300 WHITE 



one appearing against him, the commissary pronounced all 

 absentees contumacious, and precluded them from objecting 

 at any other time ; and, at the instance of John Morton and 

 the proctor, confirmed the election by his decree, and directed 

 his mandate to the rector of Hedley and the vicar of Newton 

 Valence to install him in the usual form. 



Thus, for the first time, was a person, a stranger to the 

 convent of Selborne, and never canon of that monastery, 

 elected prior; though the style of the petitions in former 

 elections used to run thus, " Vos . . . rogamus quatinus 

 eligendum ex nobis unum confratrem de gremio nostro, li- 

 centiam vestram, nobis concedere dignemini." 



NOTE 



1 If Bishop Wykeham was so disturbed (see "Notab. Visitatio") to find 

 the number of canons reduced from fourteen to eleven, what would he have 

 said to have seen it diminished below one-third of that number? G. W. 



LETTER XX 



PRIOR MORTON dying in 1401, two canons, by themselves, 

 proceeded to election, and chose a prior ; but two more (one 

 of them Berne) complaining of not being summoned, objected 

 to the proceedings as informal ; till at last the matter was 

 compromised that the bishop should again, for that turn, nom- 

 inate as he had before. But the circumstances of this elec- 

 tion will be best explained by the following extract : 



REG. WAYNFLETE, torn. II., pars i ma ., fol. 7 

 Memorandum. A.D. 1471. August 22nd 



William Wyndesor, a canon regular of the Priory of Sel- 

 borne, having been elected prior on the death of brother John, 

 appeared in person before the bishop in his chapel at South 

 Waltham. He was attended on this occasion by Thomas 

 London and John Bromesgrove, canons, who had elected him. 

 Peter Berne and William Stratfeld, canons, also presented 

 themselves at the same time, complaining that in this busi- 

 ness they had been overlooked, and not summoned ; and that 



