provisio Prioris per Epm. 



WiUmus, 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 circumspec- 

 tionis industria plurimum confidentes, et virum providum 

 et discretum, literarum scientia, et moribus merito com- 

 mendandum," 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 



for, instead of Wyndesor, London, and Stratfeld, we find Ashford, Clyd- 

 grove, 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. 



