XVIII.] OF SELBORNE. 215 



Among my documents I find a curious paper of the things put 

 into the custody of Peter Bernes the sacrist, and especially some 

 relics : the title of this evidence is " No. 50. Indentura prioris 

 de Selborne quorundam tradit. Petro Bernes sacristae, ibidem, 

 ann. Hen. VI. . . . una cum confiss. ejusdem Petri script." The 

 occasion of this catalogue, or list of effects, being drawn between 

 the prior and sacrist does not appear, nor the date when ; only 

 that it happened in the reign of Henry VI. This transaction 

 probably took place when Bernes entered on his office ; and 

 there is the more reason to suppose that to be the case, because 

 the list consists of vestments and implements, and relics such as 

 belonged to the church of the Priory, and fell under the care of 

 the sacrist. I shall just mention the relics, although they are 

 not all specified ; and the state of the live stock of the monastery 

 at that juncture. 



" Item 2. oscula/or. argent. 



"Item 1. osculatorium cum osse diqiti auricular. S H . Johan- 

 nis Baptists). 1 



" Item 1. parvam crucem cum V. reliquiis. 



" Item 1. anidum argent, et deauratum St. Edmundi.* 



" Item 2. osculat. de coper. 



"Item \.junctorium St. Eicardi. 3 



" Item 1. pecten St. Eicardi." " 



1 How the convent came by the bone of the little finger of St. John the 

 Baptist does not appear ; probably the founder, while in Palestine, pur- 

 chased it among the Asiatics, who were at that time great traders in relics. 

 We know from the best authority that as soon as Herod had cruelly be- 

 headed that holy man, "his disciples came and took up the body and 

 buried it, and went and told Jesus." Matt. iv. 12. Farther it would be 

 difficult to say. 



2 November 20, in the calendar, Edmund, king and martyr, in the ninth 

 century. See also a Sanctus Edmundus in Godwin, among the arch- 

 bishops of Canterbury, in the thirteenth century ; his surname Rich, in 

 1234. 



3 April 3, ibid. Richard, Bishop of Chicester, in the thirteenth century ; 

 his surname De la Wich, in 1245. 



Junctorium, perhaps a joint or limb of St. Richard ; but what particular 

 joint the religious were not such osteologists as to specify. This barbarous 

 word was not to be found in any dictionary consulted by the author. 



4 " Pecten inter ministeria sacra recensetur, quo scil. sacerdotes ac clerici, 



