OF SELBORNE. 355 



" strnsse, usque ad presentia tempora post debitam investiga- 

 te tionem, &c. invenit." So that he despaired with all his 

 care " statum ejusdem reparare vel restaurare : et considerata 

 " temporis malicia, et preteritis timendo et conjecturando 

 (( futura, de aliqua bona et sancta religione ejusdem ordinis, 

 " &c. juxta piano, intentionem prime vi fundatoris ibidem 

 "habend. desperatur." 



William Wainfleet, bishop of Winchester, founded his col- 

 lege of Saint Mary Magdalene, in the university of Oxford, in 

 or about the year 1459 ; but the revenues proving insuffi- 

 cient for so large and noble an establishment, the college sup- 

 plicated the founder to augment it's income by putting it in 

 possession of the estates belonging to the Priory of Selborne, 

 now become a deserted convent, without canons or prior. The 

 president and fellows state the circumstances of their nume- 

 rous institution and scanty provision, and the ruinous and per- 

 verted condition of the Priory. The bishop appoints commis- 

 saries to inquire into the state of the said monastery ; and, if 

 found expedient, to confirm the appropriation of it to the col- 

 lege, which soon after appoints attornies to take possession, 

 September 24, 1484. But the way to give the reader a 

 thorough insight respecting this transaction, will be to tran- 

 scribe a farther proportion of the process of the impropriation 

 from the beginning, which will lay open the manner of pro- 

 ceeding, and shew the consent of the parties. 



IMPKOPRIATIO SELBORNE, 1485. 



te Universis sancte matris ecclesie filiis, &c. Ricardus Dei 

 " gratia prior ecclesie conventualis de Novo Loco, &c.* ad uni- 

 " versitatem vestre notitie deducimus, &c. quod coram nobis 



z Ecclesia Conventualis de Novo Loco was the monastery afterwards 

 called the New Minster, or Abbey of Hyde, in the city of Winchester. 

 Should any intelligent reader wonder to see that the prior of Hyde Abbey 

 was commissary to the bishop of Winton, and should conclude that there 

 was a mistake in titles, and that the abbot must have been here meant; 

 he will be pleased to recollect that this person was the second in rank; 

 for, " next under the abbot, in every abbey, was the prior." Pref. to 

 Notit. Monast. p. xxix. Besides, abbots were great personages, and too 

 high in station to submit to any office under the bishop. 



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