OF SELBORNE 337 



probationis," abovementioned. — " Willmus, &c. salutem, 

 &c, noverint universitas vestra, quod licet nos prioratui de 

 Selebourne, &c. pie compacientes soUicitudines pastorales, 

 labores, diligentias quam plurimas per nos & commissarios 

 nostros pro reformatione status ejus impenderimus, jus- 

 ticia id poscente ; nihilominus tamen," etc. as in the article 

 — to " desperatur," dated " in manerio nostro de Essher, 

 Aug. 3d, 1485, & consec. 39." Then, on the 6th of 

 August, Preston, in the presence of the other proctors, 

 required that they should be compelled to answer ; when 

 they all allowed the articles " fuisse & esse vera " ; and the 

 commissary at the request of Preston, concluded the busi- 

 ness, and appointed Monday, August 8th, for giving his 

 decree in the same church of Essher ; and it was that day 

 read, and contains a recapitulation, with the sentence of 

 union, etc. witnessed and attested. 



As soon as the president and fellows of Magdalen 

 college had obtained the decision of the commissary in 

 their favour, they proceeded to supplicate the pope, and to 

 entreat his holiness that he would give his sanction to the 

 sentence of union. Some difficulties were started at Rome ; 

 but they were surmounted by the college agent, as appears 

 by his letters from that city. At length pope Innocent 

 VIII. by a bull ^ bearing date the 8th day of June, in the 

 year of our Lord i486, and in the second year of his 

 pontificate, confirmed what had been done, and suppressed 

 the convent. 



Thus fell the considerable and well-endowed Priory of 

 Selborne after it had subsisted about two hundred and 

 fifty-four years : about seventy-four years after the sup- 

 pression of Priories alien by Henry V. and about fifty 

 years before the general dissolution of monasteries by 

 Henry VIII. The founder, it is probable, had fondly 



^ There is nothing remarkable in this bull of pope Innocent except 

 the statement of the annual revenue of the Priory of Selborne, which is 

 therein estimated at \ 60 for. auri ; whereas bishop Godwin sets it at 

 337/. 15/. 6\d. Now z fioren, so named, says Camden, because made by 

 Florentines, was a gold coin of king Edward III, in value 6s. whereof 

 160 is not one seventh part of 337/. 15/. (>\d. 



Y 



