OF SELBORNE 329 



pervaded the society : but he acknowledges, in an evidence 

 lying before us, that he never did succeed to his wishes with 

 respect to those late governors, " quos tamen male se 

 habuisse, et inutiliter administrare, et administrasse usque 

 ad presentia tempora post debitam investigationem, &c. 

 invenit." The only time that he appointed from among 

 the canons, he made choice of Peter Berne, for whom he 

 had conceived the greatest esteem and regard. 



When prior Berne first relinquished his priorship, he 

 returned again to his former condition of canon, in which 

 he continued for some years : but when he was re-chosen, 

 and had abdicated a second time, we find him in a forlorn 

 state, and in danger of being reduced to beggary, had not 

 the bishop of Winchester interposed in his favour, and 

 with great humanity insisted on a provision for him for 

 life. The reason for this difference seems to have been, 

 that, in the first case, though in years, he might have been 

 hale and capable of taking his share in the duty of the 

 convent ; in the second, he was broken with age, and no 

 longer equal to the functions of a canon. 



Impressed with this idea the bishop very benevolently 

 interceded in his favour, and laid his injunctions on the 

 new-elected prior in the following manner. 



Fol. 56. "In Dei nomine Amen. Nos Willmus, &c. 

 considerantes Petrum Berne," late prior, " in administra- 

 tione spiritualium et temporalium prioratus laudabiliter 

 vixisse et rexisse ; ipsumque senio et corporis debilitate 

 confractum ; ne in opprobrium religionis mendicari coga- 

 tur ; eidem annuam pensionem a Domino Johanne Sharp, 

 alias Glastonbury, priore moderno," and his successors, 

 and, from the Priory or church, to be payed every year 

 during his life, "de voluntate et ex consensu expressis," of 

 the said John Sharp, "sub ea que sequitur forma verborum 

 assignamus" : 



i st. That the said prior and his successors, for the 

 time being, honeste exhibebunt of the fruits and profits of 

 the priorship, " eidem esculenta et poculenta," while he 

 remained in the Priory "sub consimili portione eorundem 

 prout convenienter priori," for the time being, ministrari 



