OF SELBORNE 303 



LETTER XIV 



"!N the year 1373 Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, held 

 a visitation of his whole diocese ; not only of the secular 

 clergy through the several deaneries, but also of the 

 monasteries, and religious houses of all sorts, which he 

 visited in person. The next year he sent his commissioners 

 with power to correct and reform the several irregularities 

 and abuses which he had discovered in the course of his 

 visitation. 



" Some years afterward, the bishop having visited three 

 several times all the religious houses throughout his diocese, 

 and being well informed of the state and condition of each, 

 and of the particular abuses which required correction and 

 reformation, besides the orders which he had already given, 

 and the remedies which he had occasionally applied by his 

 commissioners, now issued his injunctions to each of them. 

 They were accommodated to their several exigencies, and 

 intended to correct the abuses introduced, and to recall 

 them all to a strict observation of the rules of their 

 respective orders. Many of these injunctions are still 

 extant, and are evident monuments of the care and 

 attention with which he discharged this part of his 

 episcopal duty." 1 



Some of these injunctions I shall here produce ; and they 

 are such as will not fail, I think, to give satisfaction to the 

 antiquary, both as never having been published before, and 

 as they are a curious picture of monastic irregularities at 

 that time. 



The documents that I allude to are contained in the 

 Notabilis Visitatio de Seleburne, held at the Priory of that 

 place, by Wykeham in person, in the year 1387. 



This evidence, in the original, is written on two skins of 



parchment; the one large, and the other smaller, and 



consists of a preamble, 36 items, and a conclusion, which 



altogether evince the patient investigation of the visitor, 



1 See Lowth's Life of Wykeham. 



