350 ANTIQUITIES 



singing the hymn ' Veni Creator Spiritus,' " cum versiculo et 

 (( oratione l Deus qui corda;"* declarataque licentia Fundatoris 

 " 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 affirmarunt se 

 " nolle ad aliquam viam procedere : " but, for this turn only, 

 renounced their right, and unanimously transferred 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, &c. 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 follow- 

 ing instrument, John Sharp, alias Glastenbury. 



Fol. 56. PROVISIO PRIOBIS per EPM. 



Willmus, &G. 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, &c. " De tue circumspectionis industria pluri- 

 " mum confidentes, et virum providum et discretum, lite- 

 "rarum scientia, et moribus merito commendandum," &c. 

 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 pervaded 

 the society : but he acknowledges, in an evidence lying be- 

 fore us, that he never did succeed to his wishes with respect 



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. 



