210 THE ANTIQUITIES [LETT. 



own behalf and that of all the canons, and by their mandate, 

 " quasdaru monicionem et protestaciouem in scriptis redactas 

 fecit, legit, et interposuit " that all persons disqualified, or not 

 having right to be present, 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 seu formam simplicis compromissi; " when 

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

 undernamed excepted) named and chose brothers Eichard Els- 

 tede, Thomas Halyborne, John Lemyngton the sacrist, John 

 Stepe, chantor, and Eichard 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 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 publish 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 Maycock, a public 

 notary ; where they treated of the election ; when they unani- 

 mously 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," 

 fecerunt deportari novum electum, by some of the brothers, from 

 the chapter-house to the high altar of the church ; x and the 



1 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 Letter XXI. 

 on the same occasion, it is said "et sic canentes dictum electum ad majus 

 altare ecclesie dedvximus, ut apud nos moris est." 



