362 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



dotali et etate legitima constitutum, de legitimo matrimonio pro- 

 creatum, in ordine et religione Sancti Augustini de Selebourne 

 expresse professum, in spiritualibus et temporalibus circumspec- 

 tum, jure nobis hac vice devoluto in hac parte, in dicte ecclesie 

 de Selebourne perfectum priorem ; curam et administrationem 

 ejusdem tibi in spiritualibus et temporalibus committentes. Dat. 

 apud Selebourne XIII kalend. Augusti anno supradicto." 



There follows an order to the sub-prior and convent pro 

 obedientia : 



A mandate to Nicholas above-named to release the Priory to 

 the new prior : 



A mandate for the induction of the new prior. 



LETTER XIV. 



" IN the year 1373 Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, held a visi- 

 tation 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 dis- 

 covered 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 accommo- 

 dated to their several exigencies, and intended to correct the 

 abuses introduced, and to recal 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 atten- 

 tion with which he discharged this part of his episcopal duty."* 



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 



* See Lowth's Life of Wykeham. 



