326 ANTIQUITIES 



Some of these injunctions I shall here produce; and they 

 are such as will not fail, I think, to give satisfaction to the 

 antiquary, both as never having been published before, and as 

 they are a curious picture of monastic irregularities at that 

 time. 



The documents that I allude to are contained in the Nota- 

 bilis Visitatio de Seleburne, held at the Priory of that place, 

 by Wykeham in person, in the year 1387. 



This evidence, in the original, is written 011 two skins of 

 parchment ; the one large, and the other smaller, and consists 

 of a preamble, 36 items, and a conclusion, which altogether 

 evince the patient investigation of the visitor, for which he 

 had always been so remarkable in all matters of moment, and 

 how much he had at heart the regularity of those institutions, 

 of whose efficacy in their prayers for the dead he was so 

 firmly persuaded. As the bishop was so much in earnest, we 

 may be assured that he had nothing in view but to correct 

 and reform what he found amiss ; and was under no bias to 

 blacken, or misrepresent, as the commissioners of Thomas 

 Lord Cromwell seem in part to have done at the time of the 

 reformation.* 1 We may therefore with reason suppose that 

 the bishop gives us an exact delineation of the morals and 

 manners of the canons of Selborne at that juncture ; and that 

 what he found they had omitted he enjoins them ; and for 

 what they have done amiss, and contrary to their rules and 

 statutes, he reproves them ; and threatens them with punish- 

 ment suitable to their irregularities. 



This visitatio is of considerable length, and cannot be intro- 

 duced into the body of this work; we shall therefore refer the 

 reader to the Appendix, where he will find every particular, 

 while we shall take some notice, and make some remarks, on 

 the most singular items as they occur. 



In the preamble the visitor says " Considering the charge 

 " lying upon us, that your blood may not be required at our 

 " hands, we came down to visit your Priory, as our office re- 

 " quired: and every time we repeated our visitation we found 



a Letters of this sort from Dr. Layton to Tho?nas Lord Cromwell are 

 still extant. 



