XX.] OF SELBORNE. 219 



This certificate being read, the four canons of Selborne appeared 

 and required the election to be confirmed ; et ex super abundanti 

 appointed William Long their proctor to solicit in their name 

 that he might be canouically confirmed. John Morton also 

 appeared, and proclamation was made ; and no one appearing 

 against him, the commissary pronounced all absentees contuma- 

 cious, 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 con- 

 vent 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, licentiam vestram nobis 

 concedere dijmemini." 



LETTER XX. 



PKIOR MORTON dying in 1471, two canons, by themselves pro- 

 ceeded 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 com- 

 promised that the bishop should again, for that turn, nominate 

 as he had before. But the circumstances of this election will be 

 best explained by the following extract : 



KEG. WAYNFLETE, torn. ii. pars r, fol. 7. 



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

 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 elected him. Peter Berne and 



