OF SELBORNE. 335 



sent, should immediately withdraw; and protesting against 

 their voting, &c. that then having read the constitution of 

 the general council " Quia propter," and explained the modes 

 of proceeding to election, they agreed unanimously to proceed 

 " per viam sen formam simplicis compromissi ; " when John 

 Wynchestre, sub-prior, and all the others (the commissaries 

 under-named excepted) named and chose brothers Richard 

 Elstede, Thomas Halybome, John Lemynyton the sacrist, John 

 Stepe, chantor, and Richard Putworth, canons, to be commis- 

 saries, who were sworn each to nominate and elect a fit person 

 to be prior : and empowered by letters patent under the com- 

 mon seal, to be in force only until the darkness of the night 

 of the same day ; that they, or the greater part of them, 

 should elect for the whole convent, within the limited time, 

 from their own number, or from the rest of the convent ; 

 thai one of them should publish their consent in common be- 

 fore the clergy and people : they then all promised to receive 

 as prior the person these five canons should fix on. These 

 commissaries seceded from the chapter-house to the refectory 

 of the Priory, and were shut in with master John Penkester, 

 bachelor of laws ; and John Couke and John Lynne, perpetual 

 vicars of the parish churches of Newton and Selborne; and with 

 Sampson Maycock, a public notary ; where they treated of the 

 election ; when they unanimously agreed on John Wynchestre, 

 and appointed Thomas Halyborne'i choose him in common 

 for all, and to publish the election, as customary; and re- 

 turned long before it was dark to the chapter-house, where 

 Thomas Halylorne read publicly the instrument of election ; 

 when all the brothers, the new prior excepted, singing so- 

 lemnly the hymn " Te Deuin laudamus," fecerunt deportari 

 novum electum, by some of the brothers, from the chapter- 

 house to the high altar of the church ; and the hymn being 

 sung, dictisque versiculo et oratione consuetis in hac parte, Tho- 

 mas Haly borne, mox tune ibidem, before the clergy and people 



It seems here as if the canons used to chair their new elected prior 

 from the chapter-house to the high altar of their convent-church. In 

 let tt-r XXI, on the same occasion, it is said " et sic canentes dictum elec- 

 " turn ad majus altare ecclesie deduximus, ut apud nos nioris est." 



