234 THE ANTIQUITIES [LETT. 



date the 8th day of June, in the year of our Lord 1486, and in 

 the second year of his pontificate, confirmed what had been done, 

 and suppressed the convent. 



Thus fell the considerable and well endowed Priory of Sel- 

 borne after it had subsisted about two hundred and fifty-four 

 years ; about seventy-four years after the suppression of Priories 

 alien by Henry V., and about fifty years before the general dis- 

 solution of monasteries by Henry VIII. The founder, it is 

 probable, had fondly imagined that the sacredness of the in- 

 stitution, and the pious motives on which it was established, 

 might have preserved it inviolate to the end of time yet 

 it fell, 



" To teach us that God attributes to place 

 No sanctity, if none be thither brought 

 By men who there frequent, or therein dwell." 



MILTON'S " Paradise Lost." 



LETTEE XXV. 



WAINFLEET did not long enjoy the satisfaction arising from this 

 new acquisition ; but departed this life in a few months after he 

 had effected the union of the Priory with his late founded col- 

 lege ; and was succeeded in the see of Winchester by Peter 

 Courtney, some time towards the end of the year 1486. 



In the beginning of the following year the new bishop released 

 the president and fellows of Magdalen College from all actions 

 respecting the Priory of Selborne ; and the prior and convent 

 of St. Swithin, as the chapter of Winchester cathedral, confirmed 

 the release. 1 



N. 293. " Pielaxatio Petri epi Winton Eicardo Mayew, 

 Presideuti omnium actionum occasione iudempnitatis sibi debite 

 pro unione Prioratus de Selborne dicto collegio. Jan. 2. 1487. 

 et translat. anno 1." 



N. 374. " Eelaxatio prioris et convening S" Swithini Win- 

 ton confirmans relaxationem Petri ep. Winton." 1487. Jan. 13. 

 1 The bishops of Winchester were patrons of the Priory. 



