ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 291 



"Veni Creator Spiritus" being solemnly sung, cum "versi- 

 culo et oratione," as usual, and his letter of license, with the 

 appointment of the hour and place of election being read, alta 

 voce y in valvis of the chapter-house ; John Wynchestre, senior, 

 the sub-prior, in his own behalf and that of all the canons, 

 and by their mandate, " quasdam monicionem et protestacio- 

 nem in scriptis redactas fecit, legit, interposuit" that all 

 persons disqualified, or not having right to be present, should 

 immediately withdraw, and protesting against their voting, 

 etc. ; that then having read the constitution of the general 

 council " Quia propter," and explained the modes of proceed- 

 ing to election, they agreed unanimously to proceed " per viam 

 seu formam simplicis compromissi ; " when John Wynchestre, 

 sub-prior, and all the others (the commissaries under-named 

 excepted) named and chose brothers Richard Elstede, Thomas 

 Halyborne, John Lemyngton, the sacrist, John Stepe, chantor, 

 and Richard Putworth, canons, to be commissaries, who were 

 sworn each to nominate and elect a fit person to be prior, and 

 empowered by letters patent under the common 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 ; that one of them should pub- 

 lish their consent in common before 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 May- 

 cock, a public notary, where they treated of the election ; when 

 they unanimously agreed on John Wynchestre, and appointed 

 Thomas Halyborne to choose him in common for all, and to 

 publish the election as customary, and returned long before 

 it was dark to the chapter-house, where Thomas Halyborne 

 read publicly the instrument of election ; when all the brothers, 

 the new prior excepted, singing solemnly the hymn " Te Deum 

 laudamus,"/^r&/ deportari novum electum, by some of the 

 brothers from the chapter-house to the high altar of the 



